Portal (Nina Decker) (17 page)

“Let’s go!” yelled my mother. She still held the reigns to my horse and it took off alongside her own. I was still only half in the saddle and my leg flopped around in the air. With a grunt I pulled myself full up and took the rein from my mother. Severin and Dashrael were right behind us as we tore out of the square.

We rode hard down the cobblestone streets. People in front of us scattered and fled back into their homes.  The massive iron gates loomed large ahead of us though. They were both shut. We came to a halt just outside the Red Hawk Inn.

“Now what?” Severin asked.

“Inside!” I yelled.

We leapt from our horses and burst into the inn. The patrons inside dropped their beer and crowded into the side of the room.

“What’s this?” shouted the innkeeper from the stairs. “Be gone from here you rogues!” Then he motioned for us to follow him up the stairs.

“Unhand me! Leave me alone!” the brownie innkeeper yelled for good show as he led us to the room of “Lady Bellflower.”

“Safe passage,” he whispered as we passed through. Dashrael shut the door. My mother checked the window.

Severin seized me with both hands. “Why did you do this?” he asked. “You could have been killed.”

“Give her some credit,” said Dashrael. “She may still get herself killed.”

“I’m not worth it,” Severin protested.

“You are to me,” I told him gently.

“N’Lina!” my mother shouted.

She had the window open. I looked across the top of the wall to woods beyond. There in the trees I saw several brownies waving back at us.

“Here,” said my mother. From beneath her cloak she produced my longbow and its quiver of arrows. It felt good to wrap my hands around its yew stave once more.  My mother handed me a spool of silvery cord. It looked like thread.

“Will this hold?” I asked dubiously.

“It’s fae crafted,” she answered.  “It will do the job.”

There was a crash from down below and loud shouts.

“They’re here,” said Dashrael. Severin and he moved the bed against the door while I tied one end of the silver cord around one of my arrows. Then I sited the tree where the brownies were gathered.  After nocking an arrow, I drew back the bow string. The fire rose within me but I kept it at bay. I didn’t need my magic. I just needed to hit the target.

The shouts grew louder. They were right behind the door now. I heard the smash of an axe against wood.

I exhaled and let the arrow fly. It sailed through the air and embedded itself right in the center of the tree trunk. The brownies climbed up and untied the silver cord. They then looped it around the trunk several times. My mother and I looped the other end around a beam in the ceiling. The hacking sounds continued. I saw wood splinter out of the corner of my eye.

“Done!” I yelled.

The cord now stretched from the window to the tree below. It made a perfect zip line.

“You first!” shouted Severin.

I was about to open my mouth when my mother said, “No arguments.”

She handed me a piece of her torn hem. I slipped it over the cord and stood on the window sill. My bow was across my back and the quiver was at my side. A small crowd gathered below. I still wore my armor but it was light as plastic. Still I wondered if this fae cord would snap. It didn’t look like it could support a large puppy let alone a full grown woman. There were shouts behind me and I knew the guards would break through any moment. I stepped off the window sill.

And I glided across. I fly just over the iron and silver spikes of the wall. I reached the branches and a pair of brownie hands caught me and slowed me down.  

“That was cool.” After I climbed down the tree, I stared back at the inn. No one else had followed me. “Come on.”

I saw my mother zip across, her bright dress fluttering. Then came Dashrael in his armor.

Where’s Severin?
My heart sank.

“Stubborn boy,” Dashrael said as he climbed down. “Some of them broke through. We fought them off but he insisted I go next.”

You damn fool, Severin
.

Then I saw him climb the sill. He was in tattered rags. He kicked at someone behind him. I saw him slide across. A guard appeared at the window with a crossbow. I nocked an arrow as fast as I could. I let it fly with all the power I could muster. It flew into the open window and there was an explosion of blue light.

I looked up and saw Severin. Half a crossbow bolt protruded from his back.

“No!” I screamed.

Chapter 21

Severin held onto the line. He just made it past the spikes of the wall, then halfway between the wall and the tree he let go and came crashing to the ground. I raced towards him. My mother and Dashrael were right behind me.

“Don’t move,” I told him. My nurse instincts kicked in. I checked for injuries. One end of the crossbow bolt was sticking out of his back. It had missed the kidney somehow and it didn’t look like an artery or vein had been clipped. The fall didn’t seem to have done more damage.

“Why don’t you listen? I told you to leave me,” said Severin. His speech was slurred.

“The bolt had a silver tip,” explained Dashrael. “It has to be removed or he could die of silver poisoning.”

I heard a loud creak. I looked up and saw the iron gates of the town opening up. Behind them were dozens of armored guards.

“Get him up!” I shouted.

I fired another arrow at the gates. A blue explosion forced the guards to duck for cover.  Dashrael and my mother picked up Severin and together we dashed back to the forest. The brownies had a wagon waiting for us and we piled inside. My mother took the reins. She had to yell and snap the reins to get them to move. These were obviously free animals and not the strange things that obeyed every thought. They also weren’t nearly as fast.

As the cart bonded over the road I nocked another arrow. Soon black horses appeared behind us with armored riders. I fired my arrow. It burst above them and knocked them down stunned. But there was another group of riders charging after us. I realized the wagon was moving too slow. I wasn’t sure I had enough arrows to keep the guards off us until we escaped.

To my shock, Dashrael jumped off the cart and ran back towards the now rider-less and motionless horses. “I’ll meet you in the mortal realm.”

I saw him pick up a sword off the ground and mount one of the horses. Just before we lost sight of him he wheeled around and charged a new group of riders. His sudden assault scattered the pursuers. I didn’t see what happened to him after that. I hoped he would be okay.

