The Gatekeeper's Daughter by Lucy Lamont

Author:Lucy Lamont
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fae, celtic, found family, portal fantasy, shadow, magical, sidhe, seelie, unseelie, dark, celtic mythology, pagan portals, portal books, gatekeeper
Publisher: Lucy Lamont
Published: 2024-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

C h a p t e r

F o u r t e e n

The days began to blur together after that. I learnt. I worked. I tried to forget what was outside, which was difficult when that was where I felt most free. The weeks warmed, like the colours of the flowers that popped up in the valley. Snowdrops and daffodils turned into bluebells and poppies.

I continued through the routine that grew for the hours I got to explore the cave systems. There were layers of living, and it somehow suited the society that I had found myself in. After a collection of community caverns, it opened up into a network of residences. I couldn’t work out how it might have looked from the woods but the more I thought about the outside, the more it felt like I was haunting a tomb. Regardless, I hadn’t come across a perimeter guard yet, and I thought asking about how far I was allowed to walk might result in shorter walks. Maybe I had been wandering a little far, but I hadn’t found any danger either.

After long stretches of people going about their daily chores, socialising or working, there was another layer of people doing the same thing outside the residential area, and then empty tunnels. When I first ventured into the darkness, the light from my lantern dancing on the rugged walls unnerved me, I kept expecting figures to jump out at me. Occasionally, other lanterns announced someone else nearby, often they were carrying mosses or old branches back.

Pelthas’ chambers unfurled before me like chapters in an ancient tome. Patterns of lichen clung to the stone like living tapestries and stalactites hung like chandeliers from the ceiling, their slow, patient growth a reminder of the millenniums that had passed here. The air was cool and tinged with earthiness.

Amidst the shadows, I came across a few relics. Not unlike the carvings at the entrance, I found weathered knots etched into the rock. As I looked at them, the light revealed a recessed statue at its heart, its intricate design faded but still spoke of craftsmanship. I’d traced the lines with my fingers and wondered which of the Seelie legends it had been.

Further in still, along a winding passageway, I encountered chambers with long-forgotten fragments of another life. A bronze-coloured torc, its once-polished surface now patinated with age. Rings and a knife haft adorned with dust filled plaits. Intricately carved bone. Whispered stories.

Many of the carved pathways I walked looked similar and were only distinguished by collapsed rocks or cracks of different coloured stone when the coloured symbols ran out. I began to tell by the light or mossy density how close to the outside I was and listened to when I needed to head back along the stony coast.

The weight of the community spirit still felt so exhausting that only after keeping my head down with my assigned task did I look up to observe others. When I was a comfortable distance away, I remembered some of my own substance.

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