The Last Portal (14 page)

She ignored his
comment and placed her hand on a nearby tree. ‘Um...’ She frowned.
‘There’s some type of creature sitting high up in this tree.’

They both
looked up, but the trunk disappeared into an impossible thick
canopy above their heads.

‘Are you
sure?’

She walked over
to several other trees and placed her hands on them, then nodded.
‘And they’re in these trees as well.’

Chris sent his
senses out to probe the surrounding forest. There was also a
humanoid presence, and it was close.

‘Come on,’ he
said, lowering his voice. ‘Let’s get back.’

Susie didn’t
need any encouragement. Together they ran into the forest, but soon
found their path blocked by three large gorilla-like creatures,
dressed in the same metal chest plates and thick hides as Batarr’s
soldiers. Chris immediately recognised them as the same species he
had seen with Zelnoff in his vision.

Both parties
stared at each other. Chris read that these soldiers had been
searching for them. He dived for cover, dragging Susie behind him.
A blue beam of light struck the tree next to one of the soldiers,
igniting it in a shower of sparks and flame. The soldiers swung
around and started returning fire. There were more shouts,
explosions, beams from weapon fire. More trees exploded as the
forest lit up like some macabre light show.

Chris and Susie
ran for their lives, clambering and clawing their way back to the
stream, then straight through it, barely noticing the icy water.
When they reached the opposite bank they crashed through the
undergrowth and ran until their legs and lungs could carry them no
further. Finally, wet and exhausted, they dropped behind a large
rotting log, too frightened to move.

The weapons
fire didn’t last long. The forest quickly reverted to silence with
only the smell of smoke and the distant glow of fires remaining.
Chris tentatively stuck his head out over the top of the log. There
was no movement, nothing to indicate what had just happened.

‘We have to
find Joe,’ Susie whispered, also peering over the log.

Chris looked
across at her. She was shivering uncontrollably. Her wet hair hung
around her face like many loose springs and she had her arms
wrapped around herself in a futile attempt to keep warm. ‘Yeah,’ he
agreed, feeling rather frightened at the prospect. ‘We’ll have to
go back.’

He settled back
and pulled out his key. It was glowing. A shiver of fear and cold
shook his body violently.

‘What does that
mean?’ Susie asked, crawling up next to him.

‘I think it
glows when I’m in danger,’ he replied, instinctively dropping his
voice to a whisper.

Susie pulled
out her key. It, too, was glowing.

Chris peered
over the log again into the gathering twilight, trying to identify
any possible danger. A short distance away there was some movement.
Someone was creeping through the undergrowth towards them. In the
dimming light, however, he couldn’t tell who it was. Further away
there were other noises. Zelnoff’s soldiers appeared, spread out in
a search pattern as they swept toward them. The figure crept
closer. It was Batarr. Chris, feeling greatly relieved, signalled
to him. He waved back and crept toward them.

‘What’s
happened?’ Chris whispered, when Batarr was within earshot.

At first Batarr
didn’t answer, but kept watching the soldiers. ‘You have done very
well, Mytar,’ he said finally.

His voice was
strange, almost mechanical and they were the last words Chris
expected, given the situation.

Chris glanced
at Susie. She, too, looked puzzled. He tried to sense something of
Batarr’s mood but was met with a huge confusion of feelings, anger,
power, fear, vengeance. They were all there, swirling around in a
vortex of emotion. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked finally.

‘We wouldn’t
have been able to find Kaloc and the portal without you.’

Chris felt
Susie grip him on the arm and pull him back. ‘What are you talking
about?’ he asked. ‘You mean Zelnoff, don’t you?’

Both keys were
now glowing strongly, illuminating the whole area. Susie saw it
too, but Batarr didn’t react. Chris suddenly felt a surge of power
building inside Batarr. He stared at Chris, fixing him in a grip he
couldn’t break.

‘Hey, Batarr!’
Joe’s voice called.

Batarr turned
toward the voice. What looked like the stump of a tree was pointing
a crystal weapon at the Guardian. The weapon fired. A blue flash of
light exploded next to Batarr. The tree stump swore, then fired
again and again. Each time Batarr was just quick enough to avoid
being struck. The advancing soldiers also saw Batarr and opened
fire, driving him to cover amongst a thicket of trees.

