A Portal for Your Thoughts Page 5

  Sarah knocked again. This time they heard a piercing smash followed by a loud peal of childish laughter. The heavy front door briefly shuddered as someone on the other side had unlocked the dead bolt, more than likely doing so as they were running by. Sarah suppressed a smile as one voice rose above the others.

  “Christopher, get back here this instant!”

  Sarah gently pushed the door open and stepped into a world of chaos that only a small child could create. Toy trucks, foot destroying building blocks, half eaten plates of macaroni and cheese, and a handheld video game, complete with a jagged crack running across the length of the screen, met their eyes.

  “I think I can safely say that a tornado must have touched down in here,” Steve commented as he shut the door behind them.

  “Yep,” Sarah agreed, “and they call him Christopher.”

  Hearing his name, a tousle headed boy of four appeared in the bathroom doorway. His cherubic face split into a grin as he ran towards Sarah as fast as his chubby little legs could manage.

  “There’s my little Christopher!”

  Sarah hefted the boy onto her hip, being careful to avoid touching Christopher’s shirt as it had a dollop of some sort of orange goo slowly running down the front of it. Annie appeared moments later. She caught sight of her son and smiled.

  “There you are, you little stinker. I told you we need to get you cleaned up. Now hold still!”

  Annie produced a wet wash cloth and proceeded to clean the boy’s face while he wiggled and squirmed in Sarah’s grasp. With his face finally clean, Sarah set her nephew down on the ground and watched as he scampered off.

  “Sorry about the mess,” Annie began, but Sarah waved off her concerns.

  “Don’t worry about it. Clearly your hands are full at the moment.”

  “Where’s Tristan?” Steve asked as he stepped over a large red firetruck that had been upended in front of the couch.

  “He took Zachary for a walk. He knows how much Christopher hates his baths so I think he opted for a quieter setting.”

  Steve knelt down as Christopher reappeared, holding a toy cement truck.

  “You don’t like baths, huh? Well, trust me kid; you could use one right about now.”

  “He already had it,” Annie pointed out.

  Upon hearing the dreaded ‘b’ word, Christopher dropped the truck and ran, squealing, from the room.

  Annie frowned. “Nice going, Uncle Steve. He was just starting to settle down when you had to go get him all riled up again.”

  “You think he was calming down? Really?”

  Annie nodded. “Yeah, he was. Trust me.”

  “Alrighty then. I’ll just go take a look at your computer, shall I?”

  Steve ducked into the room Annie and Tristan used as an office and quickly shut the door behind him. He could hear Sarah and her sister laughing, presumably at him. That was okay. Quite often he found himself the butt of their jokes, but since he knew it was all in good fun, he never made an issue out of it. Most of the times.

  Steve booted up the laptop and checked the programs list. Sure enough there were six or seven browser toolbars in there, along with a few ‘optimizers’ which did nothing but hinder a computer’s performance. He even found three different online backup programs, each of which was demanding the user upgrade their account as the tiny bit of allocated online storage had been exceeded and therefore more space was required.

  One by one Steve went through the list of programs and handed out pink slips. Several programs balked, and a few even insisted they should stay in place; in the end, any piece of software that didn’t need to be there was given the boot. Extra browsers, bogus security software, and demos for online games were dumped faster than a pizza would disappear at a kid’s birthday party. Steve checked the browser settings and disabled several add-ons that had been added by the extra software but had failed to be removed when the corresponding software had been uninstalled, as he knew they would be. A quick check of the active processes confirmed that the computer was now idling and didn’t have a slew of unwanted software running in the background.

  Steve pushed away from the desk and powered down the computer. He cautiously opened the office door and peeked out into the hallway. All was quiet. Too quiet. Where was everyone? The simple act of pulling the door closed behind him echoed noisily throughout the house.

  “Umm, hello? Where’d everyone go?”

