Portals of Infinity: Book Two: The God Game

by John Van Stry

  “Damn, I’m starving,” he said getting up.

  “Well let’s go see what we can hunt up,” I said standing.

  “Yes, we should get an early start,” Stephanie agreed, taking out some of the food in her pack and getting to her feet. “We should also ask where they get their water from.”

  I nodded and we set off.

  We did find someone who was awake and could tell us where they got water, there was a small stream not far from where we were. I had noticed there were several paths leading from the village; the one for water seemed to be about the most traveled.

  “Wonder what the other paths are for?” I asked as we went to fill our canteens.

  “Other villages?” Stephanie suggested.

  It didn’t take us long to find the stream, not surprisingly those plants were everywhere. Seeing a likely tree, I hacked of a branch that was pretty straight with a sword and started to hack the limbs off.

  “Too bad we don’t have a bow,” Stephanie sighed.

  “Well let’s head upstream and see if we can find any game trails.”

  We did find several game trails as we headed upstream, and set snares on them using some of the wire that was in our packs.

  “Wow, quite a view,” Stephanie said looking around. We had been climbing higher as we followed the stream, and had come to a rocky section high up the side of a large hill.

  I looked back and you could see the harbor I had sailed us into, our boat moored out in it, and the village on the shore. Looking around I could see another village off to the south.

  “So this is the land of the Lotus Eaters,” I said looking around. Cenewyg was nowhere in sight, but that didn’t mean much, he’d been haring off on his own a couple of times now.

  “I’m surprised we haven’t seen any other plants, well other food-bearing plants.” Stephanie said.

  “Over the years, the villagers probably killed them off to increase the number of lotuses,” I replied.

  “Well I think I’m going to have lunch, want any?”

  I shook my head, “Nah, I can go a few days without food, won’t bug me that much.” I dropped my pack, “You might as well eat what’s in my pack.”

  “Afraid you’ll eat it?” She teased.

  “Afraid someone else will eat it actually,” I said smirking.

  “Oh go easy on, Cen!”

  “Why do you think he keeps disappearing?” I whispered and then struck out to look around the area a little better. There was obviously game in the area, you could see signs of it all over. Problem was getting close enough to kill it.

  “Don’t get lost!” Stephanie called out after me.

  I laughed at that and waved.

  I found a game trail soon enough and decided to follow it a little ways, it was a lot larger than what I was used to seeing from back in the woods of New York or Pennsylvania. I had gone down it quite a ways when I suddenly noticed a rock fly overhead and heard a growl as it hit something.

  Turning around, I saw Cenewyg standing up above and behind me on an outcropping of rocks, he was holding several of them and he smiled as he saw me looking at him and threw another.

  Swearing I pulled out my sword and hacked off the end of my walking stick to put a sharper edge on the end of it, then turned and ran back to a straight section of the path.

  I heard Cenewyg snicker and he threw another rock, this one again hit whatever it was and with a loud growl that I couldn’t recognize. Whatever it was that made it, I could hear it as it started running down the path towards me.

  I grounded the butt of my walking stick cum spear, stepping on it with my right foot and lowered it until the tip was only inches off the ground, holding my sword in my right hand as I squatted there.

  When it charged around the corner I almost gave a sigh of relief, after hearing Ryan talk about stripes I was afraid it might be a tiger. What it was was a black bear and it looked rather unhappy and got even more so as another one of Cen’s rocks hit it.

  I waited until it was almost on top of me, then I raised the spear and I got it in the throat as it tried to swat me with a paw which I almost cut off as I blocked it with my sword. It tried to rear back then so I pushed it back with the spear, which I was still holding with my left hand as I chopped at its head with the sword in my right. I saw a few rocks go by as I was fighting it, one or two hit it, but I was more worried about them hitting me.

  It swatted me a few times while we fought and it hurt, but the leather armor I still had on protected me enough to keep from getting cut and to spread out the force.

  I hacked at it a few more times and finally it stopped moving and just laid there. I bent over to check it and a rock whizzed right by my head so I turned and looked at Cenewyg.

  “Enough with the rocks already, Cen!” I yelled at him, if he threw another one at me like that I was definitely going to go up there and kill him. That rock would have messed me up but good if it had hit.

  He glared at me disappointed then turned and left.

  “Get back here and help me carry this, you asshole!” I yelled then looked back at the bear. It was probably close to two hundred pounds, it was almost as big as I was. Sighing I got to work on gutting it, it was food after all.

  I was just finishing up when Stephanie joined me.

  “Where’s Cen?” I asked.

  “Said he was heading back to town.”

  “Asshole,” I grumbled.

  “Why, what did he do?”

  “He got the bear to come after me, think he was hoping I’d lose or something. But worse than that, he didn’t stick around to help me carry it back to town!”

  “Well I’m here. Think you can sling it from your spear there and we can carry it?”

  I nodded, “Yeah, let’s stop at the stream though; I want to wash this blood off before I start drawing flies.”

  “You’re already drawing flies,” she laughed.

  “Before I draw more then,” I grumbled.