Then everything
changed. The closest soldier stopped firing, paused for a moment,
as though he was thinking, then turned and shot the soldier next to
him in the chest. At such a close range the soldier was thrown into
the air. This immediately stalled the attack as the soldiers looked
blankly at the soldier who had killed his comrade. This soldier
took aim at another soldier and shot him in the head, killing him
instantly. He was then shot from behind. The soldier who had shot
him was also killed. Soon the attack descended into a slaughter as
everyone began shooting each other until there was only one soldier
left. He then promptly shot himself.

Batarr turned
his attention back to the tree stump. Chris could feel the power
radiating from him. The tree turned into Joe. His face was bright
red, eyes wide. Slowly, as though wrestling with himself, he
started to point the weapon toward Chris and Susie. Chris threw all
his mental strength at Joe, trying to break Batarr’s hold. The
weapon stopped rotating toward them. Joe’s grip on the trigger
loosened. The weapon dropped to the ground.

Batarr fixed
his attention back on Chris. He felt the images flood into his
mind, self-mutilation; the urge to strangle Susie and kill Joe.
Image after image flooded his consciousness. But Batarr himself had
taught Chris how to block out these images. He removed himself
behind a mental wall and imagined himself building up the wall
brick by brick. And with each brick the images weakened, fading
until they had no more impact than images in a cinema, then a T.V.
Then, in an instant, they were gone.

He looked
toward Batarr and found that his attention was focused on a tall,
bald man carrying a staff who was striding quickly toward him.
Chris immediately recognised Zelnoff. His heart sank. Against two
beings with these powers, he stood no chance, yet Chris could
detect no enhancement of their powers. Instead, they appeared to be
locked in a battle of wills against each other. Zelnoff was trying
to destroy Batarr. This was their chance. He grabbed Susie by the
arm and signalled Joe; together all three fled.

This time, they
only stopped briefly to re-gain their breath before plunging ahead
again. When they finally stopped the sun had completely set, and
the asteroid belt and both moons were visible in the night sky,
bathing the land in shades of silver and greys. Near complete
exhaustion, they stopped in a small clearing, ringed by tall
trees.

‘I think…I
think...we’ve lost them,’ Joe panted, his eyes straining through
the gloom.

‘So you do have
powers.’ Susie slapped Joe on the back.

‘I can be
anything I want,’ he grinned back, ‘I just have to think of
it.’

‘How did you
find out?’ she asked.

‘Arr…well…’ he
paused thoughtfully, ‘I was with Altac and the others when I heard
the soldiers approach,’ Joe began, for the first time a clear note
of excitement in his voice. ‘I looked around for a place to hide,
but couldn’t find anything. I think… I wished I was a rock, or a
tree, or something. Anything so they couldn’t see me.’ He raised
his voice. ‘And they just walked straight past. They must have seen
me, but hadn’t recognised me. I realised this must be my power.
That’s when I saw the battle.’ He paused for a moment. ‘I think
Sasli escaped, but the other Caan was killed. Altac was also
wounded. I think they captured him. Batarr did what you just saw
him do. He made the soldiers fire on each other and then he
escaped. I picked up a weapon from one of the dead soldiers and
followed him.’

‘But how did
you know he was trying to hurt us?’ Susie asked.

‘I didn’t. But
I remembered Chris saying the key glowed whenever there was danger.
When I saw that, I figured Batarr was going to do something pretty
nasty.’

‘I don’t
understand any of this,’ Chris admitted. ‘Why would Batarr suddenly
turn on us like that, and why did he say he had found Kaloc? I
thought we were after Zelnoff?’

Susie had been
touching the trunks of the nearby trees. ‘We haven’t escaped,’ she
announced. ‘I think the Prower have been following us in the
trees.’

At that moment,
several dark shapes leapt down from the trees. They immediately
began howling and were answered by a series of more distant
howls.

Chris pulled
out his key. This time there was no glow.

Susie, despite
warnings from Chris and Joe, moved closer to the shapes. They
backed away, growling threateningly. ‘They’ve been told to guard
us,’ she said. ‘They’re waiting for someone. Someone who’s their
friend and wants very much to meet us.’

