David Farland - Beyond the Gate

And in each little valley that they came to, a few quaint cottages huddled. Most of them were of gray stone with round clay shingles. The hay houses and sheepfolds and dovecotes were made of mud and wattle, with thatched roofs made of reeds.

Instead of armies, Maggie saw children working beside their parents at cutting wood for the winter or bringing in the com.

In the afternoon they came to one green valley, where the emerald grass had been cropped short by the sheep, and Maggie stopped and looked out. The maples and alders lit the hillsides with flame. Three houses clustered together on the side of a hill at the foot of the valley, and a small smokehouse was letting its blue smoke rise lazily up. The scent of cooking sausages was strong. And beside the road, where a bridge spanned a clear river, a dozen naked children were swinging from a rope into a wide pool. Some of the little boys had thick red hair, almost fur, that covered most of their bodies, and one little girl had a face that was strangely deformed-with eyes that were unnaturally large, and a heavy brow that jutted over them. The children were screaming and laughing, splashing water at each other, and for a moment, Maggie grasped Gallen’s hand, forcing him to stop.

“Look,” she said. And Gallen suddenly became wary, scanning the hillside.

“No, you muffin, look at those children-this place!”

“Aye, it’s a pretty valley,” Gallen admitted.

“I … I think I could be happy here,” Maggie whispered.

Gallen looked at her askance. “Here? But I thought you loved fiddling with gadgets-technology. There’s nothing here for you, nothing like that. You’d be splitting logs and butchering pigs just like back home. You-your neighbors wouldn’t even be human, damn it, Maggie!”

“I know,” Maggie said quietly. Her sudden change of heart surprised even her, and she remembered the mischievous grin she’d seen upon the Lady Semarritte’s face when she’d told Maggie of Tremonthin. Somehow, Semarritte had known that Maggie would like this place.

“I don’t understand,” Gallen said. “If you want to live on a backward planet, there are valleys just as pretty as this back home. I know a place near An Cochan. And if it’s a stone house you want to live in rather than a housetree, well, one could be built.”

“No,” Maggie said. “It wouldn’t be the same. On Tihrglas, you can’t go to the City of Life to be reborn. On Tihrglas, you’re told what you must be. But here-” She suddenly got a glimmer of what it was she really was after, and she waved toward the motley assortment of children. “Here you’d never want for interesting neighbors. They’d be nothing like you, and they’d never try to tell you how you must act or what to wear.”

“You’re not making sense, Maggie,” Gallen said, shaking his head. But he stared out across the valley, thinking, considering what it would be like, and his voice had held no conviction. “What about the Tekkar, and the other warrior races? You would be scared to step out of your door at night.”

“Och, and who would be so bold as to come threatening the household of Gallen O’Day?” Maggie asked. “I know you, Gallen. You wouldn’t mind it a bit, finding some village in the wilds and becoming a sheriff, keeping the peace for those who want it.…”

Gallen said no more. But as they walked on, he eyed the homesteads and hamlets and the fertile valleys keenly, looking beyond the exterior, as if considering the possibilities.

In the late afternoon, the road became cobblestone and wound down out of the hills to the sea, leading to an oddly shaped granite bluff, where the road led into a vast cave.

There were a few buildings perched next to the bluff-a sizable stable, some shops, but no houses-and people were going into the cave with wagons filled with wood and produce. Maggie realized with a start that the inhabitants of this city all lived within that monolithic rock.

She studied the place a bit-some rounded pillars had been carved into the rock, and they thrust up high, carrying a bit of smoke. In other places, holes had been gouged into the roof, giving light and air. In some holes, she could see through to whitened walls.

As with the temple she’d first noticed back in Northland, this place was built by someone who had no concept of symmetry. Each of the chimneys was a different height, and the windows were each shaped in their own ways. And yet there was a gracefulness, a peaceful organic feel to the structure, that was both comforting and inviting.

Cormorants and gulls wheeled out over the gray ocean, and the skies were getting dark, promising rain. Maggie and Gallen went down to the city.

Under the arching entrance, they could see the city before them-a vast cavern filled with people and noise and the smells of smoke and sweat and fish. The rock had been carved away so that long stone staircases led away under great arches. The walls were not only painted white, but crystals had been set in them, casting light back like stars.

Between the skylights and the guttering lamps on wrought-iron posts placed strategically beside the roads, the caverns sparkled with light.

Maggie looked up, and along the roads going up the hill were side corridors, where people of a dozen races lived. Children screamed and played in the corridors, and clothing was left along stone walls to dry.

There was the smell of seawater in the air, and off to the right, a path led to the ocean. There, on broad stones at the sea’s edge, sea people swam through an underwater channel, bringing up fresh fish and crabs. Maggie saw a gaggle of hooded merchants who were bartering loudly for the fish, offering brass bracelets and sacks made of fine cloth.

Directly ahead, just above sea level, a central pillar, like an enormous stalagmite, filled the middle of the complex, and carved at the column’s center were several shops and a large pub where a dozen burly giants guzzled mugs of beer at wooden tables. The delicious scent of fish and sausages filled the air.

As Maggie and Gallen headed toward the pub, a grizzled giant approached. He wore a green tunic over black leather pants, and had a rope tied around his waist. His dark brown hair was tied back, and he wore beads of aqua and cardinal woven into it. His enormous beard spilled down his chest, thinning into a ragged wisp at his belly. It wasn’t until he was nearly on them that Maggie realized how truly large he was-eight feet tall, with broad shoulders. He wore a short sword on his hip, but he handled himself like a man who wouldn’t need weapons.

“My name’s Fenorah,” he grumbled, studying Gallen’s sword. “Welcome to Battic, where land kisses the sea.”

“Thank you,” Gallen said, lifting his chin high to stare the man in the eye.

“We’re a peaceful town,” Fenorah’ said, scratching his nose. “I’ll be straight with you. You carry a sword, and from the way you wear it, I’d say you know how to do more than split kindling with it. And there’s blood on your boots-and I’d rather not know how it got there. But these are my folks, my town. There’s peace here.”

He looked deep into Gallen’s eyes, as if trying to gauge what lay beneath their cool blue surface. “I appreciate an honest man,” Gallen said. “And I admire one who seeks peace. As long as I’m given it, I shall give it in return.”

The giant laughed, slapped him on the back. “You look hungry from the road. I saw how you eyed the pub. May I buy you dinner? We’ve the finest flounder you’ll taste on the coast.” Gallen hesitated, but Maggie could sense something in this giant, a lack of guile, that she found refreshing.

“We would be honored,” Maggie said, and the giant took her arm, led them into the pub, where they dined on sea bass roasted in rosemary and a fruity wine. Other giants like Fenorah lumbered around.