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Gate Weaver
by Z.S.Adani
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The following is an excerpt from Gate Weaver. A resonation in her teeth woke her. Zerkel was already pulling on his shirt and jacket, buckling his belt and snatching his sword from the chair. He grabbed his cloak and threw it over his shoulder. The air stood still as Kalia jumped out of bed. With shaking hands, she uncapped the vial of weaver elixir and drank it. Strength flowed into her old limbs. Her skin tingled and filled out, hair seemed to sizzle as it lost its grayness and slowly turned golden. The world appeared bright and clear now. She struggled into her leggings and threw a cloak over her cotton shift, fingers trembling over the fastening. Light strobed outside her windows, seeping through the wooden shutters. Zerkel stepped out of the bedroom and dashed to the front door. Without looking back at her, he lifted a hand and stood still, listening. Kalia froze. A deep rumble, felt rather than heard, entered the soles of her feet through her sturdy boots. Zerkel opened the door to a crack and peered out, hand on his sword hilt. With a last glance at her bedchamber, she joined him. A sharp yellow line marred the indigo sky, exactly at the foot of the mountain where the Gate would appear. The choleric haze told her that the time was near. She went to the corral and opened the latch, patting Ugor without looking at the sad brown eyes. "Don't follow us." The deciquine grunted and licked her fingers. Zerkel grabbed her hand, and they ran toward the tortured Thau light. Unearthly sounds issued from the other realm, sounds that seemed to have come from a great distance. They passed the copse of silver trees when the ground collapsed below them. Kalia screamed and felt her shoulder wrench as Zerkel's greater weight pulled at her. They fell like a rain of stars until they came to such blackness that it seemed like the bowel of the Earth, dirt pouring into her mouth and nose and eyes. She landed on a squishy surface, gasping as the air had been knocked out of her lungs. Moaning, she released Zerkel's hand and tried to stand. Not afraid of the dark that enclosed them, she groped the fetid dirt for some support, wondering how a sinkhole had developed where none had existed before. Some parts of Trolveg Mountain were riddled with caves, but she knew this had never been one. Faint moonslight spilled through the fissure of which they had fallen, and a slice of sky showed a clear night with hard, bright stars. "Hear that?" Zerkel asked. "Don't move." Kalia listened. Before any sound penetrated through her wheezing, something slithered across her feet. She jumped backward and fell, clawing at the darkness. "Kalia!" Zerkel's voice was muffled by dirt. Mud cushioned her bones as she came to rest on her side. She wriggled cautiously and felt clods of earth landing on her head. Buried in a hole and choking on mud, she thought and spat out the foul stuff that filled her mouth. "I'm all right," she said when she regained her breath. Except she wasn't all right. Unless she could get out of this hole, the Onanki would flood the world. Again. Excerpt from
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