Read The Forever Gate for Free Online

front of him, oblivious.
    When they had gone, Hoodwink stood up, and walked hastily in the opposite direction.
    It wasn't long before he reached Forever Street, the road that lay in the shadow of the Gate. You could circle the entire city, if you walked that street long enough. Beside it, the wall that was the Gate reached into the sky, the topmost edges lost in the clouds. The stone was gray, and irregular, pocked with smooth dimples and mounds. He passed the section where Ari had placed the bomb the day before. The area was blackened, but otherwise unharmed. One would have expected the gol to beef up their presence after an attack like that, but there actually seemed less gols along the wall today. There weren't enough of them to watch every portion, every waking moment, Hoodwink supposed, especially when the wall was, by all indications, indestructible.
    He soon met up with Leader. The ancient man observed the Forever Gate from the shade of a vendor who sold maps and miniature replicas of the city.
    "Your goodbyes went well?" The ancient man asked, his breath misting. He stared off to the side, in that way he had of not meeting one's eye.
    "Splendid." Hoodwink picked up a replica of the city.
    The vendor immediately stood up. "Touch and pay," the middle-aged woman said.
    Hoodwink gingerly returned the replica.
    Ari came up beside him and saved him from the woman by giving him a hug.
    "How did it go?" Ari said.
    Hoodwink smiled sadly. "Cora says good-bye."
    "You told her everything?"
    He nodded.
    "I'll seek her out," Ari said. "Let her know you spoke the truth."
    "She knows." Hoodwink shook his head. "No. It's better if she never sees you again."
    Leader rested a palsied hand on his shoulder, and turned that penetrating gaze upon him. "Time wastes. Are you ready?"
    Hoodwink shrugged. "Yes, all right."
    "You've committed the address to memory?"
    Hoodwink sighed. "John Baker, son of Arrold Baker, 18 Market Street." Though not a User, John was a close cousin of Leader. John assumed quite the risk in being their middle man. Hoodwink hoped the gol didn't use him to hunt the rest of the Users down. But Ari and the others were too smart to let that happen.
    "Good," Leader said, gazing at the sky. "The rigged diary is in the duffel bag."
    Hoodwink accepted the bag from Ari, and slipped it over his shoulder.
    Ari and Hoodwink walked on either side of Leader, and helped the haggard man through the snowpacked streets. Leader verbally steered them down the streets and byways to a secluded back alley of brick walls. The snow was never shoveled here, nor was it packed by the tread of passersby, so the three of them had to wade and dig through snow that was sometimes chest high. They reached a rusty iron gate that was nearly buried by the drifts, and Leader opened it with a key he'd brought along. The gate was like a portcullis, and they were able to slide it upward with some difficulty. Once through, Hoodwink saw that the alley offered secluded access to the city wall.
    "Why didn't you put the bomb here?" he said.
    Ari shook her head. "There'd be too much damage to the neighboring buildings. We didn't want any human casualties, remember?"
    The three dug their way forward through the snow, until the sky-reaching wall consumed everything else. When you came close, you could easily understand why it was called The Forever Gate. What looked like a flat surface from far away was actually a craggy mountain of sheer, infinite stone. A silver rope dangled from the heights, and Hoodwink followed it with his eyes. He couldn't see where the rope anchored —it became lost in the coarse texture of the wall a mile or so up.
    "You expect me to climb this?" Hoodwink pulled at the rope. He felt the echo of a distant vibration pass through the material. The sensation was eerie, like plucking the string of some giant lute.
    "Think of it as a symbol." Leader gazed blankly up the wall. "Of the hurdles you've faced in this life. You have overcome them all to