The Last Portal (24 page)

In the distance
he saw a figure silhouetted against a light. The figure started
walking toward him, taking powerful strides. He was dressed in a
soldier’s uniform and was tall and strong. As he came closer he
stepped into the light. Chris felt goose bumps sweep over his whole
body, his heart beat doubled. It was Altac. He smiled insanely at
Chris, his eyes fixed upon him with a menace that filled him with
terror. On his right side was a sheathed sword. Slowly, drawing out
the sword, he held it aloft, momentarily smiling at it, like it was
an old friend. Then he continued forward, never taking his eyes off
Chris.

Chris no longer
knew if this was real or not. Altac had been Batarr’s trusted
commander; maybe he had been under Zelnoff’s control all along, or
worse still, ‘was’ Zelnoff. The implications flooded his brain. He
stood up but felt light-headed, his legs felt like jelly under him.
Altac continued advancing, wearing the same maniacal smile. He
stopped directly in front of Chris, raising the sword over his
head.

Chris’s body
was shaking violently, sweat was pouring off him and he was
screaming hysterically. He turned to run, but strong hands
restrained him. Altac’s sword was still there; ready to cut him in
two. Then something hit him hard on the right side of his face. The
pain stunned him and sent him staggering backward. A second slap
landed on his left cheek, forcing him to raise an arm to fend off
the next blow.

‘Yes!’ he
heard. ‘It’s working, hit him again.’

Another blow
nearly knocked him off his feet.

He raised both
arms against the blows.

‘Don’t stop,’
the voice urged, ‘keep going!’

Another blow
crashed into his arm, bringing him to his knees. He recognised the
voice. It was Kaloc.

Another blow
struck him in the face. Altac and the sword were gone. Pepas, one
of Kaloc’s soldiers, was slapping him around the head with an open
hand, while everyone else looked on anxiously.

‘Stop it, stop
it!’ Chris yelled, still on his knees, trying to shield his face
from more blows. The next blow never landed. Instead, Kaloc
appeared, an anxious expression on his face.

‘He’s back,’ he
announced with clear relief in his voice.

A multitude of
arms lifted him up. He was sobbing and crying uncontrollably. Blood
was pouring down his face. The faces in front of him gradually came
into focus. It was real, he was back, he could hardly believe it. A
fresh wave of emotion set off more sobbing.

Joe was
inspecting his face, which was quickly taking on the shape of a
large balloon.

‘Why did you
have to hit him that hard?’ Joe puffed out his chest and thrust it
towards Pepas.

‘Believe me, it
was necessary,’ Kaloc replied, also inspecting the damage. ‘The
swelling will go down in a few days,’ he concluded, wiping away
some of the blood with a cloth.

Joe grumbled a
reply, which luckily no one heard.

Chris was
gradually regaining his control, amid pats on his back.

Susie was still
next to him, breathing erratically, her eyes wide with shock. Chris
tried to crawl over to her but stopped in his tracks. Altac was
leaning over, watching him with a worried look on his face. As
Chris continued to stare at him, Altac began to look a little
perplexed. Kaloc had noticed it too, and was watching Chris
curiously.

‘I saw Altac,’
Chris said. ‘He had a sword and he was going to cut me in two.’

His words cut
dead all conversation and immediately Kaloc’s soldiers isolated
Altac from the rest of the group.

‘Tell me
exactly what happened,’ Kaloc said, ‘and don’t leave out any
details.’

Chris, in a
still faltering voice punctuated with sobs and deep steadying
breaths, recited everything he could remember, watching Altac while
he spoke and monitoring his thoughts. He detected no sign of guilt,
only confusion and disbelief.

‘Alright, I
think I know what has happened,’ Kaloc said, when Chris had
finished. He signalled for his men to relax. ‘Zelnoff tried to
flood your mind with scenes of violence and slaughter, hoping it
would drive you to do something terrible, maybe even attack the
people you were with. When this failed, he tried to convince you
that he was Altac, or he somehow had Altac under his control.’ He
looked across at Altac, who had taken up a defensive position, as
though expecting to be set upon at any time. ‘I can assure you
neither is true. Chris, you have never detected any suspect
thoughts and I have known Altac as a trusted friend for over twenty
years.’

