Jack Gregson & the Forgotten Portal (10 page)

They walked down the path, and through the
trees. Once again it opened up to a clearing, a wooden door built
into the rock.

Anthrow grabbed the handle and pulled it
open.

“I love this bit,” said Rosie.

“Me too,” said Jack smiling.

“Me three,” said Anthrow. “I’ll go first.
We’ll be arriving in the main city. Most people there look more or
less like you lot but you may see some that have a few more arms or
heads than you’re used to. Just remember that if there’s one thing
everyone in the Universe agrees on, is that it’s rude to
stare!”

“Extra heads?” David said quietly to Jack
and Rosie. “Is he freaking serious?”

Without another word, Anthrow went through
the doorway and disappeared. Rosie walked in after him, followed by
David and then Jack.

Jack sped through the darkness, his third
time through a portal. Now they weren’t being chased he felt more
comfortable as he looked out on to either side of him. He started
noticing faint white dots in the distance. Were they stars? Before
he could come to a conclusion the white glow surrounded him as he
sped towards the light ahead, arriving at Bowlandose.

“Olkden bon ooken!” something said to Jack’s
left. He turned and looked up in surprise at a large creature
standing before him. At least eight feet tall, it looked like a
cross between a polar bear and a monster from a Saturday morning
cartoon. It had massive blue eyes that took up over half of its
head. Its arms had large claws at the fingers and the black hair
that covered its entire body looked as sharp as razor blades. It
stared down at him as if waiting for a reply.

“Come on Jack, you’re in everyone’s way!”
Anthrow said from his right.

Jack turned and saw his companions standing
on what appeared to be a footpath alongside the extremely wide and
busy road they had arrived on. Hundreds of ‘people’ walked back and
forth before him, going about their busy day.

“Sorry,” he said to the large beast that had
spoken to him and then rushed over to his cousins.

“You’re lucky that thing didn’t eat you,”
David said to Jack.

“Jarkons are a peaceful people,” said
Anthrow. “You’d have to do something pretty nasty to get one angry.
Best you don’t though, it could probably rip your arms off like
twigs from a branch.”

Jack continued to look on in amazement at
the world before him. Bowlandose was hot. He could already feel
beads of sweat running down his back. A red glow tinged the clouds
above, an orange sun hanging larger than Earths in the sky. The
ground beneath their feet was hard, but powdery and the dirt, like
the sky was red. The portal he’d stepped through was built into a
wall on the footpath, with more doors all the way down the
street.

“We need to cross the road, come on!” said
Anthrow over the sounds of the street. He pushed into the throng of
people walking past. The three of them rushed after, a step behind
him as he made his way through the crowds, disrupting everyone in
his path.

“And he told me off for getting in people’s
way,” Jack said to David.

The three of them were shorter than most of
the people around them, so as they followed, they couldn’t see
anything but the people surrounding them at chest height. Rosie,
concerned they’d get split up, grabbed Jacks hand.

Just as he started feeling claustrophobic,
they broke through to the other side of the road, on to a pathway
much like the one they’d just been standing on, with more doors
lining the street as far down the road as he could see.

“Come along,” said Anthrow. “Vonsant’s store
is this way.”

“They have shops here?” David said.

Anthrow didn’t say anything, but smiled. He
led them along the footpath until they came to some stairs built
into the wall. “Up we go,” he said, taking the stairs two steps at
a time. They walked up and up, at least five flights. As they
reached the top they came to a large platform overlooking the
streets below.

Anthrow turned to them and swept an arm out
before him. “Behold my friends from Earth, the largest shopping
destination in the Universe! Do they have shops here you ask? They
have thousands and thousands! If you can’t find what you’re looking
for here, you haven’t finished looking!”

It’s massive! Thought Jack as he looked
down. There were rows and rows of streets before him, in a grid
like fashion that kept going all the way to the horizon far in the
distance and all of them bustling with people.

“It’s awesome!” said Rosie. “Can we go
shopping later?”

“We’re trying to save our house and possibly
our planet and she want some alien slacks,” said David.

“I meant after all that!”

