“Do you know how to use a sword?” I asked her.
“No.”
“Dagger? Knives?”
“I’m pretty deadly with a knife, and they taught us basic quarterstaff in the army.”
“Really?” I said looking at her surprised.
“A rifle with a bayonet is a pike, so yeah, the same basic rules apply.”
“Huh, okay. Let’s get you a nice staff then.”
I spent some time filling her in on the basic rules of the portals and traveling, though I didn’t tell her about my being a champion. I figured that could wait.
Saturday night we said our goodbyes to everyone and Sunday morning we got up around four and left, taking my rental car up to Pennsylvania. I parked it at the country store that I had frequented in the past and called the rental company and told them to come pick it up. Then the two of us hitched a ride with a local, there was snow on the ground up here now that it was winter and I really didn’t want to spend any more time trudging through the snow than I had to. I had them drop us off when we were near the portal.
After that, we had about a half-hour hike and we were there.
“Feel it first,” I told Nikki.
She nodded and checked it out. “I can feel the difference.”
“Now, let’s go through.”
We did and I had her check it again.
“This feels like the other one did!”
I nodded, “That’s how Earth feels. As far as I know, every sphere is unique, but then I’ve only been though about a dozen, so I couldn’t say for sure.
“Well let’s get changed, I said and dropping my pack onto the snow covered ground I started to get my gear out.
“Here?” She said looking around.
“Yup,” I spread my nice half moon cloak out on the ground. “Feel free to sit on that or set your clothes on it while you change.”
Nikki looked at me; I was already stripping down to change clothes. She shrugged and changed as well.
When we finally made the road, I had her memorize the spot, and then we started down it towards Riverhead.
“How far is it?” she asked.
I thought about that, “This time of the year, it’ll be dark before we get there.”
“How are we supposed to see once it gets dark?”
“Let me worry about that.”
She shrugged, “okay.”
We made pretty good time, as a soldier Nikki was used to marching, and I was in far better shape than the first time I’d been here in the rain.
When night fell, I stopped and took off my boots.
“What are you doing?” Nikki asked, she couldn’t see me, it was a moonless night and with the trees, there was no light at all.
“Taking my boots off.”
“Why?” she asked.
“So I don’t ruin them.”
I strapped them to the top of my pack which I took off and loosened the straps. I loosened my belt, and the ties around my neck on the shirt and the cloak. I could shift to my champion form in these clothes; they were loose enough fit until I shifted. Then they’d be snug.
“Okay, I’m going to do something, my voice is going to change a lot when I do, so don’t panic. And if you see anything else different about me, just ignore it for now.”
“Why? What are you going to do?”
“Nikki?”
“Yes?”
“Not now. It’s cold and I want to go home. So just grab the end of your staff and stick it out, and I’ll lead you along.”
“But what’s going on?”
“Magic,” I said and shifted.
I picked my pack up, put it on my now larger body, grabbed the other end of the staff and we set off again.
“So, how does your voice sound now?” She asked teasing.
“Hush,” I growled and she started for a moment, but kept following me and holding on to the end of her staff.
“Yeah, that’s creepy alright.”
We went on for quite a few more hours like that when I finally saw the lights for Riverhead as we rounded a bend.
“Will?”
“Yes?”
“I think I can see you now.”
“Good.” I stopped and dropping the pack I shifted back and after re-arranging my clothes I put my boots back on.
“What are you?” She asked curious, she didn’t sound scared.
“Your older brother,” I grumbled. At this point I was thinking of the nice warm bed that was less than an hour away.
“Ha ha. You know what I meant.”
“I’ll explain it to you later. Let’s go.”
Nikki sighed, “Okay, let’s go.”
Twenty minutes later we were standing outside the gate, I recognized the sergeant in charge of the detail on the wall, and fortunately he recognized me as well.
“Will! As I live and breath, what are ye’ doing out so late at night? And in this weather too?”
“Trying not to freeze to death Jonas. Can you open up for us?”
“Certainly! Just a minute!”
It took him a few minutes, but the smaller passage in the large gate opened and we were ushered through. I thanked Jonas, tipped his men a few coppers so they could send someone off to get a warm drink to thank them for their trouble, and led Nikki through the streets to my inn.
“Wow,” Nikki said behind me.
“Just remember, this isn’t home. Things are different here, especially the culture. Anything happens; you let people know I’m your brother. Tell them I own the White Swann if they don’t recognize the name.”
“Does that mean you’re an important man here bro?” Nikki asked curious.
“Yes,” I stopped and looked up; the inn was still open, though they were probably getting ready to close for the night. “Home at last,” I sighed and went inside with Nikki behind me.
I stepped inside, dropped my pack that had the bundle of bows attached to it, dropped my cloak and caught my wife.
“Will!” Darlene said and wrapped herself around me and started kissing me rather happily. For my part I kissed her back rather warmly.
Eventually I heard my sister cough behind me, and we both came up for air. I set Darlene down and she looked at Nikki.
“Is this your sister?” She said noticing the family resemblence.
