by Saless
Chapter 26

"So what do you want to do now?" Jill asked once Sarah was finished eating.

"I…I kind of want to take a break." Sarah said hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"I'm getting frustrated with all these failed attempts. I thought we could just go somewhere for fun, without the dragons this time!" Sarah hastily assured Mike.

Mike grinned, "Wow, and here Jill had to talk you into that trip! Did you have something in mind?"

"I thought you guys should choose somewhere you want to go. After all, you've put up with a lot helping me out." Sarah replied apologetically.

Jill waved that off. "You don't have to do anything to thank us! Still, anywhere you'd like to go Mike?"

"Well…there is that one book." Mike replied. He went over to the bookshelf and retrieved it. "You nixed it when we first started looking for places to go, before Sarah got cursed, remember?"

Jill took the book and looked it over. "Oh yeah, I remember this! Sarah has pretty good control over where portals open up now, so I guess it's safe enough."

"This okay Sarah?" Mike asked hopefully.

"Of course! Anywhere in particular?" Sarah replied.

Mike thought for a moment. "How about the space station?"

"Which one?" Sarah asked archly. "They visit lots of space stations in that series."

"The one with all the strict rules, where that guy gets himself killed by arguing with the judge." Mike replied.

"Are you sure? We insult someone by accident we could get in big trouble." Sarah asked.

"You can always get us out if that happens. And we're not going to do anything to insult anyone anyway." Mike replied confidently.

Sarah shrugged and Jill handed her the book. Before long she'd found the place in the book where that station was mentioned and opened the portal. "Lets leave the book behind this time." Sarah suggested. There were no arguments, so she set the book down and they stepped through the portal.

They all stared around like tourists at the station's interior. Mike finally found his voice and said, "You know, other than a few things here and there, it's not that different from being in any other building." The others nodded their agreement and they started walking.

"That is not something you'd see in a building at home!" Jill exclaimed, pointing to a window that showed the planet below. They all crowded around the window to admire the view. Eventually they tired of the view and continued down the hall. They gazed in awe at another window where they could see a space ship docked to the station.

"That ship is huge!" Sarah exclaimed.

Mike nodded, "It looks like a freighter. I wonder what kind of cargo it carries." He mused.

"What makes you think it's a freighter?" Jill asked.

Mike shrugged, "There are no obvious weapons. No gun turrets or missile bays or anything like that. I could be wrong, but from what I remember of the book their weapons would be visible enough."

After a bit more gawking they moved on. They saw guards at an airlock they assumed led to the ship they'd just seen. They were carrying normal enough looking weapons. "I thought they'd have lasers or something." Jill remarked.

"Their weapons aren't that different from what we have now. They have lasers on their ships, but I don't remember any lasers or energy weapons that were handheld." Mike replied.

"I guess it must not be set all that far in the future." Said Jill.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it is. There are human colonies on lots of different planets. I don't think anything in the story even takes place in our solar system." Sarah replied.

"Then why wouldn't they have energy weapons?" Jill asked, confused.

Mike shrugged, "They might, but not use them because they could cause an accidental hull breach. Not a good thing in space." Jill nodded understandingly and they moved on.

There wasn't much more to see, other than more ships that looked much like the first and their guards. They did see computer terminals that were obviously far more advanced than what they were used to. They kept exploring for another hour or so before deciding to return. Sarah had no trouble opening the portal, even though she didn't have the book with her.

"That was interesting." Jill remarked once they were back in their living room.

"You were right, Jill, this can be fun." Sarah said. Mike agreed. "Is there anywhere you want to go, Jill?" she asked.

"Let me think about that." Jill replied, taking a seat on the couch. Mike and Sarah found seats of their own and waited for Jill to decide.

Jill snapped her fingers with a grin. "I know just the thing!" she exclaimed, jumping up and rushing over to the bookshelf. After a quick scan she pulled out a paperback book. "Here it is!"

Mike held his hand out and Jill gave it to him. "Hmm, I don’t remember this one." He said thoughtfully after reading the synopsis on the back. He handed it to Sarah whose reaction was much the same.

"Neither of you have read that series? You're missing out, it's lots of fun! Want to go?" she asked excitedly. Sarah and Mike exchanged glances and shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" Mike answered. Sarah agreed.

"Anywhere in particular you want to go?" Sarah asked.

"The Magician of Information's castle! We might even get some useful information for you while we're at it." Jill replied. Sarah looked through the book for mention of the Magician of Information and opened the portal. They walked through and found themselves in a clearing of a forest of strange looking trees. There was no castle anywhere in sight.

"Did your mind stray again Sarah?" Mike asked.

Sarah shook her head. "No, this should be the right place. I don't know what happened."

Jill giggled, "Don't worry about it, he probably moved his castle. He always does stuff like that."

"Moved his castle?!" Mike exclaimed. "How could he do that, and why would he?"

"Magic, of course. He moves it so anyone who has a question for him has to find him. He doesn't want to be bothered with frivolous questions." Jill replied.

"Great. So how do we find him?" Mike groused.

Jill shrugged, "I don't know, but he doesn't want to drive away serious questions, so there will probably be a clue or something."

Sarah frowned thoughtfully. "How would he even know we were coming?" she asked.

"He's the Magician of Information, it's his job to know." Jill replied with a grin.

"Okay, so what kind of clue are we looking for?" Sarah asked. Jill shrugged, so the three of them started looking around the clearing.

All Sarah found was a cherry tree. She reached up and plucked one. She was about to eat it when Jill screamed out, "Stop! Don't eat that!"

Sarah's hand stopped just short of her mouth and she looked at Jill questioningly, "Why not?"

"It explodes!" Jill replied, running over to Sarah. She snatched the cherry from Sarah's hand and threw it away from them. Sarah stared in shock at the blackened spot on the ground after it exploded as Jill warned.

"How?" she squeaked.

"It's not a regular cherry tree, but a cherry bomb tree. It's one of the puns this world is built on." Jill explained.

"Puns?" Mike groaned, "This world is built on puns?"

"Sure, it's fun!" Jill replied with a grin.

"Fun to read about, maybe, but I'm not so sure it's fun to be here." Sarah said, still looking where the cherry exploded.

Jill shrugged, "Give it a chance. Come on, let's find that castle." They continued to search and found a trail.

"See? All we have to do is follow this trail, overcome a few obstacles, and we'll be all set." Jill said cheerfully.

Sarah and Mike followed her down the trail with trepidation. Before long a castle could be seen through the forest. The trees thinned out and finally stopped several yards from the castle wall. A moat surrounded the castle. "How do we get in?" Sarah wondered.

"There must be a drawbridge around here somewhere." Mike said. They started walking along the moat until a drawbridge came into view. The bridge was up.

"Now what?" asked Sarah.

"There's always a way, we just have to find it." Jill replied. "Look for a way to lower the drawbridge."

The drawbridge was held up by a large but rusty metal chain. There didn't appear to be any way to open it from the outside. "There's nothing here!" Mike grumbled.

"Wait, that's it!" Sarah exclaimed, running back towards the path.

Jill and Mike ran after her. "What's it?" Mike huffed when he caught up with her.

"The cherries!" Sarah replied breathlessly. Soon they were back in the clearing. They each took a couple of cherries each, being careful to leave the stems on and keep them away from each other, just in case. They hurried back to the drawbridge with them.

Sarah threw one of her cherries at the rusty chain. There was a loud bang, but the chain held. The others joined in and after all six cherries had exploded the first chain shattered. They had to return for another batch of cherries, but they made short work of the second chain. The drawbridge was down, but there was something blocking the entrance on the other side.

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