The Last Portal (15 page)

Chris tried
again to probe his thoughts, but this time he was locked out.
Clearly Kaloc had only allowed him access to his thoughts briefly
to confirm his identity.

‘Why are you so
happy we’re here?’ Joe asked, watching Kaloc suspiciously.

Kaloc’s eyes
narrowed, as though contemplating how to answer this question.
‘First, I would like you to explain to me how you got here.’

After quickly
searching the faces of Joe and Susie, and seeing they were not
about to volunteer an explanation, Chris began. He explained how he
found the key, how they had fallen through the portal, the meeting
with Batarr, his vision where he had seen Kaloc collecting food,
and all the events leading up to the present, with Joe and Susie
periodically injecting their own perspectives. Kaloc listened
carefully, nodding at certain points and grunting agreement at
others, as though their story was confirming his suspicions.

‘This explains
a lot,’ he said, when Chris had finished. ‘The knife Batarr gave
you was my favourite fruit-peeling knife. Zelnoff has already made
several attempts to find me using this knife, but I know what his
presence is like and can shield myself. But your vibrations were
totally different. I realised too late that I was being
watched.’

‘I didn’t know
it was you, we…’

‘It’s fine,
it’s fine,’ Kaloc cut in. ‘In fact, considering what has happened,
it’s been the best possible outcome.’

Kaloc leaned
forward eagerly. ‘Who has the key?’

Chris pulled
out his key and Susie also pulled out her key.

Kaloc’s face
broadened in laughter when he saw the second key. ‘Excellent. I
couldn’t have planned for a better outcome.’ He took Susie’s key
and examined it closely. ‘This key belonged to Yemac, a good friend
of mine,’ he said sadly. ‘He underestimated the power of Zelnoff to
corrupt even his most trusted advisors.’ He handed the key back to
Susie. ‘He was betrayed and killed and the key fell into Batarr’s
hands. But now...’He smiled across at the Mytar. ‘You not only have
Yemac’s key, but Batarr’s key as well. He has lost the Mytar and
both the keys.’

Even in the dim
light of the fire, Chris could see the clear sparkle in Kaloc’s
eyes.

‘Batarr has
made his first mistake,’ Kaloc continued. ‘It’s up to me to ensure
it will be a very costly one.’

In answer to
their confused expressions, Kaloc gestured for them to sit down.
‘Batarr was once a very powerful and strong leader,’ he continued,
‘and his ability to project himself into your dimension and others
went well beyond the abilities of the other six Guardians of this
planet. Apparently, whilst exploring these other dimensions, he
must have found Zelnoff, or Zelnoff found him. I’m not sure whether
Batarr voluntarily allowed Zelnoff to enter this world, or Zelnoff
had control of him, but either way, the result has been the same.
We are an occupied world and I lead the only remaining resistance,
and hold the last remaining portal to your world.’ He paused for a
moment to observe the effect of his words. ‘And you three, I
believe, are part of the last remaining group of Mytar on your
planet.’

‘That’s not
true,’ Chris objected. ‘There should be other Mytar on Earth.’

Kaloc shook his
head. ‘You are the last. As you already know, the groups of Mytar
are spaced apart so that at least another three older groups should
still exist on your planet. Their vibrations would have been much
stronger than yours and easier to detect. When Zelnoff invaded this
planet, we immediately started trying to locate the strongest Mytar
in your world. It shouldn’t have been a difficult task, but each
time we found a group of Mytar, Batarr managed to kill them before
we could transport them back here.’

‘Batarr killed
all the other Mytar,’ Joe said, his jaw dropping. ‘Why didn’t you
stop him?’

‘We simply
didn’t know he was working for Zelnoff. We thought Zelnoff was
killing the Mytar, not Batarr.’

There was a
prolonged silence after these words. Chris couldn’t read Kaloc’s
thoughts, but the gravity of his voice left no doubt in Chris’s
mind that he was telling the truth.

‘So he saved us
because we could use the keys to find your portal?’ Chris
summarised.

‘Zelnoff cannot
make the leap safely to your world unless he controls all the
portals,’ Kaloc continued. ‘As long as I’m alive and have control
of a portal, he’ll be in danger of me disrupting the transport to
your planet. He knows this, but so far hasn’t been able to find my
portal, or me.’

‘Until now,’
Susie interrupted. ‘Because of us, Batarr now knows where the
portal is.’

Kaloc nodded.
‘Zelnoff couldn’t find my portal so he needed Mytar to operate the
keys to find it. All of the adult Mytar were already dead. That
only left your group. It appears from your presence that Batarr
succeeded in finding you. I couldn’t have done this. Your signal
would’ve been too weak for me to detect.’

