Portals of Infinity: Book Five: Demigods and Deities Read online

  "But if I don't kill him, he'll try to take Cam away from me, once I rescue him!" I said feeling frustrated.

  "Well, maybe you shouldn't try to take your son back, until you've figured out just how to deal with him."

  That shocked me! "What?" I said looking at Fel.

  "We know for certain that Cenewyg isn't going to hurt Cameron, until he gets to wherever it is he is going, to do whatever it is he is planning to do, right?"

  "We know that?" I asked still unclear on where Fel was going with this.

  "Yes, William, we do."

  "So, I should do what then? Just stop chasing him?" I asked befuddled.

  "No! Of course not!" Fel said looking at me like I'd lost all sense. "Keep chasing him, and stay close. You have to decide what you're doing to do, and then when the time is right, you have to do it. So you need to follow him, to be close.

  "But don't confront him before you're ready, William," Fel warned. "If he panics, and you don't have a plan to deal with him, he could kill your son. Nobody wants that to happen."

  I nodded and agreed.

  "One last thing," I said.

  "Yes, you're heading the right way, here's where we are fairly certain he is going," Fel said and put the location in my mind, along with a little local knowledge on the area. "There is actually a link between that sphere and your home one, though it's no-where nearby. Just remember to be careful."

  I nodded, "Thanks, Fel, hopefully I won't be gone for a year."

  "I don't think you will be, but don't worry about that right now."

  "Night, Fel."

  "Night, William."

  Twenty-one

  Noctune

  "Fel advised me that we shouldn't confront Cen, until we have a plan for dealing with him." I told Nikki as we walked from the inn, it was early and the sun was just starting to come up.

  "Aryanna advised the same thing, I picked up a map by the way."

  "Good, that will give us an idea of where we're going and how long it's going to take us to get there."

  When we got to Rutgarr's the car was ready. A young man was waiting to drive it for us, and we exchanged money with Rutgarr. I was surprised at how little this trip was costing us, that or what Nikki had gotten for the horses was quite a bit of money.

  They showed us into the car, which was a rather interesting contraption; it wasn't powered by an internal combustion engine, but by steam. So there was a firebox of sorts, though I think it was fired by an oil fuel, a boiler, a water tank, and a set of steam pistons that drove an assembly, which was attached to a transmission.

  I was surprised that one man could operate all of that, but as I watched I could see that most of the settings were set once the engine had warmed up, and not touched again there after. When the driver adjusted the throttle, which was a large lever next to the seat, it engaged a mechanism that not only increased the steam pressure to the pistons, but which also increased the oil flow to the fire, to increase steam production.

  The interior of the car itself wasn't terribly large; there were two bench seats that would sit three across, which ran down the sides, facing each other. The driver sat in a separate seat, front and center of the cabin. The entire contraption was slung on a four-wheel chassis, with rather large, fat, wheels and a good deal of ground clearance.

  Amazingly the ride was rather soft; I guess the suspension was rather advanced. It also moved at a decent speed, probably thirty miles an hour, if I had to guess.

  "So, let's see the map," I said once we got settled down and our driver had us on our way.

  Nikki nodded and pulled it out, and unfolded it. I noticed that caught the driver's attention as we looked at the map.

  "Are you folks traveling on further than Laudenfort?"

  He asked.

  "Yes," I said, as he'd turned his attention back to the road, thankfully. I looked at where Nikki was pointing on the map, which was the site of the next portal that Fel had given me. There were a few towns in the area, the nearest was named 'Overhill'.

  "We're headed to Overhill," Nikki told him. "Any idea how hard it is to get there?"

  "This time of the year, it should be an easy trip to undertake," he said over his shoulder to us. "The garage I'll be a stopping at for the evening, before returning back home, has a pretty good car service. I think they should be able to take you as far as Pendle on your trip. They'll also probably know who you can do business with after that for the rest of your trip."

