The Sovereign's Slaves (Narrow Gate Book 3)
The Sovereign’s Slaves
By Janean Worth
The Sovereign’s Slaves is a work of fiction. Characters, names, incidents, and places are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally, with much creative license. Any resemblance to actual locations, places, events or persons, either still living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2015 by Janean Worth
All rights reserved. . Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, recording, xerography or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author, Janean Worth and the publisher, Author’s Art, www.authorsart.com
Title page photograph used with permission from DollarPhotoClub
Cover design by Janean Worth
Other books by Janean Worth
Guarding Kami
Deep Down
Mind Mods Series
Mind Mods
Infected
Brain Bots
Narrow Gate Series
After the Fall (short story)
The Narrow Gate
For you, my wonderful readers! May you enjoy a moment of happiness away from life’s daily troubles as you read this story and may you always find a way to do the right thing.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Psalms 82:3: Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Chapter One
A dead hush hovered over the Narrow Road, unbroken by the sound of any living creature except for the muffled thuds that Gallant’s hooves made as their small group plodded along. It was an unnatural silence, and it made the skin along Kara’s neck crawl with apprehension.
From her seat atop Gallant’s high back, Kara sought to scout a safe way around the myriad of obstacles along the Narrow Road, but the task was extremely difficult. Tall skyscrapers crowded each side of the road, tightly boxing them in and leaving no path to move off of the road to either side. Debris that had fallen from the ragged tops and crumbling sides of the buildings littered the road. The large chunks of strange, grainy rock, which Otto had named concrete, were bristling with rusty iron rods, which Otto had said had been called rebar in the times before The Fall. Otto warned that allowing the rusty rods to scrape their skin could result in a blood infection, so Kara was being extra careful in choosing their route, striving to ensure that they didn’t come close enough to the large jagged chunks of debris to even chance getting scraped.
The road was filled with deep holes and rent apart in random places, leaving the gray-black surface ragged with deep crevices. Thick, broad-leafed vines and thorny brambles clogged the roadway, making it difficult to see the holes, cracks and debris hidden underneath. Kara struggled to find them all a passable way through these obstacles.
She had volunteered to take the lead when they’d begun their journey to find the place that Otto sought. Being that he was a seemingly invincible metal man and that he towered over them all, giving him the advantage of height, Otto had suggested that he lead them to the place and letting him lead had seemed like a good idea. At first, it had seemed entirely logical that he do so, since only he knew their destination. But, when Kara thought about the Enforcers and the other tracken that were soon to try to follow them along the Narrow Road, it seemed imperative that Otto bring up the rear and protect them from dangers that would attack them from behind.
And so, she now guided Gallant through the debris, carefully choosing their path. Their pace was agonizingly slow, and several times Kara almost groaned aloud in frustration when the obstacles looked impassable. But, so far, in the hours that they’d been traveling the Narrow Road, she had somehow managed to find a way to pass through.
“How much further, Otto?” Mathew asked, just a bit of a whine in his voice. He had chosen to walk, to allow Gallant a break from carrying both of them, and he now trudged along behind the horse.
Kara did not turn around when he asked the question, she was concentrating too hard on finding a safe path, but she was just as eager as Mathew to hear Otto’s answer to this question. She was already tired of the difficulties that the Narrow Road presented.
“It is still quite far,” Otto answered, his strange metallic voice cutting through the stagnant air between the tall rows of buildings, easily heard from where Kara sat on Gallant’s back at the front of their small group.
No breeze had passed along the Narrow Road for as long as they’d been traveling it, and Kara doubted that the wind ever found its way inside the tight corridor. The buildings to the left and right were too high, and the passage too narrow, to allow for even a hint moving air.
Without movement, the air was thick with the smell of dust and decay, which mingled with the strangely unpleasant scent of the crushed vegetation as it was trampled beneath Gallant’s thick hooves. Usually, Kara thought that greenery smelled fresh and clean, but the vines, brambles and weeds that grew along the Narrow Road were noxious, both in appearance and in scent. As far as she could see along the Narrow Road, no edible or medicinal plants had taken root. Instead, the road was choked with weeds and thorny brambles and the invasive, broad-leafed, thick-stemmed vine that grew heavily over almost ever surface, even managing to scale the faces of the skyscrapers in some places.
Kara tried not to feel discouraged by Otto’s answer. She knew that the metal giant could not tell a lie, nor would she want him to, but she’d really rather not have heard the truth in this case. She didn’t know how much longer she would be able to find them a safe route, her eyes were beginning to burn with strain, and the old wound at her hip had started to ache fiercely as stress caused her muscles to tighten. She had really needed to hear that the place that Otto sought was not far away; instead, the depressing opposite was true.
