The Syrka Riders sat atop their dogs, surrounding the soldiers who survived as they were forced to cross through Inae’s portal. “She hates them,” Dale whispered to me as we watched. “I’ve never felt so much hate directed at a group of people from one person before.”
“You can tell what other people are feeling now?” I asked.
“The staff showed me,” he replied. “But they’ve done something she won’t tell us about. Something that makes punishing them almost as important to her as resurrecting her husband.”
We returned our full attention to the procession when a soldier tried to turn and run, but came nose to nose with a spear. He was forced to turn around and continue on his way through the portal. I was sure that there were laws against sending prisoners off on their own without so much as a stitch of clothing on Earth. Here there was no Geneva Convention, and there was nothing resembling the United Nations. I couldn’t speak out against seeing these men sent to parts unknown with nothing in hand or on their backs. To the riders, this was a fair way to get rid of them that would keep them from re-arming later and casting trouble, and it didn’t feel like an execution. I suspected it might be, and I couldn’t stop myself from trying to find out for sure.
I discreetly moved so I could see through the portal. The instant I saw what was on the other side I knew where the soldiers were being sent. It was Skavis, a world where humans are near the bottom of the food chain, and it takes a long time for anyone to learn to survive there. To the tribes that live on that world, humanity isn’t welcome. The jungle that our captives were walking into had no name. It was completely wild, thick with all kinds of life, and I was fairly certain that most of them would fall prey to carnivores within hours. If you ever wondered if there was a green hell and where it might be, you’ll find it in the jungles of Skavis.
This was an execution, and the only one who could question it was me. No one else knew what was really happening, that the lush terrain on the other side of that portal wasn’t a place where the soldiers could survive on a bounty of hanging fruit and make a home with plentiful resources. Inae caught my eye, but I didn’t say a thing. Her gaze was stern, and I only nodded at her before turning away.
I think Dale was right. She had a deeper hatred for these soldiers than anyone expected. She knew exactly what Skavis was like, too. There was no mystery surrounding the place for her because Portal Masters could only open doorways to places they’d been themselves.
After the soldiers were all gone and the portal was closed, Rea, Dale and I helped Inae wrap her husband’s body in his clothing then in a large sheet. She avoided looking at Ilsa when she passed to meet the dwarves and the magicians we’d left behind. She and Veck filled everyone in while some of the riders sorted through the equipment that had been stripped from the soldiers.
The thought that there were over ten thousand mercenaries and Olur Cultists mustering near the temple haunted my thoughts. It was like a dark cloud hovering over every plan, and idea in my head. Then I was saved by a distraction.
“My promise to you will be kept,” Inae told me. “You felt that portal, any Traveller would. It was a far reaching one.”
“I did,” I admitted.
“Both my sons and my daughter have the travelling gift. I trained them. You remind me of my eldest, who came to his power later, a few years before he came of age.”
“I don’t think you’ll have enough time to train me before you go,” I said.
“Perhaps not, but there is magic in you, and you wear a token that will help you. It is woven into nature. It connects you to the power of the world, and will replenish itself as you sleep.” She pointed to the ring Kaiyuma gave me. “This is a precious artefact, but it will only work for you.”
“I didn’t know you were an enchanter,” I said, running my finger over the ring.
“I had years to study while I was enslaved to the King, and he has a library’s worth of books,” she replied. “Besides, I have my own godly gift. He was not able to take it from me.”
It was a loop of thick silver string that she wore as a bracelet. I looked at it without thinking, and she was surprised that I immediately knew what she was referring to. That thing told her whenever someone was being deceitful to her, it was a gift from the goddess her family worshipped most: Hakrew. I held up my own ring in an attempt to draw attention away from the glance that probably told her that I recognized her artefact. “Thank you, I wasn’t sure what it did.”
“They won’t let me sort through things, but the dwarves are welcome even though they weren’t here,” Laylen complained as he joined us.
“Do you follow Kaiyuma faithfully?” she asked, looking at the tri-leaf symbol on his jacket.
“Yes, I believe in her ways and do my best to represent her,” he replied in a practiced manner.
“Then you may hear the lesson I’m going to give your Champion before I leave,” she said, her smile reassuring, even a little motherly. Her children were adults, but, even though she didn’t seem like the maternal type, I don’t think she ever completely stopped being a parent.
We went to the least disturbed field next to the tower, but I interrupted her before we started the lesson. “First I need to know everything you can tell me about Olur’s temple and the people there, especially Marat, and where they’re keeping Russ.”
“After my first lesson to you,” she replied firmly. “Now put a coin in your hand. Silver or copper or a beggar’s penny, not gold.”
I had a couple tin pennies on me so I gave one to Laylen and kept one for myself. Next Inae walked us through a focusing exercise where we memorized the space around the coin, the coin itself, then committed the features of a small spot on the ground at our feet to memory. When she tried to finish that lesson by saying; “Now, channel energy and intention into moving the coin from your hand to that spot,” I ran into a wall. I knew how that was done technically, but still couldn’t imagine how you’d do it for real.