  "Thank you," Nikki said and we both studied the map. Pendle was a good deal further along. "If I'm reading this right, we should make it in another two days."

  I nodded, "Driver, how many towns are there, between here and Laudenfort? The map shows at least two."

  "That's a fairly old map there I'd say then. There are seven towns now, we'll be a stopping at three of them along the route to refuel, and use the facilities."

  The trip was comfortable, and the roads were in better condition than I would have imagined. The stops were long enough for us to relieve ourselves as well as grab a bite to eat. As we got closer to Laudenfort, there was an increase in traffic, we passed quite a few cars going in the other direction, and there were now a couple of cars before us, as well as behind. I guess Laudenfort was a larger town than what we'd seen before.

  Getting a car to Pendle was as easy as our driver had said. We hired another to take us to Overhill, and got there early enough that we hired a local to drive us fairly close to our destination.

  "So now what?" Nikki asked as we headed towards the gate.

  "I'd say we keep our eyes open, this place has enough tech for Cenewyg to lay a decent trap, and we don't know if he's still in front of us or not."

  Nikki looked around, she'd already shifted to her champion form, as it didn't stand out here all that much.

  "The brush is thick enough here, you should shift and see what you can pick up." She told me.

  I nodded and did so, and within minutes I had Cen's trail.

  "Can you tell how old it is?" Nikki asked.

  "A few hours, let's see where it goes."

  We followed it, and it went exactly where we were going, it didn't look like Cen had even hesitated, he'd just gone straight through.

  "Something doesn't feel quite right about this portal," Nikki said.

  I checked it next, and I had to agree. It felt, well 'uncomfortable' was about the best way I could describe it. "Well, we know Cen went through it, as well as Cameron. So it can't be deadly."

  "But there is something we need to be worried about," Nikki said.

  "Think it's a trap?"

  "Would a portal know what a trap even is?" Nikki countered. "I mean, they're not intelligent, they're just physical, well, things, right?"

  "So you don't think it's anything Cen did?"

  Nikki shook her head, "I don't see how it could be. But from the feeling I'm getting, I wouldn't want to go through there; I especially wouldn't want to take a child through there!"

  I thought about that and I had to agree. "So what do we do?"

  Nikki shrugged, "I don't know, backtrack to Cenewyg's car and see if there's anything there that will give us a clue?"

  I thought about that a moment, it did make some sense, and we'd both been warned about not getting too close until we had a plan.

  "Sure, let's go back and look," I said, and started to backtrack the way we had come.

  It took us about an hour to find the car, and another hour to search it rather thoroughly. About all we discovered was that Cenewyg was a bit of a slob.

  When we got back to the portal, I checked it again; it still felt uncomfortable, but just barely.

  "Nikki, check it out," I said, and watched as she did.

  "Quick, let's get through now before it changes!" She said and stepped through. I stepped through right behind her.

  "What the hell?" I said and looked around, the sun was going down, which had been the same case as where we left. It was not uncommon I'd found for the tim
e to be the same when you went through a portal. We were on a plain, and there was water running around my feet, a few inches about my ankles, rather rapidly.

  I looked around and saw Nikki about ten feet away, she was standing on a fairly large rock, which stuck up about two feet above the ground.

  "What the hell is this?" I asked.

  "Ever hear of the Bay of Fundy?" Nikki asked.

  "That's the place with the huge tidal surges, isn't it?"

  "Yup, I think the tides going out, so we need to figure out which way the high ground is, and head there as fast as possible."

  "Are there any markings on the rock?" I asked looking around myself.

  "Why would anybody put...?" she trailed off "Well huh, think we can trust them?"

  "Which way are they pointing?" I asked.

  Nikki pointed about a hundred and twenty degrees from the direction the water was flowing.

  "Sounds good to me," I said, and we both took off jogging in that direction. I made a note of where the sun was on the horizon, once it went down, we'd have to find a star to guide us, so we didn't end up running in circles.

