‘The author recorded the travel time. I know how long it takes the average human to ride a horse.’
‘What if he was on foot?’
Gulamendis threw his brother a withering look. ‘He mentions riding. I assume, given the abandoned stables back at the keep, it means riding horses.’
His brother conceded. ‘Go on.’
‘I compensated for that, factored in how much this landscape has changed, and how long it would take us to walk the same distance.’ He made an encompassing arc with his hand. ‘We should find it somewhere around here.’
‘What exactly are we looking for?’ asked his brother.
‘A portal.’ He sounded far less convinced than he had the last time he answered his brother’s question.
‘You do remember that the one at the fortress was invisible?’ asked Laromendis.
The Demon Master pondered it for a moment, then said, ‘You’re the master of the unseen. Do you have any means to discern invisible things?’
‘If I know what I’m looking for, perhaps.’
‘A portal?’
Laromendis looked embarrassed as he realized that he should have thought of using his skills in this way. ‘It would help if I knew the general area.’
Gulamendis indicated their immediate surroundings with a wave of his hand. ‘If I read this book correctly, the portal should be close by. It appears that they built it far enough away from the fortress so that if something dire occurred, they would not endanger their ruler and his court.
‘This blasted countryside has been ravaged by those volcanoes, so scorching a few more hectares of land would hardly be a problem.’
‘Then where would you logically place it?’
‘Somewhere close to an ancient road that once ran below our feet.’ He pointed to a non-volcanic hilltop close by. ‘That may be the only remaining landmark from before the recent eruptions, but if that’s the hill mentioned in this journal…’ He looked around. ‘We should be close. You would put a portal by the road, someplace flat, a spot easy to observe from a safe distance…’ He pointed. ‘Like over there.’
Laromendis nodded and walked up an incline and then down a steeper one to a flat area dotted with a few loose rocks. He closed his eyes and extended both hands outward and downward. After a minute he said, ‘No. Nothing.’
Gulamendis said, ‘Well, we might as well be methodical about this.’ He turned and looked for another observable location and pointed, then led his brother to examine it.
They found the portal three hours later. It wasn’t invisible. Instead, it had been knocked flat by some geological shudder in past years. It had a large base very similar to those used by the taredhel, with two slender bowed arms sweeping upward. They had to be careful getting it upright again, as there was no means to repair any damage they might inadvertently cause.
Laromendis said, ‘Do you think you can make this thing work?’
‘I don’t know,’ answered his brother honestly. ‘I can only try.’ He consulted the book several times, then said, ‘Look for a recess in the base.’
Laromendis did so and said, ‘There’s a very tightly fitted cover.’ He poked and prodded, and eventually the lid slid to the side. A faint humming filled the air. Inside they saw a glowing yellow crystal.
‘It’s still working?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Laromendis. ‘You’re the one who read the journal.’
‘We’ve both been through those portals a dozen times.’
‘Yes,’ said the Conjurer, ‘but neither of us has programmed one.’
‘I did,’ said the Demon Master dryly.
‘And almost drowned us both.’
Gulamendis knelt and inspected the base, then the two arching wands of wood that formed the boundary of the portal. ‘I feel energy, but it’s very faint.’
‘Do you see controls?’
‘Here, I think,’ Gulamendis answered. ‘Feel here.’ He pointed at a spot on one of the uprights.
Laromendis did and said, ‘I feel a depression…wait, there are a series of them.’
‘Try turning your hand sidewise.’
‘Fingers!’ said Laromendis with delight. ‘You put your fingers in there.’
‘And one for the thumb, I am certain.’
‘Why?’ asked his brother.
The Demon Master said, ‘Because few of the demon hosts have four fingers and a thumb, and most of those that do have long talons that would prevent their fingers from fitting.’
‘Or they just designed it that way because that’s how they created artifacts.’
‘Or there is that,’ agreed Gulamendis.
Laromendis moved his fingers around in the impressions and said, ‘I don’t know how this works.’
‘There’s nothing in the journal about how this device operates. Lots of discussion covering what happened when they used it, but nothing as to how it’s controlled.’
‘There are no markings, no devices, nothing to tell you if you’ve selected the proper alignment.’ Laromendis looked defeated.
Suddenly Gulamendis said, ‘Think about where you want to go.’
‘Think?’