Gateway Read online

  Gateway

  Book Five of the Hayle Coven Destinies

  Patti Larsen

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2014 by Patti Larsen

  Find out more about Patti Larsen at

  http://www.pattilarsen.com/

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  Purely Paranormal Press

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  Cover art (copyright) by Valerie Bellamy. All rights reserved.

  www.dog-earbookdesign.com

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  Edited by Annetta Ribken, freelance Goddess. You can find her at http://www.wordwebbing.com/

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  Copy edits by Jessica Bufkin.

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  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  PLEASE NOTE:

  An error was discovered in Lord of the Drach, dealing with the order in which the pieces of Creator have been discovered/recovered. While the detail might not seem like a big deal, it bothers me! Accidents do happen, though I work very hard to ensure each volume is accurate. Because of this mistake, I’ve updated the document to all retailers, but it can take some time to process. If you’d rather, please, feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] and request your updated version in the eformat of your choice.

  And now, on with the show….

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  Chapter One

  There is no greater peace, no more amazing, soul-filling and pure joy experience than soaring on drach wings through the quiet of the veil. If I live a thousand lifetimes, I’m certain of that.

  Muscles bunched and tightened, smoothed out and elongated as I swept my wings against the soft current of the veil. In human form, I had no idea the depth and complexity of airflow in the vast darkness of the membrane between worlds, nor did I see so clearly just how connected the Universe truly was. But, embracing my drach heritage changed all that.

  What was once dim, though visible to my enhanced eyesight, now appeared crisp with firm lines and absolute clarity. Not so much seeing in the darkness as becoming part of it. The thin, yet powerful, barriers shimmered with the same rainbow magic as I possessed, pure, distilled energy of all powers combined. It made me wonder what the veil in the Dark Universe looked like, if it was a mirror to ours.

  Not that I’d ever have the chance to find out. But, curiosity remained. I had to admit, though, it was a subtle thing, a soft allure where once perhaps it would have gotten me in trouble. Everything seemed ever so quiet now, gentle, soft. As though becoming drach removed the hard edges from everything but my sight.

  I couldn’t help the smile curving my muzzle, the fuzzy thrill I still experienced as I cut my way through the veil and soared into a new plane. The faint odor of ammonia made me sneeze, pale blue air tinted with a hint of green as I allowed the heat over the bubbling lake below to buoy me higher on a steady thermal into the eerie sky of that foreign landscape. A large pack of what looked like cows with three heads and tails shaped like they belonged on reptiles galloped over the surface of the water, huge feet splayed wide to carry them across the boiling surface. I allowed my senses to open wide, to taste the magic of this place. To seek, as I’d been seeking all these months, the familiar touch of Creator.

  Nothing, not a trace. This news would have troubled the old me. As I spun on my tail and cut open the veil with a gentle slice, far more kind than the tearing jerks I used to use what seemed like a lifetime ago, my smile remained. The old me. I thought about her less and less as time passed, my drach nature a comfortable, safe and happy place.

  The veil welcomed me with a gentle embrace as I slipped through, allowing the cut to seal shut behind me. How had I not felt the agony of the membrane all the time I spent as an arrogant and powerful child, possessing far more power than someone like me should have been allowed? Only when I embraced the drach inside me did I finally understand the sentience of the veil. That it was, in essence, as much Creator as the pieces of statue I sought.

  So selfish, so petty and small. There were nights I woke, tears on my cheeks, old dreams of the life I left behind fading into nothing. And moments when my heart ached for those I left behind. But, the quiet calm of the drach, the massive understanding I’d achieved and the sweet connection I finally had to the vastness of the Universe was the greatest thing I’d ever felt.

  Peace. For the first time in my life, I knew peace. And embraced it with my entire soul.

  I soared on, dipping into the next plane on my list. I’d covered a great deal of ground since I’d become drach, spending the majority of my days doing just this—searching out the parts of Creator I knew we had to find to keep our Universe safe. Grid by grid, plane by plane, with the full assistance of Max and the other drach, we slowly and carefully sought the most precious of items.

  To no avail. I found it oddly amusing I was the only one who didn’t seem to find the search frustrating. Even Max—though his drach name sang in my head more often than not, old habits, and names, died hard—expressed occasional irritation at the prolonged search. But I found it comforting, the daily hunt, the quiet of the veil, the touch of Creator every time I passed through the edge and into another plane.

  I couldn’t bring myself to feel disappointment. Not now. Maybe not ever again.

  Sydlynn. The word rang in my mind, the drach translation more authentic to me than the human spoken word. I knew Max did his best to maintain my name through the language of the drach, but I wondered if it was for his benefit or mine.

  I sang his true name back to him, joyfully, because I could. I’m almost done with my search for the day.

  As are we. I felt his companion with him soaring in his periphery. Jiao’s serpentine, crimson shape shimmered with multicolored scales dominantly red and royal blue and vibrant green, long whiskers flickering in the breeze of the plane they flew over, her brightness a counterpoint to the shimmering diamond reflection of Max’s hide. How had I ever thought the drach were gray? How had I missed the glittering undertone of crystalline perfection? Human sight. So lacking.