Chris looked
over at Susie, who appeared to have recovered slightly.

‘I didn’t see
Altac,’ she said in a faltering voice. ‘I broke off contact when I
saw those horrible scenes.’

Chris continued
his probing of Altac’s thoughts. If he was working for Zelnoff, he
was putting on an amazing act of appearing completely innocent.

‘So if Zelnoff
was focusing all his attention on me…’ Chris said, looking back at
Kaloc.

‘You and Susie
were successful.’ Kaloc completed his thought. ‘You broke Zelnoff’s
concentration long enough for me to change the co-ordinates of the
portals’ destination. By the time Batarr managed to close down the
portals, most of Zelnoff’s elite troops had already marched through
into oblivion.’

‘We won, we
won!’ Joe raised his fist in triumph and did an impromptu victory
dance. All the soldiers also cheered, and for some moments the
whole party was caught up in celebration as all the tension,
disappointment and agony of the last weeks was released. Even Kaloc
couldn’t stop smiling and personally embraced Chris, Susie and Joe.
In the midst of all the excitement Pepas tried to apologise to
Chris for hitting him, but Chris just dismissed his apology and
instead thanked him profusely for helping to bring him back from
Zelnoff’s induced nightmare.

Finally, when
all the noise died down, Joe asked Kaloc in his usual cavalier
fashion. ‘So have we stopped Zelnoff?’

Still smiling,
but now with a more subdued expression, Kaloc shook his head.

‘Sadly, we are
a long way from stopping him, but his advance forces, which he
would have used to infiltrate your planet, have been destroyed. It
will take a while for Zelnoff to rebuild these forces since many of
these soldiers were the elite of his command.’

This news
tempered much of their excitement.

‘How long do
you think it will take him to re-build his army?’ Susie asked.

‘I honestly
don’t know,’ Kaloc said, ‘but it has given us some important
breathing space. You need to locate the rest of the Mytar as
quickly as possible and somehow transport them back here, where
they’ll be out of Zelnoff’s reach and we can train them to use
their powers.’

‘But how’ll we
find them?’ Joe asked.

‘You have the
keys,’ Kaloc replied simply.

‘But can’t you
come back and help?’ Chris pleaded.

For a brief
moment, Chris thought Kaloc was going to say yes. But instead he
shook his head. ‘It’s not possible. I need to stay here and try to
convince the Nethral to help. I also need to guard the portal.
Zelnoff knows of its existence now and will be searching for
it.’

‘But with your
help we could find the others much more easily,’ Chris
continued.

‘I wouldn’t be
much help, I’m afraid. I don’t have the same powers for detecting
the Mytar as Batarr does. Besides, if Zelnoff’s agents caught me on
Earth, I would be killed immediately, then all would be lost.’

‘So will
Zelnoff’s soldiers also be there?’ Susie asked.

It’s likely
they will be watching,’ Kaloc said. ‘The other Mytars’ signals must
be too weak for Batarr and Zelnoff to detect; otherwise they would
have found them long ago. They’ll be waiting for you to show them
where they are, so you must be very careful at all times. Never
travel alone and guard the keys well.’

This news
quickly dampened the faces of the Mytar. Chris had visions of being
kidnapped and forced to use the key.

‘But I believe
they won’t do anything until you find the other Mytar,’ Kaloc
added, on a more re-assuring note. ‘Zelnoff won’t risk exposure in
case he alerts the Guardians of your world. Considering the setback
he has just had, this would be a disaster. It’s more likely you’ll
be in the most danger once you have found the remaining Mytar.’

‘Will we still
have our powers to detect Zelnoff’s soldiers if they come?’ Chris
asked.

‘Your powers
will be severely reduced, maybe even gone. You’re only meant to
have these powers in this world, not your own.’

This news was
not welcomed. Their powers had become like a comforting friend, a
gift that they would now have to give back.

‘And we have to
find another three Mytar with the keys?’ Susie asked, breaking the
brooding silence.

