Holding the scene firmly in his mind he switched his attention back to the portal. It was there, active, patient; it wanted a destination. Well, he had one to give it. He recalled the image from the key and gave it to the portal, feeling the inner workings of the portal powering up. Luther then heard a sound that made his heart sing with pride: chiming. The portal was chiming! Only active portals chimed. That meant it was working! Right on cue, the portal key, thus far resting inertly in the keyhole, started to glow. AnnaBelle noticed first.

  “Look! Is it supposed to do that?”

  Luther removed his hands from the two doors and pulled the key free from the keyhole.

  “I do believe we’re ready.”

  “Try it out!” Cora urged, anxious to see her first glimpse of her husband’s homeland.

  Luther reinserted the key, twisted it clockwise for one revolution, and then pulled it free. He slid it into his pocket and stepped back a few paces, prompting the others to do the same. The two master bedroom doors fused together and began rippling, as if the surface had somehow become fluid. A few seconds later the doors fuzzed out and became a doorway leading out into the woods.

  Luther smiled. It was the same scene he had received from the portal key. It meant he had correctly tuned the portal back to Lentari! He approached the edge of the door and looked longingly out at his home country. A single tear rolled down his cheek.

  Cora took his hand in hers. “If it means that much to you, why don’t we visit for a few days? It looks like a nice place. Would that be possible?”

  Luther sighed and shook his head no. He made a motion to poke his hand through the portal. It stopped less than an inch before passing over the portal’s threshold into Lentari. He felt an invisible force resisting him. The harder he pushed the harder the portal pushed back. He was not allowed to go through.

  Cora experimentally poked her own arm through the portal. She encountered no resistance. She pulled it back just in time to see the path in the woods disappear and be replaced by the carving of the kingdom.

  “Why could I poke my arm through but you couldn’t?” Cora wanted to know. “That makes no sense.”

  “It makes perfect sense,” Luther contradicted. “It was programmed in to this portal.”

  “What was?” Cora asked.

  “Insurance,” Luther explained. He caught his wife’s eyes and held them. “The king knew that the Nohrin needed to be non-Lentarians. He had to be sure only they would be allowed to use the portal. The king explained to me that even if I became homesick, or wanted to abandon the mission, the portal would not allow me to pass. Besides, someone needed to stay here and see to it the portal remained unharmed. Since this was a one-way journey the king saw to it that I would have everything I need. How? With gold. Lots of it. I’ve deposited a small portion in the bank, to maintain appearances. The rest is hidden here in the manor.”

  Startled, Cora’s head jerked up. “There’s gold hidden in the house? Really?”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I wasn’t sure how you’d react to learning an enormous stash of Lentarian grifs was hidden in our home.”

  “Grifs?

  “Gold coins minted in Lentari,” Luther explained. “No one knew how long it would take before the Nohrin would find their way to our world. The king realized a Lentarian would have to stay behind and keep the portal active and out of the wrong person’s hands.”

  “That’s where you got your money,” Rosamund observed. “I had wondered.”

  “Many people have wondered,” AnnaBelle added.

  “So you’re looking for someone to go to your world, is that it?” Rosamund asked.

  “The prophecy referenced the two Nohrin. The only thing we knew is that they were not from our world.” Luther noticed Rosamund’s confused expression and decided a little explanation couldn’t hurt. “Where did I lose you? Nohrin?” Rosamund nodded. “They’re the prince’s bodyguards,” Luther continued. “The prophecy was very specific. The bodyguards couldn’t be Lentarian. So, the only way to get non-Lentarians to our kingdom was to create a link to another world. This particular world was chosen and I was sent here with everything I needed to construct this manor and the portal it contains.”

  “What did your king expect to happen?” Rosamund wanted to know. “Were people supposed to wander in here by mistake and accidentally activate your portal?”

  Luther scoffed. “Of course not.”

  “Were you planning on kidnapping them and pushing them through?”

  “Mrs. Jones! Really!”

