Mordecai shrugged. “It’s a simple trick.”
“I’ll bet. Where is it?”
“Right in the back. Let’s go back to the house where we can talk, I can offer you a drink, whatever. Come on. Oh, your helper, here. You’re invited, too, pal.”
Incarnadine helped Jonath up, then introduced him.
“A pleasure,” Mordecai said. “Come on back.”
Mordecai led them behind the base of the statue, through a doorway, and into a less voluminous chamber. Set into the base of the far wall was a small square opening.
“I just found out I got problems with this thing. When I heard the alarm go off in the temple I came running and found that it shrank on me. Look at that. Like a cat door. I had to crawl through the damn thing. You know what’s going on?”
“Yeah,” Incarnadine said. “The reason I’m here. The interuniversal medium is undergoing stress, and anomalies like this are happening all over.”
“Well, let’s get in here before it chops someone in half.” Mordecai got down on his hands and knees and crawled through the opening.
The room on the other side was a large paneled game room with a bar, couches and chairs, and a pool table. Mordecai led his guests through it and up the stairs to the first floor of a very large house. A hallway came out into a spacious living room with a view of a manicured lawn and garden. The property ended at a canal and slip, where a large cabin cruiser was moored.
Decorator Swedish modern furniture graced the room, and modern paintings, among them what looked like an original Paul Klee, hung on the walls.
“Great place,” Incarnadine said.
“My late wife, Leah. She had taste. And a lot of money, God rest her soul. Sit down, sit down. You want a drink?”
“No thanks.” Incarnadine sat on the sofa. Jonath remained standing.
Mordecai seated himself in the matching white leather chair. “So, what’s the story?”
“I was doing some military advising in Merydion —”
“Those clowns!”
“The same. Anyway, I detected some cosmic disturbance and checked the portal. It had constricted to a pinhole, and I was stranded.”
“What were you going to do at the temple?”
“Cast a teleportation spell to get me home.”
“Whoa, you were taking quite a chance. The magic there is a little tricky.”
“So I found out. I had some trouble with your protection devices. Good thing they were on automatic. If I’d had to deal with you —”
“Forget about the teleportation thing. Those spells are monsters. You could arrive DOA back at the castle.”
“There was the risk, but I had no choice. The portal was blocked.”
“So, you’re here now. What’s the problem?”
“Reports are that the Earth portal went strange. It could mean that the connection between here and the castle is completely gone. It was anchored in Pennsylvania, and I guess I should go up there and check things out, but I’m pretty sure it’s disappeared.”
“I haven’t been back to the castle in years,” Mordecai said. “Wasn’t the portal in New York for a while?”
“For a number of years, but Ferne moved it to Pennsylvania.”
“Ferne. I remember Ferne. Beautiful girl. Gorgeous!”
“Yes. She died last year, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I really am.”
“Anyway,” Incarnadine said, “now that I’m here I’ll try to summon the portal, if you don’t mind.”
“Be my guest. You need any help?”
“Let me try alone first.”
Incarnadine went to a blank section of wall and stood about five feet away. He stretched out his arms and began moving them in patterns, tracing a curvilinear figure.
He did this for about a minute before stopping. He sighed. “Thank the gods.”
“What for?”
“The portal’s still here. They reported at the castle that some strange world had popped up at the locus of the Earth aspect, and that made me worry that there was no wormhole at all between Earth and the castle. But from the indications I got just now, the wormhole still exists. Problem is, it’s writhing around like crazy and there’s no controlling it. It’s wild, totally wild, as it used to be before I fiddled with it very recently.”
“Then all you have to do is find it,” Mordecai said.
“That’s going to be tough.” Incarnadine sat down. “Earth magic’s always been my bugaboo. Had a devil of a job wrestling with it last time I was here. Ferne did the anchoring in Pennsylvania. My brother Trent’s good at this sort of thing, too, but he’s on vacation and can’t be reached. And I have to get back soon. I must deal with the cosmic instability before it gets much worse.”
“Well, you got a problem,” Mordecai said.
“Yup.”
“Good thing you came to me.”
“Uncle Mordy, would you help me?”
“What, I’m going to refuse a relative? You’re in trouble, you need a hand. Listen, I got nothing better to do.”
“I would certainly appreciate it.”
“It’s nothing. You want to get going now, or you want some lunch first? The cook’s off, but there’s some corned beef in the fridge, a little coleslaw —”
“Time is a factor.”
“Time, he says. There’s always time. The universe has time out the kazoo. There’s no end of it.”
“Do you think we can summon the portal?”
Mordecai leaned forward. “You got a wild portal. Summon it you can’t do.Chase it you gotta do.”
“How?”
“Don’t you worry how. We’ll find out how. When was the last time you ate?”
“Days.”
“Days!” Mordecai appealed to Jonath, who stood solemnly by. “Days, he says. Magic he can’t do without, food …phfft! Who needs it. Uh, listen, fellah, why don’t you sit down and take a load off your feet?”
Jonath dutifully sat on the couch.
“He don’t say much, does he?” Mordecai commented.
“Mordy, Jonath has never seen Earth, or anything like it.”
“I forgot. Pardon me, Jonath.”
Jonath silently nodded.
“Anyway. Listen, son, you gotta eat. The body can take a lot of punishment, but you gotta take care of it.”
“How old are you, Uncle Mordy?”
Mordecai held a hand up. “Don’t ask!”
“I won’t. Getting back to business. Has anything untoward been happening here? I was wondering if the cosmic disturbance has had an effect.”
“Yep. Big earthquake in California.”
“Ye gods, the big one in L.A.?”
“No, in Frisco. Terrible!”
“Then there’s less time than I thought. We really have to get going.”
Mordecai shrugged. “So, let’s get going. We’ll pick up something to eat on the way.”
He led them downstairs again, turning left at the foot of the stairs. They went through a steel fire door and into a huge garage. Three automobiles were parked there: a silver Rolls-Royce, a white Mercedes, and something of an antique — a gargantuan mint-green 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville, bulbous chrome agleam, wicked rear fins razor-sharp and eager to impale pedestrians. In its exuberant and flamboyant crassness, the car was nonpareil.
They got in, Incarnadine in front, Jonath in the rear. Mordecai took a black plastic box out of his pocket and pressed the stud on it. The wide garage door opened. Mordecai started the car and drove out.
“Nice house,” Incarnadine said as the Cadillac rolled down the driveway.
“It’s comfortable,” Mordecai said, clicking the door control again. “What do you think of this old buggy, eh?”
“It’s one rara avis.”
“You can’t buy quality like this anymore. They built them solid then.”