by Peter Wilson
Jack stepped forward and fought the will to turn away. Now that he knew what to expect once he broke through the illusion, it was somewhat easier to resist the ancient magic.
“This can’t be right!” Anthrow yelled, even with his eyes closed, his mind feared what lay ahead.
“We’re nearly there,” replied Jack as he reached the silver tree.
He broke the barrier of the illusion with one last push and they were through to the small forest.
“Ah, better,” said Anthrow. “That was…unpleasant. No wonder this place has been kept so well hidden.”
Jack was looking back to the peak, making sure they weren’t being followed. Once he was satisfied, he turned to Anthrow. “We’re safe.”
Anthrow smiled. “So that’s it then. David and Rosie have resealed the portal to Earth and judging by the lightning at Diamond Lake, I’m guessing we destroyed the Horde that had taken over your yard. Your mission is complete!”
Jack forced a smile in return. They had done it. Against all impossible odds, his cousins and him had prevented Theorden from invading Earth. So why did he feel so empty? He should be itching to return home and celebrate with his cousins, but the thought of doing so made him feel anxious.
“Jack? Is everything alright?”
“Come on,” he said as he returned them to human form. He didn’t want to discuss his feelings with Anthrow. “The Forgotten Portals this way.”
“You know, this place is very much like the Grotto,” said Anthrow as he followed Jack towards the path. “Whoever created the Forgotten Portal must have chosen this place because of that.”
“The book said the Forgotten Portal was created by a god. If that’s true, then maybe it created the Grotto too,” replied Jack.
Anthrow didn’t reply to that but nodded at his logic.
They continued on the path in silence, until they came to the wall made of stone.
“This is it, the way home,” said Jack.
“Ah home,” said Anthrow. “I think I’m going to create a portal right into my living room. Imagine the convenience!”
“What about unwanted visitors? Anyone could enter your home, if they knew the right portal.”
“Then I would welcome them and offer them a warm cup of your worlds English Tea. Believe it or not, most people that travel the portals are really quite nice. You just had an unfortunate first journey. There are so many wonders I could show you! Yes, your next visit will be much more pleasant.”
“Oh I doubt there’ll be another one,” a voice hissed from behind them.
Jack turned, just as black mist appeared out of nowhere. It twisted and swirled as it began to take shape.
A small of plume of smoke was spat out of the mist. It flew through the air, becoming more solid as it took shape. The small green man appeared and fell to the ground hard.
The remaining cloud began to take form as well, Maddox once again becoming the Shadow Man.
“A clever trick Gregson. I see you have the family magic, even if you don’t fully understand how to use it. It was quite easy to latch on to you unseen. And now you have brought me right where I needed to go.”
Maddox laughed as he turned towards the portal. “With this, we can go anywhere! We will crush your world. Enslave your people and destroy all life that opposes us.”
“It’s your world too Maddox. Why would you want to see it destroyed?” asked Jack.
“It is not my world! Everything that I lived for there was taken from me. Now it is my turn to take. My turn to make people suffer.”
“Your mad,” said Jack softly. He once again wondered how this could be his father.
“Enough talk!”
“What are you going to do Maddox?” Asked Anthrow. “You’re here alone, without your Horde to command. You can’t hurt us.”
A wave of black mist shot out of Maddox’s body, the head of a wolf charging towards Anthrow. It hit him in the chest, causing him to fly backwards and land on his back.
Maddox laughed as he began to turn to mist once again. “Perhaps my powers are limited right now, but do not presume that you could ever beat me.”
The black smoke had once again become a tendril, as it glided towards the green man who was holding up the red vessel. “Create a portal to the graveyard of Gregson Manor,” he hissed. “We travel to Earth,”
“Anthrow, Quickly!” Jack shouted as he ran towards the small man.
He tackled him to the ground, just as Maddox finished entering the vessel.
“What are you doing,” asked Anthrow as limped towards him, hurt from the hit he’d taken.
“Hurry! Remember the first time the Horde chased us? You took us to a world. One with no people and a dead sun.”
“Cortavia. Yes what of it?”
“Here! Take this,” Jack said as he grabbed the red vessel from the man’s hands and passed it to Anthrow. “I think my father would enjoy the darkness there.”
Anthrow smiled and said, “Oh I know he would. What about this one?” he nodded to the green man struggling beneath Jack.
“I’ll take care of him. Now go before he works out what’s happening.”
“Goodbye Jack,” said Anthrow as he walked into the passageway. “Until we meet again.”
“Goodbye Anthrow,” said Jack smiling. “Thankyou for your help. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Just one thing before I go. Next time we meet…you have to promise me. No more Chaos Pixies. Your grandmother really was crazy for giving one of those to you. People often do crazy things for family, but it only means they care.”
Anthrow smiled once again. “Now! How do I do this? Do I just say ‘Cortavia’ and then…”
Jack didn’t hear the end of the sentence as the portal pulled Anthrow away to the planet with a dead sun.
