Jack Gregson & the Forgotten Portal (14 page)

Yes I did. His father was a different man, a
good man. Once I told him of the portal, he chose to leave it
alone. The portal had been sealed for good reason and he thought it
should remain that way.

Theorden used to take me on his journeys,
hoping that at some point I would submit and tell him what I
knew.

One day I told him that even if I did know
the location, I would never tell him. That made him angry. He threw
me down on the library floor and stormed away.

That was the last I saw of him. The portal
must have been sealed soon after he left.

It wasn’t until years later when in the
possession of Maddox did I learn of Theorden, but at that time I
didn’t know they were the same person.

Now that I know Richard is behind all of
this, I am not surprised your Grandmother magically sealed the
portal to Earth. I am also not surprised that he’s trying to find
you. Especially if he knows you have me.

“Maddox, there’s that name again. Who is
he?”

Don’t tell her! Jack pushed the thought at
the book.

“How would Theorden know that we have you?”
he asked, changing the topic quickly. “The only people that know we
brought you are Grandmother, The Curator and Anthrow. None of them
would have told him about it.”

“Alice knows too,” said David. “Didn’t she
recommend we bring it?”

“Not Alice!” said Rosie.

“Book! Did Alice know Theorden?”

Alice is the child of a former Gregson
employee. She was brought up in the staff quarters of Gregson
manor.

Richard and Alice were of similar age and
played together growing up. Their bond was strong until Richard
left for school. Alice remained and learnt the trade of her parents
at Gregson Manor.

That is the only information I have of her
I’m afraid. If they had any further dealings, it was after I
belonged to another.

“But she’s almost part of the family! Why
would she help him? Surely she would know what would happen if he
came to Earth.” said Rosie.

“Vonsant said the blue emerald had to have
been taken from someone on that side of the portal. Alice is the
only non-family member that knew about it,” said Jack standing up.
“It must be her!”

“Shh!” said Rosie as she nodded towards the
entrance of the cave. “There’s still an army down there.”

Jack sat down quickly, saying, “Book, how do
we get to the Forgotten Portal?”

It isn’t far, which is why I brought it up
in the first place. If we could turn into the black mist again and
travel up this mountain, it will save a lot of time.

“We can, but if we go now the army will see
us.”

If you can get us to the top, over to the
valley beyond, they won’t be able to follow us.

Jack nodded. He wished they could wait until
dark to avoid detection, but he was starting to think there wasn’t
much time to waste. With the blue emerald gone from the rear
garden, Theorden would be planning to move his army through the
portal at any time now. He might have started already!

“What about Alice? If she really is helping
Theorden, we have to let Grandmother know. Our whole family could
be in danger! Besides, now we know who has the blue emerald.
Grandmother will be able to force the truth out of her,” said
Rosie.

“We can’t go back without going to Diamond
Lake first. We have to throw the red stone in the water and destroy
the Horde before we seal off the portal forever,” David
countered.

Travel back to the manor and warn the family
or continue on to Diamond Lake and destroy the Horde? Jack was
torn, as both were imperative.

His cousins were watching, waiting for him
to say something. He wasn’t sure when he had become the decision
maker of the group, and suddenly felt the responsibility of
choosing what was the right course of action fall upon his
shoulders.

“We go back to the manor and warn
Grandmother,” said Jack after making his decision. “If Alice is
working with Theorden, we have to warn her.”

David seemed about to say something but then
paused and nodded.

Jack stood and looked at his cousins. “It’s
time to go home.”

Chapter Fifteen

The Forgotten
Portal

Jack swung Rosie’s backpack over his shoulder
as they prepared to leave the cave.

He still held the book and read out its
instructions on how to get to the Forgotten Portal.

Once you turn us back to mist form, travel
up and over the mountain. At the top of the peak, the rings you
received from Gregson Manor should allow you to see through the
illusion in place. You will see a silver tree that will lead you to
the hidden forest where the Forgotten Portal resides.

“I thought all the tree’s on Coran were
dead,” said Rosie.

Not all of them. When you see the silver
tree, you will be compelled not to walk towards it. You will want
to turn around.

If you do turn around, you will forget about
the tree immediately and feel a sense of relief that you are not
walking in that direction.

It is a powerful charm that has been placed
on the forest, one that has even kept the Horde at bay. Now that
you know it is an illusion, it should be easier to fight it.

“Hold on to me,” Jack said as he raised his
arms.

He reached out to the black ring with his
mind, willing it to activate. He felt the magic release and slowly
weave the air before him into mist. He listened and heard the
distinct hum that the magic was releasing. It was different to that
of the portals magic, but at the same time it had similarities.

Jack matched the tone of the magic in his
mind and attempted to reach out to the forming mist. All of a
sudden it grew, faster and faster as all three of them
transformed.

That was easy, he thought. It was as Anthrow
had said, if you could understand the magic, you could manipulate
it.

He wondered if he’d be able to create the
mist without the rings help and promised himself to try once this
was all over.

“Let’s go,” Jack said, his voice a deep
hiss.

He moved towards the hole in the wall and
looked down below. The men were still there, scouring the area for
any signs of them. He waited until none were looking towards the
mountain and started to move, climbing up, defying gravity as they
hugged the rock.

Suddenly an arrow tore through the mist and
rebounded off the rock.

They’ve seen us! Jack heard the thought flow
through the mist.

He started moving them faster, climbing to
the peak as fast as he could. More and more arrows flew through
them and as he looked back, he saw the men rushing to the mountain
trying to find a good place to climb.

“There he is, the heir!” said a deep
reptilian voice, echoing loudly through the air as the Shadow Man
rushed back, at the head of the Horde.

“GET THEM MADDOX! BRING ME THE BOOK!”
another voice boomed through the air, making them all shudder in
fear.