Laylen’s coin glowed for a moment but didn’t move. “You have other gifts,” Inae told him. “Perhaps teleportation will come in your later years.”
“What about the Champion?” Laylen asked, biting his lip nervously. He seemed more interested in seeing me succeed.
She regarded me as though sizing me up again and I explained that all my knowledge was academic, I’d never put anything into practice. The exercise she was walking me through made sense, but I didn’t feel connected to magic.
That is when she took the hand with Kaiyuma’s ring in hers, stepped in close and whispered; “You can’t speak to the Gods without knowing the touch of magic. If you can’t believe in your own power, then focus on your belief in her. Focus on the ring. You’ll have to learn to do this without it someday to become a true Portal Master, but use Kaiyuma’s gift for now.”
Then she gave me space, moving about ten paces back. Laylen did the same. He was watching me with quiet excitement. Then she didn’t speak to me as a child, but as I imagine she might with one of her children when they were older teenagers. There was clarity and reassurance in her tone. “You’re gifted. I can tell it’s something you just discovered, but it is in you. This is the perfect time for this talent to come to you, and that’s how it often goes for people like us. I didn’t realize that I could manipulate water until I nearly drowned. For you, manipulating distance is a great ally in the conflict you face. It could tip the balance for you and your Goddess. That is what you may learn to manipulate here. First you must focus.”
“I’m ready,” I said, trying to ignore the dwarves, and riders that were starting to take notice that there was something going on. I was sure everyone had heard what we were up against. Some probably wanted to turn back, sure that we didn’t stand a chance against ten thousand. Agreeing with that was starting to make sense. I did my best to push all that doubt and worry down for the moment and listened to Inae.
“There is a place there, over by that great oak. Stare at the surface of that bare patch of earth. Draw on the focus item we discussed, imagine that it’s filled with magical power, that it connects you to the well of magic within yourself. This art demands clarity, so discard emotion and push distractions away.”
For a while I felt like I was starting to meditate on my feet. I’d fooled around with that for a while on the advice of a therapist who I saw for a few months before I left college, so it wasn’t that hard at first. Then the sounds of the birds, seeing Maydo come to watch from a distance, the trickle of a small creek nearby, and the shifting of people quietly watching from some distance behind me made things more difficult.
Then I felt something, like I’d touched a hidden warmth inside Kaiyuma’s ring. “Kaiyuma,” I whispered, focusing more. Then I found my own magic as the ring led my awareness inward, and it was like discovering an inner power, one that was always there. “A force of life,” I said.
“Begin to imagine that the space you’re in right now is under that tree, that you’re standing on that bare patch of ground,” Inae instructed. “Don’t worry about overshooting and merging with it, your self preservation instincts won’t allow it. Only focus on that spot.”
I did, staring at that patch of earth. For a moment it felt like the place I was standing and it were the same, then I was there, right in front of the oak. I’d teleported thirty feet, and there was no light or tingling, it was less dramatic than taking a single step forward.
I looked back, overwhelmed with the new experiences I’d just had and saw at least half of my allies were watching. Many were stunned, Rea and Dale were actually clapping and jumping as though they’d just watched me win the lottery, and Ilsa was grinning from ear to ear.
How was I feeling? Well the astonishment of teleporting for the first time was only overcome by what it felt like to touch the life force within me. It was like realizing for the first time that there was this organ that beat on its own all the time and that you’d die if it stopped. I remember my uncle telling me about that when I was a kid, and I had trouble sleeping for several days after that because I was afraid my heart would take a break while I was out.
There is magic in everyone, at least in Nem, and that is as important as a beating heart. Few know how it feels, how light or dark it is, but I’d joined their ranks, and was surprised at how bright my spirit was. It was a new form of self awareness, and I have been conscious of it ever since, for better or worse.
Inae appeared beside me and took my hand. “I never get tired of being right. There is natural ability in you. It is not of the body, but of the spirit, and yours is a very old soul. My children are all similar to you in this way, and they learned to move through the realms as I’m sure you will.”
I regarded her with sympathy then as I recalled that her children had travelled far from her, and only two of them visited with any regularity. There’s no spot on a character sheet for this, but I knew she missed them. The look on my face silenced her for a moment. Whether she knew what I was thinking, or was simply surprised by my expression, I couldn’t be sure, but after a few heartbeats, she cleared her throat and looked away. “Watch as I open a portal. You’ll be opening the one that will take us back.”
Her confidence was greater than mine by far. I felt like I was in the hands of a great teacher, though, so I didn’t resist.
“I’m going to answer all your questions, Grant.” Inae started forming the edges of the portal, drawing it in the air with energy from her fingertips.
“He’s not going alone,” Ilsa said as she approached. Maydo, Dale and Laylen were behind her.
Uden was running to catch up with Goler on his heels. “What’s going on?”
“I’m going to take you to a ridge where you will be able to see what you’re up against first hand,” Inae said. “You can all come, but you must be silent and we won’t be staying long.”
“I’ll stay behind,” Rea shouted from where she was climbing onto Mist’s back. A grave expression suggested what I’d find out later; she’d seen what we were about to witness from a distance and she didn’t want to get a closer look.