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RICHARD AND THE SORCERESS
Page 1 of 3
By Donald H Sullivan
If Richard Capella's tests were successful, he would not only be realizing the greatest invention of his life, it would be one of the greatest inventions of all time.
Richard had a number of inventions to his credit, and the royalties from his inventions earned him more than enough to quit his job at Astro Instruments, thus allowing him to devote full time to his greatest love: tinkering and experimenting with just about anything that struck his fancy.
In a few moments he would know if this was to be the invention that would bring him fame and fortune. He would attempt to teleport a rabbit from booth A on one side of the lab to booth B on the other side. He opened the door to booth A and placed the rabbit inside. After many long hours of mental and physical toil, he was finally ready.
He thought of the movie, "The Fly," and checked the booths for the presence of any unwanted insects. He chuckled to himself. "Why am I worried? Even if I do end up with a monster in booth B, I should be so lucky it works at all."
He double-checked all his settings, and held his breath as he pulled the switch. His pulse quickened as he watched the rabbit in booth A vanish. His gaze jumped to booth B, expecting to see the rabbit sitting there. Booth B was empty.
"What in the...this is crazy. The rabbit had to go somewhere."
He rechecked the two booths carefully, and then he searched the lab. There was no sign of the rabbit anywhere. The rabbit did not cease to exist; it had to be existing somewhere. There was a space of fifteen feet between the two booths. Could the rabbit be trapped in some nebulous limbo in that space?
He flipped the switch back to the OFF position. He stared at booth B in amazement, for as he flipped the switch off, the rabbit materialized in the booth--and sitting atop the rabbit's head was a bright blue grasshopper. Wherever the rabbit had been, it had picked up a hitchhiker. He was relieved to see that the two creatures hadn't meshed together or exchanged parts, but were two separate entities. He chuckled inwardly as he pictured a rabbit-grasshopper monster appearing in booth B.
He'd never heard of a blue grasshopper, but bugs weren't his field. Probably a common insect, he mused, but where the devil did it come from?
***
The next day Richard placed a potted plant, with the blue grasshopper perched on a leaf, into Booth A. He threw the switch. As with the rabbit, the plant vanished from Booth A when he activated the switch, and as with the rabbit, the plant reappeared in Booth B when he deactivated the switch. But the grasshopper was not there.
He reasoned that when the switch was activated, a field was energized at the destination, wherever that was. When the switch was deactivated, the field collapsed, and whatever chanced to be inside the field at the moment of collapse was teleported to booth B.
When he teleported the rabbit, the grasshopper had jumped on the rabbit's head, was caught there when the field collapsed, and thus teleported to Booth B along with the rabbit. The next day the grasshopper was teleported along with the potted plant, and when it reached the destination it jumped from the plant before the moment the field collapsed.
He concluded that the teleportation of objects from Booth A to Booth B was working, but in the process, the objects were detoured through some unknown location.
But where in the world was that location? It could be nearby, or it could be halfway around the world. He could think of only one way to learn where the blue grasshopper came from--by going there himself. But how could he pull it off? He was reluctant to ask a friend to operate the switch; he preferred to keep his invention a secret until it was perfected.
He came up with a simple solution: he rigged a timer to operate the switch. To test the timer, he needed to teleport an object about his own size and weight. He found it in a samurai warrior.
The warrior was a gift from a Japanese friend. While serving a tour on Okinawa with the Marines, he attended karate classes in his off duty time and became close friends with one of his instructors.
As a farewell gift, the karate instructor gave him a life-sized samurai warrior of carved wood. It was close to his six feet and a tad less than his hundred-seventy-five pounds; it would do for the test.
He placed the wooden warrior in booth A and set the timer to teleport it to the unknown location, leave it there fifteen seconds, and pull it back.
The timer operated the switch, and the warrior vanished. Exactly fifteen seconds later, the timer deactivated the switch, and the warrior reappeared in Booth B. He examined the warrior and found nothing unusual. He was ready to make the trip himself.
