A Portal for Your Thoughts

by Jeffrey M. Poole

  The sheriff went silent for a few seconds.

  “Just feel free to blurt out the answer when you know it. Since you don’t then I’ll tell you. You become happy once you set and attain goals. That’s how, darlin’. Goals.”

  “How do I fit in to this picture?” Sarah demanded, in a brief moment of lucidness.

  The sheriff turned back to her and smiled. It was not a pleasant sight.

  “You, darlin’, are the answer to my prayers.”

  Sarah stared at the sheriff with confusion evident on her face.

  “You are my new best friend,” Sheriff Bixby continued. “You are going to be my strongest and most loyal confidant. With your help we will be able to clean out every bank vault this side of the Mississippi.”

  Sarah’s confusion was replaced by utter shock.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I think… I think you’ve made a grave mistake.”

  The sheriff ignored her objections. He continued to smile that lecherous smile of his.

  “Just think of it. My very own teleporter. The sky’s the limit. Literally. You are worth your weight in gold, darlin’!”

  Sarah tried, but failed, to keep the surprise off of her face. There just wasn’t any way the sheriff could know she was a teleporter. No one could! She had been careful. She had only teleported when there hadn’t been anyone watching, she was sure of it. How, then, could the sheriff have known about her jhorun?

  She swore softly under her breath as her jumbled mind refused to work out the connection. Whatever he had given her had done a remarkable job of scrambling her thoughts. No matter how he had guessed her true identity, she had to keep the sheriff from knowing he was right. She had to convince him that this was just a case of mistaken identity.

  “I – I don’t know who you think I am,” Sarah faltered, fighting to keep her voice from shaking, “but you clearly have the wrong person. I have no idea what you’re talking about or what a ‘teleporter’ is.”

  The sheriff refused to be dissuaded.

  “Sure you do, darlin’. After all, that’s who you are, ain’tcha? You are the teleporter, which means, correct me if I’m wrong, that you are Lady Sarah.”

  Sarah’s eyes flew open before she could stop herself. It was impossible! How did he know her true identity?

  Sheriff Bixby chuckled as he turned to face her. He nodded as he saw the terrified look frozen on Sarah’s face.

  “That’s right. Thanks to your little show last night I finally pieced it together.”

  “But… how…?”

  “I’ve had men following you, darlin’, from the moment I suspected that one of the famous Nohrin had arrived in my town.”

  “I don’t… I’m not…”

  “Oh, let’s be honest with each other. I know who you are. Your face tells me that I’m not wrong. Lady Sarah, is it?”

  “There’s no possible way you could know that.”

  Sheriff Bixby grinned, displaying a mouth full of yellowing teeth. “Isn’t there? You sure you ain’t overlookin’ somethin’?”

  The chaos in Sarah’s head tripled as she desperately fought to make sense of what she was hearing. One thought became crystal clear to her.

  “That’s why you drugged me. You think if I can’t think straight then I won’t be able to escape.”

  The sheriff casually walked back to the chair and sat back down. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “You think you can escape? Go on, then. Prove me wrong. Teleport outta here. Come on, princess. I know you don’t want to be here. Leave. I’d love to see how you do it.”

  Sarah valiantly tried to bring up one of her safe zones so she could teleport out of that dingy cell but once more the swirling thoughts her mind had become was unable to conjure a mental picture of where she wanted to go. Switching tactics, Sarah tried to visualize anything. Any place was better than being in that dusty cell with the sheriff. As before, her mind continued to betray her.

  The sheriff smiled that smug smile of his.

  “You’re still here, darlin’. Is there something wrong? I can save you the trouble. If you can’t concentrate then you can’t teleport.”

  Sarah frowned at the sheriff.

  “Yet you’re expecting me to teleport to the insides of a bank vault? To help you rob it? Are you kidding me? Why in the world would I ever cooperate with you? Who do you think you are?”

  Sheriff Bixby’s posture relaxed. He stretched back in the chair, clasped his hands together, and then hooked one ankle over the other. “I’m just someone who’s tryin’ to make the best of an otherwise lousy situation.”