He stood up, and dusted himself off. The little green man was eyeing him wearily; unsure of what Jack was going to do to him.
“Are you going to try anything?” asked Jack.
The green man shook his head.
“Good. We’re going to take a trip,” he said as he put a hand to the man’s shoulder and led him to the portal.
“I’m going home.”
Chapter Nineteen
Home
Lightning flashed and crackled as it appeared from thin air in the attic of Gregson Manor.
“What on Earth!” the curator cried as she rushed over to see what was occurring.
A black hole had appeared on the glass of the rear wall and it was getting larger.
It grew and grew, finally taking the shape of a door, leading to a passageway beyond.
Suddenly the glass within the doorway shattered as Jack and the small green man came flying through, to land in a heap on the ground before the curator.
“It worked!” said Jack, looking up at her.
“You’re back!” she said.
Jack stood and looked at the portal. It was right where he’d imagined it to be, when standing in the Forgotten Portal.
“How did you do that?” asked the Curator.
“Jack?” his Grandmother called as she entered the Attic.
He turned to see her standing there, sick with worry. She looked at though she hadn’t slept in days.
“I’m back Grandma,” he replied as he rushed to the model of the Gregson Manor in the centre of the room.
The Rear Garden was back to normal, the black warrior statue gone, and the statue of Charles once again in its rightful place.
The Horde was also gone, although the destruction it had caused remained. Jack thought it would take sometime for the plants and trees to regrow.
“We did it!” he said turning to face them all. The little green man was still seated on the ground, still unsure of his fate.
“Yes I saw the model change some hours ago,” said the curator. “The Horde is gone.”
“Jack, where are your cousins?” asked his Grandmother.
“What? They returned hours ago,” said
Jack confused.
“No, they didn’t. We haven’t seen or heard from any of you since you left the grounds three days ago…”
“But Maddox said…” Jack trailed as he remembered the events of the day. His father had said his cousins had returned and the portal was now sealed. Why would he make that up?
“Jack, did you say Maddox?”
Jack looked at his Grandmother. A look of shock had come over her weary face.
Yes, Maddox. My father,” Jack replied.
He waited for the anger he’d been carrying for days to start welling up inside of him. His Grandmother had kept so much hidden from the family. He had found out about his father’s alliance with Theorden from a stranger!
The anger didn’t come. How could he be angry with her when he’d kept the same secrets from his cousins?
All of a sudden he knew that he was ashamed. He was ashamed that his father was aligned with Theorden.
Didn’t it then make sense that his Grandmother would be ashamed that Maddox was her son?
“Jack…”
“It’s OK,” he replied cutting her off. “We need to find David and Rosie.”
Jack quickly told his Grandmother everything that had happened since they’d first walked through the door in the Western Garden and arrived at the Grotto. She listened intently, asking questions occasionally. She was surprised to hear about the Forgotten Portal and the real purpose of the book. She was shocked to hear that Maddox controlled the Horde and had taken on the Shadow Man form. Finally she was in denial that Alice could possibly be involved in the whole plot.
“So that’s it. I know that David and Rosie returned to Earth. I saw them go through the portal.”
His Grandmother didn’t respond but walked up to the small green man.
“Where did my son instruct you to take him,” she demanded.
The green man shrank back in fear. Jack realised that while this creature worked for Maddox, he wasn’t necessarily bad. Perhaps he was a slave of some sort.
“Where!”
“The…The graveyard,” he replied timidly.
“He’s right, I remember now. Maddox told him to create a portal there,” said Jack.
“How did you get this!” the curator said angrily, as she pulled Anthrow’s necklace from one of the man’s pockets.
“It’s Anthrow’s,” said Jack as he bent down and retrieved the book and black ring as well. “They took all of our magic items when they captured us.”
“I know it is Anthrows. I gave it to him,” she replied as she closed her eyes. The necklace sparkled and glowed briefly in her hand. “There, fully charged.”
She turned to Jack and said “Anthrow, is he OK?”
“He’s fine,” Jack said, hiding his surprise that she was the ‘special person’ that had given him the necklace. “Can I please borrow that, to get to the graveyard?”
The curator nodded and handed it to him.
“Jack, What are you planning?”
“Rosie and David could be down there, needing my help.”
“That is the problem, not a plan to solve it,” his grandmother replied as she walked towards the portal that Jack had created.
Her hands started to glow white, magic building within her.
She pointed at the portal and two magic bolts flew out towards it, a white glow spreading as it hit.
A door appeared, wooden and exactly like the one in the Western Gardens.
A key shot out of the newly made lock and flew into his grandmother’s hand.
“That should hold it, unit we can get an emerald to seal it properly. Now, Jack. I promised you the secrets of the Manor and perhaps it would be a good time for your lessons to start now.”
“Ok…” he replied.
“Go to the graveyard. See if your cousins are there. I won’t be far behind.”
His Grandmother disappeared into thin air, leaving Jack standing there in shock. She was clearly a master of magic.
“Well hurry up then, you heard her,” said the curator. “I’ll look after the green one.”