***
He kept the same setting on the timer--to leave him there for fifteen seconds and then pull him back. Fifteen seconds should be long enough to survey his surroundings and determine the type of location he was in, and short enough, he hoped, to pull him out of danger if he encountered any hostilities. He stepped into Booth A and waited for the timer to activate.
***
There was no sensation. He was standing in the booth one second, and in the next second he was standing beside a rutted dirt road. To his amazement, a small crowd was gathered there, seemingly awaiting his arrival.
He looked up and down the road. In one direction he saw the towers of a city, and in the other direction he saw a forested area with mountain peaks showing in the background.
His eyes scanned the crowd; about a dozen people, he guessed. Their dress was unfamiliar, but reminded him vaguely of a band of old-time gypsies. But his eyes locked on a girl standing in the forefront.
She stood out from the crowd, dressed in loose fitting black clothing. Red stripes ran down the sides of her trousers and a red disc was displayed on her left sleeve. A sword hung from her side, strapped to a wide red sash around her waist. Her blonde hair was in bangs and a ponytail hung over one shoulder; she was beautiful.
She stepped forward. "I am Salenna, mid-level sorceress of Dawnlight. I am here to..."
Richard abruptly found himself staring at the inside of Booth B. "Damn! What a beauty!" She had so enthralled him that he nearly forgot his reason for going there. He still had no idea where the place was; he couldn't place the costumes the natives wore with any that he'd ever seen. The girl identified herself as Salenna--a sorceress?--and mentioned a place called Dawnlight. But that rang no bells, and now he was more curious than ever. He stepped out of the booth.
He reset the timer, this time allowing for a stay of thirty minutes. That should give him plenty of time to learn exactly where the place was. But he would need to make certain he was in the field when it collapsed, or else he'd be stuck there.
As an afterthought, he set the timer to operate every twenty-four hours after that, activating each day at noon and staying active for thirty minutes. That would give him one chance every day to return home, in case he ran into delays or problems.
***
This time there was no crowd awaiting him; only Salenna stood there. He stepped out of the field, but not before noting its exact location, using a nearby knoll and a lone tree as reference points.
Again, he took in the beauty of the girl. He suddenly felt self conscious--she certainly wouldn't be impressed by a close-cropped redhead with scruffy jeans.
"I knew you would return," she said. "The crowd must have appeared menacing. I sent them away so that you would not feel threatened."
"It was not the crowd--I left for another reason." He smiled. "Please forgive my rudeness. Before I left, you were introducing yourself. Sorceress Salenna, I believe?"
She returned his smile. "My full title is mid-level sorceress." She pointed to the red disk on her sleeve, apparently an emblem of her status. "But please just call me Salenna."
He bowed slightly. "Salenna. My name is Richard Capella, but please call me Richard."
"You are a sorcerer," she said, "do you not carry a title?"
He was taken aback. "Sorcerer? I'm afraid not. Where I come from, there are no sorcerers."
"But I know you come from another world, and you came through the dark void to reach our world--only a high-level sorcerer can do that. But I am curious. Why did you send other strange objects before you came?"
He looked at the surrounding trees and plants. They were more blue than green, like turquoise. And there was the blue grasshopper. Was this indeed a different world? Maybe his device had worked to transport him into a parallel universe. In transporting objects from booth A to booth B in his lab, the objects must detour through an alternate universe to get there.
"Those items you saw were only for testing purposes," he replied, "and sorcery didn't bring me here. It was science."
"Then your science is just a form of sorcery. But that does not matter. What matters is that I foresaw your coming, and I know that you are here to save our people..."
He held up his hand. "Please. Before you go any further, I would be grateful if you would answer a few questions for me. I am thoroughly confused."
Her face showed concern. "Of course. I will be happy to answer any question that I can."
"What do you call this world?" He began.
"It is called Terranna."
"Where are we located on Terranna?"
"To the north of Dawnlight." She pointed toward the towers, a short distance away. "That is Dawnlight. It is the city of my birth."
"Dawnlight belongs to what country?" He asked.