  “I am not helping you rob a bank. Forget it. Rest assured, I am teleporting out of here the moment that I can.”

  “That’s not much motivation to play nice, is it?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Aren’t you even remotely curious how I’m keeping you from using your jhorun against me? Whether to teleport or otherwise?”

  “I already know. You said you’ve been drugging me.”

  “That’s right darlin’. But you’ll never know how I’ve been doing it.”

  Sarah wasn’t concerned. There was no way this pompous ass was going to get the best of her.

  “Clearly you’ve been drugging my food or water. That’s a problem that is easily remedied.”

  “Is it now, darlin’? You might think so, but it ain’t.”

  Sarah finally smiled.

  “Well, there’s the proof I needed. You just confirmed that you’ve been drugging the food or water. Now I know not to take either from you anymore.”

  “Starvin’ to death ain’t a pretty way to go,” Sheriff Bixby haughtily told her. “You’ll be changing your tune shortly. Besides, I don’t think I’ll need to drug you anymore. You’re going to help me of your own free will.”

  “Like hell I will,” Sarah vowed.

  “I’m finding that I really enjoy proving you wrong, little darlin’.”

  Sarah folded her arms across her chest.

  “You have no hold over me. There’s no way I’ll ever cooperate with the likes of you.”

  “Aww, now that done hurt my feelings. That’s not very nice, is it? Perhaps I can convince you otherwise.”

  “You can try,” Sarah coldly told him as she turned to face the door, “but you’ll fail.”

  “You love your husband, dontcha?”

  Sarah’s blood ran cold. No. He couldn’t know.

  “You’d do anything to protect him, wouldn’t you?”

  Sarah was silent.

  “That includes keeping him alive, don’t it?”

  Sarah turned to look back at the sheriff. His cold green eyes were boring holes into hers.

  “What… what do you mean?”

  “You will help me, Lady Sarah, or so help me I’ll personally shoot Luther and Cora Miller right between the eyes. With his ancestors dead how do you think your husband will ever be born?”

  Sarah stared at the cold-hearted man in horror.

  “Yeah, I know who they are, darlin’. If some type of accident befalls either of those two then poof! No more husband. Do you catch my drift?”

  “How could you possibly know…”

  The sheriff’s voice dropped dangerously low. He stood up so that he could stare down at Sarah, still sitting on the cot.

  “Twenty five years, darlin’. That’s how long ago that damn portal dropped me here. Trust me; I’ve had plenty of time to put two and two together.”

  “You’re from Lentari! No Lentarian would behave like this.”

  “That opium must have really messed with your mind. Interesting stuff, really. There’s nothing like it back home, that’s for sure. I’ve never touched the stuff myself but it has proven itself useful on many an occasion in convincing the judge to declare certain people, shall we say, mentally unstable. To answer your question, yes, darlin’, I am Lentarian. Or should I say, I was.”

  Chapter 14 – Fl
aw Detected

  “What do you mean you can’t find it? You told me you’ve been here before. Many times, you said. And you! You’re a dragon! How is it you can’t find a simple waterfall?”

  “I could drop him into the nearest nest of griffins we find,” Pryllan casually suggested, instantly silencing Cecil’s outburst.

  Steve glanced irritably at the person sitting next to him safely inside the dragon’s interlaced talons. “Would you? Please?”

  Cecil’s exasperated face quickly transformed to one of genuine concern. “Don’t tell her that! She might do it!”

  “And she’d be well within her right to do so,” Steve grumped. “I’d help her. You’ve done nothing but complain for the last two hours. Do you have any idea how much walking Pryllan is saving us? Hours. Days!”

  “So I should cease my complaints, is that it?”

  “Yeah, that’s it alright.”

  “You sound like AnnaBelle.”

  “You’re accusing me of sounding like a woman? Dude, you realize you’re talking to a fire thrower, don’t you? Not only will I push you out but then I’ll use you as target practice as I watch you go down.”