I nodded, “Darlene, this is my sister Nikki. Nikki, this is my wife Darlene.”
“Hi, pleased to...” Nikki found herself being hugged rather warmly by Darlene, “Welcome to our home Nikki! My husband’s family is my family! Please, take off your cloak, let me get your things! I’ll get you a room made up right away!”
“Hon, I’ll get her things. You go get a room ready, then we can all settle down and relax.” I told her.
Darlene nodded and gave Nikki a kiss on the cheek and then hustled into the back room.
I looked around the bar; the room was mostly empty at this point, two customers where finishing up their beers. Sarah waved, she was sweeping up the room, I waved back.
“That’s Sarah, Darlene’s younger sister.” I told Nikki and gathering our things, I led her into the family quarters of the inn.
“This is a pretty nice place,” She told me looking around.
“I’ll introduce you to the original owners later; I suspect they’ve already gone to bed.”
“Original owners?”
“I bought them out, but they stay on to help Darlene since she is the one running it.”
“Nice to see you didn’t leave her hanging,” Nikki said as Darlene came out to show Nikki to her room.
“What can I say? I love her,” I said and smiled at Darlene who smiled back. “Now go to bed, I’m going to lock the front door and go to bed myself.”
“Yeah, just don’t get too noisy,” Nikki said and yawned.
“Oh don’t worry, I put you in a room on the end of the hallway,” Darlene said, her smile becoming more of a smirk. “I plan to keep my husband up much, much, later than this.”
Nikki blushed a
nd quickly followed Darlene to her room as I went to lock up.
Nikki was a bit surprised when we went to the baths the next day; I didn’t warn her because I was listening to Darlene catch me up on our kids and pretty much forgot.
“This is different,” Nikki said to me while I was washing Darlene’s back.
I laughed, “Yeah, sorry. Forgot to tell you, communal bathing. Not much of a public nudity taboo here.”
“Yeah, I noticed. What else?”
I shrugged, “Women outnumber men by more than two to one I think. So social mores are a bit different in that regards.”
“How so?”
“What William is trying to say,” Darlene spoke up turning around and smiling at me, motioning for me to turn around so she could scrub my back, “is that it is not uncommon for men to have a second wife, or a concubine, somewhere else.”
“And women put up with that?” Nikki said surprised.
“If you want a family, you don’t have much of a choice. Of course some of us had only hoped to be concubines, not end up married to a wealthy and successful man who has the favor of the Goddess as well as the crown.”
Nikki looked at me, “Is that true?”
I blushed, “I don’t know that I have the favor of the royal family, but I do know Duke Lias.”
Nikki shook her head, “All this from trading bows?”
“Well I also spent some time up in the mountains collecting bounties on criminals, that helped.”
Nikki shook her head, “This is going to take a while to get used to.”
“Well I told you it was different here.”
“Not that,” She smirked, “You being rich and important!”
“Yes, she is your sister all right,” Darlene said with a giggle.
I shrugged and we moved to the rinsing pools to finish up.
We went back to the inn and had breakfast, during which I introduced Nikki to Harold, his wife, and Sergeant Chaucer, Sarah’s husband, and my two children.
After we ate I took her aside to tell her what our family ‘history’ was here, so there wouldn’t be any mistakes.
“Now what?”
“Now I have to go talk to Aryanna about a job I just finished for her.”
“Aryanna?”
I nodded, “The Goddess? I know I told you about her.”
“Umm, I just find it hard to believe is all.”
I laughed, “She doesn’t talk to everyone, well in her main temple she might, I wouldn’t know. But you have no idea how shocked I was the first time she talked to me.”
“Mind if I come along?”
I shook my head, “Not at all.”
We walked down to the local temple, I pointed out some of the local landmarks and attractions as we did.
“So do you follow this Aryanna?” She asked curious once we were away from the others.
“Not exactly.”
“And you’re not kidding me about her being real, are you?”
I shook my head, “I’ve met her Nikki, and more than once. I actually like her quite a lot.”
“You’ve met a Goddess? And honest to goodness Goddess?” Nikki shook her head. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Trust me, stay here long enough and you’ll believe.”
We got to the temple, I bowed to the head priest and he smiled and nodded to me as we went inside and I headed to one of the smaller shrines in the back that I liked to use.
“So are we going to meet her now?”
I shook my head. “Now, a god or goddess can usually only materialize in a major temple, normally just their primary one. But they can talk to people in any major temple, or if you’re interesting to them they can pretty much talk to you inside your head no matter where you are.”
“You’re kidding right?”
“No, he’s not kidding,” Aryanna’s voice came out in both of our heads.
Nikki stopped and looked around.
“Scary isn’t it?” I laughed and put a few silver coins on the altar.
“Can, can she hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you, you’re in my temple,” Aryanna said rather humorously.
“Actually, she can always hear you,” I said. “But you’re not guaranteed her attention. I really don’t have to come here to talk to her, but I respect Aryanna tremendously and I like her. So I make sure that I pay my respects when I’m here and go to services every week. And I would advise you to do the same Sis.”