"I am not sure that I understand your question. Dawnlight is the ruling city. All the villages in the surrounding countryside are under the rule of Dawnlight."
He looked at his watch; he had twenty-two minutes before the switch activated. Salenna was staring at the watch.
He continued. "Are there other cities?"
"There are eleven others here in The Western Land and many more in the land beyond the sea. Each city has its own territory. Most of them have much larger territory than Dawnlight."
"One more question. How did you know I was coming?"
"I saw your arrival while in a spell-trance. I then drew cards to divine the reason for your coming. The cards told me you were coming to rescue us."
This was crazy, he thought. Here he was in a parallel world with city-states, talking to a beautiful sorceress who had foreseen his coming. And now she was telling him he was here to rescue her people.
"Rescue from what?" He asked. "Are your people in danger?"
"A terrible danger. To our east, across the sea and seven hundred leagues distant, is a people called the Mung. The Mung are from a union of many cities called Mongolia. Their leader, a man called Jinga, recently came to power. He teaches that Terranna belongs to the Mung, and that all other people are inferior to the Mung. The Mung are destined to rule Terranna, and all others must be enslaved. Those who do not submit to slavery must die.
"Jinga's army is powerful; it is larger than the combined armies of many cities. The Mung have already conquered and enslaved many cities on the other side of the sea, and even now their slaves are building ships to bring the Mung warriors across the sea to our shores. We expect they will be prepared to attack us in less than a year."
Richard was almost too dumbfounded to speak. "But what the devil could you expect of me?"
"You have the means to help us or fate would not have seen fit to guide you here. But you are not a puppet, and no one can force you to help us. But we beg you to stay and help us lest we become slaves. I would prefer to die than to submit to slavery."
Richard looked at his watch. Only five minutes remained until the timer activated the switch. Salenna was staring at the watch again.
"What is that thing on your wrist? Does it cast spells?"
He chuckled. "Nothing like that. It only measures time."
She looked puzzled. "We use an hourglass. But please do not be concerned with time. I hope you will come with me to Dawnlight and meet the other members of the Mage council. At least listen to what we have to say."
He looked at her eyes and melted. The switch would be activated every day at noon, and it sat far enough away from the road so that the activated field shouldn't interfere with traffic. He would have other opportunities to return. "Okay, I'll go with you," he said, "but I've got to be back here tomorrow at noon."
Her face showed relief and her eyes lit up. "It's not far; we can make it well before nightfall."
A one-horse surrey appeared from nowhere, and she hopped on. "Let's go," she said.
"But...but where did the wagon come from? It wasn't here..."
"It's been here all the time. I kept it under a concealment spell because there are thieves in these parts. But a high level sorcerer like you should have seen it. Perhaps your powers wane because you are weary from your trip through the void."
He climbed on the surrey and they set out. From all indications, Salenna was what she claimed to be: a sorceress. And she believed him to be a sorcerer. Apparently magic powers were not uncommon in this world.
But he had to convince her that he was not a sorcerer, even though she might look upon him with less favor when she learned the truth. But he did not like pretending to be something that he was not.
"Salenna, I must tell you..."
She shushed him with a finger to her lips. "An ambush ahead," she whispered. "Do you not detect it?"
"No. I..."
"You must be very tired, but don't worry--I can handle them. It's too late to cast a concealment spell to hide us. They've seen us already. But no matter; I'll teach them a lesson. I've spelled my sword for battle. The vermin do not know they are dealing with Mages."
"But I'm trying to tell you..."
A group of men stepped out of the trees lining each side of the road. Their leader, a brute with a heavy black beard, stepped forward. "Hold! Leave your valuables on the wagon and step down. Do as I say and you will be spared." He guffawed. "Your Mage costume fools no one, wench. Only an ignorant bumpkin would be taken in by it."
Salenna whispered, "There are more of them than I thought. I'm not sure now...even with my spelled sword."
Richard counted sixteen of them, and they were all armed with swords, axes, and knives.
continued on Page 2
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