  When we got back to town Cenewyg was cooking some rabbits that the snares had caught. I glared at him as Stephanie and I dropped the pole.

  “You could have helped carry it you know.”

  “Why? You did fine.”

  I went back to the carcass and started to butcher it so we could cook it over the fire. Stephanie returned with a bunch of branches that she had stripped and turned into short skewers to cook the meat over the fire.

  We sat and ate quietly, the bear wasn’t great, but it was food. As we ate, I noticed that Cenewyg started to get a little glassy-eyed, when Stephanie noticed it I stopped her from saying anything.

  “I think I’m going to turn in early,” Cenewyg said yawning as we continued to cook the rest of the bear meat so it would keep.

  “Sure, go ahead,” Stephanie told him.

  After he’d been gone a few minutes she looked at me, “What did you do to him?”

  “Nothing, yet,” I snickered.

  “Then what’s wrong with him?”

  “I think the rabbits eat the lotuses, and because that’s probably all they eat, he’s getting affected.”

  “But bears are vegetarians too.”

  “No, they’re omnivores; they eat other animals, fish, and things other than plants.”

  I got up and went and found the remains of a pod that wasn’t fully eaten and I dug out a cup and put it in and mixed it with some water.

  “What are you doing?” Stephanie asked suspiciously as I used the hilt of my dagger on the pod, combining it with water.

  “I’m going to drug him, and we’re going to leave him here.”

  “What!?” She said looking at me.

  “He tried to kill me, Steph. I’d kill him right now but that might mess up your plans. So I’ll just drug him instead.”

  “Luring a bear for you to kill isn’t trying to kill you.”

  “Yeah right. What about trying to hit me in the back of the head with a rock?”

  “He did what?”

  “Trie
d to hit me in the back of the head with a rock. He threw it at me while my back was turned. That’s why he took off; he thought I was going to kill him. Well, I’ll pour some of this down his throat and with any luck he’ll want to stay here and eat weeds. Even if he doesn’t I’m sure this will slow him down enough to leave him behind.”

  “Will, you can’t do this.”

  I sighed, “Why not?”

  “Because I’m telling you not to. That’s why,” Stephanie said. “Look, I know you two don’t get along, I know you don’t like him. But that’s not reason enough to leave him behind.”

  “He set a bear on me, Steph!”

  “So? You killed it didn’t you?”

  “He didn’t even warn me! Plus, we’re not champions here; we don’t have our powers or our skills.”

  “He probably forgot, Will. He’s been a champion for over sixty years now. This is the first place any of us have been where our powers didn’t reach.”

  “I don’t trust him, Steph.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  I nodded, “Of course I do, Steph.”

  “Well then, do as I say.”

  “Steph,” I said plaintively. “I’m worried about what he might do to you.”

  “I’m a big girl, Will; I can take care of myself. Now throw that stuff away and drop the whole idea. We’re moving on in the morning, all three of us.”

  I sighed and looked down at the ground. “Yes, Stephanie.”

  “I’m not kidding, Will,” she warned.

  I nodded, “I understand.”

  She got up and patted me on the back as she went off to go sleep.

  I sat there and thought about it, I knew if I did anything, Stephanie would be pissed with me, and she’d probably lose any confidence in me. That could end up with my being left behind and her traveling with Cenewyg.

  I tossed the mixture and cleaned out the cup, then got up and went to sleep myself. I was rather surprised when Stephanie joined me, but all she really wanted was someone to hold her apparently, but I was fine with that. Sometimes I just wanted to be held and loved too.

  We got up early that morning, Stephanie and I ate quite a bit of the bear meat, as I couldn’t carry all of it, and I grudgingly shared it with Cenewyg who was groaning and bitching like mad. Stephanie told him what we suspected about the rabbits having eaten a lot of the flower pods, but it didn’t stop the grumbling and bitching as we hiked out heading north.

  “How far are we going?” Cenewyg asked sometime around afternoon as we stopped to take a break and to fill our canteens at a stream we had come across. He was sweating profusely, he had been dragging all morning and had emptied both of his canteens and one of Stephanie’s just getting this far. Apparently, the effects of the plant were pretty powerful, even second hand.

  “A few hours maybe more,” Stephanie replied.

  “What are we looking for?”

  “I’ll let you know when I find it,” She smiled.

  Cenewyg grumbled, but shut up. I got some of the bear meat out of my pack and started eating. I wasn’t terribly hungry, but I had a feeling we were getting close and I didn’t know how long it would be before I’d be able to eat once we got there.

  We trekked on for almost the entire day before we felt it. It was a portal. But even from this range it felt ... different.

  “Finally,” Cenewyg grunted.

  I didn’t say anything; I was still trying to puzzle out why it felt so different.

  Stephanie did not say anything either, but I noticed the expression on her face was different, a mixture of anticipation and something that might have been fear. I couldn’t really tell.

  Our sense of the portal got stronger a lot faster than I was used to, it only took us an hour until we were all standing before it.

  “Where does this go?” I asked standing there and trying to figure out just what my feelings were telling me. It felt like a drain, as if everything on the other side was draining out of it and into here.

