Jack Gregson & the Forgotten Portal (5 page)

“Looks like the book doesn’t like you much,”
observed Jack.

“That never happened! Hang on are you saying
that this book not only changes what’s written in it, it can get
annoyed at people too?”

“Amazing. Anyway, here I found it.” Rosie
continued.

The blue emerald was procured and placed in
the rear gardens by Charles Gregson (whom you three call the Monk).
It is imbued with the power to seal the portal from unwanted
visitors.

“Portal? Do you think it means the door?”
Jack asked.

“It would have to,” said David
excitedly.

With the emerald placed around the neck of
Charles, no one can leave or enter through the Gregson Manor
Portal.

Rosie looked up from the book, and stared at
the statue saying, “I’ve never noticed a necklace on the statue
before and he’s not wearing one now. What do you think it
means?”

“It must have been stolen, it’s not anywhere
I can see.” David said.

Jack held the ring from the Attic in his
hands, while he looked around the grounds. He’d lived here his
whole life and had never seen an emerald so he knew it must be
hidden. He also knew he would have to put the ring on to search the
surrounds, but the memory of the black statue was still fresh in
his mind, the fear of seeing it again holding him back. He wondered
if the statue and mist had been an illusion that could hurt them.
Or worse, was what they saw right now the illusion, and they were
really standing amongst the decaying remains of the Rear
Garden?

Jack glanced over in the direction of the
graveyard, thinking of his mother surrounded in black mist, and
imagined no longer being able to visit her.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as
he slipped the ring on to his finger. He felt a change immediately
as he heard the sound of a deep low growl surrounding him.

His eyes snapped open, as something nearly
pushed him over. The black mist had returned, sleeking along the
ground, probing everything it came in contact with. Suddenly he
knew where the growling came from as the mist twisted and
transformed before him. A thick tendril suddenly morphed into the
shadow of a wolf, and jumped towards him before dissipating inches
from his face.

“Stand up!” Jack screamed to Rosie as he saw
a shadow circling where she sat engulfed in mist.

“What’s gotten into you?” David asked, as
Rosie jumped to her feet.

Jack looked at to the statue and saw that
the black warrior had replaced the monk, his sharp sword pointing
directly towards them. Its red eyes smouldered as it stared down on
him, it’s teeth bared as if giving an angry snarl. It took all of
Jacks strength to stay where he was when every part of his being
was telling him to run and hide.

“He’s got his ring on,” Rosie said as she
walked over to Jack. “Is it the warrior Jack? Should we put ours on
too?”

“No, don’t!” Jack replied quickly as he
spotted something on the warrior, a dull red glow upon his chest
over the deep black armour. It’s not blue, he thought.

“Wolves!” David cried. He’d put his ring on,
despite being warned.

“Just stand still,” Jack said. “I don’t know
if they can hurt us, but don’t draw attention to yourself.”

“Why don’t we just get the hell out of
here?” David hissed back, as he lowered his voice to a hysterical
whisper.

“Because we need to get that necklace,”
Rosie replied. She had also put on her ring and was staring at the
statue. “It’s not blue, but it’s got to be important, don’t you
think?”

Jack looked back at the statue. It stood two
and a half metres tall, the necklace well out of reach for all of
them.

He turned to David and said, “You’re going
to have to give me a boost.”

“What!” You’re going to actually touch that
thing? It could come alive and chop your head off!”

“It’s just a statue,” Jack said firmly, more
hoping than believing it to be true. “Come on, boost me.”

David shook his head, but made his way to
the statue. Turning around, he entwined his fingers together,
creating a foothold for Jack to step into.

Jack placed his foot in and after a count to
three was thrust above his larger cousin right into the torso of
the dark statue before him. The rock sat before his eyes, clasped
in a silver claw attached to the necklace. Not wanting to touch the
statue for a second longer than he had to, he grabbed it and gave a
good tug, snapping the necklace free on the first try.