  "So he set up a natural trap," Nikki said. "That's pretty damn smart. Anyone trying to swim against that current would drown."

  "Cen can be pretty cunning," I agreed, "all the more reason to be careful of him."

  It took us about an hour to reach the beach. By then all of the water had drained out, but it hadn't started coming back in yet. I had no idea how long that would take, but I didn't think that was our problem anymore. The sun had set and it was full dark, but there was a moon in the sky, and while not as big as the one I'd grown up with, it shed more than enough light for me to see where I was going.

  "Which way?" Nikki asked.

  I could see several bright glows on the horizon, so I picked the brightest, hoping that was the closest.

  "That way," I said and pointed.

  We came across a road after about ten minutes, so we both shifted out of our champion forms and just jogged down the road. A couple of cars passed us as we went, and when one came up behind us and flashed its lights, we stopped and waited for it.

  "You folks need a lift?" A man in a uniform, with a hat that had some sort of badge on it asked as he leaned out of an open window.

  "If it's not imposing on you," Nikki said and smiled.

  "Not imposing at all. We run a circuit around the bay after every tidal shift. Some people get stranded on the little isles out there, and come ashore afterwards. We pick them up and take them back to their hotels."

  "Guilty as charged!" Nikki said with a giggle, which almost made me laugh. Nikki was not the giggling type normally.

  "Well, hop in, Saxby is just up the road a way, is that where you're headed?"

  "Yes, sir," I said unslinging my backpack and followed Nikki into the car.

  "Great, I'll have you there in no time at all."

  I looked around the car as we drove. From the outside, it hadn't looked all that much different than the cars at home did, except the fenders seemed to have more of a 'fifties' curve to them. The seats were either leather or vinyl, and quite comfortable. I listened while Nikki chatted with the officer, about the area, she asked him a lot of questions, and he seemed more than happy to answer them.

  When we pulled into town, she just pointed at one of the hotels, and he dropped us off as we thanked him for the ride, and then left.

  "Well, let's get a room, some food, and see if we can find out what's next," I said picking my pack up.

  "Sounds good to me, lead on, Bro." Nikki said and grabbed hers.

  We got a room and Nikki decided to take a nap and find out what she could from Aryanna, while I went out and bought a few maps. I also grabbed a couple of newspapers, reading was always hard, because you didn't pick up the written language like you picked up the spoken one. But it seemed that the more written languages you knew, the easier it got each time. I guess you just got good at figuring out the sounds or something.

  I also noticed that our clothing was woefully out of style, so I picked up a new pair of pants that looked like jeans, and a couple of nondescript shirts. I had to haggle a little over the prices, but we'd gotten a good idea of what silver and gold pieces were worth here when we checked in, and most people seemed inclined to take it.

  "Well, what did you find out?" I asked when I came into the room.

  "Did you get any maps?" Nikki asked, so I tossed them to her, "Good! Okay, Aryanna knows this place fairly well; it's a lot like home in the fifties, only with a few tweaks here and there, both economically and socially.

  "Cenewyg's goal is a gate about two thousand miles from here, so we'll have to buy a car and drive it."

  "What about a train?"

  "There isn't one, they built a pretty impressive canal system, and ships are just a lot cheaper to deal with."

  "What about a ship?"

  "We're going to be going pretty far inland, once we get around the mountains we need to skirt. So we have to buy a car regardless. Plus it's faster."

  "Okay," I nodded, "Car it is. What else?"

  "Ary thinks that Cenewyg is heading to the sphere your Stephanie is now a goddess in."

  That stopped me! I turned and found the chair, and sat down. "He's going there?"

  Nikki nodded, "Looks like."

  "But why?"

  Nikki shrugged, "She's not sure. But she's starting to suspect that Cenewyg may be a champion there, or someplace adjoining to it."

  "Well, if we know where he's going, maybe we can get ahead of him and stage an ambush," I said thinking about that.

