Josh blinked, trying to clear his eyesight. Where the heck was he? He registered that the room was dark with a
musty smell, like old socks. He could
barely make out shapes but saw what could have been a desk with a big, stuffed
chair behind it. It appeared that books
covered all the walls. The room was large
and Josh was at one end of it. There was
a table with chairs in the middle of the room, with the desk at the far
end. He rubbed his hands over his face
again, trying to clear his eyesight.
“It doesn’t really help. That blurriness will go away in a little
bit. Just don’t make any sudden
movements and you won’t feel your head.”
Josh spun around and looked to his right where the voice was coming
from. So much for not making sudden
movements. As he turned, his head
exploded with pain and he staggered against the wall and promptly sat on the
floor. He moaned.
“I told you not to make any sudden movements,” came
the voice again in a softer tone. Josh
could tell it was a girl but couldn’t really make out her features.
He held his head in his hands. “Are you sure my head won’t explode?”
“Yes, I’m sure.
Here.” She handed him a cool, wet
cloth. “It will pass in a couple of
minutes,” she assured him.
“Thanks,” Josh said.
“Where am I?” he asked between his fingers, afraid to take his hands
down for fear his head would explode despite her assurance.
“I’m not sure,” she said cheerily. “I think this is the Wizard’s house but he’s
not been back to tell us. We’ve had the
full run of the house but the windows and doors won’t open. This is the library, in case you didn’t see
that before you moved. There’s a small
kitchen, couple bedrooms and a bath chamber, but that’s it,” she continued in
the same cheerful voice. “There isn’t a
food synthesizer but there’s some kind of metal box next to the sink that has
food in it. Kinda gross to see food
uncooked, but at least its eatable. Well
some of it is, anyway.”
Well that’s weird, Josh thought to himself. How can she not know what food is? Before he could think about it anymore, what
happened to him came flooding back in one, big, honking memory.
He had been heading home from the late shift at the
diner where he ran the grill. Burgers,
fries, that kind of thing. Nothing
fancy. He had rounded a corner after
getting off the bus and a little man completely covered in a long, dark coat
told him to “step through the portal.”
Not being one to do what he’s told, Josh tried to run the other way but
the little guy simply pushed him and he went tumbling into the shimmering ring
Josh now took to have been a portal, whatever that was.
“I’m Meri.”
Meri was holding out her hand to Josh expecting him to shake it, he
supposed, still kind of groggy and wondering what a synthesizer was, he grabbed
her hand and pulled himself up, almost knocking her over. She recovered nicely and smiled. “The Wizard must be the little guy in black,”
he commented, not really needing an answer.
“You said ‘we’ earlier,” Josh said.
“Who’s ‘we’?” Meri pointed to a
corner.
“He doesn’t say much.
His name’s Digger but that’s about all I’ve gotten out of him. He’s been here for a day; I came last night
and now you.” Meri told him. Josh could barely make out another person in
the corner. He seemed to melt into the
heavy curtains that were covering the window.
If it wasn’t for his blonde hair he probably wouldn’t have been visible
at all.
Josh could see he had some kind of backpack or bag in
his hand but couldn’t really make out what it was. Digger sat the bag on the floor in the corner
and raised his hand slightly in way of a greeting to Josh. Josh did the same and turned back to
Meri.
Meri took the cloth Josh handed to her and set it on
the table. She picked up a glass that
was there and handed it to him.
“Water. Drink.” Josh took a tentative sip and found it was
pretty good so drank it and handed Meri back the empty glass. His eyesight was beginning to return to
normal like she had said.
“Feeling better?” she asked after a little bit.
“Yup.” Josh
tried a smile. That didn’t hurt too
bad. “I’m Josh. So what’s going on? Do you know?”
She grinned at him.
“Not really. All I know is that
the Wizard will explain everything when he gets here.”
Since he had to wait, Josh figured he’d take a look
around. After a bit of exploring he too
found doors locked and windows that wouldn’t open. He even found the kitchen like Meri
said.
Waiting wasn’t something Josh did well and he was
going to have a few words to say to the Wizard when he returned but for now he figured
he was stuck and would take the time to appraise the situation a bit and see
what the others had to say. Maybe there
was something they knew that could get him out of there. He returned to the study thinking he could
talk to the other two to find out what else they knew. After all, they appeared to be in the same
boat as he was.
Meri was standing with Digger by the window trying to
get a look outside. He headed over to
see, too. From the corner by the door a
noise like a whisper drew their attention.
Digger stepped back into the shadows.
“Looks like the Wizard has arrived,” Josh said as they saw a little man
materialize in the corner. The Wizard
was holding a long stick with some kind of glowing gem on the end of it. He tapped it sharply on the floor and the
room was flooded with lights. The three
by the window all exclaimed and put their hands over their eyes. The little Wizard saw the gesture and
giggled. “Lights,” he said rather
mischievously.
“Yeah, we got that,” said Josh, not bothering to hide
his sarcasm. “What is going on old man? We need some answers. Where are we and why are you keeping us
here?” Josh got out as he was holding
his hand in front of his face, protecting his eyes against the light. “All in good time, all in good time.” The Wizard said almost in a whisper. Josh snorted.
