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‘The Halls of the ... ?’ I said slowly.
‘Dead. Yes. Where the souls of all those who passed before us are laid to rest, to stop the evil ghosts taking over their helpless bodies and killing us all.’
I felt a shiver run along my spine, but not of fear. Anticipation.
‘If it’s sealed, how are we supposed to get through?’ said Pitr, a sarcastic edge to his voice. Alyssa flushed again, but this time there was a flash of anger in her eyes.
‘I don’t know. I thought your magic might be able to unlock it.’
‘I told you before it’s not magic!’
Hackles were rising, as was the volume of the conversation.
‘It’s worth a try,’ I said, loudly. ‘Alyssa has a good point. If we can find a way around these other people we probably should. How long will it take us to get there?’
Alyssa thought for a moment. ‘From here, three days if we walk all day.’
Pitr groaned, but I ignored him. ‘And if we can’t find a way in there? How long to get to the closest of the other portals?’
Alyssa shrugged. ‘The same whichever way you go. Two days easy or one day hard.’
‘So we could waste five days,’ Pitr protested. I could have argued his maths, but he had a point. I still hadn’t shared with him that we had a deadline, which was probably bad of me, and an unnecessary four or five day side-trip would use up most of the reserve Noah had told me we had. Still, if it got us through without being slowed down? Or worse?
‘I think we should go try the unused door,’ I said.
Pitr looked at me, and his face was flat and cold. ‘Fine,’ was all he said. He walked off a few steps.
I turned back to Alyssa, who was almost managing to keep a smirk off her face. ‘So which way do we go?’
The next three days were hard work. Alyssa took us a short way back towards the Greater Forest, then we picked up a path that ran at right angles to the one we were on. From that point it was just walk, walk, walk. I was tired to my bones. We woke as soon as it was light and walked until we couldn’t see to put one foot in front of the other.
The path was more difficult as well, with more plant stuff growing over it and an uneven surface. Only when our path was crossed by another, much larger and better maintained, did Alyssa turn us right again. It didn’t get any easier, though, because we kept off the road and travelled parallel to it, about five metres into the forest. Alyssa said that walking off the road would protect us if anything or anyone came up the path. I argued to stay on the road, and move faster, but Pitr actually sided with Alyssa.
At the end of the third day, Alyssa made us slow down, and led us slowly to the edge of the Lesser Forest. The edge was as sharp as the difference between the Greater and Lesser forests. Within a dozen paces the trees thinned to nothing and left an open expanse of what Alyssa called ‘tall grass’. We stopped while we still had some cover from the trees, and Alyssa pointed to a large building about half way between the edge of the lesser forest and the end wall. It was grey and squat and stood out from the grass surrounding it. It looked old. Even from outside there was hint of decay about the place. Long streamers of plants worked their ways up the wall facing us and even at this distance there were cracks visible on the surface.
‘The door to the Halls of the Dead is on the other side of that,’ said Alyssa, pointing at the building. I felt another shiver run along my spine as she spoke, and gave myself a mental slap for being so stupid.
‘Why don’t we go left or right and make a straight run at the door?’ I asked. ‘Wouldn’t that be quicker than trying to get around this thing?’
‘Cover,’ said Alyssa. ‘We’ll spend less time making tracks through the long grass, so there is less chance anyone from either of the other portals will see us.’
‘We could do it at night,’ Pitr suggested. ‘That would make us even less obvious.’
Alyssa looked at him and smiled, which I think was a first. ‘Good idea. But first thing in the morning, before it starts to get light? We have to get some rest.’
Pitr nodded. ‘Perhaps we can get the drones to wake us up.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Alyssa said, grandly. ‘I can make myself wake up at any time I want to.’
Pitr looked sceptical, but didn’t say anything. I think he was still in shock from the smile she had given him earlier. I pushed my thoughts at the drone, thought about being woken up at two hours before dawn, and saw a little shape like a bell flash in front of me.