  “Tell me how your prophecy is supposed to be fulfilled,” Rosamund insisted. “How can you expect two people from my world to find their way to yours? How would that even work?”

  Luther smiled at the tiny woman. “I already know it worked, Mrs. Jones. Two people from Idaho journeyed through my portal and fulfilled the prophecy.”

  Rosamund’s eyes widened with shock. “Sarah and her husband. They’re these Nohrin people you’re talking about?”

  “Aye. Apparently it won’t happen for another 120 years. That’s where this crystal comes in. Until we powered up the portal and linked it to Lentari their future was in jeopardy.”

  “Sarah is already in jeopardy,” Rosamund coldly reminded him. “I look after my own, Luther Miller, and even though she wasn’t born here nor does she belong here, Sarah is one of my own. What are we going to do to help her?”

  Before anyone could answer they all heard the same thing: chiming. The portal was chiming! They spun about to see the two doors fuse back together and fuzz out, this time replaced by an entirely different scene. This one was nowhere near the path in the woods.

  Luther dropped to one knee. They were all staring at the portal room inside the castle. Kri’Calin, Captain Sauer, and a whole room full of various nobles were staring quietly back at them.

  “On your feet, soldier,” Captain Sauer instructed.

  Luther complied.

  “Is it true? You’ve been there over three years?”

  Luther nodded. “Aye, it’s true.”

  “What happened to the first athe crystal? Why did we have to procure another?”

  Luther’s face colored with embarrassment. “I, er,…”

  Captain Sauer managed to bite back a smile that was threatening to form.

  “I’m waiting, soldier.”

  “I, uh, did a mock proposal to my wife, Cora. I pretended the crystal was an engagement ring and proposed with it.”

  Kri’Calin snorted softly with amusement and looked away.

  “I take it you did this outdoors?” Sauer dryly asked.

  Both Luther and Cora’s faces blushed bright crimson.

  “Be that as it may, Luther Miller,” Kri’Calin said, causing a lull in all conversations, “you have completed your mission. Very well done, soldier.”

  Luther bowed. “I thank you, your majesty.”

  The portal faded back to the doors.

  Cora turned to her husband and put both hands on her hips as a frown appeared on her face. “That was rude. Congratulations, you completed your mission, now go away? I have a mind to tell him that he should –”

  The chiming began again and within moments they were once more staring at the king.

  “As I was saying,” Kri’Calin continued, ignoring the fact that his conversation had been interrupted, “you have completed your mission. You have earned my appreciation, and that of the kingdom.”

  “It was my pleasure, your majesty.”

  “Now, I believe there’s someone here that would like to use your portal.”

  The king motioned to someone out of Luther’s line of sight. A group of people appeared, and before anyone could say anything, they all rushed the portal at the same time, anxious to get through before it could close again. Luther, Cora, and AnnaBelle were knocked off their feet and went down in a tangle of arms and legs. Rosamund wisely side-stepped out of the way. Cecil made it to his feet first. He pulled one of the figures to their feet.

  “AnnaBelle!” Cecil cried, crushing his wife in a hug. “I thought I’d never see you again!”

  AnnaBelle was openly crying. “My darling! We were so worried about you!”

  “Where’s Sarah?” Steve demanded as soon as he regained his feet. “What’s happened to her? Why didn’t she meet us back at the waterfall?”

  Luther rose to his feet. “We have much to talk about. Come this way so we can…”

  Luther trailed off as he noticed three people he didn’t recognize had also come through the portal. The first was a young teenage girl. She was staring around the house with huge eyes. The second was a thin man in his late twenties. He had promptly regained his feet and had joined the teenage girl to look out the window, staring at the outside landscape with wide, wondrous eyes. The third…

  All the color drained from Luther’s face. The third person, a young thin girl, rose unsteadily to her feet. Her eyes locked on his and began to cry. Luther began to cry, too.

  “Mina!”