Ahead of their small group, thick tangles of ropey vines hung from broken windows in the buildings on both sides of the road. They’d grown together, stretching densely across the narrow corridor of the Road to swath the path completely. This curtain of vines and leaves obscured the view ahead, and there was no clear place to cross through. The vines grew too thickly, blocking their way.
Kara slowly guided Gallant to a stop, then turned in the saddle to look at the metal man.
Each time she gazed upon his visage, she was momentarily shocked at his appearance, just as she had been on the night that they’d first found him. His red glowing eyes seemed to be the epitome of evil, and the smooth, metal planes of his face seemed otherworldly and dangerous. Though Kara now knew that it was against Otto’s rules, which had been instilled in him by his Creator, to harm a living person or animal, she still almost always felt a momentary twinge of fright each time she looke
d at him.
She brushed the feeling aside, slightly ashamed of herself for doubting him, especially since Otto had proven time after time that he was more honorable and kind than most flesh-and-bone men that she’d known in her short life.
“Otto, do you have some way to cut through the vines easily? I don’t want you to expend too much power and ‘die’ like you did back at the beginning of the Narrow Road, but surely almost anything would be better than trying to cut the vines away with my small knife,” she said.
On reflex, her fingers sought the shape of the knife in her tattered pocket. For so long, when she had been alone and on her own in the wilderness beyond the Gate, the tool had meant the difference between life and death to her. Now it seemed strange that it was no longer her only form of protection.
“Yes, I can cut a way through easily without sacrificing too much power,” Otto answered, clomping forward on his heavy metal legs to join her where she sat atop Gallant’s back.
Otto reached out and patted the horse on the neck when Gallant shied slightly away from him, and Kara once again marveled at the giant’s innate gentleness, another trait instilled in him by his Creator.
Mathew joined Otto, struggling through a thick growth of brambles to stand at the giant’s side. The tracken that Otto had rescued from forced servitude slunk up beside Mathew, slow and stealthy on cat-like paws.
It mewled softly, and Kara was still astonished at the difference in the beast’s demeanor since Otto had removed the cruel device that had controlled it since birth - the same sort of device that had been implanted in all of GateWide’s tracken at the Sovereign’s behest. Only hours ago, the beast had been trying to kill them all, and now it was shy and as sweet as a kitten.
Otto lifted one strong metal arm and pointed a long finger at the thick curtain of vines. Immediately, a thin stream of red light appeared and shot out towards the heavy growth. The width of the light was no thicker than the thread that Kara had once used to darn Mrs. Malmont’s socks, but when it came into contact with the vines they began to smoke and sizzle immediately. To Kara’s amazement, they tore apart where the red light touched them, as if cut by a very sharp, very large invisible knife.
In mere moments, Otto had carved a way through the curtain of vines for them to pass through.
“Amazing,” Mathew said, admiration coloring his voice.
Hearing this, Kara felt a faint niggle of worry that Mathew, so in awe of Otto’s talents, might someday try to remove some of the Old Tech from the giant and steal it for himself. After all, Mathew had stolen from her when they’d first met, just after she’d invited him in to her meager home and given him shelter. Kara quickly shook off the thought, feeling a little guilty that she’d even contemplated it.
Mathew was different now. He was trying to do the right thing and follow the Way, as was she, so that they could both make it to the Narrow Gate and find their fathers. Surely he wouldn’t do anything so selfish now, since, without Otto and the metal giant’s knowledge of the Book, they would not be able to succeed in finding the Narrow Gate. But, though she tried to stuff the faint worry way back in the far corner of her mind, it still nagged at her. She had forgiven Mathew for his bad deeds, but apparently completely forgetting about them was another matter entirely.
“I am not so amazing as was my Creator,” Otto said with great humility as he gestured for Kara to precede him through the hole he’d carved in the vines, allowing her to take the lead once more.
For a moment, Kara almost declined. Finding a safe path along the Narrow Road was so hard. Otto would be much better at it than she would. Allowing him to find their way would be so much easier for her, too.
Immediately, she felt another twinge of guilt at her own selfishness. Choosing the easiest way for her would not be doing the right thing. And, if she did not learn how to do the right thing much, much better than she did now, she would never find the Narrow Gate, or her lost father whom she thought must now dwell there.
Kara sighed and urged Gallant forward carefully. The docile steed plodded ahead without any objection, willingly carrying her forward into what she knew would be more danger ahead on the Narrow Road. The steed, like Otto, was unselfish in his service to others. Kara hoped that she could be that way soon, too.
Mathew and the tracken fell back behind her as she passed through the broken curtain of vines, and Kara could hear Otto’s clomping strides as he brought up the rear of their little group once again.
