Thoughts for a Portal Read online

  The trumpets were lowered and tucked back under the players’ left arms.

  “Why don’t I hear anything?” a pompous voice called out. “Where are my trumpets?”

  “Zevern, enough.”

  The king’s voice was sharp and commanding. The gaggle of assistants that had been fluttering nervously in a circle, much like vultures would do when circling high in the sky over a kill, parted and Steve got his first look at the resident wizard. He wasn’t impressed.

  Zevern was in his early fifties, almost completely bald except for a thin tuft of flaming red hair under each ear, and was just as wide as he was tall. The wizard was wearing the most garish orange robes Steve had ever seen, complete with tufted orange slippers that curved up at the toes.

  “Why don’t they just carry him in on a litter?” Steve grumbled under his breath.

  The king leaned close.

  “I doubt his assistants could lift him. Besides, I wouldn’t let him.”

  Steve snorted.

  Zevern waddled up to Kri’Calin’s throne and managed a small bow. His small beady eyes gave Steve a quick once over and, seeing nothing worth his attention in the tall stranger, turned back to the king.

  “You sent for me, your majesty? How may I serve you today?”

  “Perhaps you can explain something for me, Zevern.”

  The wizard gave another deep bow, almost tipping over in the process.

  “I would be delighted, your majesty.”

  The king glanced around at the many people standing stiffly at attention and dismissed them all with a wave of his hand. Once the Great Hall was devoid of any extra people, save a few soldiers quietly standing guard nearby, Kri’Calin continued.

  “The portal you created for me. In Capily. Do you remember it?”

  A wide grin split the wizard’s rotund face.

  “Of course I do your majesty. It was some of my finest work.”

  “Yes, you told me that then. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  Zevern’s smile faltered.

  “Your majesty? You doubt my work? It sent that soldier off to another world, did it not?”

  The king eyed Steve and nodded his head. Steve sent the wizard a scathing stare and stepped up next to him. Zevern didn’t bother acknowledging his presence.

  “What world?” Steve asked in the most mocking tone he could come up with. “What time? Do you even know what happened to the people that went through it?”

  “Your majesty, who is this peasant? I would prefer if he waits outside, like the other commoners.”

  The king glanced around the room again. There were nearly a dozen soldiers standing guard, spaced evenly all around the perimeter of the Great Hall.

  “We will continue this in the Antechamber.”

  Zevern’s smug smile returned. “An excellent idea, your majesty.”

  Steve motioned for Cecil and Lissa to follow him into the nearby room. Zevern scowled as he noticed he was being followed.

  “Wait outside, peasant.”

  “No,” Kri’Calin contradicted. “Those three people will be joining us.”

  “Whatever for, your majesty?”

  “All in due time. Guards, you are dismissed. See to it we are not disturbed after you leave.”

  Once the door was closed the king briskly rubbed his hands together and looked over at the cold hearth. He looked up at Steve and inclined his head towards the fireplace.

  “Would you?”

  “Fear not,” Zevern cut in. “I can light it in just a few moments.”

  Still glaring at the arrogant wizard, Steve lifted his left arm and released a jet of fire at the hearth. The fireball slammed into the hearth and a few seconds later a blazing fire was crackling merrily away. The look of surprise on Zevern’s face was priceless.

  “How did you do that? The Antechamber prevents all but the strongest from using their jhorun in here. Who are you?”

  Steve ignited both hands and took a few menacing steps toward the portly wizard.

  “I’m someone who doesn’t like you very much.”

  Cecil and Lissa put a hand on each of Steve’s shoulders and pulled him away from Zevern, who had started trembling. The king looked at the burning logs in the fireplace and nodded.

  “Well, that answers that. I do hope you’ll forgive me for testing you, Steve.”

  Steve shrugged. “It’s not the first time I’ve done that in here.”

  The king took a seat behind his desk and indicated the others should sit, too.

