Aldric Emberwise's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

The compass stayed warm in Aldric's hand. The path was open. But the statue's warning would not leave him. A door that opened out could open in. If a traveler walked the road home, something could walk back the other way, straight into his shelter. He needed a guard. Not a lock, but a keeper who could turn back what should not pass. He left Mira and Wren by the statue and followed the compass needle to its edge. It pointed to a break in the air behind the building, a seam of gray light. There the path began. A pale donkey stood near it, frost crusting its coat, cold breath drifting from its muzzle. Beyond the seam, a huge shape blocked the way. The giant filled the gap. Stone skin, cracked black armor, eyes like two coals. Aldric knew of him from the market talk. This was the one who guarded the only road between worlds. He let no one pass. He asked a riddle first, and no one had ever answered right. "You seek the road," the giant said. His voice ground like shifting rock. "Then answer. What door keeps the house safe by staying open?" Aldric's heart sank. A trick. A door that stayed open kept nothing safe. He almost said so. Then he looked at the giant himself, planted in the gap, letting nothing through. "You," Aldric said. "A door that stays open but keeps a keeper in it. The gate is safe not because it's shut. It's safe because you stand in it." The coals in the giant's eyes flared. For a long moment he did not move. Then he stepped aside, just enough. "None have answered," he said. "You did." Aldric did not run for the road. He had a better use for it. "Then be my door," he said. "I opened a path for lost travelers. It runs both ways. Things could follow them back. I need someone to stand in the gap. Turn back what doesn't belong. Let the lost go home." The giant studied him. "You would set me at your threshold." "I would give you a purpose better than stopping people," Aldric said. "Guard the ones who pass instead." Slowly, the giant turned. He walked back through the seam and set his bulk down at the mouth of the path, filling it like a stopper in a jar. The gray light steadied behind him. Nothing on the other side could reach past that wall of stone. Aldric let out a breath. The path home was guarded now. A traveler could walk it and reach their sky, and nothing hungry could crawl back through. He looked at the frost-coated donkey still waiting by the seam, patient, ready to carry a load. His haven had a road, and now a gate. But a gate meant travelers would come. And he had shelter for only two.