The road on the other side of the curtain was a mess of holes, with only a small winding path of solid surface that led between them. The craters, which Otto had told them had been caused by massive lightening strikes as The Fall had decimated the world, were deep and dark and wide. Some seemed to drill down into the road at unbelievable depths, while others had blasted out a wide circumference of the surface of the road, but had not gone deep. Kara struggled to find a safe way through the maze of pits ahead. There was so very little solid ground.
She allowed Gallant to take a few cautious steps forward, opening up enough area behind them that the others could come through the curtain of vines, and then she stopped, carefully surveying the way ahead.
“I think there is a way ahead and to the left. Follow me closely, though. The edges of the path look dangerously loose in some areas,” Kara cautioned.
Just as she urged Gallant forward, a sibilant noise hissed through the air, breaking the unearthly silence with a sound that stirred the hairs on the back of Kara’s neck. Behind her, Mathew screamed, loud and long, the cry filled with pain.
Kara whipped around in Gallant’s saddle just in time to see Mathew falling into one of the deep pits at his side. No, not falling, being dragged. By something black and shadowy, its true shape veiled beneath the surface of the covering of broad-leafed vines.
She gasped in horror as Mathew’s arms wind-milled as the teetered on the edge of the pit. She turned in the saddle and threw a leg over, leaping down to go to his aid, but he had already lost the battle of balance. Arms splayed wide, he was falling backwards into the open air of the deep, dark hole behind him.
Chapter Two
Something dug painfully into his leg and Mathew felt himself being dragged toward the gaping hole at his back, but there was nothing that he could do about it. There was nothing nearby to grab onto and his feet found no purchase on the broken surface of the Road.
He heard Kara scream his name as he lost his balance and tipped backward into the darkness of the pit that yawned widely behind him. The thing attached to his leg dug cruelly into his flesh, jerking him down into the hole even as he struggled against it. He felt four darts of fiery pain gouge hard and deep into the flesh of his calf muscle.
He clutched desperately at the vines around him as his back fell into open air, but he could not get a good handhold to stop his descent. Just as his head passed the lip of the hole as he was jerked backwards into the blackness beneath the vines, he felt something else grab the loose folds of his shirt and jerk hard in the other direction. He was hoisted back out of the hole, his leg trapped and trailing behind him, something still tugging viciously at his flesh.
The tracken’s mouth gripped his shirt hard, pulling with such strength that the fabric began to tear. The thing holding his leg gripped tighter, too. Mathew screamed in pain as the tracken fought to save him, and the other thing tried to drag him deeper into the hole.
Mathew managed to turn slightly and get his fingers on the edge of the pit, he tried to dig in and help the tracken pull him to safety, but his fingertips could find no purchase in the loose gravel. His fingers slid across the crumbling edge uselessly.
The tracken made a noise of distress in its throat, and Mathew saw the beast’s front paws begin to slide over the edge and into the pit, raining pebbled chunks of asphalt. The thing that had a hold on Mathew’s leg was winning.
His fingers were jerked from the edge of the precipice as the thing gave a sharp jerk upon the flesh of his leg. The tracken sli
pped farther forward, almost tipping into the hole with Mathew, but it did not let go of his shirt, balancing its weight on its powerful hind legs and renewing its effort to pull him to safety. Despite the horrible pain in his leg and the imminent fear of losing his life, Mathew was momentarily struck by the fact that the animal did not choose to save itself, but instead, attempted to save him.
Suddenly, a set of metal hands reached over the lip of the hole and pulled both Mathew and the tracken to safety. The thing on his leg gripped harder, and Mathew felt his own flesh tearing. He screamed in pain as Otto jerked him out of the hole and onto the surface of the road. He tried to stand, but his leg was still burdened by a heavy weight and so painful he couldn’t manage to even try to climb his feet. He was almost afraid to look down and see what was attached to his leg.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to look, then immediately wished that he hadn’t. The largest serpent that he had ever seen had sunk its fangs into his leg, and it didn’t look like it was going to let go any time soon. The serpent’s mouth was huge, encircling his entire calf just under his knee. The serpent’s eyes glowed a sickly yellow-green as it looked up at him from a face covered in jet-black scales. The thick body of the snake was so long that it stretched back into the hole, leaving much of its length hidden in the darkness there.
“Get it off me!” he yelled. “Kill it Otto!”
“You know that I cannot harm any living thing, either person or animal,” Otto said.
“But it’s a snake,” Mathew yelled, his voice going up an octave on the last word as the serpent dug its fangs into his leg even deeper, twisting its head from side to side to get an even better grip.
“Can’t you pry its jaws apart so that it releases Mathew’s leg?” Kara asked Otto. She’d gotten down from Gallant’s back during the melee and now stood close to Mathew’s side, staring anxiously at the snake.