The Gates of Night_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [74]
There was motion all around him. Light flashed in the darkness—Daine’s sword, glowing like the moon itself. Xu’sasar spun through the motions of a deadly dance, lashing out with twin blades attached to a long haft. His friends were holding their own, but not without cost. The thorns were hardy and did not fall easily. Shira told him of the wounds of his allies, of the thorn-blade that had pierced Daine’s thigh and the arrow in Xu’sasar’s shoulder. And while a thrust of Daine’s sword brought down the last thorn of the first wave, there were others in the darkness, racing toward the sounds of battle.
“We’re almost there!” Lei cried. “Follow me!”
Pierce followed right on her heels. Movement brought new signals of pain as Pierce’s body warned him of the damage he had suffered, but he fought past the agony and kept moving.
The power is growing. Even without Shira’s thoughts, Pierce would have known. He could feel it in the air, a presence pressing in on him. It seemed that the trees were fighting him, roots reaching for his feet as branches flew against his face and arms. Lei forced her way through the treacherous undergrowth. They burst out from the trees and into a clearing, into …
The Gates. Nine archways, towering portals even larger than the doors in Karul’tash … doors built for giants. Each arch was made from a different material. One was rough stone, with traces of luminescent moss; it could have been carved from one of the tors they’d seen in the realm of the Huntsman. Another was formed from dark ice. Eight spread in a circle around the clearing, while the ninth stood in the center—a mighty arch of twisted black briars, each barb the length of Pierce’s forearm.
But all were empty. They were open archways. There were no doors to open, and they didn’t appear to go anywhere. Looking through an arch, all Pierce could see was the other side of the meadow.
Look at the sky, Shira thought. Look to the moon.
Pierce looked at the gates again, and then he saw what she meant. When he looked through the different arches, the clearing was the same, but the sky was slightly different. Darker in some, lighter in others. And the moon varied—color, size, and position shifting in each arch.
These are the Gates of Night, Shira thought, the passage to the hours of darkness.
“What do we do?” Pierce said.
“I’m working on it!” Lei said. The staff was singing again, its voice faint, unsteady.
“Work fast,” Daine said, emerging from the treeline with Xu’sasar at his heels. Blood and sap covered his armor.
“Thanks for the advice.” Lei walked forward, approaching the central arch—
And the trees attacked.
No time to react. Roots rose from the ground, gripping Pierce’s legs and pinning him in place. His dagger was out, but before he could cut the tendrils he felt a crushing force around his chest—a tree branch, acting with the fluid motion of a snake and the strength of thick oak. Pierce struggled, but to no avail. The tree was far stronger than he was.
The trees clustered around the clearing, holding just beyond the ring of eight gates. Their limbs flexed and twisted in the darkness, a sea of motion in the shadows. Daine was helpless in the grip of an old pine, while Xu’sasar was nowhere to be seen.
Lei stood in the center of the ring, watching but taking no action. Before Pierce could speak, a passage opened in the wall of writhing wood, and a tall man stepped into the clearing. Both his height and his bearing were reminiscent of the Huntsman they had faced earlier, but where the hunter had been lean, the Woodsman was broad and muscular. He was dressed in loose trousers and a hooded vest woven from dark leaves, and thick vines twined around his powerful arms.
The Woodsman strode slowly into the ring, moving with the confidence of a predator in his lair. A huge axe balanced across one shoulder; he gripped the haft with his left hand, and