The cart headed into the forest. I looked back and I saw the large trees slide over the path we had just traveled. The forest was blocking our pursuit, protecting us.
Thank you
.

I checked on Severin. He didn’t seem any worse despite the constant bucking and jarring. After what felt like an eternity my mother slowed the cart.

“Easy dears,” she cooed to the horses.

I looked up. Ahead was a forest pool surrounded by moss covered stones. At the edge was my father. He waved to us.

“Nina! A’Lona!” he cried. “Come look. You can see our house!” He pointed at the pool.

“Is that the portal?” I asked my mother as we helped Severin down.

“Yes,” she said.
             
“We’ve made it.”

“What about Dashrael?”

“He’ll be all right. He’s slipperier than an eel.”

We half carried Severin over to the pool. I gave my father a hug. He and my mother kissed.

I averted my eyes and knelt beside Severin.

“What? Can’t stand to see your parents kiss?” he teased.

I gazed into the pool. Instead of our reflections I saw my house in Vancouver. It was like we were watching a remote image.  As if the pond in the backyard was a camera and this pool was the monitor.

I leaned in and brushed the sweaty hairs from Severin’s brow. His face was slick with sweat. I felt a release and joy. So much fear and dread finally disappeared. My feelings threatened to overwhelm me and I pulled way.

I gazed up at my parents. My father for a moment looked like his old self. Then his eyes went dull again. My mother patted him on the back and then turned to me.

“N’Lina,” she said.

There was so much that we had to say to each other. So much that had been denied us by treachery, politics and war. And my unflinching quest for revenge. But I thought that we’d get it all back eventually. After all we were sort of immortal.

I stepped forward to hug her.

Then my mother’s face went from joy and bliss to horror. “N’Lina!” she shouted.

I turned and there she was. J’Tara and some of her guards stood at the edge of the pool. They held crossbows. The bolts were tipped with black iron.

J’Tara shouted, “Fire!” They loosed their crossbows at us.

A hand grasped me from behind. It jerked me to the side and threw me down.

“Mother!” I screamed. It was too late.

A’Lona Wolfstriker jumped in front of me and my father. The crossbow bolts hit her in the chest. I felt each strike as if it were my own body being pierced. I lost all feeling in my torso, and in my limbs. A terrible numbness came over me. Inside I refused to accept it.

My mother twisted around as if in slow motion. It was like she was dancing a beautifully bloody ballet.

“Nina!” Severin yelled. I saw him grab my father.

My father’s face was a mask of horror and grief. Severin picked him up despite his leg and hobbled to the water. “She’s dead! Come on!” Severin plunged into the pool with my father.

I saw my mother sink to her knees. I still couldn’t feel anything. There was no pain. No grief. I stared into her lovely eyes. The light behind them faded.

“Take care of Jason.” Her voice a hoarse whisper as blood dripped from her mouth.

I’d seen so many people die in the hospital. There’s a moment where they just stop. Everything that they ever were goes away to some place where we can’t follow. And all that’s left is a shell.

I saw my mother became that shell as her body crumpled to the ground.

And that’s when I screamed. I screamed from the very bottom of everything I was. From the essence of my soul.  The trees shook and J’Tara and her minions fell back. I howled and tears ran down my face.  I did not recognize the sound of my own voice. The pain erupted from me and I didn’t even try to stop it.

The forest wept alongside me.

The spirits of the trees begged me to flee.

I staggered backwards then dived into the pool after Severin and my father.

Chapter 22

The water rushed over me. I reached for the surface and came up in what was left of my garden. A hand reached out for me and pulled me up. It was Severin.

Without a word we went straight to work, grabbing shovels and piling dirt into the pond.  Severin tried to help as best as he could with a crossbow bolt in his back. This far from Nightfall my armor no longer stayed on by itself. It kept falling off a piece at a time. Eventually I ran back into the house to put something on. I found my dad sitting at the kitchen table. He looked shattered, stunned. I silently prayed that he would soon forget.

I came back out to the garden in shorts and a T shirt. The pond was half buried. Severin leaned against his shovel for support.

“Get inside and don’t bleed on the rug,” I said.

“I’m fine,” he argued.

“Check on my father, then.”

Severin got up and limped to the house.

I picked up the shovel and threw on the last few piles of dirt.

I thought about my mother as the pond vanished. It was like I was burying her.  I cried as I worked. Tears stained my t-shirt right through. I had sworn to break her fingers when I first set off for Nightfall, now I wept for her. I cried like I was eight years old again and dad had just told me my mother had to leave. I didn’t understand back then and I couldn’t understand now. I’d found her again. I wasn’t even looking for my mother and I’d found her. But now she was gone.  It wasn’t fair.

The last shovelful of dirt plopped down. I stood before a mound that had once been a pond. But I wasn’t finished. Severin had brought over some lengths of steel rebar weeks ago, back when we were both sitting and patiently waiting for this portal to open. I found them near the garden fence. It hurt to pick them up. It made me sick just to be near this much iron. I didn’t care. I swallowed down the rising bile and pushed through.

As I walked over to the dirt mound they felt almost red hot in my hands. Obviously, I was more sensitive to iron now.  I threw the rebar on top of the mound. I went back and got some more despite the pain. The metal crisscrossed the buried pond. If J’Tara or anyone tried to come through that would stop them.

Then I went back inside. Severin was seated on a backwards chair. My father hadn’t moved.

“Has he said anything?” I asked.

“No,” said Severin.