Rob Scott - Lessek_s Key

In the past fifteen minutes the conversation had taken a turn for the worse and Steven knew Hannah’s mother wouldn’t make it through the hour.

‘All right, I’ll do it, but we can only leave it open for a second,’ he agreed reluctantly.

‘Why? Why not leave it open until Hannah comes back, or until Mark finds her?’ Jennifer’s tone was half disbelief and half sarcasm.

Steven, for all his sympathy for the woman, began to get angry. ‘You’re not helping,’ he said. ‘I have been in Hell. I have had my life threatened every day for two months, and I am telling you that, regardless of whether you believe me, you need to have a little faith for forty-five more minutes.’

‘No. Do it now.’ Jennifer’s eyes were hard.

‘Fine, but if Nerak finds us because I open this now, I – we – may have to escape through it, and that means we might be dropped on top of a glacier, or at the bottom of a river, or anywhere. There is nothing I can do about that. Do you understand?’

‘Oh, sure. The demon creature trying to release all the hounds of Hell onto the funny little world you discovered will be right here in the next ten minutes, because you took two seconds to show me a carpet? You are mad, Steven Taylor, mad and dangerous, and I want to know what you have done with my daughter.’

Without another word, Steven took a book from the coffee table, something big with black and white photos on the cover, and handed it to her. He rolled out the Larion far portal, holding one corner, and turned back to Jennifer. ‘When I tell you, throw that book onto the portal. Do not touch it, don’t reach out over it, whatever you do, do not, for your own sake, step on it.’ He looked her straight in the face to be certain she was taking him seriously, but all he could see was her open scepticism.

He shrugged. ‘I don’t have time for your doubts, Ms Sorenson, but if this is what you need to believe me, then fine.’

With that, Steven released the edge of the far portal. The moment the last corner of the tapestry struck the floor the energy level in the room rose, that same shimmer he and Mark had felt in Idaho Springs. Now Steven recognised the feeling: it was the same magic as the hickory staff. He felt it pulsing in the air, breathing him in and out, as if he were just a passerby interacting with an ancient force for a fraction of a second on its interminable journey though the ages.

He looked at Jennifer: she was standing in mute stupefaction: he had been telling the truth. ‘Throw it!’ he shouted, ‘throw it, Ms Sorenson. Throw the book now.’

She threw the book awkwardly, but before it struck the tapestry, it disappeared. Steven used a small metal shovel he had taken from the array of fireplace tools beside Jennifer’s hearth to create a shallow range of hilly wrinkles in the tapestry. In a moment, the shimmer in the air had faded away.

He crouched down and folded the portal in half, then moved to stand beside Jennifer, who was looking far older than her sixty years – decades older than the raving mother who had beaten seven shades of shit out of him earlier that afternoon. She stood looking down at her hands, thin and delicate, Hannah’s hands, as if the book with its tasteful photographs, etudes of light and shadow, would somehow reappear in them. She was a practical woman, and believed her eyes.

For a few moments longer she struggled with the notion that greater things than anything she had ever imagined were at work right in her own living room, then she started to sob. ‘She’s alive? Hannah? Please- I’m sorry, Steven, but please tell me if she-’

Steven took the older woman in his arms and held her tightly as she shook with emotion. ‘She is alive, Ms Sorenson, I promise you. She is in Praga, in Eldarn, and I have been trying with all my strength to get to her, but I’ve been trying to tell you all afternoon, I need your help.’

‘Anything.’ She took Steven’s hands. ‘My God, but look at you – what the hell is this place?’

‘I’ve been through some difficult times, but I’m fine, and I will find her.’ He felt about ready to collapse. Everything hurt, and he was exhausted – his nap on the bus that morning, as the sun rose above the prairie behind him, had been only a thimbleful of the rest he needed.

Thirty-eight minutes and he would be gone.

‘This demon – what was his name?’ Jennifer Sorenson’s tears had slowed and her voice was steadier. She was back in control.

‘He’s not a demon, he’s far worse. He is Eldarn’s greatest sorcerer, the most gifted magician in thousands of Twinmoons – years, whatever – and he has been taken by an evil force. He’s a matchstick compared with what’s coming if we don’t stop him.’ He searched for an explanation that made sense. ‘Nerak is the most powerful and destructive force any world has ever seen, and he’s on his way to this spot right now.’

‘Why?’

‘Because we opened the portal.’

‘Oh shit, Steven.’

The profanity was unexpected; he smiled. ‘It’s all right. Nerak doesn’t want you, he wants me – he may not even show up at all, because he can go back on his own when the portal is opened. I doubt we gave him enough time just now, but I need you to close this portal as quickly as possible after I’ve gone through.’

‘I can do that with this?’ She picked up the shovel.

‘Sure. That will do fine, just wrinkle the thing, and it shuts right down – but then you need to get away from here.’

‘Where? How far away?’

‘Not far necessarily, but someplace I don’t know about, someplace Hannah would never have talked about, someplace I would never have mentioned to-’ Steven hesitated, remembering the security guard’s body on the floor of the bank. ‘Someplace not even my bank colleagues would know.’

‘I’m sorry, I’m being such a pest, Steven, but why? If he wants you, and you’re gone, why would he come after me?’

‘For the same reason I think he took one of my friends today. He wants what you know.’ Jennifer blanched as he went on, ‘He can take from your mind anything you know about me, about my intentions when I get back to Eldarn, or about the portal, anything.’

‘But you haven’t told me what you plan to do.’ Her lower lip was trembling.

‘He doesn’t care.’

Jennifer straightened her spine. ‘All right, I’ll go to-’

‘Please don’t say it. I can’t know. If I know, you’ll be in danger. Just go someplace that I have never heard of, somewhere that wouldn’t be swimming around in-’ He stopped for a moment and swallowed hard. ‘Well, someplace that Myrna Kessler wouldn’t know about.’

‘Myrna?’

‘A friend of mine. I never told her this address, but she knew about your antiques store.’

‘So if Nerak was already on his way to my father’s store, then he might detect this rug-’

‘Portal, yes,’

‘Sorry, portal, and come over here now?’

‘That’s right.’ Steven began organising his pack. His head ached fiercely and he sat down with a groan on Jennifer’s couch. ‘Do you have any aspirin?’

She laughed and looked fifteen years younger. ‘I think we could both use some. I’ll get the bottle.’ She hurried to the kitchen while Steven pulled himself back into Howard’s winter coat.

Four aspirin and a glass of water later, Steven handed the bottle back to Jennifer, who shook her head. ‘Do they have aspirin there? You keep them.’

‘You’re right, thanks,’ he tossed the container into his backpack. ‘Now, I know this will be difficult, but I need you to open the portal again.’

‘Fine. When?’

Steven did a quick mental calculation. ‘Start in two months, that ought be enough time to find her. I want her back here with you as soon as possible, but it might take me that long to get there.’ He paused a moment. ‘What day is it?’