‘So why are you
so happy to see us?’ Chris asked.

‘You represent
the only force that’s still capable of stopping Zelnoff. I can only
delay his conquest of this world, I cannot ultimately defeat him.
Eventually he will find the portal and me. But now, with your help,
there is a chance of not only stopping him reaching your world, but
throwing him out of ours.’

There was a
collective gasp of exasperation. ‘We’re too young,’ Joe pleaded.
‘We can’t do anything.’

‘This task
shouldn’t have fallen to you,’ Kaloc admitted. ‘But whether you yet
fully realise it or not, you possess abilities that make you
capable of extraordinary feats.’

‘But I thought
we were going to go back to Earth,’ Joe said, sounding more
miserable by the second.

‘Batarr had no
intention of returning you to your home once you located the
portal,’ Kaloc replied. ‘You are Mytar, and even though you’re
still young, you represent a serious threat to Zelnoff’s plans. You
saw for yourselves that Batarr was going to kill you. As long as
any Mytar are alive, they will threaten Zelnoff.’

‘But I still
don’t get it,’ Susie said. ‘How are we a threat?’

‘Each Mytar has
unique powers that are magnified in the presence of the rest of the
group,’ Kaloc explained. ‘If we can find and transport the
remaining Mytar from your world to this one, then, when all the
Mytar powers are combined, we may be able to defeat Zelnoff.’

‘Only maybe?’
Chris queried, feeling he had heard this record before.

‘You’re young
and immature, and your true powers have yet to develop. I cannot
say if your combined strength will be enough.’

‘So we’re back
to saving the planet,’ Joe groaned, sounding disgusted.

‘After what you
have seen, surely you cannot doubt the seriousness of this
situation,’ Kaloc replied.

‘But how can we
fight an army?’ Joe asked.

‘You cannot
fight anyone until you find the remaining Mytar. I don’t have the
ability to detect them from here, so you will have to go back
through the portal and find them yourselves.’

At the mention
of returning to Earth, Susie and Joe grinned at each other.

‘But not yet,’
Kaloc added quickly. ‘Batarr has escaped. He will be rushing back
to his forces, which are massing in the next valley. We must return
to the portal before Zelnoff’s forces find it. At the moment it’s
well hidden in the underworld under the protection of the
Nethral.’

‘The
Nethral...’ Chris repeated.

Kaloc smiled at
Chris. ‘I thought that name might stir some reaction. They were the
first to alert me to your presence. News travels fast when a child
can stare down hungry Prower.’

Chris felt
himself going red. ‘So do you know Duss and Cass?’

‘Not
personally, but they were impressed enough to tell the high council
of the Nethral all about your exploits. It wasn’t long before the
news got back to me. Then, when my Prower reported a strange party
of soldiers led by Batarr and accompanied by children, I took an
educated guess.’

Chris looked
across at Altac. He was listening with a mixture of confusion and
astonishment on his face. Clearly Kaloc’s words were a complete
revelation to him. His mind was having extreme difficulty believing
that all this time, his master, the Guardian he had served for so
long and devoted his life to, was a servant of Zelnoff.

‘But how could
Batarr hide his connection to Zelnoff?’ Chris asked, deciding to
voice the question Altac was burning to ask.

Kaloc nodded,
as though expecting this question. ‘Did any of you have any doubts
who Batarr really was?’

‘Well… I never
liked him,’ Joe piped up, trying to sound as if he had known all
along.

‘But did you
ever suspect he was working for Zelnoff?’

Joe grumbled
under his breath but in the end, like Chris and Susie, had to admit
he had no idea.

‘That’s what
makes Zelnoff so dangerous. He has the ability to manipulate people
with promises of power, or control them with his will. His
influence spreads into every corner of the land, like a disease.
Even I don’t know who has fallen under his control.’

‘When did you
know that Batarr was with Zelnoff?’ Altac asked.

‘Not for a long
time,’ Kaloc replied softly, after watching his friend. ‘We thought
we were only fighting Zelnoff. Before we realised, three Guardians
had been killed and the armies of Zelnoff were pouring through
their portals. Zelnoff never used Batarr’s portal. That’s why we
never suspected anything. We thought Batarr was helping us when, in
fact, he was using his powers to find and kill the Mytar in your
world, while Zelnoff was waging war on us here. Batarr carried out
this deception for years. Only when I was the last remaining
Guardian did I suspect him.’

‘And what made
you suspicious?’ Susie asked.