  The mental image refocused to the glitter of his diamond eyes as our minds connected fully. The encompassing presence of the drach race flew with him, surrounding me with the soft song of our people, flooding my heart with such calm and peace I struggled, as always, to prevent tears from rising to the surface.

  Yes, I missed my family, my children, the life I left behind. But, if they only knew how amazing this existence could be, the purity of being…

  How could I ever go back?

  Simple. I never would. Yes, I had a job to do, a task to fulfil. And I intended to do so. Reassembling Creator’s statue, stopping Liander Belaisle from destroying our Universe by opening it to Dark Brother and the Order was my absolute priority. Saving the planes so the inhabitants of those planes could live on, be the masters of their own choices, their own destinies, that was my calling.

  How simple things seemed to me now.

  I exhaled into the icy air of the plane of my current search, the touch of Creator only in the membrane of the veil as I ducked through and out again, while Max’s mind calmly observed.

  You are content, Sydlynn? His question was familiar. Because he asked it every single day. And every day I gave the same response.

  This is how things are supposed to be. The old me would have been angry by now, to be ques
tioned so frequently, as though he didn’t believe I could embrace my life. But instead I found myself laughing at him, as I always did while showing him the joy in my heart.

  Why did that make him sad?

  We will meet you at the Stronghold, he sent, before gently releasing me.

  I pondered his seeming lack of enthusiasm for my happiness as I checked the final five planes on my list. I flew gracefully and effortlessly over a dead landscape of burned-out forest and dying grasslands, through a pink sunset across a patch of soaring mountains topped with orange snow. As my gaze skimmed over a wide river alive with massive, leaping fish with human eyes, I searched not only for Creator’s pieces, but for any trace of regret in my heart.

  It should have been there, perhaps. Was that why Max was so sad? Should I be feeling guilt, grief, loss, emptiness? I simply couldn’t comprehend such emotions, not while my wings snapped against the currents of air, my long neck curving as I slipped through the veil, body spinning in absolute joy as I barrel rolled my delight over the leaping fish.

  I’d let go of everything and everyone when I left the plane of my birth. Including the maji to whom I belonged, in favor of the bloodline of the drach. And, in doing so, I seemed to have erased all need to return to those I’d once clung to in desperation and longing.

  How curious this lack of regret. I sighed into the quiet darkness and winged for home. The Stronghold felt more like a place to call by that name than any house or dorm room I’d once inhabited. As I slipped through the veil and into the once dead plane, dipping over the surface of the endless, stone castle, its walls reaching far into the distance, much further than I’d ever imagined as a maji, I realized at last what troubled Max. Not that I had no regrets. But the fact I’d swung so far in the opposite direction.

  Once, there would have been voices to talk this conundrum over with. Three of them, one quiet, one full of fire, and a third with the delicacy of a princess. Once. Not these days, though. And maybe that should have bothered me, too.

  I settled on the wall, transforming into human shape as I touched down. Instead of proceeding inside immediately, I leaned over the stone and looked down at the lush, green grass of the meadow, the happily burbling river. My actions had woken the sleeping plane many years ago, the downfall of Belaisle and the dark prophecy allowing this place to wake at last.

  Max’s presence during my contemplation didn’t surprise me. Yes, he lived here, too. But he seemed to follow me around with a hangdog expression at times, as though anticipating some kind of breakdown on my behalf. Which meant his heavy silence was about as familiar as he joined me in looking out over the thriving plane.

  You worry I’ve forgotten who I was. He was right. It was easy to forget, the notion I should reach out and find the voices of the girls. The reason for their silence slipped away as quickly as it had risen.

  The woman you were, he sent, soft and contemplative, shaped this Universe in ways even I could not have foreseen. And I fear her loss is our loss.

  I turned to face him, hurt waking in my quiet heart. You begrudge me this happiness? He, of all people, who’d lived more lifetimes than any other in all creation. Surely he understood.

  Never, he sent, diamond eyes more beautiful, more vibrant, color intensity increasing with his emotional state. But with each passing day, I fear for our Universe. He looked out again, tall and powerful and so still he appeared like a shining statue. When he spoke out loud, I jumped slightly. “You have earned happiness, Syd. But you must know the Universe isn’t done with you yet.”

  “I am doing Creator’s work.” Old anger stirred, then quieted. I didn’t want it anymore, the acrid tang of it in the back of my throat, the way it made my heart clench, my skin tingle.

  “You are,” he said. “And it was I who planted this idea in your psyche not so long ago. That your insistence on embracing the small problems of those around you interfered with your ability to do what needed to be done to save the Universe.” He shook his head, looking down, hands folded before him. His vast drach form was visible to me even though he wore humanoid shape, wings spread over his back like ghostly webs. “And perhaps this transition was necessary to allow you reprieve.”