“Got it!” Jack called to David who
immediately let him drop. “Nice and easy. Now let’s get out of
here.”

They turned back to the house and stopped in
their tracks. The mist was swirling, moving faster as thick
tendrils reached out towards the sky. They started to take the form
of wolves as they drifted towards them, at first three of them and
then five. Soon there were over ten wolf spectres circling them,
growling.

“What do we do now?” Rosie asked
terrified.

Jack looked around in every direction, and
saw they were surrounded. It occurred to him suddenly. “The rings!
Take them off!”

The three of them grabbed at the rings on
their fingers and tugged them off. Nothing changed. The wolves
continued to converge on them.

“Am I the only one who can still see them?”
David asked.

“Nope, I see them too. And the statue.”
Rosie replied.

“So, we’re screwed?” David said looking at
his sister.

Rosie nodded, just as a bolt of white
lightening shot through the air, hitting the ground metres from
their feet.

A white mist started to form, spreading
around the three of them. Just like the black mist, tendrils
started reaching to the sky, but instead of wolves, white horses
start to form. Soon there were surrounding Jack, David and Rosie,
stamping their hooves at the wolves that had started to retreat.
Before long a path had cleared, the black mist held back by a
barrier of white.

“Let’s get out of here,” said David as he
took the lead and they started running back to the house.

“What was that?” asked Jack.

“I don’t know, maybe the Curator did
something to help us.” Rosie guessed.

“That meddling woman, I should have known.”
A familiar voice said as they rounded the corner.

Their grandmother stood before them, a
walking staff in her hand pushing white mist onto the earth as more
horses glided either side, ready to defend her. With a wave of her
staff the mist started to clear, the horses vanishing.

She closed her eyes and waved it again, a
yellow light flowing over the garden, the twisted trees and black
warrior once again concealed as it streamed over them.

She looked at the three of them and sighed.
“Come on then, back to the house. It looks like we have much to
discuss.”

Chapter Five

Answers

Their grandmother led them straight to the
attic, making sure the rest of the family didn’t see them.

Once they arrived she had begun berating the
Curator for sending “defenceless children” out into danger. The two
of them argued back and forth, making Jack think they had known
each other a long time. When it was clear there wasn’t going to be
a winner, his grandmother threw her hands in the air and walked
over to them.

“That woman! Sworn to keep the attic a
secret and she calls on you three the second you’re alone.” their
Grandmother said still angry.

“Grandma, the Curator didn’t call on us. We
found her.” Rosie said sheepishly, worried their grandmother would
turn her anger on them yet still not wanting the curator to be in
trouble for something she didn’t do.

“And how did you manage that? What inspired
you three to do some redecorating on level three of the house and
coincidently position the painting of the pond in exactly the right
spot on the wall?” she asked in disbelief.

“A book we found in the library,” Jack said
as he went on to explain the events of the day, starting with the
discovery of the magic book in the library, to finding the attic
and then their discovery in the Rear garden. “Which is when you
arrived, and saved us,” Jack finished.

“How did you do that anyway Grandma?” David
asked. “We didn’t know you could do magic.”

“And if you hadn’t gotten yourselves in
mortal peril like that, you still wouldn’t know.” their Grandmother
snapped at them. Then, sighing heavily continued, “On the other
hand, if you hadn’t uncovered the illusion in the rear garden,
things could have gotten a lot worse before we had time to do
something about it all. I just wish Maggie had come to me
first.”

“Don’t you think I tried?” The curator said
from behind her. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for two
days. Why do you think your brother had your grandchildren walking
around the grounds blowing things up? Even he noticed my signs and
knew something was wrong. Firing off dynamite might have been one
of the dumber responses I could think of, but at least he tried
something and didn’t just ignore me!” she finished angrily.

“You’re right Maggie, I’m sorry. I did feel
you calling and I ignored it,” their Grandmother replied
solemnly.

“Thankyou,” the curator replied, happy with
her small victory. “So what are we going to do? The blue emerald is
gone!”