Nikki nodded and glanced around, looking a bit stunned.
“You’re still talking to her, aren’t you?” I sighed looking up.
“Yes, she’s rather interesting, not unlike you.” Aryanna told me.
“Well, I’m sure Fel told you about my opinions of the two women you had me check out. If Marti ever gets over her hate, I think she might be a good candidate, she definitely has the ego.
“Jane just impressed the hell out of me.”
“I have a few more tests for Jane, then we will see.”
“More tests?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t take you away from your time with Darlene, or Fel. Someone else will handle it for me.”
“Thanks,” I smiled, “I do want to spend some time with Darlene.”
“And she with you. It wouldn’t be fair to her either and she is a devoted and devout follower.”
“Thank you Aryanna.” I said and gave a small bow to the Altar and grabbing Nikki I steered her out of the small shrine we were in and out of the temple.
“That, that was interesting,” Nikki said glancing over at me.
“Aryanna is one of the best I’ve met to date, and I honestly don’t think I’ll meet better.”
“So do you often do work for her?” Nikki asked giving me another glance as we walked.
“Only when my God loans me out to her.”
“Your God?”
“Every God can have a champion if they want, champions get certain powers and benefits, but they have to do the tasks that their God assigns them. I’m Feliogustus’ Champion.”
“Feliogustus?” Nikki said looking around. “Where is his temple?”
“In another sphere, a different reality.”
“If he’s there, why are you here?”
“It’s a long story, the short of it is, I had already married Darlene and bought her the inn...”
Nikki interrupted me, “You bought her that inn?”
“Yes I bought her the inn,” I laughed, “don’t interrupt. Aryanna recruited me to work for Fel, Feliogustus that is, and I accepted the job. So I come here when I can and spend time with Darlene.”
“Wow, I can’t wait to hear the rest of this story,” Nikki said shaking her head. “It sounds like you’ve been pretty busy Will.”
“Yeah, the last four years have been something of a rush, but I’m not complaining.”
“So where are we going now?”
“I’m taking you to Master Burdon, he’s the best sword trainer I know.”
“Sword trainer?”
“Yup, and I’m going to teach you the basics on shooting a bow. If you’re going to be traveling around here, you need to know how to defend yourself.”
“I already know how to defend myself.”
“Yeah, with a gun or a knife. Trust me sis, you’ll be happy you learned them once you have. Besides, I’m paying for it!”
Nikki laughed. “Well in that case.”
Master Burdon was a little skeptical about training a woman, but said he’d do it as a favor to me, and promised he wouldn’t go easy on her either. So I left her to his tender mercies and went back to the inn to enjoy the rest of the day with Darlene and the others.
I stayed until March, leaving Darlene pregnant with number three, her idea of course, but I wasn’t about to complain! But I had work to do, and I wanted to see Rachel.
Nikki had taken to the sword rather quickly and was working at it rather hard now. She was also continuing with the bow, Chaucer told me he’d help with
her lessons.
“So, where are you off to now Will?” Nikki asked me after I had told everyone I’d be leaving in the morning.
“I have to go to Saladin where my God Fel is and get back to work.”
“Is that all?” She asked giving me a sly look.
“Yes, I have a second wife, and yes I have a child with her.”
“Ah ha! So, buy her an inn too?”
I laughed, “Hardly, she’s the Queen.”
“You married a queen?” Nikki looked surprised.
I nodded, “Yup. Make sure you stick with your lessons, don’t let anyone follow you if you decide to take the portal back home. If you want a real adventure, ask Chaucer if you can travel with one of the Caravans to Kingstown in the late spring or summer. It’s a lovely city.”
“Can’t I come with you?”
I shook my head, “Not this time, things are happening over there right now, and I have too much on my mind to add anything else to it.”
“I’m trained for combat bro, I can handle it.”
“The last place I want to see you is in combat Nikki. It’s pretty damn brutal, and there’s a lot more nasty stuff involved with what I’ll be facing. Plus you still haven’t mastered the sword or the bow yet.”
“Spoilsport. Maybe I’ll just follow you.”
I laughed, “You won’t be able too, trust me. But spend some time here and check it out. This is a pretty nice place with a lot to see.”
“Is there anyway I can keep in touch with you?”
“Well if it’s important, go down to the temple, make a donation, and pray.”
Nikki looked at me sideways, “You serious?”
I nodded, “Aryanna is friends with my God Feliogustus. They talk.”
“So why can’t I just ask her?”
I smiled, “Because first of all, she is a Goddess, and she’s got better things to do than just ferry messages for you or me. Also there are rules, if you make a donation and say a sincere prayer, there’s a decent chance that she’ll grant your request.”
“So go to church, treat Aryanna with respect, and don’t forget she’s a Goddess. Sounds easy enough,” she smiled.
“And feel free to sell the rest of those bows for me if you want. You can keep the money if you need it.”
“Thanks!” she said and gave me a hug.
I hugged her back then went off to find my wife, I was leaving before sunrise, and I was planning on spending my remaining time with her.
Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials Page 17