The Gate Beyond Oblivion Ryan Kirk Copyright © 2020 by Waterstone Media All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Created with Vellum For Kyle Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Epilogue Want more fantasy? Thank You Also by Ryan Kirk About the Author 1 It seemed profoundly unfair that he would die a victim of falling rock. If Brandt was going to die, he wanted his death to be heroic. A death dealt by an elite Falari commander would be acceptable. He wanted a death where people would speak of his nobility and sacrifice, of the content of his character. Perhaps women who had never known him in life would weep for his passing, bemoaning the loss of a promising warrior taken before his time. If a falling rock killed him, his own squad, closer to him than blood, might pretend he never existed. As a stone twice the size of his fist hurtled down the cliff face toward him, he lamented that a betting man’s odds were on the falling rock. Brandt leaped to the side, his hands searching for a new hold, the deadly stone brushing his left arm on its way to the scree below. His hands caught a jagged protrusion and he swung wildly for a moment before planting his feet against the wall. Given the extent of the scree they had to pick their way through just to get here, falling rock wasn’t an uncommon occurrence on this cliff. “Sorry!” Ana called from above him. Brandt vowed not to climb directly below her anymore. He would rather find his own way up, even if it took longer. He looked up in time to see her scamper up another section of the wall with ease. Ana’s lightness put his to shame. It didn’t help that he was almost twice her size, but even if they had weighed the same, her skill far surpassed his, a fact she seemed eager to remind him of today. She paused on a ledge not much wider than her foot. From the way she stood on it, though, she could have been standing on a wide road in a perfectly flat field. Brandt looked down. They’d climbed several times his own height. If he fell, he didn’t think lightness would prevent an injury. From where Ana stood, a fall meant almost certain death. She was smiling. She enjoyed the challenge. “Do you see a trail?” he asked. The locals had said there was a trail. No one had known the exact location of the trailhead, though, and a full morning of searching hadn’t revealed it. Thus, the climb. “No,” Ana replied. “But I think I see the cave above. Maybe forty paces away, if you could walk up the cliff from where I stand.” Brandt muttered a curse. He had never minded heights in the past, but he’d never tried climbing a hundred paces up a vertical wall with a disturbing amount of loose stone, either. A hundred paces didn’t seem like much — on the ground he could cover that distance in a handful of heartbeats. On a vertical wall, a hundred paces might as well be the distance to another world. He took a deep breath and focused his internal energies, feeling gravity relax its relentless hold on his body. He planned his route, then pulled himself up the wall. Fortunately, though the wall was high, it offered plenty of hand and foot holds. He made himself as light as he could, using the holds to propel himself up. He was just about to lose focus when he reached Ana’s ledge. Brandt wobbled as his feet found purchase. He had forgotten down below that his feet were larger than hers. Where she could stand flat-footed, he had to balance on his toes. Ana steadied him and pointed. Less than a pace away the ledge was wider. Brandt side-stepped over and finally rested. From his higher vantage point, he saw the cave Ana had noticed. From below it appeared as a dark smudge on the cliff face. Unfortunately, her estimation of its distance looked accurate. “What do you think?” he asked. “It’s a good place to hide from the world.” She gave him a small shrug. “If I was thieving from the surrounding area, I’d consider it. It’s a little hard to reach, though.” Brandt thought the same. A good hideout balanced accessibility with safety. The cave above appeared incredibly safe, but he couldn’t imagine making this climb every day. Even a sure-footed gazelle like Ana ran a significant risk with this climb. Brandt ran his hands over the rock wall, searching for his next hold. His fingers passed over a well-defined edge, barely raised from the surface of the rock wall. He frowned. Nature rarely made use of straight lines. He motioned for Ana to approach, then pointed to his discovery. She came and ran her hand over the same section of stone. The difference was barely visible to the eye. If Brandt hadn’t been searching for a hold with his hands, he didn’t think he would have noticed it. “He’s got a stone affinity,” Ana said. “A strong one.” Brandt agreed, though he hated what that implied. This mission was supposed to be easy. She gave him a questioning glance. “Keep going?” Brandt looked up at the cave, then back down. The altered stone was evidence enough their bandit did indeed live in the cave above. No other explanation made sense. They