  Movement caught his eye. Steve turned to his left and looked down the hallway and through the kitchen. It looked as though everyone was standing out on the patio. Steve nodded. It wasn’t too hot outside and the sun had set moments before. He slid the patio door open and joined Sarah, who was standing by the railing and watching Christopher drive a kiddie-sized motorized truck around the backyard. The boy’s face had a smile that stretched from ear to ear as he plowed over smaller toy trucks, Frisbees, and anything else unfortunate enough to fall in his path.

  A tall bald man wearing a simple gray tee shirt and a worn pair of blue jeans suddenly came through the front door pushing a three wheeled stroller with large rubber wheels. It was the type of stroller, Steve noted, that was designed to give as smooth as ride as possible to its young occupant. Tristan parked the stroller in front of the hallway closet and gently pulled out a sleeping toddler and ducked into a nearby room. Quietly exiting the room a few moments later, Tristan softly pulled the door closed. Sensing movement in his peripheral vision he looked up and made eye contact with Steve, who had been watching him from the patio.

  Tristan slid the patio door open and nodded at Steve. He smiled at Sarah as he took the bottle of water Annie offered to him. He joined Steve at the railing and together they watched Christopher grind more and more toys into the soft grass of their backyard. When his replica monster truck disappeared around the southwestern corner of the house both men automatically followed.

  “Christopher sure is a handful,” Steve commented as a coiled hose became the young boy’s latest vehicular conquest.

  Tristan smiled. “He is, indeed. I would not have it any other way.”

  “You may be changing your tune once Zachary becomes old enough to give Christopher a run for his money.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Seeing that his son was on a direct course with a row of trash cans lined neatly up against the side of the house Tristan quickly grabbed the back end of Christopher’s car and lifted. Holding the spinning wheels off the ground Tristan gently rotated the car around and pointed it back the way they had come. Just as he was about to set his son’s car back onto the grass Tristan hesitated and glanced to his left. He straightened, which had the unfortunate effect of elevating Christopher’s car another foot or two off the ground. His son squealed with delight.

  Steve appeared at Tristan’s side. He gently pulled the tail end of the car from his grasp and lowered it to the ground. Christopher was off just as fast as the toy truck could move. Steve nudged his Lentarian friend on the shoulder.

  “Hey, are you okay? What’s the matter?”

  “Are you expecting company?” Tristan asked using a flat tone of voice.

  Steve shook his head. “No. Why do you ask?”

  “Several people are standing by your house and I did not hear any mechanized carriages arrive.”

  “Say what?”

  Steve and Tristan, being both over six feet tall, easily peered over the stone perimeter fence that framed the backyard. Standing in the furthest southern corner of Annie and Tristan’s yard Steve could see the northern corner of the huge manor. Steve narrowed his eyes. Tristan was right. Two people were slowly starting to walk towards his detached garage and were staring at the surrounding countryside as though they were lost. He didn’t recognize either of the two young men. Steve inclined his head towards the intruders.

  “We need to take care of this.”

  Tristan nodded.

  “I want Annie and Christopher inside. Now.”

  “Come on. We need to warn them.” />
  Steve ducked back behind the fence and ran back towards the patio with Tristan hot on his heels. Sarah and Annie were sipping on tall frosty glasses of lemonade when the two of them burst back onto the scene. Sarah, catching sight of her husband’s alarmed expression, was on her feet first.

  “What is it? What’s going on?”

  “Someone’s at the manor. Several someones. We would have heard a car pull up. We didn’t. However they got there they didn’t use any means we’re familiar with. You three need to get inside, okay?”

  Sarah nodded. The lemonade sat, forgotten, as Annie snatched up Christopher and ducked back into the house. Steve waited for Sarah to follow her sister inside. Once the three of them were safely inside the house Steve and Tristan quietly snuck towards the manor.

  “Did they come out of our house?” Steve whispered after both he and Tristan sprinted towards the huge exterior garage sitting next to the manor.

  Tristan shook his head.

  “Unknown. I cannot see the front of the manor from the backyard.”

  “You didn’t recognize any of them?”

  “I do not know either of them.”