  “You know this man?” Zevern sputtered, as he sank down on the chair closest to the king. He turned and pretended to notice Cecil and Lissa, as if for the first time. “Who are these two? What are they doing here?”

  “They’re with me,” Steve coldly informed him. “Eyes over here, sport. You’re dealing with me now.”

  Zevern nervously cleared his throat. After a few moments his courage returned and his nose lifted. His mouth opened, ready to spew an angry retort but he was cut off before he could get a single word out.

  “My name is Steve. That’s Cecil over there and the girl is Lissa. Lissa, like me, is not from this time. Our time is over 120 years from now. She, and several other villagers, fell through your damn portal and were transported here. My own wife fell through and I went in after her. With me so far?”

  “What are you talking about, ‘my portal’? That’s absurd. I haven’t created any public portals.”

  “What am I talking about? Think back to two weeks ago. You created a portal so that a soldier by the name of Luther could travel to another world and link it to here. It was all in the name of a prophecy the king had learned about.” Steve turned to look at the king. “Am I right?”

  Kri’Calin nodded. “You are correct.”

  “If you’re referring to my one-of-a-kind interdimensional portal,” Zevern haughtily told him, “then you’re too late. That portal no longer exists. Portals of that magnitude require great skill and power to be called into being. I won’t bore you with the specifics, dear boy, but believe me when I say that it is impossible for anyone else to use that particular portal.”

  Anger flared. The flames on Steve’s hands, already burning hotter than normal, snaked up his arms and engulfed his chest.

  “Listen to me carefully, pal. That portal is still active in my time. People have been falling through it for years. It’s northeast of Capily, just inside the forest within sight of the ocean. The anomaly, as the people from my time call it, is floating several inches off the ground and is lying horizontally. It’s three, maybe four feet in diameter. Is any of this ringing a bell?”

  Zevern’s eyes had widened. His shocked eyes found the king’s. Searching for sympathy, and not finding a single bit, the wizard turned back to Steve.

  “I, er, that’s…”

  “I’m not done. Not only is your portal responsible for the disappearance of Lentari’s own villagers, it also takes them back through time. What’s worse, the time isn’t consistent. The amount of time between my wife falling through the portal and when I followed her through had to be no more than thirty seconds, yet she arrived a full six months before I did. Did you catch that? My wife had to live on my home world for six months before I arrived. I should also tell you that on my world, over a hundred years ago, it was a very dangerous place to live. It still is.”

  Zevern’s mouth kept opening and closing, all without him uttering a single syllable. Steve still wasn’t done.

  “That soldier? The one you so carelessly sent through without knowing what was on the other side? That’s my great-great-grandfather. He’s been on my world now for over three years.”

  Zevern’s face drained of color.

  “You are a descendant of Luther’s?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Then it worked!”

  “Just a second there, pal. It hasn’t worked yet. Something happened to Luther’s athe crystal. The portal is powerless. Cecil and I came here to get another.”

&nbs
p; Zevern suddenly smiled. He took a breath and opened his mouth.

  “Before you say it’s impossible,” Steve interrupted, “and ask me how we got here if Luther’s portal isn’t working, I’ll add that my wife is a teleporter. She can jump between worlds. And no, don’t tell me it’s impossible. It clearly isn’t. She brought Cecil and I over here to get Luther another athe crystal so his mission can be completed and I’ll be able to use the portal in the future. Until that happens then my own future is in jeopardy.”

  “Your wife… she’s a teleporter who can teleport between your world and Lentari? That’s how you arrived here?”

  Steve nodded. “Yes.”

  “And she will return you to your world?”

  “I wish she could, but she hasn’t. We were supposed to meet up with her last night, only she never showed. Something has happened to her.”

  Zevern nervously cleared his throat. “That’s, ahh, a fine predicament if you ask me.”

  Steve crossed his arms over his chest. “I wasn’t.”

  “What would you have me do?”