‘Only two Mytar
can be found with the keys,’ Kaloc replied. ‘The final Mytar can
only be detected when the first five Mytar have reached an advanced
stage of their development and have learnt to work in harmony
together. Only then will they have the ability to detect the
vibrations of the sixth Mytar. In your present state, I’m afraid
you’re a very long way from this.’

Joe looked
thoughtful for a moment. ‘But what happens if we can’t get along. I
mean… what if we find the other Mytar and they don’t like us and we
don’t like them.’

‘Then all is
lost,’ Kaloc said bluntly. ‘If the Mytar cannot unite enough to
find the sixth Mytar, then you won’t have the necessary strength to
defeat Zelnoff. The sixth Mytar is the cement that binds you
together and turns individuals into a single functional unit that
can control all the elements and all life. Nothing will be able to
stand in your path, providing you all function in harmony and not
against each other.’

‘Sounds
awesome,’ Joe said.

‘But what
happens, if we find these other Mytar and they don’t want to come
with us?’ Chris asked, feeling sure he would be quickly assigned to
a loony bin if he ever told everyone about Zelnoff.

‘Then I’m
afraid you will have to force them,’ Kaloc replied. ‘We’re all
aware of what’s at stake. Once they’re here and start acquiring
their powers, I believe they’ll be easier to convince to help.’

The Mytar
nodded in unison, each remembering the first time they realised
they were capable of feats they could have only dreamed of on
Earth.

The Journey Home

Over the next couple
of days Chris, Susie and Joe prepared for their trip back to Earth.
In all, even though it seemed much longer, they had only been gone
for a month. Kaloc assured them they would be returned within a few
hours of departure, so their appearances had to closely match those
of when they disappeared.

Unfortunately,
this proved surprisingly difficult. Susie’s hair was now a
hopelessly tangled mop. She had to spend many hours trying to comb
out the tangles, and, in the end, had to submit to a rather crude
haircut to remove the worst knots. Chris and Joe also had to have
haircuts so that their appearance would roughly match the day they
were transported. Pepas, who turned out to be the son of a
hairdresser, cut their hair. Afterwards, when they saw their
haircuts, it became clear why he had decided to be a soldier.

The most
difficult problem was the change in Joe. Chris and Susie were thin
to start with, so the loss of a little more weight hardly affected
their appearance, but Joe had lost so much weight he was barely
recognisable. Chris would have loved to be a fly on the wall when
he tried to explain his sudden weight loss to his mother from a
simple morning walk.

Finally, on the third
day after their battle with Zelnoff, they assembled at the portal.
Chris’s face had healed remarkably well, thanks largely to a herbal
portion that Altac had concocted, and after several solid night’s
sleep, all three Mytar felt much improved. Kaloc gave Chris a knife
that he owned and a small box. Inside the box was a smaller version
of the Vizion stone. Whenever Chris and Susie placed their hands on
the stone and the knife, Kaloc would be able to communicate with
them. He had decided to deposit them close to the place where the
original portal had sucked them through to Cathora, since Chris had
assured him that no one ever ventured down this stream because the
terrain was so rugged.

Only one key
would be taken back to Earth. With Kaloc’s key, they actually had
three keys, but taking all three was considered too risky,
especially if Zelnoff’s spies were around. Kaloc could easily
transport a second key if something happened.

After Chris had
checked he had everything, they said their good-byes, promising to
return when they had found the remaining Mytar. Kaloc flicked some
switches on the portal and immediately the vortex began to rotate.
This time, with the link being established across two dimensions, a
breeze began, quickly building until it became difficult to stand
against the blast of on-rushing wind. The Mytar waved one last
time, then bent low against the wind and ran through the
vortex.

Chris, Susie and Joe
emerged and clung to the nearest rock or tree. Within seconds the
wind stopped and the vortex disappeared. They were left staring at
each other in the quiet of a forest. Chris immediately felt the
difference - his powers were gone. Still dressed in the clothes
Batarr had given them, they looked like three runaways from a freak
show.

But the sun was
high in the sky and the correct shade of yellow. Judging from its
position it was probably around noon, Chris estimated. If Kaloc had
got the date right, they had lived for a month in another dimension
in the space of only a few Earth hours.

‘Mum’s never
going to recognise me,’ Joe complained, looking down at his now
remarkably muscular and sleek body.