Keystone: Gateway Chronicles Book 1

Chapter 2

Sami spun to face the speaker. A dirt road cut through the meadow twenty paces from her. There was a wagon stopped in the road with a man perched in the driver's seat. A wagon hitched to an immense snail whose twisting, rainbow-hued, pearlescent shell stood half again as tall as Sami. A giant snail? How long had it been there? The man leaned in her direction, scrunching up his face as he peered at her. "Saididid, who's it, innit?"

"What?" she blurted, truly perplexed by his strange greeting.

"Who's it, says I. So's I say."

"My... my name? Samira. Sami, for short." She remembered she still held the Keystone and unslung her backpack to stow it inside. The glow was so dim now that it was hardly noticeable, but she didn't want to advertise that she had it. It needed to be charged before it could be used again and that could take days or weeks, depending on the conditions, but even uncharged and inactive, it was a beautiful object, easily desired. And it worked! The Keystone actually worked!

You doubted it would? Codex said. The voice sounded amused.

Ohh, so you ARE still there, Sami thought back at him. She didn't want to admit even to herself how relieved she was to hear his voice. What do I do now? How do I get you out of my damn head? We're here in some crazy world with fairies and snail-horses. Now what?

Find my people, my family. They can help us.

How do you know they're here? What is this place? If you knew they were here, if you even suspected the Keystone would bring us here, why didn't you tell me about it?

Codex didn't deign to answer her onslaught of questions and the man in the wagon interrupted her mental exchange, "Samira Samiforshort. Odd name n' odder garb, fer a lass. Dressed like a lad, ye is, but sure 'nuff nery a lad." He absently swatted at a fairy that was drifting toward his face and the tiny creature backed up, shook a finger at him as she scolded him in musical tones, then floated away in another direction. Sami nearly laughed, but didn't know if that would offend the gentleman or the fairy, so hid a grin behind her hand instead. Truthfully, she was just relieved that she could understand him. She couldn't tell if he was speaking English or if she was somehow interpreting his language as her own.

Know anything about this, Codex? Do you recognize the language?

I hear it the way you do.

That was an unhelpful answer. In either case, his dialect was hard to understand, or her brain was having a hard time interpreting it. She asked, "Garb?"

"Aye! Odd garb ye wear. Clothes, ye know! Showin' yer legs and whatnot, like a wee lasso'five."

"Yeah, uh... I'm sorry, I'm not from around here, and I'm a bit lost." She started through the weeds and flowers toward the road and discovered that many of the plants were thorny enough to scratch or jab her through her clothes. The meadow was stunningly beautiful but moving through it was like wading through a pool full of knives and needles. She tried to avoid the worst ones after a few painful encounters. Luckily, she didn't have far to go. "Is there a town nearby?" she asked as she daintily held a thorny bush aside to slip past it onto the road.

He scratched his head. "Ye 'ave a perty way o' speech, lass, iffinyedon'tmind. An odd manner and odder garb, mindyenone, but a perty way o' speech. T'isapity, it's too late in the day te walk te town, won't make it 'fore dark, and it ent safe after dark, but yer welcome te room 'n board at me hovel, leastwise. Ent but a spek ahead."

It took Sami a moment to interpret his meaning and another moment to consider the wisdom of accepting. He seemed harmless enough, but people could be deceptive, especially bad people, not that she thought he was a bad person. He was probably just a guy who happened to be passing by when she showed up. Besides, she had no real reason for heading to town. Plus, she didn't see anyone else on the road, coming or going. If this was a remote place--which it seemed to be--then she might not get another chance for a ride to somewhere safe. And she would do as well to question a simple farmer (or whatever he might be) as to head into a town that could very well prove hostile.