Anthrow led them along a corridor. To the
right of them was a railing, preventing anyone from falling into
the mass of people walking on the street below. To their left were
different store windows, selling a whole variety of wares.

Jack pressed his face to one window and saw
that particular shop sold clothes, looking very similar to a shop
on Earth. The next one he looked into sold food, although he
thought he’d have to be starving and nearly dead to eat it their
wares. The smell coming through the door was rotten, the food
looking like grilled frogs on skewers.

As they walked past more and more shops,
Jack began to see how alien this world was.

Eventually Anthrow stopped at a shop and
pushed open the door, inviting them to enter first.

“Vonsant’s shop. Don’t let the location fool
you, if you need something enchanted or imbued with magic, there’s
no better place to go.”

They walked inside and were greeted with a
dark dank room, filled with tables packed with dusty old objects
and artefacts.

“Imbued? What does that mean?” David asked
as he picked up a glass globe the size of a baseball.

“It means that I take an object that isn’t
magic and make it magic,” said a tall slender man who had appeared
out of nowhere to take the globe out of David’s hands and return it
to the table. “You break it, you bought it. Isn’t that a popular
Earth saying? I’m guessing young Gregson that if you were to break
this particular item you couldn’t afford to replace it. Unless you
don’t need your heart or spleen?”

David let go of the globe, and stood
speechless at the thought that there was a market for his body
parts on this world, and concerned that this man had considered
it.

“How did you know he’s a Gregson?” Asked
Jack, as he looked the man up and down. His body and limbs were
long and skinny, his big nose sitting between eyes that darted
around like those of a snake. There seemed to be something
reptilian about him, Jack decided.

“I see that you are all wearing some of my
work, and I remember ever piece I’ve sold and to whom I sold it
to,” he replied as he nodded his head towards the ring on Jack’s
finger. “That particular item was an interesting request. A piece
of clothing that can allow the wearer to see through even the most
powerful of illusions. As long as you’re wearing that, no one can
hide something from you via magic means. I must confess, I was sure
I had made it into a glove though, not three rings.”

“The curator of our Attic turned it into
rings so we could each wear one,” Jack explained.

The tall man shrugged as if it was of no
consequence.

“Are you Vonsant?” asked Rosie. At his nod
of accent, Rosie quickly introduced herself and her cousins to
him.

He again nodded at each of them in greeting.
He turned to Anthrow and asked a question in a language they didn’t
understand.

Anthrow responded negatively and then said
something else in the same language. All of a sudden they were
going back and forth, both saying one word each at a time.

Finally Vonsant said something loudly and
the conversation was over. He turned and walked from the room.

“Two minutes together and you’re already
arguing,” said David.

“Not arguing, bartering,” replied
Anthrow.

After a few moments, Vonsant returned
saying, “Your rings, please.”

Jack looked at Anthrow who nodded. He took
off his ring and passed it to Vonsant, as David and Rosie did the
same.

Vonsant closed his eyes and waved his hand
over the rings, sprinkling blue dust over them as he whispered
quietly. They started to glow as a blue line appeared down the
middle of each one. Soon the glow was so bright, Jack had to look
away so he wasn’t blinded.

A high-pitched sound started to flow from
the rings. It built in intensity, getting so loud the four of them
had to cover their ears. Just as it got unbearable, it was gone.
The noise and glow disappeared, the rings now having a slight blue
tinge.

Vonsant passed them back and waited until
they’d put them back on. “Do you understand me now?”

“Yes of course, you’re speaking English,”
said David.

Vonsant smiled and shook his head. “Actually
I’m speaking Bowlan. I know English but it requires a lot of effort
for my people. Much easier to imbue your ring with the ability to
understand and speak any language in the Universe. For the right
price of course.”

“The right price?” Jack asked.

“A price I will discuss with your
grandmother on our return. You three already ask far too many
questions. Imagine if you couldn’t understand anyone while we’re
here! You’d be asking me all sorts of dumb things all the time.”
Said Anthrow.

“But I feel like I’m speaking English,” said
Rosie.