  “You created the portal that caused this whole mess. You can create another one, only this time do it right. Get us back to my world. As long as you’re at it, you can start working on creating a portal which will return us to our own time. Did you get all that? Perhaps you ought to write it down.”

  Zevern looked helplessly at the king.

  “He’s not like anything I had pictured,” Steve heard Lissa whisper to Cecil.

  “They never are,” Cecil whispered back.

  The king rose from his throne.

  “Well, Zevern? You heard him. We have to return him to his home. Create another portal. A stable one this time.”

  Zevern’s round face fell as he stared at the floor. He mumbled something but it was so soft no one heard him.

  “Speak up,” the king commanded.

  “I can’t,” Zevern whispered. Beads of sweat were trickling down his pudgy face. “I didn’t have any idea how to create a portal which would link to another world, so I, er, I… I guessed.”

  The king’s face darkened with rage.

  “You guessed? Are you jesting? You sent one of our men through a portal that you haphazardly created? This pleases me not, wizard.”

  “Didn’t you take notes?” Steve asked, frowning. “Can’t you recreate what you did the first time?”

  Zevern sadly shook his head.

  “No, I cannot. Nothing I tried worked. I grew desperate. I used every potion I had at my disposal. I even tried brewing a few new ones. When it became apparent that I could not alter the portal’s destination from Lentari then…”

  “Then what?” the king snapped after Zevern trailed off.

  “Then I tried casting some spells.”

  “Which ones?” Kri’Calin asked. He slid a bottle of ink over to the wizard and then offered him a quill. “Write them down.”

  Zevern shied away from the ink bottle as though it was poisonous. Steve shook his head and scowled at the wizard.

  “You’re either unable or unwilling to write down which spells you used. I’m guessing it’s the former, isn’t it?”

  When Zevern didn’t respond the king groaned aloud, as if he had just sat on a thorn.

  “You can’t remember which spells you’ve cast? I’ve known you to be quirky, Zevern, but never inept. Wizards be damned! I’ve boasted about you to the king of Ylani, you imbecile.”

  Zevern sat up straight in his chair. “I am no imbecile, your majesty. It shames me to think this is what you believe.”

  “Prove me wrong. Return these three home.”

  Zevern sadly shook his head.

  “I can do many things, your majesty. However, it became quite clear to me that I am no gatekeeper. That was Luther’s job. It shames me to say this but I used everything at my disposal to link a portal to another world. While I agree it wasn’t very professional, I feel obligated to point out that I did succeed.”

  “Aye, you did,” the king agreed. Then he frowned. “But not well. When this is all over you and I are going to sit down and have a private discussion. And before you ask, no, you will not enjoy it.”

  Zevern’s head fell.

  “What do we do now?” Cecil asked. “It certainly doesn’t sound like we will be able to return home after all.”

  Steve cast a final scowl in Zevern’s direction before he turned back to Cecil. “Sarah and I haven’t come this far just to fail now. There’s a way, we just have to find it. I say we hold a brainstorming session. Let’s hear some ideas, no matter how preposterous you think they might sound. Agreed?”

  Kri’Calin nodded. “Agreed.”

  Cecil and Lissa both nodded. Zevern remained motionless. The only thing missing, Steve wryly noted, was the chirp of a cricket. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the king’s desk, eliciting a frown from the king.

  “Okay, so creating another portal is out. What about teleporting? Sarah can do it. Maybe there’s someone else that can?”

  “There are five known teleporters in the kingdom,” the king informed him. “All five can barely teleport themselves from one village to another without completely exhausting them.”

  “What about using a jorii?” Steve asked.

  “What’s a jorii?” Cecil wanted to know.

  Steve curled his index finger against his thumb and held it up so Cecil could see.

  “It’s a smoke colored marble, about this big. It’ll take a person’s jhorun and amplify it to incredibly high levels. It should have the power to make a weak teleporter much stronger. Come to think of it, I should have mentioned that Luther has requested another jorii as well. I told him we’d pass along his request.”

