Keeper of the Gate

Perrin Ashgate is the eleventh Keeper of the Gate at Candlebrook. At dawn he opens it. At dusk he closes it. In nine years, nobody has come through. He has taken up jam. He keeps bees. The Gate, which talks in a low grinding voice, has opinions about the weather and a habit of being right. Then a woman walks out of the far side in clothes a century out of fashion, asks for tea, and refuses to say whether she is alive. Her name is Vaile. She is mapping the road home, and she is a debt the Gate owes. The Gate wants to be paid, and the price is a Keeper who walks through and never comes back. One of them will have to read the fine print. A warm, wry classic high fantasy whimsical fantasy romance about bees, chess, and a door that would rather be a door.