  “What are you saying?” Panic woke, a feeling I hadn’t encountered in what felt like a lifetime.

  “That we are failing, Sydlynn,” he said. “And will continue to fail, I fear, without the assistance of those I drove you from.”

  So much hurt and guilt in his voice. The panic faded from me, replaced by bitter anger I thought I’d shed. It surged like a bucking horse into my chest, choking me even as I spoke.

  “A little late now,” I snapped. “I’ve made my choice.”

  He met my eyes, his sad. “So you have.”

  I didn’t get to respond, to push past the fury I hated so much, the old anger I’d thought long gone. Max turned and left me, descending from the top of the wall down the wide stone stairs and into the Stronghold.

  Only then did I notice Jiao watching. The lóng’s quiet observation used to make me uncomfortable, nervous, even. But now I knew better. Understood how deeply Jiao cared, how hard it was for her to express that caring outside the slow, steady and constant pressure of her gaze.

  I approached her, embraced her. She stiffened in my arms until my presence made her relax somewhat. Her touch opened her heart to me like nothing else had ever done. The first time I embraced her and felt the depth of her emotions was an awakening for me.

  “Who would have thought,” I said with a smile as I let her go, “that you would become my closest friend?”

  Humor flickered in her eyes. “Says you.”

  I laughed and linked arms with her, leading her to the stairs. “You agree with Max?”

  Jiao sighed, barely audible, more a feeling through contact with her body than a sound. “You already know how I feel,” she said. “We’ve both walked away from the lives we knew, left behind those we loved and who loved us. My brother and sister reside still under the control of Empress Moa.” As did the rest of the handful of her people who remained in existence. Max’s supposition her race was the next evolution of drach did nothing to alleviate the fact that same race was almost extinct but for a few. “I think,” she said, “you should do what you choose to do and to hell with duty.”

  Why didn’t her firm words make me feel better?

  We parted at the dining hall, Jiao not questioning me as I bypassed the impressive room, the large number of drach taking a meal together within. She rarely questioned me, one of the reasons we got on so well. A quick visit to the kitchen for a simple plate of stew and some fresh bread were all I needed.

  I still wasn’t accustomed to the open stares, the touch of drach minds, the way their subtle awe made me feel as though I belonged and, then again, didn’t. My people did nothing to purposely make me uncomfortable, but their scrutiny and unabashed and genuine emotion still made my skin creep slightly.

  I perched in my usual place on the window sill of my quarters and watched the sun set, enjoying the simple pleasure of the meal as my mind settled. Max was wrong. This was the right choice. How could I feel so absolutely at home, at peace with myself, if he was correct? Surely Creator wouldn’t offer me this perfection of existence only to tear it away from me again?

  Surely.

  I set aside my plate, my worries, and sank into the comfort of my bed, closing my eyes. I’d chosen. And I couldn’t bring myself to change my mind.

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  His hazel eyes spark with green, blond hair shimmering with a hint of red as he smiles at me, full lips parting, showing off flashing white teeth. Kindness radiates from him, and sadness, though his love pours over me like a waterfall. I reach for him, unable to stop myself, fingertips almost touching, almost.

  But he’s falling away from me, tears on his cheeks, body impacting the ground below, disappearing under the soil in an upward explosion of dark dirt, while he reaches for me, pale face full of regret and longing. I fall to my knees in
the place where he disappeared, weeping now, my tears wetting the earth. The ground shudders under me, splits open, sending me back as an oak tree erupts from the depths and surges overhead, leaves shuddering in the air, sighing my name.

  Sighing his.

  I weep, even as the ground below me splits wider, the roots of the oak tree pulling me underground, jerking me into the moist depths, smothering me with the cool pressure of earth. I smell fabric softener and feel the touch of soft cotton even as voices cry out to me, voices I know as well as my own. Who are they? The fiery one, the one of the earth with the heart of green. The cool, white one with the logical mind… they fade away as a single, crisp voice breaks through, though not the one I was expecting. Not Liam’s.

  Syd. Her desperation is obvious, clear and poignant. I open my eyes and find Alison Morgan, my dead best friend, hovering before me. Go home.

  I gape at her, heart pounding. I can’t. I just can’t. I’ve left it all behind—

  SYD. She flies backward, voice a wail as the dark swallows her. GO HOME.

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  Chapter Two

  Sheets flew sideways, my body spasming as I sat upright, panting into the cool darkness of my room. Something squeezed my right wrist, so painful in a pain-free body I rubbed at it to try to make it stop. My drach senses, heightened by the form of the first race, flooded with smells and sounds I’d forgotten.

  The crackle of fire, the scent of smoke.

  The heavy, wet odor of fresh turned earth augmented with the whisper of a spring breeze.

  And the light crisp, yet dusty touch that tickled my nose while the glow of white light seemed to wake all around me.

  What… that voice, cool but soft. I knew it, didn’t I? Had just heard it in my dream. But, it was only a nightmare, nothing more. While my drach heart whispered there was no such thing as “only”.