He didn’t like being dismissed out of hand. Before he could start up again, he felt a
hand on his arm. Meri. She whispered, “give it a minute, okay?” Josh subsided reluctantly hoping she knew
what she was doing.
Once Josh’s eyes adjusted to the light, he peered
around the room. The light was coming
from eight sconces set in the wall about three quarters of the way up; four on
each side. They flickered like
candles. Josh fleetingly wondered how
the wizard had lit them all but was distracted by the wizard himself.
Now that Josh was seeing the little man again, he
remembered that he had seen him several times in the week before the portal
incident. Once outside his trailer park
at the little bakery, once outside his friend Charlie’s house in southeast Portland
and again on the bus last week as he was heading to work.
The old guy had apparently been following Josh. He was clueless as to why. He thought of himself as an ordinary
teenager; almost 6 feet tall with wavy brown hair that fell over his eyes a
bit. Girls considered him good looking
and he didn’t see any reason to doubt them.
He wasn’t vain about his looks but made sure to take care of himself and
wore things that were stylish rather than shabby. However, none of that, in Josh’s mind would be
any reason to single him out for a little jaunt in a portal. And he still didn’t know where he was. As he was opening his mouth to give the
Wizard a piece of his mind and get some questions answered, the Wizard had
other plans.
“Wait here.
Back shortly,” said the Wizard as he went out the door. Josh and Meri went to follow him but by the
time they got to the door, it was closed.
Josh opened it and started out into the corridor beyond but there was no
sign of the Wizard. “Well that’s just
grand,” he exclaimed, stepping back inside and closing the door. “Guess we wait,” he said as he sat down at
the table. His head was still spinning
and he picked up the glass, hoping for some more water.
“I’ll get you more water,” Meri said, taking the glass
from him and heading out the door. When
she got back, the Wizard was behind her.
She handed the glass to Josh who set it on the table without taking any.
“Sit” the Wizard told Meri and Digger, pointing to the
chairs around the table. “I need to tell
you the rules before you leave,” he continued.
Digger reluctantly left the corner to join the others at the table. Now that there was light, Josh was able to
see his companions much better.
Meri was pretty.
Her face was oval with high cheekbones and a slightly pointed chin. Her deep blue eyes shone with laughter. Her blonde hair was caught at the base of her
neck and hung straight down her back in a braid. He saw she almost sat on it when she sat
down. Earlier he noticed she smelled
like wildflowers. She had on a blue
blouse and dark skirt that was made of some shiny material Josh didn’t
recognize.
Digger was tanned, blonde and looked skinny. He had narrow shoulders and was about the
same height as Josh. Where Josh was
muscular from working out, Digger was slight and sinewy. Digger’s clothes were slightly the worse for
wear with a hole in the shoulder of his shirt and a ragged hem on his
pants. A slight musty smell was coming
from him Josh realized trying not to hold his nose. When he looked up, Josh noticed his sharp,
blue eyes. Very distinctive.
“Where are we, where are we going, what are we doing
here and what exactly is going on?” Josh
asked, turning to the Wizard. The Wizard
had flipped back the hood to his robe and Josh could see that he was younger than
he expected him to be. His face was
smooth with about three inches of beard on his chin. His hair was white, not blonde but white as
if with age. Josh figured he was in his
early to late 50s. The Wizard ignored
Josh’s questions.
“This land is ruled by science, however, all patrols
have a wizard for protection and they cast spells. Some rather nasty ones, too,” he paused for a
second, looking down the table. “There
is nothing you can use to defend yourself against them. Meri’s amulet will allow her to hide from
them and she can let me know when you get in trouble. You mustn’t be caught, though, with the
item. Josh’s talent will help with that
to some extent. Don’t talk to anyone. Digger will lead you through the shadows so
follow him closely. Digger’s talents
will get you into the area you need to be and back out. Meri will defend you, if necessary. Don’t leave witnesses. It is imperative that you act quickly.” The Wizard stood as if to go.
“Now hold on a sec, old man,” from Josh. “A question,”
from Meri. The Wizard turned to
Meri. “What item, what am I defending
against, and what amulet?” she asked before Josh could catch his breath and ask
his questions. Digger sat in
silence.
“The amulet your mother gave you has the power to make
you invisible and defend you against dark magic without being detected as
magic. It is old world power so the
Bard’s cannot detect it and you won’t be discovered by their squads,” the
Wizard stated with a puzzled look. “Didn’t your father tell you about it?”
“No. He told me
it was my mother’s,” Meri said. “If it
has some power I’ve never tried to use it and not sure it even works
anymore. It’s very old, according to my
father,” she went on, fingering the amulet around her neck.
“It is passive magic so it will work when it
works. You shouldn’t have to do anything
special to it as long as you are wearing it but holding it in your hand while
activated should make the magic stronger.
I’ve not had one to experiment with but that’s what I’ve researched,”
said the Wizard. “As for your other
questions, the defending will come in time.
You are trained and prepared for battle.
I need to go check on something. The
item we will discuss after you’ve rested.
I’ll have gifts for each of you then too.” He abruptly turned to the door, stomped his
stick on the floor putting out the lights and walked out, closing the door
behind him. Oh great, thought Josh. The old guy doesn’t know how the amulet works
because he didn’t experiment with one.
He doesn’t even know what he’s doing.
Great.
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