Read Online Gateway to Fourline (The Fourline Trilogy Book 1) by Pam Brondos - Free Book Online Page B

she’ll go in for us.” He spoke directly to Barba as if no one else were in the room, but everyone looked at them quizzically.
    “It’s too soon.” Barba walked to the door with a concerned look on her face. “What if she . . .”
    “We don’t have a choice. Not only do we now need to get a message to Benedict that I am—that we all are—indeed alive, but we need to find out how Mudug is tracking all of us.”
    “What if it has something to do with the passage, what if they pick up on her, too?” Barba challenged the young king.
    “If that were the case, they would have been on Annin and Riler immediately. No.” Estos shook his head and ignored the bewildered stares of the others. “It has to be something else. She’s the only one we can use,” he said. His eyes held a look of certainty.
    “What lure do you suggest?” she asked, conceding to his decision.
    “She’ll do it for money,” Estos said.
    “Who in the blazes are you talking about?” Oberfisk turned around with his arms open wide. Annin spoke up.
    “Natalie. He’s talking about Natalie.”
    Everyone erupted into argument, drowning out Estos’ words, but Barba made them out well enough.
    “She’ll do it for money,” he repeated to the Sister.

CHAPTER NINE
    The rain sounded like thousands of small firecrackers as it hit the barn’s metal roof. Nat’s three ewes paced in their pen, stomping at the dirt as she approached with a load of fresh hay. Her father bent over the hydraulic lift of the tractor, pale green and rusted with age. His slicker dripped water, a puddle forming by his left foot. She could hear the drip even over the incessant pounding of the rain. He turned and said something. She couldn’t hear him, but she still heard the drip, drip, drip. He opened his mouth again and thrust a finger in the air, pointing to a spot behind her. Drip, drip, drip . . .
    “What are their names?” Estos startled Nat. He looked over her shoulder.
    “Blue, Wally, and Rump.” She handed him a pitchfork. “Feed them since you’re here.” Estos dumped a hay flake in the wooden trough. “Why are you here?” she asked, suddenly aware how out of place he was.
    “Your father needs you to come with me.”
    “I doubt that, I still have to clean out their pen.” Nat laughed as she extended her hand to retrieve the pitchfork.
    “No, he needs our help.” Estos’ voice took on a tone of urgency. Nat looked over her shoulder. Her father no longer stood by the tractor. The base of a ladder appeared at her feet. Her father hung by one hand from the top rung.
    “Climb!” Estos yelled. She jumped onto the lowest rung, and the dirt floor around her disappeared. Her free leg dangled over a black pit.
    “Estos!” she cried.
    “Keep climbing.” His voice was distant.
    She climbed another rung, and the barn walls disappeared.
    “Daddy!” she cried and looked up. Her father kicked frantically at the air above her. She clambered up the ladder and grasped his feet, guiding them to the rungs. The moment they touched the cold metal, her father faded away. Nat stared at the empty space.
    “You’re at the top. Jump over and invite me in.” She felt Estos’ breath on her cheek. The ladder was leaning against a dark ledge. She slapped her hands on the barrier and scrambled over.
    “Take my hand and invite me in.” Estos hovered on the opposite side of the ledge. Gray light illuminated the darkness around him.
    “Come in?” Nat asked, confused by his request. He grasped her hand and jumped over the top of the barrier as if he weighed little more than a feather.
    “Where’s my father?” She peered over the ledge. A thick gray cloud obscured the ground.
    “He’s fine, Natalie,” he said dismissively. His pale eyes looked almost luminescent. He glanced around the dark space. She sensed he was questioning something.
    “Do me a favor, think of your favorite room.”
    The honey-colored walls of the theater erupted from the ground. Colored