“And?” David said.

“And!” replied the Curator incredulous.

“Well I get that we need to get rid of the
statue and that horrible mist, but that batty book told us that the
emerald prevents people coming through the portal, nothing about it
stopping wolves appearing to scare the pants off of everyone. So if
that’s all it does, who cares? Let the portal be open, let people
come and go as they please. The stories say that’s how it used to
be, so why not let it be that way again?”

“That ‘batty book’ is one of the first
relics our family collected when we went exploring through the
portal.” Their grandmother replied after a pause. “Tooted to tell
you whatever you need to know in any given circumstance. ‘How do I
make a chocolate cake?’ you could ask out loud, and a chapter would
appear on exactly how to make a chocolate cake. I’m guessing that
you found the attic because Maggie’s need for assistance was so
great, that it presented itself to you with the information you
would need to find her.”

“It wasn’t that easy though,” Jack said.
“The book knew a lot of things, but it didn’t just lead us to the
attic, it gave us some cryptic clues for us to figure out.”

“And that is the flaw with the book,
although it took our family some time to figure this out. They soon
learned that the content of the book was only as good as the
knowledge of its previous and current owners. If one of its owners
had been a master chef, the chapter on chocolate cake would be of
the perfect recipe, a delight to eat. If none of its owners had
ever cooked in their life?”

“A chapter on chocolate cake wouldn’t appear
in the book?” Rosie guessed.

“Oh it would appear, but you probably
wouldn’t want to use the recipe. The book would be smart enough to
know one of the ingredients of chocolate cake is chocolate, but as
for the rest of it? You could be told to mix in broccoli or manure.
The book was created as a way of passing knowledge down through
generations of owners, but for some peculiar reason if you want to
know about a topic it has no knowledge of, it’s still compelled to
give you an answer. So if it doesn’t know something…”

“It makes it up! I told you I never cried
for mom in the gardens!” David said. “Grandma, so what you’re
saying is that the book has no idea what the blue emerald does and
it made something up to keep us happy?”

“Not quite,” replied their grandmother.
“What the book told you is correct, that the blue emerald was
enchanted and placed in the garden. What it didn’t tell you and
doesn’t know is why it was placed there. David you mentioned that
long ago the portal was open for anyone to come and go as they
pleased and that’s true. But the question you want answered isn’t
‘why can’t it be that way again?’ but rather ‘why was it concealed
in the first place?’ What happened decades ago that forced our
family to seal the portal and hide ourselves away from the rest of
the Universe?”

Their grandmother paused, suddenly realising
she was telling them more than she’d intended. “Anyway. A very real
danger, and not information children need concern themselves
with.”

A clang of something hitting the ground came
from the top of the stairway, causing everyone to turn around.

“Sorry Mrs Gregson,” Alice the family’s
hired hand said as she attempted to hold a tray and pick up a spoon
she’d dropped with very little success. Rosie rushed over to help
before she dropped anything else.

“Alice knows about this place!” Jack
exclaimed. The morning had been one surprise after the other, as
Jack and his cousins’ worlds were turned upside-down. He found
himself a little annoyed that his Grandma was being so secretive,
and then to find out that Alice knew all this time as well!

“Alice has been with the family for years
Jack,” his grandmother replied, “even before I moved in and took up
residence. I doubt there’s a secret she doesn’t know about this
place.”

“Oh I don’t know Madam,” said Alice as she
carried over a tray of tea and biscuits, “considering I had to work
it all out for myself I think I might have missed one or two.”

Their Grandmother chuckled, “indeed. You
were quite the nuisance as a young woman I’ve heard, getting mixed
up in the Gregson family business wherever you could.”

Alice didn’t respond but smiled as she
started serving tea to each of them. She gave Jack and his cousins
extra biscuits, knowing that they had yet to eat. Jack, realising
he was starving grabbed one and bit into it.

“Ahem,” the curator coughed loudly. “The
emerald?”