  Chapter 5 – Misplaced Affections

  “Well, what was I supposed to do?” Deke Babcock demanded with a scowl. He was pacing back and forth in the small room that served as the sheriff’s office. “Tell him that you’re holding a woman against her will who is fighting back by magically throwing our men around like tennis balls? That she’s the reason you saw him yesterday for your dislocated shoulder? Mick was the third injury the doc has seen in less than two days. I thought you said you could keep her in line, boss. So far this woman has been nothing but a pain in the arse.”

  Sheriff Bixby sighed, leaned back in his chair, and lit the cigar he had been chewing on while listening to Deke’s report. He absent-mindedly rubbed his right shoulder. “How much did you have to pay Doc Emerson to keep his trap shut?”

  “Fifty dollars in gold coin,” Deke spat out. “He wouldn’t take any less. That woman now owes me fifty dollars! I’m gonna take it out on her hide!”

  “If you touch her I’ll personally lop every one of your fingers off and then feed ‘em to you,” the sheriff coolly answered.

  Deke fell silent, properly cowed.

  “Miss Sarah is more of a handful than I originally gave her credit for, that’s for sure,” Sheriff Bixby agreed. He stroked his handlebar moustache thoughtfully.

  “Can’t you give her more opium?” Deke asked, with enough of a sneer to insinuate the sheriff was a dullard for not coming to that same conclusion.

  “She’s already stopped eating. She barely drinks any water. If we increase the dose then she’ll detect it and I assume she’s stubborn enough to stop drinking the water, too. If she does that then she’ll regain full control of her jhorun and then teleport out of here. Do you have any idea what she’d do to us if that ever happens?”

  “She’ll starve herself to avoid cooperating, is that it?”

  The sheriff leveled a stern gaze at his henchman. “You ain’t ever been with a woman, have you?”

  Deke’s face reddened. “I have so. What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “If you had been with a woman you’d know how stubborn they can be. I know this woman’s type. She’s strong-willed, and there ain’t no place for that type of thing around here.”

  Both the sheriff and Deke cocked their heads at the same time. Several people were shouting. One voice had risen above the rest and sounded like a young child.

  “Not again,” the sheriff growled as he snatched his gun off the desk and slid it into its holster on his hip. “If she’s hurt another of my men then there’ll be hell to pay. Mark my words.”

  The sheriff yanked the door opened and stepped through at the exact same time Deke tried squeezing through. Both men became wedged in the doorway. The sheriff looked down his nose at his henchman and scowled.

  “Do you think I opened that door for you, princess?”

  Deke mumbled an apology and stepped back just as the sheriff stepped forward. They hurried down the hall and rushed through the enormous lodge, pushing by several of the sheriff’s men that were just now strapping their gun belts around their waists.

  “Get out of the way,” the sheriff barked. “Step aside.”

  The crowd of people parted, right down the middle. The sheriff stepped outside and immediately headed to one of the other four buildings on his property. This one looked like a ramshackle shed, but the sheriff knew its only purpose was to conceal the bulk of his wealth, namely the opening of a very lucrative, very deep silver mine. The mine’s tunnels branched off in all directions and were the ideal place to stash a prisoner.

  He barged into the shed, took a lantern from a row of unlit lanterns hanging on the wall, and descended down into the darkness. A form materialized and rushed up the stairs at him. It was Elijah. His pants were around his knees, his face contorted in pain, and he was screaming like a little girl.

  The sheriff cursed and pulled his gun from his holster, only to have Elijah rush by him and clamber up the stairs to disappear outside. The screams slowly faded away and utter silence fell again. The sheriff turned back to stare down the stairs at the inky blackness before him.

  With one hand holding the gun and the other holding the lantern, Sheriff Bixby descended to the first level of the mine and surveyed the platform that stored equipment, mining carts, picks, shovels, and crates of TNT. Several tables and a row of lit lanterns met his eyes. The platform was nearly thirty feet long by about ten feet wide, with tunnels branching off to the west and east while a third angled steeply down to the north, leading to the much deeper second level.