  Cecil nodded enthusiastically. “I don’t care what kind of marble it is. If it’ll get us home then I’m all for it. Can you give us several of those marbles?”

  Kri’Calin frowned. “I gave our last one to Luther.”

  It was Steve’s turn to groan aloud.

  “You’re out of joriis? Can’t you get some more? Where do you get them, anyway?”

  The king kept his face neutral as he stared at the fire thrower.

  “Do you mean to tell me that the king from your time has never told you where the joriis come from?”

  Steve stared suspiciously at Kri’Calin. “No. I’ll bite. Where do you get them?”

  “You are apparently trusted by the royal family in your time.”

  Steve nodded eagerly. “You could say that.”

  “And they could clearly keep a secret.”

  Steve shrugged. “They obviously did.”

  “Good. Then so can I.”

  “What? Excuse me? You can’t just tease me like that and then not tell me.”

  “I can and I just did.”

  “Fine. You’re out of joriis. So that won’t work. Who else has a suggestion? Lissa, got any ideas?”

  The teenager shook her head, sending her brown tresses flying about. “About how to get back home? No, I’m sorry. Besides, I don’t want to go to your world.”

  “You can’t stay here,” Steve told the stubborn girl. “This isn’t your time. You want to get home? You’re going to have to go to ours first so we can figure out how to jump back, er, forward to our correct time. If you stay here that isn’t going to happen.”

  Cecil hesitantly raised a hand into the air. Steve noticed it first.

  “Dude, I told you we’re not in school. You don’t have to keep doing that. What’s on your mind?”

  Cecil pointed at the leather satchel still strapped securely in place across Steve’s chest.

  “That’s the crystal that Luther needs, correct?”

  Everyone seated around the desk turned to look down at the leather bag Steve was carrying.

  “That’s right. Why do you ask?”

  “If Luther gets that could he not get the portal working by himself?”

  Steve sighed. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out, Cecil. We need to
get this in Luther’s hands; however, as you can see, we’re trying to figure out how.”

  “We know there isn’t a way to create a portal big enough for us to return home, correct? What about a little one? Could there be a way to get just that bag to him?”

  The king opened his mouth to give the foreigner a negative answer when he hesitated. He looked at Steve, who had also paused in mid sentence. Together they turned to look at Zevern. The wizard had returned his gaze to the marble floor inside the Antechamber and kept it there.

  “Is that possible?” Kri’Calin asked.

  Zevern mumbled something, but again it was so soft that no one heard him.

  “I grow tired of this, wizard,” the king grumbled. “If you have anything to say then please do so at a volume the rest of us can hear. It strikes me as being odd that you’ve suddenly become so soft-spoken when you enjoy that damnable trumpeting as much as you do.”

  “I am not familiar with any method to get that crystal to another world,” Zevern finally admitted. “I may have, uh, over exaggerated my talents a little when it comes to traveling between worlds.”

  “Be that as it may,” Steve said in a loud voice, “I do like Cecil’s suggestion.”

  Cecil beamed. “You do?”

  “Yes. You’re right. You suggested a very plausible scenario. If we can get the crystal to Luther he should be able to activate his portal and link it to the castle’s, thereby completing his mission. He personally won’t be able to use it but at least we can.”

  “Why won’t he be able to use it?” the king inquired.

  “It was something I learned a long time ago,” Steve explained. “It was part of the prophecy. To make certain Luther was properly motivated the portal was specifically programmed to not allow Luther home. Now, I don’t know if he’ll be able to activate it from his end but we should at least be able to use it to return home.”

  Lissa suddenly fidgeted in her chair and tapped Steve on his arm, drawing his attention.

  “What is it, Lissa? Do you have something to add?”

  The girl nodded. She gave the king a shy smile before turning back to Steve.

  “Could we use a dennai?”

  Steve blinked a few times.

  “Could we use a what? A deny? What’s that?”