The Gael Gates

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Yawning, apprentice Llewellyn Gutraidh peered toward the hilltop, the night sky brilliant beyond the Hedge, the lack of moon leaving the stars all the brighter. Crickets chirped at regular rhythm, and night birds called out for mates. A chill wind blew him the scents of grass, flowers, and trees.

Five large trilithons surrounded by thirty smaller trilithons made up the inner circle of Stonehedge on Alcyone, all the thirty-five post-and-lintel structures built with the native sarsen stone. Four stones stood at the edge of the ring, marking the monument boundaries, a station stone to each the east and west, a slaughter stone to the south, and a heel stone to the north.

Gnomes supposedly ruled these domains, Stonehedge their home. Llewellyn had never seen them and didn't expect to. A disciple of the Elemental Air, he studied the sylphs, his skill at summoning them meager as yet.

Not the most exciting of duties, the vigil at Stonehedge was taken by turns one night out of every fortnight, the apprentices disliking the duty almost as much as serving the slop. Standing beside the slaughter stone, Llewellyn pulled his cape tighter, trying to keep his senses alert, these night vigils especially difficult in the cold, when all a body wanted to do was sleep. He jerked his head back to attention, his eyelids desperately wanting to close.

Atop the hill, Stonehedge was outlined by the blue brilliance of several sisters, the Pleiades Constellation all young stars, none more than two hundred million years old, their multiple suns giving mutual light to their siblings' planets at all hours, the surface of Alcyone bathed in blue. Perched atop the largest trilithon, the main gate lintel easily twelve feet long, was sister Pleione, the pulsating star like a beacon marking the gate.

Llewellyn pinched his eyes shut as though to squeeze the sleep from them, then stifled another yawn.

A wraith slipped from the main gate and then was gone.

Startled, Llewellyn blinked up at the Hedge, poised to run up the hill. A gnome? he wondered.

Nothing else moved.

Had he actually seen something, or was it an afterimage? An Elemental, perhaps?

"Proctor, you awake?" he asked on his com.

"What is it, Lew?" Medraut's voice was groggy with sleep.

"Thought I saw something come out of the main gate, but then it was gone."

"Wasn't a ghost on the inside of your eyelids, was it, Lad?"

"Don't think so, Sir." He might have taken umbrage at Proctor Medraut for implying he'd been asleep. Llewellyn continued to scan the area, seeing nothing untoward. The crickets chirped, the night birds called, and the wind blew.

A few minutes later, Proctor Medraut joined Llewellyn, still shrugging on his tunic. "Pleione throbs brightly tonight, I see. Shall we?" He gestured Llewellyn to take the lead.