  Cecil fell silent as he stared at his companion. Steve glanced over and saw his concerned expression.

  “Relax, man. That was only a joke.”

  Cecil visibly relaxed. “I knew you were bluffing.”

  “Of course. We need to be much higher so that you’ll fall longer. I can get more shots off that way.”

  Pryllan chuckled as she flew over yet another clump of tree covered hills. They had, as previously mentioned, been searching for the small waterfall for close to an hour. Of all the hiccups he had imagined befalling them, this was nowhere on the list. Steve squinted as he stared at the passing treetops. They all looked the same! It suddenly felt as though they were looking for a needle in a haystack. Perhaps they should…

  “A waterfall suggests mountains or hills,” Pryllan’s voice cut in, interrupting his thoughts. “As you can see there are mountains and hills everywhere, yet no falling water.”

  Steve thought a moment.

  “Okay, tell you what. Go west. Let’s find Avin. We’ll work our way east from there.”

  “How far is the waterfall from the human settlement?” Pryllan wanted to know. She banked left and swung in a gentle arc until she was facing due west.

  “It’s about an hour’s walk,” Steve answered. He shrugged. “I have no idea how far that is as the dragon flies.”

  “We’re about to find out,” Pryllan observed. “Once we find the settlement then it should be a matter of minutes, since bipedal locomotion is slow and cumbersome.”

  “Is she suggesting that we’re slow and clumsy?” Cecil asked as the corners of his mouth crept upwards in the beginning of a smile.

  Steve nodded. “Yeah, she is. That’s okay. She’s right. Find the village and we find our rendezvous point.”

  Thirty minutes later, after canvassing an area nearly the size of R’Tal and the surrounding area, they were forced to come up with another plan.

  “Things don’t appear to be going our way,” Cecil quietly observed.

  Steve patted the leather satchel around his waist and shook his head.

  “We have the crystal Luther needs to activate the portal. That’s one item checked off our To Do list. We’ll be seeing our wives tonight. We’re flying, not walking. I think things are finally going in our favor. In fact, the only thing that would make it better now is if Pryllan found the village.”

  “Then your luck holds,” the dragon told them as she dipped a wing down and angled herself north. “I think the village is near.”

  Steve cast a discerning eye up at the sky and noted that sunset was only an hour or two away.

  “No time like the present,” Steve mumbled as he stuck his head through Pryllan’s talons. He looked down at the passing landscape and saw nothing but trees and an occasional glimpse of grass covered forest floor. However, he didn’t see any signs of human habitation anywhere. “Are you sure? I don’t see anything.”

  “Nor do I,” Pryllan admitted as she adjusted their course so they were flying more northeast than true north. “But I can smell them.”

  Cecil scoffed loudly. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Steve grinned and gave Cecil a slap on the shoulder.

  “It means that we stink.”

  “We most certainly do not!” Cecil disagreed.

  “Yeah, we really do,” Steve argued. “You have a few years before deodorant will be invented. Trust me, it can’t arrive soon enough.”

  “So you’re saying that I stink?”

  “Dude, I’m saying that I stink. If I can smell myself then I can only imagine what you must smell like. And no, don’t even ask. I’m not going to tell you.”

  Cecil was mortified. “I had no idea. Do you think AnnaBelle finds me malodorous?”

  “Let’s just put it this way. Never ever argue with a woman when she suggests you take a shower or a bath. The two most important words in the English language are ‘yes, dear’. Got it?”

  Cecil nodded. Steve poked his head back through the dragon’s talons and scanned the ground far below. There wasn’t anything that resembled a village. Nothing but quiet, swaying treetops met his eye.

  “We are very close,” Pryllan told him. “I will accelerate so that the humans living in the settlement do not panic.”

  “Smart move, my friend.”

  Pryllan’s wings began pumping her wings as she gained not only altitude but velocity as well. Within moments the world had become a passing blur. They felt a shudder run through Pryllan’s body as the passing winds from their velocity was presenting an unwelcome hazard.