It’s Theorden! Hurry Jack!

They reached the peak of the mountain, and
Jack pulled them over and down the other side, arrows still
shooting through the air as the Horde below began its accent up the
mountain.

“Phew! I know those arrows couldn’t hit us,
but that was intense,” said Rosie.

Jack sent his agreement through the mist as
he searched ahead for the silver tree.

“We should go this way,” said David urgently
as he started to pull them to their right.

“Why?” asked Jack.

“Because I don’t want to go the other
way.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not sure.”

“In that case we have to go the other way,”
said Jack as he scanned to his left for the tree. “There it is!
You’re right, maybe we should go the other way.” Jack all of a
sudden knew walking towards the tree was the wrong thing to do.

“We’re walking towards the tree,” said
Rosie.

“What tree?” asked Jack. He didn’t remember
seeing a tree.

“The one the book told us about. The one you
just forgot about. I want you to both listen to me and do what I
say. Look to your left and you will see a silver tree. Walk towards
the tree. Walk towards the tree.”

Jack looked over and saw it. He started
walking to the tree, with every fibre of his being telling him not
to. The only things keeping him from turning away and running in
the opposite direction was that he knew he was fighting an illusion
and Rosie’s continuous chant telling him to go on.

Closer and closer they got, the urge to turn
away got stronger and stronger.

“We have to go back!” yelled David.

“No! Keep moving!” Rosie yelled back.

Jack glared at the tree as he urged them
forward, a roar of pain escaping his lips.

“Move!”

Suddenly it was pain was gone and a great
feeling of relief washed over Jack. They’d made it!

He looked back to where they had come. The
Shadow Man stood at the peak of the mountain, staring in their
direction.

The Shadow Man was his father! Jack felt
sick at the thought. His father was the one who had been trying to
catch them. To kill them!

After a time Maddox looked away, leading the
Horde away in the opposite direction.

“Phew! The illusion drew them away,” said
Rosie

“How did you do that? Why didn’t the
illusion affect you?” David asked Rosie.

“Easy, I never looked at the tree, so I
never felt the urge to turn away from it.”

“And because you didn’t see it, you couldn’t
forget about it,” said Jack as he put his father out of his mind
and concentrated on the ring, willing them back to human form.

The three of them now stood at the base of
the silver tree, on the outskirts of a small forest.

Jack stepped forward into the dense layers
of vines that carpeted the ground before them.

“Food!” said David as he rushed forward to a
tree carrying the purple fruit Anthrow had given them in the
Grotto.

He took one and bit into it greedily before
grabbing more and handing them to his cousins.

“There’s a path,” said Rosie as she walked
off to the right.

Jack followed her, a small group of punkey’s
watching them intently as they went. They must have never have seen
a human before, he assumed.

His mind kept going back to his father.
Anthrow had said he had joined Theorden, but now he knew that he
was the Shadow Man, was that really true? Wasn’t the Horde a
collection of the lives that Theorden had captured and enslaved?
Maybe his father was being coerced into doing his bidding.

They walked along the path as it zigzagged
its way through the trees. Soon they could see a long wall made of
stone in the distance, overgrown with moss.

As they approached, Jack could see that the
wall had no sides. It was simple one wall, about twenty metres long
with a great wooden door in the centre of it.

“This must be it,” said Rosie as she opened
the door and looked into the passageway beyond. “It just looks like
the other ones.”

“Of course it does, it’s what all the other
ones were based on. Isn’t that right Jack?”

“I suppose so. Rosie, do you want to go
first?”

“Sure,” said Rosie as she walked into the
passageway.

Nothing happened.

She looked back at them with a questioning
look.

“Say Earth portal or something. Imagine the
door in the Western Gardens,” said Jack.

She closed her eyes and within seconds she
disappeared, as she was swept away.

“You next,” said Jack.

He watched David walk into the passageway.
He was going to miss his help.

“Earth!” David said as he turned back to
Jack. He seemed to notice something on Jack’s face. “No!” he yelled
as the portal pulled him away.

Jack sighed and walked through the doorway.
He couldn’t return home without knowing more about his father.

“The closest portal to Diamond Lake, on the
First Knot of Bowlandose,” he said.

The portal complied, dragging him into the
unknown.

Chapter Sixteen

Diamond Lake

Jack arrived in darkness. The red sun of
Bowlandose had set, replaced by a skyline filled with stars and a
large moon that illuminated the land with its dull glow.

He scanned the area quickly, looking for any
sign of the Horde or Theorden’s men. Seeing none he decided the
best course of action was to find the lake, throw the stone in and
then get back to the Grotto as quickly as possible.

But what would he do then?

He wanted to learn more about his father,
but how was he going to do that? Return to Coran and give himself
up?

Why do you even care about him? He left you
when you were a baby!

The question crept into his mind. A question
he couldn’t answer. He didn’t know why he cared so much and it
reminded him of his conversation with Anthrow about Gratins.

He decided it would be easier if he didn’t
care about his family. But it was something he couldn’t escape. He
did care and he had to know why he had left him!

He swore at himself for being foolish, all
of a sudden wishing he had just returned to Earth with his
cousins.

Still, throwing the stone in the lake was
important too, he reminded himself.

The Horde may not be able to spread while
the stone was covered with Vonsant’s cloth, but Jack hated the
thought of knowing it would it would always be there, infecting the
Rear Garden.

He decided to put his father out of his mind
and concentrate on finding the lake. There would be plenty of time
to work out what he was going to do if he was successful.

The first knot of Bowlandose was nothing
like the city on the main continent Anthrow had taken them to.
Instead of row after row of streets and shops, the first knot
looked like a desert, with large rocks and small shrubs littering
the ground he could see in the dim glow of the moon. Jack wondered
how there could there be a lake in such a desolate environment.