Read The Portal 00 - Legacy of the Witch for Free Online

his
partner. “She works here.”
    “Yeah, I’ll bet she does.”
    “Well, that’s good, that’s good. Maybe you can help us out.
We’re looking for a box. Looks like an old treasure chest, only smaller. You
seen anything like that around here?”
    I lowered my eyes, shook my head.
    “Interesting. Interesting, huh, Joe?”
    “The way she couldn’t look you in the eye when you asked her
that? Yeah, very.”
    “I know a liar when I see one, lady. You’ve seen that chest
we’re looking for. When and where?”
    I shook my head again. “You’re crazy. I don’t know what you’re
talking abou—”
    He hit me with the flashlight, though it felt more like a
baseball bat. Caught me right across the jaw, snapping my head back hard. My
knees buckled under me, and I crashed to the floor, butt first. But the guy had
me by the blouse, pulling me right up onto my feet again. “When and where have
you seen that box?” He buried his hand in my hair, twisting it cruelly and
pulling hard, bending my head to the side.
    And still I said nothing.
    “I don’t know, Joe, she ain’t talking, even though I belted
her. Whaddya think?”
    “Belt her again.”
    He lifted the flashlight and brought it down again. I cringed,
ducked, got tangled on the desk chair, would have fallen if he hadn’t had me by
the hair.
    But the blow never landed, and he just let go, because
something sailed through the darkness and clocked him right between the eyes. He
dropped like a sack of feed, and so did I. When I looked, the other one was
being jerked, flipped and nailed to the floor.
    Then the man I had come here to rob was kneeling beside me.
“Are you okay?”
    Just like before. Just like after he pulled me out of the
river. Those same eyes. That same face, only older now.
    How can this be…?
    “I think…they’re getting away,” I managed, though my mind was
spinning, and not just with fear and pain.
    The two thugs were on their feet and running for their lives.
He went after them, but I knew they got away when I heard a car’s tires
screeching and its engine roaring. I pulled myself up to my feet, clasping the
desk, limping around it and finally turning on the light.
    I heard Harrison swear, then looked up to see him in the
doorway staring at me just before my world went black.

Chapter Four
    I was there again, in the secret garden in the midst of
the harem, splashing in the warm water of the pool, this time by the dead of
night. I kept a scrub brush nearby. Should anyone question me, I was to tell
them I was cleaning away the algae. Lilia had made a loud fuss over having
“filthy old housemaids” sullying the pool’s pure waters, worked the others up
into a real fit about it, and then slyly suggested the job be made one of my
many duties.
    She was always doing that, my Lilia. Finding out what I loved
to do best and then conniving a way to make it my duty. Often times other, less
pleasant, tasks had to be moved aside to make room. My life of servitude was
becoming a life of fun. Doing things I loved and calling them work. So, since
I’d nearly drowned playing in the waters of the sacred river, she’d decided to
find a way to allow me to frolic in the waters of the harem pool, which was
supposed to be for the use of the king’s harem slaves alone. Its waters were
said to contain minerals that enhanced their already breathtaking beauty.
    I didn’t mind at all giving the pool a scrub while I was
basking in it. It was a far better job than scrubbing the stone floors or
washing the bed linens.
    This night, however, my fun was interrupted by the arrival of
someone who jumped nimbly down from the wall, as he had so many times before,
and landed softly, his bare feet slapping the wet stone.
    He smiled, and my heart melted the same way it always did. I
crossed my arms in front of me, painfully aware that I was wearing only a scrap
of cloth around my chest and another around my hips.
    He was aware of it, too, and appreciative. I felt a rush