Ch. 12 - Insidious

“Graveyard,” Risa spoke in a careful tone, as if she expected something to jump at them. But everything was eerily quiet. 
She stumbled a bit and looked around. She could just see a tiny lead which might be the next step...
“This is a short one,” she muttered. “Under two miles. Let’s walk.”
“Do we have the time?” Lioness asked. “The city might start waking up soon.”
“Just the locals,” Risa shrugged. “All the tourists will sleep in. Speaking about tourists - they had to time this jump. I would say we are now just about five or six hours behind. We are gaining on them.”
“So let’s move on and not lose too much time,” Tiger grumbled. “Which way?”
“There!”
There was a wall. Not too high though.
They got over it easily.
On the other side, Risa closed her eyes and pointed.
“This way.”
They turned into narrow streets, diverting from the touristy areas. All the local shops were closed and the heavy door locked. Risa checked the direction from time to time and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Ignoring her twitching left hand. And lifting her mental shield to help her stay calm.
They walked fast and fortunately never got stuck in a dead end. The narrow streets widened, they did see a car passing by from time to time now. Finally they crossed tram tracks.
“This is the shortest way,” Risa pointed towards them, “but I have a feeling we should go... there.”
The little road climbed uphill, following a solid wall.
In Istanbul, Risa liked to have a solid wall nearby.
She put her left hand into her pocket.
In a short while the area opened and they could see a majestic building behind a fence.
“Hagia Sofia,” Risa whispered. “I have always wanted to see it.”
Lioness gave her a funny look, obviously picking up something behind those words, and not liking it too much.
“I would have expected it to be part of your local training, a powerful source of magic like that… and with the length of time you spent here, too,” she offered carefully, not quite probing.
“I... didn’t get out so much,” Risa answered carefully, strengthening her shield and projecting mild frustration.
“Which way now?” asked Tiger impatiently.
“There!”
They went around the mosque grounds and a large area opened ahead of them. Risa slowed down, checking their surroundings.
“Uhm,” she said. “There. So now I am kinda glad I didn’t try to jump. This exit is narrowing. I have a feeling if we went through, it would sound an alarm loud and clear. Now let’s find out where they went next. I hate Istanbul.”
“Hurrem Hamami,” said Maddie, who was keeping up with their path on the map. “This makes sense.”
The adjoining square was large and empty. In just a couple of hours it will be filled with tourists. Clean paths, fenced off grass, not really a good place to stay hidden. The surrounding buildings looked grand, important and a bit uniform.
This was not a good place for a portal.
The next square over was even worse, if that’s possible. Vast, long, with trees growing here and there from the maintained lawn. Again, hardly a good place for a portal but there was something that just drew Risa’s attention. In the distance first, but they were getting closer…
There stood a large pillar with hieroglyphs carved along its whole surface.
Risa swore.
“You must be kidding me. Egypt?”
She visibly deflated.
“Can you open this portal or not?” Tiger asked roughly. He shook his head. “Ye wouldn’t end up completely wiped out, would you?.”
“Well, it shouldn’t be so bad,” Risa said carefully, “as we would just use the same portal they went through. It’s long, true, but relatively freshly strengthened. The only less draining would be a well established natural portal, but I can’t find one as I’ve never been to Egypt. And I need to physically see the place where both ends are before I can even localize the portal. Or I need an anchor, but I don’t dare to open this portal just so I can try to locate an anchor point on the other end.”
“But, I don’t like this,” she continued. “As we will have to use the same portal as them... again. That’s been the case since Venice, with just this short walk. And with each such jump there is a rising probability they will notice. But there is nothing else we can do if we want to follow them. I mean, it’s fricking Egypt!”
As she spoke her fingers ran on the column’s surface, as if reading signs only she could see.
“Al-right,” she said finally. “So somewhere near the Nile... that's quite a long river though. They might continue on a boat after this one.”
“So open it,” Tiger suggested. “Then Lioness can check the other side.”
“M’ afraid not,” Risa shrugged. “This one is... it kinda glitters. One opening, that’s all I can risk. And don’t even argue who’s gonna go first,” she raised her hand. “We will all have to go together.”
Wider opening for a portal but much shorter active time.
The other two agents exchanged a look, none too pleased with their colleague’s explanation. But neither of them argued. Instead they let her do her thing.
She really, really disliked Istanbul and this had a Highly Secured Portal written all over it. She already could see... and got rid of two traps. One of them was easy to spot, but it was there mainly to cover the other one.
Double your traps.
But this is Istanbul. Of course there could be more. They liked doing stuff like this.
There was no reason for her hand to hurt, but it felt like it did.
“Well, here goes nothing,” she muttered. She checked the square one last time - no one in sight - and opened the portal.
Slowly, carefully, as if waiting for a blast.
The edges were light blue. Safe color.
She didn’t trust it one bit.
Getting rid of an entrance alarm was easy.
Double your traps.
There was just one. She searched more deeply...
Nothing.
“Get close to me,” she said, looking intently at the portal entrance, “and on the count of three... one, two, thr...”
They stepped in.
And didn’t step out.
The light blue changed, glittering. Like daggers. Like mirror shards. The portal sides started closing in.
Oh, so it’s this one, Risa thought, feeling suddenly very cold. It surprised her how calm her mind voice sounded. The one I was never able to block properly.
So very Istanbul...