Jack nodded, and concentrated on the necklace, willing it to activate.
The world became a blur as his body entered a time and space unlike everything around him.
He took a step towards the entrance of the Attic at the other side of the room and was suddenly already there.
Another step took him to the bottom of the stairs, and another two to the front door of the house. Three more steps and he was standing next to the monk in the rear garden, his head spinning. It was if the magic was reading his mind on where he wanted to go, and taking control of his body to get him there. He doubted he could ever get used to it.
Jack deactivated the charm and took a moment to recover.
The rear garden was as he had seen it in the model. Dead. Every tree, plant and blade of grass drained of life.
At least they’d destroyed the Horde, he thought.
The graveyard was ahead, the rusted iron fence just in sight.
Jack ran towards it, hoping his cousins were ok.
Chapter Twenty
The Wardens of Gregson Manor
Jack slowed to a walk. He’d spotted his cousins seated on the ground beside Alice the moment he’d entered the graveyard. They had seen him too, so he saw no point in trying to hide, but hoped his Grandmother would join him shortly.
To the left of them was a man, his back to Jack as he looked down on a gravestone.
Isn’t that my mother’s grave he’s looking at? Thought Jack.
As he got closer, the man turned towards him, a smile upon his lips. He looked…normal. Was this Theorden, the most feared person in the Universe? He looked like one of Jack’s teachers. Despite the smile his face was stern, much like the portrait of him on the third floor of the house, but he didn’t look evil or all-powerful.
“Ah Jack. I was beginning to worry you wouldn’t join us. Come,” said Theorden, waving him over.
“Jack, stay back!” said David.
“Quiet!” Alice yelled at him as she smacked him over the head. The timid housemaid was gone.
She turned and smiled at Jack, a crazy look in her eye.
He noticed she wore the blue emerald on a chain around her neck.
“You know, you have the good looks of your father,” Theorden continued, as if nothing had occurred. “Although he is a shadow of his old self these days. Where is he by the way? He was instructed to bring you here, yet you come alone.”
“Maddox is gone, you won’t see him again.”
Theorden laughed. “No matter. When he’d finally caught you, I feared he would fail me once more and let you get away. That is why I told him your little cousins here had been successful in their mission, in the hope you would return to the manor if you managed to slip through his misty fingers once again. Yes Jack I know all about your adventures. I barely threatened these two before they were telling me everything.”
“He said he’d cut off one of my fingers!” said David defensively. “He’s nuts!”
The comment resulted in another smack from Alice.
“I especially liked the part about the Forgotten Portal. I see the book deemed you worthy of its secret. Perhaps you will see that I am worthy of the secret too.”
“I would die before I told you how to get there,” said Jack.
Theorden laughed again. “Oh I know how to get there. As I said, David didn’t take much persuading.”
“A freaking index finger Jack!”
“Now that I finally know where it is and how to break through the illusion, all I need is the book you’re holding,” said Theorden as he raised his hand.
The book started to shake as Jack’s arms. He gripped it with all his strength as Theorden used magic to pull it towards him.
Suddenly the pull was gone as Theorden was thrown backwards by an invisible force.
White mist started to appear everywhere around them, rising from the earth below. Like the black mist it twisted and swi
rled over the landscape.
Shapes began to form. Horses, deer and other animals rising to converge on Theorden.
Jack reached out to the white mist with his mind, and noticed a sense of calm unlike that of the black. Theorden’s mist was a collection of souls trapped, lost and frightened. The white mist resonated calm, purpose and good.
“Marion, Marion, Marion! I would recognise that mist anywhere!” Theorden shouted with glee.
In one sentence Jack knew that Theorden was mad.
“Come on out here and say hello,” he said, unperturbed by the mist animals now surrounding him.
Alice let out a yelp of surprise and Jack turned to see the blue emerald had been ripped from her neck and was flying through the air away from her.
Marion caught the emerald as she walked towards them, the statues of Gregson manor walking by her side.
“The Wardens of the Manor!” Rosie yelled out in excitement.
They were all there. Twenty-three statues of stone come to life to defend their home and the people that lived in it.
“Impressive Marion! But you know they cannot kill me.”
“No, but they can help me drive you away. Charles!” Marion called to the Warden of the Blue Emerald. “Come and reclaim what was stolen from you.”
The statue of Charles moved forward, obeying the command of the families’ matriarch.
A look of alarm came over Theorden as he realised he must choose between being trapped on Earth or driven away from it once more.
He screamed in rage as he turned into a ball of black mist and flew into the sky towards the portal in the Western Gardens.
Alice, realising her master had left her behind, started to run after him.
“Oh no you don’t!” said Rosie as she stuck at her leg out and tripped Alice up, causing her to fall to the ground hard. “That’s for slapping my brother”
“Twice!” said David.
Jack laughed, overjoyed that his cousins were safe.
He turned to his grandmother, just as the statue of Charles reached her side. It knelt slightly, so that she could once again place the emerald around his neck.