  “Do you think there’s more than two?” Steve asked. He looked down at his hands; both had turned dark red.

  “Unknown.”

  Both men cautiously inched around the corner of the garage and inspected the front of the manor. There, shuffling uncertainly about, were two men that appeared to be in their early twenties. Both were wearing matching dark gray shirts and pants, almost as if they were in some type of uniform.

  Steve was silent as he watched the two men move uncertainly about. He looked at Tristan and nodded.

  “Looks like there’s just two. Come on, we can take ‘em!”

  “What if more are nearby?”

  “I doubt there is, but if so, I’m sure we can handle it.”

  Just then they heard a shout. One of the men had walked around the back of the manor and had paused at the corner. After a few moments of looking furtively about he focused his attention on the heavily forested land sitting behind the manor. Since the manor bordered acres of Bureau of Land Management property, owned by the government, there was nothing but thousands of acres of trees as their closest neighbors. They heard the man shout something in the direction of the forest. Then they heard an answering shout. There were at least three people present!

  “Did you find anything?” the closest intruder shouted as he faced away from the two of them.

  “Nothing here,” an answering shout sounded. “Keep looking. They must be here somewhere! Search the structure again if you have to.”

  The intruder nodded and headed back towards the manor’s front entrance. He called for his companion and the two of them walked up the steps to vanish inside.

  His mind made up, Steve looked over at Tristan, who nodded.

  “I will take these two,” his introverted brother-in-law told him. “Do you think you can deal with whoever it is behind the house?”

  Steve nodded. “Easily. Hell, I’ve taken on trolls before, so one or two – “

  Tristan held a finger to his lips, cutting off Steve in mid sentence.

  “Perhaps now is not the best time to boast about your adventures. Be quick and be silent.”

  Steve swallowed his annoyance and sprinted towards the same corner of the house that one of the intruders had just been standing behind. He looked off towards the trees but couldn’t see anyone moving about. Steve inched forward, pausing every ten seconds to see if he could hear anything.

  Not a sound could be heard.

  Arriving at the far northeastern corner of the mansion Steve eased his head around the corner and finally spotted who the other man must have been talking to. Standing about a hundred feet in front of him, with his back facing him, was a third man who was at the moment peering carefully at the thick growth of trees that bordered his land. This one was dressed in the same gray outfit as the others but also had some type of dark trim outlining his jacket. Perhaps the decorations denoted some type of officer or else a person in authority? This had to be the leader of the small group.

  Steve released his jhorun into his hands and felt both of them flame up. He stepped out away from the house and cleared his throat.

  “You, my friend, just made a big mistake coming here.” In case he hadn’t been heard, Steve blasted several jets of fire high up into the air. “You’re personally going to see what it feels like to become ‘well done’ if you so much as flinch.”

  The third stranger jerked his hands high up into the air.

  “Hold your fire, Sir Steve,” a familiar voice said.

  “Turn around,” Steve ordered.

  The man complied. Steve’s fires snuffed out.

  “Pheron! What the hell are you doing here? Showing up unexpected like that is a good way to get yourself toasted, pal.”

  “I am sorry, Sir Steve. I was under orders.”

  “You are? By who? Rhenyon?”

  “No, not Commander Rhenyon. I am here by order of the king.”

  Steve whistled. “That can’t be good. What’s going on? What’s the matter?”

  “Is Lady Sarah nearby?”

  “Yeah. Why? What do you want her for?”

  “We need her help.”

  “You do? What could you… Wait. How many men came here with you?”

  “Myself and two others. Why?”

  “Because Tristan went after the other two.”

  The look of alarm that spread across Pheron’s face had Steve turning about and racing back towards the manor. They took the stairs two at a time as they bolted into the house. They both burst into the mansion’s foyer and slid to a stop. It was quiet. Way too quiet.

  “Tristan?” Steve loudly called out. “Are you okay? Speak to me, pal!”

  “I am here.”

  “Where?”

  “By the fireplace.”