  “The village approaches,” Pryllan announced, followed almost immediately by “we have passed the village, maintaining a heading due east. By my calculation we should arrive at your waterfall in about five minutes.”

  “I never realized how slow humans walk,” Cecil murmured.

  “What you should consider instead is just how fast we’re flying. I’ve ridden Pryllan when she’s flown much faster than what we’re flying now.”

  “Indeed?”

  “Yep.”

  Ten minutes later Pryllan resumed a normal pace, for a wyverian, and began methodically inspecting the ground. There were still no signs of their elusive waterfall. They finally caught a break when the trees finally cleared and they saw a thatched cottage on the banks of a small river.

  “I’ll be damned,” Steve said, as he saw the approaching cottage. “Pryllan, you might as well turn around. I’ve been in that house before. Or else a newer version of it. That’s where Kornal and his wife have their house back in my time. This is where we emerged from the forest. Pryllan, follow this river. It should lead you straight to the waterfall.”

  Pryllan nodded and executed a sharp turn until they were back facing the rapidly sinking sun. Now that she had a river to follow, Pryllan easily tracked it back to its source and found the tiny lake formed by the waterfall’s excess water. It was much larger than he remembered.

  “How’d we miss that?” Steve wondered.

  “Because this is further south than we have been traveling,” Pryllan promptly told him. “Furthermore, this river and lake are predominantly covered by a thick canopy of vegetation. At speed, it is difficult for me to find. Once I knew where to look it was easy tracing it to its source.”

  Steve chuckled. “Ask a specific question and you’ll get a specific answer. How close can you get us to it?”

  “The clearing isn’t large enough for me to chance it,” Pryllan told them. “I could push my way through but the trees in close proximity would hamper my attempts to depart. It’d be best to set you down in an open area.”

  She found a suitable location nearly a mile away. The trees had thinned just enough for her to deposit them on the soft grass without touching down. Pryllan bent her head down to verify the two of them were safely on the ground. Noddin
g her head she rapidly beat her wings to give her some clearance from the ground.

  I certainly hope to hear from you soon, Steve.

  You will, my friend. I told you before that I won’t return to my time until we have dealt with this shachar thing. I just need to talk to Sarah. A solution exists. We just have to find it, and find it we will.

  You have my thanks.

  And you have mine. I’ll be in touch.

  Until then. Farewell.

  Pryllan turned to the north and climbed high in the sky, disappearing from sight after a few moments. Steve turned to look at Cecil and pointed south.

  “That way.”

  Cecil wasn’t convinced. “Are you certain?”

  “Yes. I was watching Pryllan like a hawk. Do you think I want to get lost out here?”

  Cecil turned to look at the western horizon.

  “Dusk will be here soon. Let’s get going.”

  The waterfall was just as they had left it two days ago. Two days. Had it really been only two days since he had last seen Sarah? It felt more like two weeks! If luck was on his side then she’d already be here somewhere, waiting for them to arrive. Keeping his fingers crossed, Steve, with Cecil following close behind, strode into the tiny clearing and looked around.

  Luck was definitely not on their side today.

  A dozen or so small black rodent-like creatures were at the water’s edge, clearly quenching their thirst. One of the fuzzy creatures must have been assigned to keep an eye on the small group because that one reared up on its hind legs and let out a shrill squeal. The rest of the black creatures rose up on their hind legs as well and silently studied them.

  Steve didn’t know who was studying whom. The fuzzy black rats with thick fuzzy tails remained motionless. Finally, one of the creatures dropped back down onto all four of its legs and started squeaking and trilling like crazy. It had started advancing on Steve and Cecil, as though it didn’t want them there.

  “Blast them with fire,” Cecil urged. “Clear those revolting things out of here.”

  Steve clenched his right hand into a fist and was ready to ignite it when he hesitated.

  “What are you waiting for? Do it!”

  “No, Cecil. Those things are just protecting themselves. What if I drive them away from the water? What if because I did that then something irrevocably changes down the line?”