  "That's an idea. It would definitely give us an advantage. I'll have to go over the different ways to get there from here."

  "Oh, our clothes stand out here, I bought a few new things, you might want to buy a couple also."

  Nikki nodded. "May want to buy some better weaponry as well. We're in high tech zones from here on. If we have to fight anybody, I'm not sure I want to use swords against guns."

  I nodded, "Sounds good to me."

  It took us a week to get there, I found a car fairly quickly, but halfway there we had to stop at a town and have a mechanic do a tune up, and replace the tires. It was an older car, and ten-hour long days of driving were a bit rough on it.

  Nikki found a couple of small carbines in that same town, while we were killing time and waiting for the mechanic to fix the car, the ammunition was fairly common and pretty cheap. We'd already found a couple of pistols back at Saxby before we left.

  I was looking at the map, and Nikki was driving. "Well, we have a choice, Sis. We can stop at this next town, refuel, and rest, or we can drive straight through, and try to make the portal before nightfall."

  "I vote for stopping," Nikki said. "I'm tired, I'm sure you're tired, and I really don't feel like pressing on through to the gate. If Cenewyg's going to try anything at the gate, I'd rather be well rested."

  I nodded, "Sounds good to me. Plus maybe Fel or Aryanna can tell us if he's gone through yet."

  We hit the town about ten minutes later, got the oil and water checked and filled up on the fuel. It was pretty dry here, having become almost a desert this far from the ocean, and it had been getting hotter each day during the last few days of driving.

  We got a room at a small roadside motel, and I took a nap while Nikki went in search of food and drinks.

  I looked up I was in the bar, I was a little surprised, I hadn't planned on talking to Fel again until after we were through the next portal.

  "Hi, Fel, what's up?"

  "I wanted you to have the same information as Nikki does before you went through the next portal, you can't really make any plans if you don't know what's going to happen next."

  I nodded, "Aryanna is fairly certain he's going to Stephanie's sphere. I take it you agree?"

  Fel nodded, "It's the only logical destination for him at this point, he has been taking the shortest path."

  "So how many more spheres do we hav
e to go through?"

  "Three more, each of which will have a higher tech level than the one before it. Because these are tech worlds, there are portal traveler shops in them, the same as you found on Treow. In order for you to get some of the things you will need, you may have to do business with them, so I wanted you to know where those were, as well as the locations of the portals you will need to go through."

  "Is there a way to get in front of him?"

  Fel shook his head, "Not by taking another route there isn't, this is really the shortest. If you can travel to a portal before he gets there however, then you can get ahead of him."

  "Do you think he knows we're on his trail?"

  "Oh, I'm fairly certain he knows you're after him. I don't think he knows who is helping you however. Or how far behind him you are."

  "Well, we don't even know how far behind him we are."

  "He's still in the same sphere you're in, he hasn't left yet. Aryanna's ability to track him, through your connection to Cameron is at its limits now. Soon she may not even be able to tell when he goes through a portal."

  I nodded, "Does Stephanie know we're coming?"

  "I do not know, I have not talked to her. Aryanna has barely been able to talk to her, Stephanie is barely ten years a goddess, and she is still coming into her powers, and still gathering followers."

  I was about to ask another question, when I remembered Fordessa, Fordessa had quite a few followers, a temple, and a couple of churches and a minor temple when we'd run into her. She was a hundred years or so a goddess at that point, but still hadn't gathered enough followers or power to have a champion. So it was only logical to assume that Stephanie was much weaker than Fordessa had been.

  "Exactly," Fel said reading my thoughts.

  I wondered suddenly if this was some attempt by Cenewyg to get in her good graces again. He had loved her once, or at least Stephanie had told me he had, and now that she was a goddess, well down the road that could probably pay some serious dividends.

  Cenewyg would definitely be interested in serious dividends.

  "I can not help you with that either," Fel sighed. "We can't read Cenewyg's mind, and because of who and what he is, Aryanna can't see what his actions in the future will be."