  Steve and Pheron sprinted through the family room doors and came to an abrupt stop. Tristan had not only incapacitated the two strange men but had also hog tied them with some type of black cord. Both men were lying on their stomachs with their hands tied behind their backs and then tied to their bound ankles. It looked very uncomfortable. It was then that Steve noticed the flatscreen television from the living room had been knocked from its perch on the wall. It and several electronic components were sitting haphazardly on the ground.

  “I am sorry about your mechanical devices,” Tristan began apologetically. “I needed rope.”

  Steve waved off Tristan’s concerns. “That’s okay. I’ll cry later. You did what had to be done. Besides, it gives me an excuse to do some upgrading. Anyway, it turns out they are harmless. They are Pheron’s men.”

  Tristan nodded. “That must have been what they were trying to tell me before I gagged them.”

  Pheron knelt down on the ground and before Steve could utter a word of protest, unsheathed a dagger and sliced through the cords immobilizing his men. Steve gave a quiet gasp of shock and managed to bite his lip before he let slip that Pheron had just destroyed two very expensive audio/video cables. If Sarah had been here she’d be laughing her tail off.

  Speaking of which…

  “Let me go get Sarah. Tristan, hold down the fort. I’ll be right back.”

  Five minutes later Steve returned and escorted Sarah through the front door. Pheron instantly bowed and smiled. A quick frown at his two subordinates caused them to mimic their captain.

  “Lady Sarah. It is a pleasure to see you again.”

  Sarah beamed her smile up at the tall captain. “It’s nice to see you, too, Pheron. You surprised us. I don’t think anyone has ever come through the portal unannounced. Is everything okay?”

  Pheron shook his head. “Not really. Several villagers have vanished.”

  “That’s what the king told us the last time we were there,” Steve recalled. “That was what, a little over three months ago?”

  Pheron nodded.

  “
Aye. Since that time another person is missing.”

  Sarah took her husband’s hand. “How can I help, Pheron?”

  “We found something in Capily that we’d like your input on, Lady Sarah.”

  “O-kay. You found something. Can you tell me what?”

  Pheron shook his head no. “I wish we could. We were hoping you’d be able to help identify it.”

  Intrigued, Sarah looked at Steve.

  “Alright, I’m curious. You?”

  Steve smiled and turned to Pheron. “Go back to Lentari. Tell the king we’re on our way and that we’ll be at the Constable’s office in Capily in about an hour.”

  “Can you not meet us at the anomaly?”

  Sarah clapped her hands together.

  “Ooooo! An ‘anomaly’? This is sounding better and better! And no, I can’t.”

  “Her reference point is the constable’s office,” Steve explained to Pheron. “She’s been there before so she can take us directly there.”

  Pheron nodded. “I will report back to the king. We will expect the two of you there in an hour’s time.”

  Pheron and his two men walked back up the stairs towards the master bedroom and the portal contained on its entry doors. In a few moments they heard the chiming from the portal as it was activated. Ten seconds later all was silent upstairs. Steve and Sarah both nodded. Perhaps an outing to Lentari was just what they needed to brighten up an otherwise uneventful day.

  ****

  “It has to have something to do with a portal,” Sarah was saying as they exited the constable’s office in Capily. “Why else would they want my help?”

  “Are you the only teleporter?” Steve asked.

  “No. I know there are others. I don’t know why they haven’t asked them.”

  “Maybe they have and they weren’t able to do anything,” Steve suggested.

  “Perhaps. Look, there’s Pheron.”

  Pheron waved them over and together they turned to the north and headed off, following one the village’s main roads in and out of town. In the fifteen minutes it took to reach the anomaly, as Pheron had called it, the friendly captain had told them all they had learned thus far. Sadly, it wasn’t much. That it was some type of portal seemed to be the only thing they were certain of. The problem, they learned, was they didn’t know where the portal went. If several of the villagers had fallen through this mysterious portal then the only way they’d be able to mount a rescue mission was if they knew what was on the other side.