THE KINGS SCEPTRE

part 5

Irina was on her way to the dimensional gate located at the time tower, the tower was in the mountain cliff of the valley of the kings. Irina was accompanied with the escort of five soldiers for protection since their invaders mountainers had already penetrated that side of the capital. The enemies were getting closer and closer to the heart of the city Irina had a hunch maybe they were assisted by a person whom knew ways and routes into the city even hidden ones, but she never dared to rise her suspicion for there were no proof. It had been about three hours from when they left the capital their horses galloping at full speed.

"watch out!" The warning distracted irina from her thoughts it was one of the soldiers before even she had known the reason, arrow flied past missing her head by inches instincts kicked in she pulled horse reins very hard which made the horse to rise on its hind legs and neigh loudly.

"defense position!" their commander shouted an order, every soldier fell back and formed a circle. irina's eyes were darting in the surrounding looking for the attackers suddenly she heard a string of a bow released.

"down!" she warned others as the soldiers went down the commander rose his shield and the arrow struck.

"from the bushes." irina told them while pointing at a small vegetation roughly a hundred meters away from them.

Suddenly war cries filled the air and mountainers got out of shrubs they hid in beside the road, quick look irina registered fifteen of them. Some carried clubs in their hands while others had swords, they wore clothes made from animal fur and skin, had also covered themselves in mud which made them look scary and huge as Neanderthals.

"Off the horses and let's put these clowns down!" commander ordered, irina was on ground in no time the soldiers stuck close to each another to avoid being scattered in the heat of the battle.

One of the mountainers came at irina with full speed when reached close he brought down his club hard and in swift strike, irina counter attacked it by her sword and punched him right in the abdomen with air punch the man went flying back into the bushes, irina turned only to see her commander slashing one of mountainers throat when turned his head he found irina looking at him.

"Get out of here!" he shouted at her.

"what about you?" irina questioned.

"Don't you worry about us we can take them down, if they have a back up it'll be hard for us to take you up to the valley." then he dodged an attack from the mountainer. "Go irina, that's an order." then he turned back to the fight.

Irina hated to run away from fights it made her feel like a coward, anger boiled inside her when she turned ahead another attacker was charging right at her, she kicked him in the chest with a foot the moment he landed sword was driven into his chest from one of the soldiers, then he turned to irina and indicated with his head at the direction of her horse. Irina ran to her horse then climbed on when she settled the soldier slapped the horse into momentum, as irina neared the bushes where arrow was shot a man rose from behind them and aimed an arrow towards her just after he'd released it Irina threw him an air ball the shooter was taken off the ground screaming and landed right in the tree branches.

***************

Irina reached the Valley of the kings without any casualties the sun was nearly setting on the horizon, its evening rays gave the place warm feeling and casted shadows beautifully in the hills. irina could hear the sound of water in the river that flowed in the midst of the with hills rising high above it on both of its sides.

At the top of the cliff she was facing irina could see a time tower it was shaped as a rotunda and sun shone on it fully, it was made from gray coloured stones. After the view had satisfied her, she directed her horse towards it in slow pace. only after she had reached at the top of the cliff did she saw an entrance on its side open with no door.

Inside the time tower it was plain and had gaps as slits on its walls which acted as windows more than that there was nothing else. Irina couldn't see any. handle or keys of opening the gate she turned to go out, then she saw above the entry there were five gems. Four positioned in main compass directions east,west, south and north and last gem in the middle if all the other four. Ones positioned north and south were green in colour, east and west had red colour the last one in the middle had yellowish colour.

On the left hand side of entry there were two levers, one the arrow on too of it was drawn upward and the other its arrow pointed downward, on the other side of entry there was cupboard fixed on its wall written "travelers gear". Irina went and opened the cupboard, inside she found tight leather black suit material as of swimming pool suit in a hanger where she took the cloth was written " wear uniform for protection during the descension."

"Not bad." irina told herself as she examined the suit it even had a hood. Irina wore the suit, it covered every part of her body even her hands were covered in gloves only front of her face was left n***d.

"now where is the goddamn helmet?" a magnetic shield immediately covered the remaining part of her face.

"Woah!" irina exclaimed, she touched the shield it felt real similar to glass, "Sweet."

Then she headed towards the levers, with all the scientific phenomena's, calculations and the presence of a portal capable of travelling to other worlds irina thought the room would've been filled with machines and monitors only to had her soul crushed seeing it plain as it is, it made her wander.

She hold both levers each in her hand then sucked in long breath,

"ready or not here it goes." Then pulled them, nothing happened irina even heard the beat of her heart wildly in the chest. Suddenly floors rose up between the slits and covered all of them then another boulder started rising slowly from the ground covering the entrance this made irina jump in alarm and started running for the entrance.

"No, no, noo!" irina screamed in frustration as she beat the covered entrance with her hands, she was late and now was locked inside.

Irina started pacing up and down within the tower thinking of an escape plan. She didn't believe at all if the gate worked then rumbling started deep within the ground that made the earth to shake underneath irina's feet, the gems above the entry started glowing. Green gem of north first one shined its ray of green light across the room towards the opposite wall but the ray went little downward, other gems followed emitting rays of their respective colours, Yellow gem was the last to emit its rays. Point where the rays met started glowing and the circle increased in size, the wall seemed to be disintegrating suddenly the room was covered in blinding white light.

Irina remembered the explanation given that the gates open a portal at a point where it is void of time at the moment, she was told if the time flow of the past, present and future converge at one point they create a blank space free of time flow at that moment since they have cancelled each other out, the void lasts only few seconds then the time flow covers that loop. Before it had been covered the dimensional gate open a portal which becomes a pathway to another planet without time distortion. Its disadvantage was that the portal varied according to changes of loop in time.

By then the portal was big enough for a person to pass through, irina couldn't see a thing on the other side of portal for light was blinding her sight. There was very strong wind blowing into the room which came from the portal, irina took small steps forward with her left hand raised to shield her eyes from the light of the portal then stopped to rise her courage.

"All for one and one for all." Then she jumped through the portal.