  The sheriff glared at the two henchmen who were present. Both of them were scuffing their feet as they stared at the ground.

  “What was that?” Sheriff Bixby snapped. “What happened to Elijah?”

  No one answered. The sheriff pulled his gun and trained it on one of the men.

  “Dexter, you and Craig had better tell me what just happened. What’s with all the damn shouting?”

  Dexter’s composure broke first.

  “I’m sorry, boss. We shoulda kept a better eye on Elijah.”

  “What happened?”

  “He went to take the lady her lunch, but apparently he had other ideas.”

  “What?? How dare he disobey me? I’ll skin him alive!”

  “You don’t have to worry ‘bout that, boss,” Craig told him. He spat a stream of tobacco juice onto the ground. “She took care of that for you.”

  “What happened?” Sheriff Bixby asked.

  Craig scratched his head with a dirty hand.

  “Elijah made the mistake of lowering his pants.”

  “And?”

  “Lunch today was chicken.”

  “So?”

  “She made a chicken leg… uh, er, she took the chicken leg and…”

  “And what?” the sheriff demanded.

  “Let’s just say Elijah won’t be sittin’ down any time soon,” Dexter chortled.

  The sheriff’s bushy grey eyebrows rose with surprise. “Do you mean to tell me that she shoved a chicken leg up Elijah’s –”

  Both of his men started giggling like school girls. The sheriff slowly lowered his gun and returned it to his holster.

  “I’m surprised to hear myself say this, but you may be right. I like the lady’s punishment better than a bullet between the eyes. Where is she now? Did she make it out this time?”

  Craig shook his head. “No, boss. She’s just sitting on her cot, lookin’ as pleased as she could be.”

  The impudence of the woman made him see red.

  “I’ll handle this,” Sheriff Bixby growled.

  He took the ring of huge rusty skeleton keys off a peg on the wall and walked down the eastern tunnel. He unlocked the heavy iron door he had installed several years ago and walked into the room. Once he was seated one of his henchmen reached inside to swing the door closed.

  “This has got to stop, lady,” the sheriff warned. “The doc is gonna start askin’ questions if he has to keep treatin’ everyone you send his way.”

  “Then let me out of here,” Sarah curtly responded.

  “That ain’t gonna happen, darlin’. I told you before why you’re here. Once I secure enough capital to retire then you’re free to go.”

  “I’m supposed to believe you’re going to just let me go when you’ve robbed enough banks? Is that it?”

  The sheriff laid a hand over his heart.

  “You have my word.”

  Sarah gave him a scornful look. “You expect me to believe you’d keep your word? You really are as stupid as I think you look.”

  “You watch your mouth, girlie. I’ve tolerated your little outbursts but that ends now. I’m done negotiating. You will cooperate.”

  “Or what?” Sarah challenged. “You don’t have anything to hold over me.”

  “The hell I don’t,” the sheriff disagreed. “You want to keep your husband alive? Play along or I’ll bury both Luther and Cora Miller. You got that, darlin’?”

  Sarah sighed. “You know, you keep threatening me with that very same thing. If you meant it then you’d drag the two of them down here and show me what you’re capable of doing. Since you haven’t I can only speculate you don’t have the Millers and that you’re bluffing.”

  “I ain’t bluffin’, darlin’. Push me on this and I will do ‘em both. Right here, right now.”

  Detecting the cold malice dripping from every word the sheriff spoke, Sarah finally looked over at him. The lantern was yanked out of his grip at the same time a small piece of gravel launched up from the ground. It collided with one of the panels of glass, sending razor sharp shards of glass down to the floor.

  Not one splinter of glass reached the floor.

  All pieces of the broken panel, both large and small, were now hovering less than an inch from the sheriff’s surprised eyes. One piece darted in and gave him a three inch long laceration on his right cheek. The sheriff howled with outrage. His hand went for his gun.

 

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