‘Hmm… Nothing
obvious,’ Kaloc said slowly, ‘only minor things. For instance,
Zelnoff always seemed to know where the portals were, no matter
where we re-located them, and he never attempted to find Batarr’s
portal, even though, as you have seen, it is quite exposed.’ He
paused for a moment. ‘And probably in hindsight the most obvious;
Batarr always wanted know the whereabouts of the other portals. We
trusted him; he was our leader, so he was always told everything.
When I moved the portal to the underworld, I decided not to tell
anyone where it was located. It appears that’s what saved me.’

‘So you were
never absolutely sure it was Batarr?’ Altac asked.

‘No, I was
never absolutely sure. Only when I heard about Chris’s abilities
and the presence of two other children in Batarr’s company did I
put the final pieces of the puzzle together. He wouldn’t have
guarded you so well if you weren’t the child Mytar.’

‘So it was
Zelnoff’s armies that destroyed those villages we saw on the lake,’
Susie concluded.

‘You must
understand,’ Kaloc replied, his voice becoming very serious, ‘that
this area is the last part of this planet that’s not under
Zelnoff’s rule. There were people in those villages who spied on
Zelnoff’s forces for me. Because Zelnoff didn’t know who were
responsible, he destroyed them all.’ He looked away into the flames
of the fire. ‘This isn’t an unusual tactic for Zelnoff,’ he added
bitterly.

Chris looked
across at Altac, who was sitting nursing his leg, his coarse
features wrapped in misery.

‘I know this
must be hard for you,’ Kaloc addressed Altac, an almost apologetic
tone in his voice. ‘You trusted Batarr and were willing to die for
him. I can only say how sorry I am for having to tell you this.
Batarr didn’t try to convince you that I was working for Zelnoff
because he knew you would have difficulty believing it. Instead he
twisted the truth and said he was looking for Zelnoff. He knew you
would defend him first and ask questions later, and that’s exactly
what happened.’

Altac didn’t
react. Instead he stared blankly into the fire.

Chris read
enormous sadness and hurt in his thoughts, but his disbelief was
gone. Kaloc’s explanation, for the moment at least, appeared to
have satisfied his most pressing questions. ‘So how do we stop
someone like Zelnoff?’ Chris asked.

‘Batarr has
actually told you more of the truth than he realised,’ Kaloc said
thoughtfully. ‘Zelnoff’s strength is also his greatest weakness. If
we defeat him, his whole empire will crumble.’

‘But no one
even knows what he looks like,’ Joe complained.

‘That’s true.’
Kaloc turned his attention to Chris. ‘You have already used your
abilities to find the Wassin and myself. You may also be able to
use these abilities to find Zelnoff.’

‘So you’ve got
something of Zelnoff’s I can use?’ Chris asked, feeling the now all
too familiar fluttering in his stomach.

‘No, but you
mightn’t have to find him. He may come looking for you. On your
planet, Batarr has already shown that he can reach you in your
sleep. He may try the same thing tonight to find our exact
location. If he does, you mustn’t try to block him out. He must be
allowed to enter your dreams.’

‘Why?’ Chris
frowned.

‘Look for
someone in the background. I don’t believe, considering your
growing powers, Batarr would attempt this without help from
Zelnoff. Zelnoff will be there somewhere. You must look for him.
But don’t try to probe his thoughts, just try to see what he looks
like.’

Chris had the
same sinking feeling he had experienced when Batarr had first asked
him to find Zelnoff. He watched Kaloc as he began rubbing the tummy
of a Prower, who had been lying on its back, patiently waiting for
attention. If he protested, he would get the same stock response
that Batarr had always given him. ‘Because you are Mytar.’ Chris
decided to hold his tongue.

The Mytar were
presented with dry clothes, although they fitted so badly that
Chris decided to change back into the clothes Batarr had given him
as soon as they were dry. While everyone ate, Prower roamed freely
around the camp and were fed scraps from the dinner. Chris judged
there were three different humanoid species among Kaloc’s forces.
Apart from the human-looking ones like Altac and Kaloc, the others,
who he had previously seen in his vision, looked even more alien up
close. The large gorilla-looking people varied from black to light
brown in colour, with long furry arms, thick eyebrow ridges and
receding foreheads. They reminded him of the pictures he had once
seen in a book on Neanderthal Man. The smaller humanoids, however,
with their saucer-shaped eyes and disproportionately long torsos
and ridiculously short, stout arms, looked totally unlike anything
he had ever seen, or could have ever imagined. But he was pleased
to find that he could read all their thoughts, and found
confirmation of Kaloc’s words. The only new piece of information he
obtained was that Kaloc alone had a unique gift amongst the
Guardians: he could communicate with the Prower. No other Guardian
could do this.