  “To our destination,” Stephanie said and stepped through.

  Thirteen

  I jumped through after her and made sure to immediately move to the left to clear the space for Cenewyg behind me, because I didn’t trust him to be where I couldn’t see him. When he came through I noticed he was staring at the sky, so I stopped and looked at it as well.

  It was breathtaking; all the stars were out in a night sky, and I mean all of them, including the sun and the moon. Everything was visible, it did not twinkle, and it did not even appear to be moving. The sun shed very little light; everything seemed to be in a constant state of twilight. It reminded me of one of those cheesy low budget sci-fi movies.

  Looking around, I noticed everything was rocks or dirt. There were no trees, grass, bushes, anything growing. Things weren’t dry, but they weren’t wet either, it just all looked dead, sterile, timeless.

  There wasn’t even a breeze.

  “Where the hell are we?” Cenewyg said.

  I looked around and saw the walled city off in the distance. “Welcome to Troy,” I said and nodded towards it.

  I looked at Stephanie, she had already started off towards the city, so I followed, hurrying to catch up. “What’s wrong with this place?”

  “It’s dying.”

  “Spheres can die?” I said looking around surprised.

  “Apparently.”

  I noticed then that we were all still in our original forms. Reaching out with my senses I still couldn’t feel any of those things I associated with being able to do cantrips, my champion abilities, or the healing magic we had access to, but I could feel Fel rather strongly oddly enough.

  We walked in silence after that, the place really felt like a tomb; we appeared to be the only things alive or moving. The strangest part of all is that without anything else moving it became hard to determine the passage of time. I really don’t know if it took a few hours or a day to reach the city.

  As we drew closer, it was obvious that the city had lost a war and been destroyed. The walls were pulled down in several places, many buildings were destroyed, burn marks showed everywhere. Things littered the street, destroyed pots, broken pieces of what I guess was furniture, other debris. But there were no bodies, no bones, nothing organic.

  “This place is seriously creepy,” I said looking around. “And where the hell did Cen go this time?”

  Stephanie looked around and noticed he was missing as well. “Keep your eyes open,” was all she said and started walking again.

  “Sure.” I dumped my pack. I didn’t think I’d need it anymore. Stephanie turned to see what the noise was.

  “Let’s eat before we go any further,” She said.

  “Sounds good to me,” I agreed and we found a clear space where we could see if anyone approached and sat down to do just that.

  “Son of a bitch,” Stephanie swore opening her pack.

  “What?”

  “Cen stole all of my food. There’s nothing in here but junk from that guy’s hut to give my pack weight.”

  “Told you,” I said smirking.

  “Yes, you did. Hand over some of that meat.”

  I nodded and passed it over.

  “I’m surprised he didn’t get yours as well,” she said.

  “I don’t leave my stuff un-attended. Too many years of living in New York City,” I grinned. “So now what?”

  “Well, Cen’s off the team, so don’t trust him if he comes back,”

  “I doubt he’ll do that.”

  “Probably not.”

  “What else? Is there anything I need to be looking for?”

  “No, I know where we’re going and what we’re after. I don’t think there’s anything else alive here beyond the three of us, but Cen may be a problem now.”

  “Any idea how long until we’re done here?”

  Stephanie shook her head, “Time seems like its messed up here, there’s no way to judge it.” She finished up the meat I’d given her and stood up. “Let’s g
et moving, I don’t think staying in any one place too long is a good idea.”

  I nodded and got up and followed her.

  We continued to head deeper into the city, I could see what looked like a small castle sitting on a hilltop off a short distance in front of us; it seemed to be our destination. I guessed the ruler of the city had lived there, so whatever we were after had perhaps been his?

  Getting there was proving difficult however; the streets were not nice straight avenues, but instead wound back and forth, sometimes coming to dead ends, which meant we had to backtrack occasionally. I don’t know if the city had just grown up so haphazardly, or if the design had been on purpose to help when fighting invaders.

  When we finally made it to the castle, I looked at Stephanie.

  “Now what?”

  “We go inside, follow me,” she said and I started up the stairs behind her.

  We walked through the ruined doors, and once inside we could see that this place hadn’t escaped the fate of the rest of the city.

  “Less debris in here at least,” I said.

  “Probably everything in here was worth looting so it was all carried off,” Stephanie answered me.

  “We looking for the throne room?”

  “It’s a good place to start.”

  I looked around a bit; the obvious choice was the room with the largest entryway, so that was where I went.

  “I think this is it, but it’s sure been picked clean,” I said looking around.

  “Let’s check the exit on the other side of the room,” Stephanie said heading towards what looked like the private entrance.

  I nodded and followed her. The door for this entryway was also gone. “No wood anywhere,” I sighed.

  “No, anything organic rotted away a long time ago.” She said going through the door and into another hallway. Only this one was a lot smaller than the one we had entered from; I guess this wasn’t for public use.

  I followed her as she went down the hallway passing several side entrances until we got to the end, there was a gate there, though the lock on it was broken and looked like it had been broken long ago. It took the both of us to push it open; the hinges had rusted almost solid.