As she spoke,
more Prower arrived, quickly encircling them. By this time it was
almost completely dark, but Chris sensed the approach of someone
powerful. Suddenly some type of light illuminated the whole area.
Zelnoff was standing in front of them, flanked by many soldiers. He
was holding up a large staff, which emitted a powerful light that
flooded the whole area.

‘Mytar,’ he
smiled warmly. ‘You have no idea how happy I am to see you.’

Strange Happenings

The events of that
night were as terrifying as they were amazing, as weird they were
wonderful. Whilst Susie and Joe stepped back at the sight of
Zelnoff, Chris held his ground. He felt all his senses heighten and
his fingers tingle; the urge to fight crystallised his thoughts.
His growing mental powers gathered for one final surge.

Zelnoff felt it
too. His welcoming smile turned to confusion, then disbelief.
‘Stop!’ he shouted, holding out his hands and shaking his head
vigorously. ‘I’m not who you think I am. I’m not your enemy! ‘I’m
Kaloc! Batarr and Zelnoff are the ones you should be fighting, not
me.’

Chris felt a
hand on his shoulder. ‘He’s not our enemy,’ Susie whispered. ‘I
don’t feel he will attack us.’

With enormous
difficulty, he pulled himself back.

For the first
time Chris found he could probe this man’s thoughts. His name was
Kaloc. It was true. He was a Guardian and he had been fighting
Batarr and Zelnoff.

‘Please, you’re
all cold and wet,’ Kaloc continued. ‘This seems as good a place as
anywhere to set up camp.’ He pointed his staff at a rotting tree
stump a short distance away and a beam of white light shot from the
top of his staff. When the beam hit the stump it instantly burst
into flames. ‘Please warm yourselves.’ He gestured toward the now
fiercely burning stump. ‘My men will bring food and drink and I
will answer all your questions.’ He sounded positively animated, as
if he had just discovered a fortune in his own backyard.

Chris looked
across at Joe and Susie. In the glow of the fire, all he could see
was relief etched in their faces. Joe was already shuffling closer
to the growing flames, the palms of his hands held up for warmth.
Chris just felt exhausted. At this moment he didn’t care. As long
as this person wasn’t going to kill them, he could be anyone he
wanted to be. The surrounding Prower had stopped guarding them and
were roaming around like a lot of very large domesticated cats,
except they growled instead of purred. The key, still in his hand,
showed no glow. He noticed Susie was also examining her key, with
similar results.

‘Please make
yourselves at home,’ Kaloc smiled reassuringly.

More soldiers
arrived with supplies and started building up the fire. As the
flames grew higher, Chris noticed a tall figure, supported by two
soldiers, limping toward them.

‘Altac,’ Susie
squealed, running over immediately.

Altac smiled
broadly when he saw them. ‘I’m very glad to see you’re all still in
good health,’ he said in his usual formal tone.

Susie looked at
his leg, then drew a sharp breath.

‘It’s not as
bad as it looks,’ Altac said, almost casually. ‘It will heal in no
time. I don’t believe there’ll be any permanent damage.’ The
soldiers sat him down on a log close to the fire. Chris immediately
probed his thoughts. He was in pain, but didn’t fear for his life.
In his mind, this man was indeed Kaloc, whom he had met many times
in the past twenty years and considered a friend. But at a deeper
level, his mind was in turmoil. Chris read confusion and anger at
the attack on Batarr, but for the moment anyway, Altac had decided
to bide his time and wait for an explanation for this horrendous
betrayal of Batarr and the Mytar.

Kaloc drew
closer and inspected the Mytar. ‘My men should be able to supply
some dry clothes. Although the clothes may be a touch too big,’ he
added as an afterthought.

He stabbed his
staff into the ground a little distance from the fire and the
soldiers began erecting a camp around the light. Chris judged there
were now about sixty soldiers busily at work. Some, like Altac, had
wounds from weapon fire and were being attended to in a makeshift
shelter, while other soldiers carried in supplies. Several logs
were rolled across in front of the fire, providing convenient
seats.

Kaloc sat down
on a log and studied each Mytar in turn as they stood in front of
him. ‘I still can’t get used to the idea,’ he said at last.
‘Children Mytar… Who would have believed it? I feel very sorry you
have been dragged into this mess, but I’m also very happy you’re
here.’