A Cat's Guide to Travelling through Portals (Dragoncat Book 5) by Chris Behrsin

Author:Chris Behrsin [Behrsin, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2022-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

26

DIFFICULT DECISIONS

Admittedly, Max had been the last character I’d expected to see standing on the other side of that portal. In fact, I hadn’t expected to see anyone at all. I thought that one of us would close the thing, Alliander would return from the Oracle Fairy, and we’d work out what we had to do next.

But the Sussex spaniel sat there, framed by a soft purple light. He was panting happily, his tongue lolling low, and his nose lifted high. “Come on! Come on!” he called in the dog language. “Bastet wants to see you. She wants to see you now.”

“Max, what are you talking about?” I barked back at him in his own language.

But he had already turned around and was disappearing into the purple night that seemed to lie behind that portal.

“Was that Max?” Asinda asked.

“None other,” I replied.

“What’s he doing there?”

“I don’t know,” I cast a glance at Esme, who showed no sign she meant to reveal anything new. “He said that Bastet wanted to meet us.”

“Who?” Asinda asked.

“In my world, in an ancient civilisation known as Egypt, there was a goddess who was half human, half cat. Her name was Bastet.” When I had gained the ability to speak the languages of all sentient creatures, I had learned random trivia like this. I was a walking encyclopaedia….

“You mean like that sphinx creature we met outside Capitut’s Tomb?” Seramina asked.

“More powerful than the sphinx,” I replied. “And hopefully she won’t have an affinity for asking stupid riddles that don’t have any proper or logical answers.”

“And what would this Bastet want?” Asinda asked.

“I haven’t a clue. I didn’t even know she existed.”

“So I guess we follow him, right?” Seramina asked with a shrug.

“Are you mad?” Asinda said. “The Fifth Dimension is teeming with aeriosaurs. They’ll skin us alive.”

“Max seemed to have survived it,” I pointed out. “Maybe all the aeriosaurs have gone.”

“Meanwhile, we have no clue what’s on the other side. We need to close the portal now!”

Really, I wasn’t sure what to think. We had, after all, come on this mission to protect Max. We needed more information. “Esme, would you care to tell us what’s going on? You seem to have all the answers around here.”

Instead of eliciting a reply, my words seemed to spur Esme into action. She leapt through the portal to the Fifth Dimension. She paused there for a moment, sniffing the air on the other side of the portal with her pink nose. Then she turned back.

“Pounce first, ask questions later,” she said. “Are you coming?”

I growled. Most times that I’d jumped through an unfamiliar portal, I’d landed in danger.

Seramina didn’t seem to be so cautious. She shrugged, and with her staff held out in front of her she stepped through the portal. “No sign of aeriosaurs in here,” she hollered back over her shoulder.

I looked up at Asinda, who was turning her head between the portal and the path we’d taken to arrive here. I took a step forward.

“Ben, you’re doing it again,” Salanraja said.

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