Amity and Enmity

Chapter 58

Day: 1357

Days Left: 4123

Lives Saved: 7

O'Sullivan reached the summit of the mountain, the whistling wind billowing through his long coat, but the man remained sturdy, unlike his followers who struggled to follow after him, having to bend and crouch against the elemental forces.

"There it is..." he said as he looked into the distance at a noticeable blotch in the sky, a bruise above what seemed to be a canyon in the dry wastelands, the grass brittle yet still flourishing a fluorescent green. He gazed down at his feet at this grass; though vibrant in colour, he easily crushed it under his feet, the grass breaking into fractures like rock rather than a plant.

"It appears you weren't lying to me, dear Henry." O'Sullivan turned around and smiled at Henry Best, the man currently being forcibly shoved up the steep incline by two hyena guards; another hyena guard was nearby, carrying the lantern cage that contained Nia the fairy as an incentive for Henry to keep moving.

"It could all still be a trick," said Karina, pressing her face close to Henry's tauntingly, gripping his cheeks before pushing it away, the man almost toppling over. "There may be a portal there, but who knows if it will ever open-"

"It will!" spat Henry, heaving deep and staggered breaths. The steep mountain was not tiring itself, but the constant being pushed and kicked around by the hyena guards and Karina had exhausted him, not to mention the mere scraps and drops of water he was given. "The portal will open-"

"And how long will that take? We must wait for them to throw a prisoner down, which they won't do when we're nearby."

Henry sighed, tired of explaining himself multiple times; it seemed that O'Sullivan didn't share the minor details with his subordinates.

Karina took his sighing as an insult, scowling and taking a step closer but stopped and grinned in satisfaction as Henry flinched from her approach.

Henry swallowed. "Many centuries ago, before mages had proper access to the Eternal Abyss, portals would appear in our world leading to the Abyss, only they would appear for just a few minutes at most, and were unstable, needing magic to stabilise them so that people could walk through and get here. The portals would appear constant, some opening on the exact day each year, others more frequent. Whilst our technological and magical advances have greatly increased, we can now open these portals whenever we want. However, we cannot stop them from opening at their natural time. They will open at that exact time and date without fail."

Karina rolled her eyes as if she wanted to insult Henry but could not think of anything.

"That portal..." Henry motioned to the bruise in the distance, his neck aching from raising his head slightly. "From my calculations, it should open in two days at 12:05 pm if my counting is correct."

"And how are we going to get up there?" asked Karina, squinting to judge the distance.

"You'll see when we get closer," answered Henry, risking Karina's wrath for being cryptic, but it was worth it as he did not want to describe it again. He had explained the situation to O'Sullivan, the man seemed indifferent, but just Henry saying it made him nauseous, almost throwing up, unable to suppress the images of what lay below the portal. 

"Let's head down," said O'Sullivan. "We will scope out the situation and then set up camp. And we will all be free in just a few days."

O'Sullivan led the Evil Eyes down the mountain; his eyes focused on the closed portal in the distance.

Henry could feel the sickness rising up his throat with each step he took. He could have chosen a different portal, but he wanted to be free from this group, especially Karina, as soon as possible so he could return to tracking down his cousin, Corinna Warren; he had already wasted so much time. Who knew how far away Corinna had strayed from her original sector? And then there was also Nia, who was supposed to be free quite some time ago but was stuck in her cage in her fairy form. With each passing day, the higher chance she would be stuck in that form forever, unable to leave the Abyss.