“That is how it should be. Thankyou, it
means I’ve done a good job,” said Vonsant. “Now. What brings you
four to my store? I confess I haven’t seen a Gregson in Bowlandose
in quite some time. You are aware there is a price on your
heads?”

“What! I thought you were just testing us
when you said that!” said David to Anthrow.

“I was! The test just happened to be…based
on reality.”

“So we’re wanted dead or alive? By who?”
Jack asked.

“Oh by a lot of planets, mainly people who
have been enslaved or driven from their homes by Theorden,” said
Anthrow.

“But, don’t they know it’s not all
Gregson’s?” asked Rosie. “It’s just him!”

“And Maddox,” said Vonsant. “Once he joined
with Theorden, all Gregson’s became wanted men and women. Anthrow
and myself know the truth, we know you’re not all bad.”

“Maddox? I’ve never heard of a Maddox
Gregson,” said Rosie.

Jack kept quiet, as he made eye contact with
Anthrow, who was looking back at him questioningly. He shook his
head slightly, indicating he didn’t want to talk about it with his
cousins.

“Maddox, a distant relation of yours,”
Anthrow said lying for Jack. “The point is, we need to be careful.
If you recall, the Horde seemed quite intent on getting you as
well. I doubt anyone will know you by first name, but perhaps we
should avoid the “G” word from now on.”

“The Horde is after you? Again I ask, what
brings you to my store?”

“This,” said Jack, pulling out the red
stone. “It was put on our property…”

Vonsant rushed forward and grabbed the stone
from Jack’s hand and covered it in a black cloth.

“Theorden!” he whispered urgently. “You
carry this around? You must go, now! Someone will be here
soon!”

“Who will be here?” David asked.

Vonstant looked at David and took a deep
breath, trying to calm down. “This stone, I’ve seen one before.
Crafted across the sea on the Third Knot of Bowlandose. It would
have been a lot bigger when it was placed at your home. Was the
Horde there?”

“Yes!” David said. “It had taken over one of
our gardens.”

“The stone is a vessel for the Horde.
Theorden uses these to start his invasions. He places one on a
planet and lets it slowly release the black mist, giving it time to
grow, spread and consume all life in its path. But he can’t have
placed it on Earth! My father crafted an emerald, preventing anyone
from using your portal. Is that not still in place?”

“No. Someone managed to come through the
magic seal and steal it. The same person must have left the red
stone. That is our true mission, to track down and recover the blue
emerald,” said Jack.

“Someone can’t have just ‘managed’ to come
through the portal. Someone on Earth must have taken the emerald.
Someone that knew where is was and its purpose.”

“Who would do such a thing?” asked Rosie.
She seemed horrified that someone in the family could be capable of
something like that.

“Someone who wants to see darkness and evil
come to Earth. The Horde is just the first stage,”

“How come the Horde isn’t here on
Bowlandose?” asked Jack.

“Theorden is powerful, but so are others. He
has been concentrating on planets weak in magic, and hasn’t dared
attack cities such as this. However if he’s looking for you three,
I think that may change very soon.”

“You think he knows they are here,” Anthrow
said.

“Yes. This stone is…connected to Theorden.
When I make something I leave a signature within my work. When you
walked into the room I knew you held something I’d imbued. It calls
to me. Theorden is more powerful…a lot more than I. Where I can
feel my work metres away from me, he can reach out and feel his
across worlds.”

“So, it’s a tracking device,” said Anthrow.
“If we’re being followed, he’d be using it to track us down,” he
said as he picked up his bag. “Can you conceal it, break the
connection?”

“Yes, but he’ll already know you are here.
You must go quickly.”

“But what about the Horde at Gregson manor?”
Jack asked. “Is there anything we can do to get rid of it before it
spreads more?”

“Here,” he said, returning the stone to
Jack, now wrapped in black cloth. “As long as it is covered like
this, it can’t be used to track you. Take it to the Diamond Lake on
the first knot and throw it in. The Horde on your world is
connected to this stone. Now that it is concealed, the mist will no
longer spread. Once you throw it in the water of the lake, it will
destroy the Horde in your garden completely.”