Alyssa woke us ten minutes before the drones were supposed to. She didn’t look like she had been awake all night, and I guessed she wouldn’t know how to ask a drone, so I assumed she had been right the night before. There was barely enough light to walk safely, but we made it to the side of the building before dawn. It had been eerie walking through the ghost-lit grass, rustling and whispering as it brushed against my legs. It was a struggle not to keep looking up at the impossible landscape overhead. Pitr kept his gaze firmly on the grass and I was sure I could hear him muttering to himself, over and over. ‘Don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t look up.’
When we reached the safety of the wall, Alyssa offered an unexpected option. ‘Want to look inside?’ When she said this she looked younger than usual, mischievous, and her eyes held a challenge I couldn’t ignore.
‘No,’ said Pitr. ‘We should go on to the portal. We should see if we can get in before we waste time like this. It’s still dark, too.’
He was right again. The sideways trip had cost us dear, and we didn’t have time for sightseeing. Reluctantly I sided with him, and a disappointed Alyssa led us around to the other end of the building. When we got there, I couldn’t see anything that looked like a ‘portal’.
‘Where is it?’ I asked, feeling cheated and worrying.
‘There,’ she said, pointing at the end wall of the chamber. All I could see was a solid mat of plants growing up the wall for twenty metres or so, then bare rock as it rose up towards the sun. I tried again and thought I could see a small shadow in the direction she was pointing but I couldn’t really make anything out. Nothing as big as I had been expecting. I had imagined a huge metal shutter like a gigantic version of those that sealed my home off. I studied the area Alyssa had pointed at again, then gave up and followed her away from the building.
It was only a couple of kilometres from the old building to the wall, and we covered the distance in less than a half hour. As we got closer I started to think that Alyssa might just have been pointing to the end of the path, and felt annoyed with myself that I had been fooled so easily into being impressed. When we got to the wall, and could pull aside some of the plants, I could see the door was ordinary in size, but heavy duty.
‘Well?’ said Alyssa.
‘What?’ I said, distracted by the door.
‘Can you get it open?’ she growled, sounding exasperated.
I turned the other way, and spoke to Pitr.
‘Give me a hand? You know what to look for.’
‘Yeah. Handles, keypads, buttons. Anything that moves, or looks like it might.’
I grinned at him and we set to work. I didn’t see anything obvious, but that didn’t mean there was nothing there.
It took us too long to check the door and the walls either side, and we found nothing apart from a small square recess in the wall on the left. The recess was empty apart from nine rusty metal pins arranged in a grid. Remembering my success at setting an alarm, I decided to try a different approach and thought at the drone. A glowing ‘Active’ floated in my vision.
‘Open the door?’ I said, and it came out as a request rather than a command. It took the drone a few second to reply. More glowing words.
‘Malfunction. Access denied. Override Disabled.’
Beneath the words the drone drew a wire picture of the door in blue, with a red spot beside it. I tried not to look surprised. Pictures were new. The drawing zoomed in to the red spot, which turned out to be the recess we had already found, only in the picture something was fitted into the recess.
‘I don’t think we are going to get this open,’ I said.
‘You give up easy, don’t you.’ Alyssa looked disappointed.
‘I think there is supposed to be something in there,’ I said, pointing at the recess.
‘So what do we do now?’ asked Pitr. ‘Head for one of the other portals?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘From what Alyssa says, we don’t stand much chance of getting through without someone seeing us.’
‘You say that like we are doing something wrong,’ said Pitr, talking slowly like he always did when he was exploring something in his head. ‘But we aren’t doing anything wrong, so why would we worry about anyone seeing us?’
I had to admit he had a point.
‘They hunt my people,’ Alyssa said, quietly. ‘They capture us and kill us. They burn our villages.’
‘You steal their food animals,’ Pitr responded. ‘And have you actually seen anybody killed.’
‘No, but - ’
‘Then you can’t say that.’
‘I’ve been told. The Bards sing songs.’
‘Can we sneak around the outside to get to another portal?’
‘Maybe. Maybe we should do it at night though,’ said Alyssa.
‘Is there anywhere we can hide for the day?’
‘The old building?’ Alyssa suggested. ‘I’m sure we could get in there.’
‘But don’t the Go-yen use it?’ Pitr objected. ‘They might find us in there.’
‘Or they might find us on the road,’ snapped Alyssa.
‘Let’s try the building,’ I said. ‘If anybody does come, we should be able to hide from them in there.’