Portal (Nina Decker) Read Online Free Page A

stand guard, Severn had dropped me off at home so I could prepare, while he’d gone off to do the same thing.  When he’d returned I was prepared to go into the depths of hell to get my father back.  I’d dressed for combat, with olive green cargo pants, black t-shirt and big black boots.  I looked like an army brat. Severin was clothed equally as threatening.  But he also brought some accessories.
    I gawked at the long bow draped over his shoulder. “Who are you? Robin Hood?”
    “We need a weapon, and since we can’t bring any iron through, I thought this would do us.”
    I ran my fingers over the polished wood. “It looks old.”
    “It’s about five hundred years old,” he said with that sly glint in his eyes.
    “It’s lovely.” I saw that it was a true English longbow made from sturdy yew.  It had the tell-tale blend of blonde and dark wood.  “It’s in perfect condition. Where did you get this, off the Mary Rose?”
    “You seem to know your ancient weapons.”
    “That’s what years of research on the fae will do. I hung out with Wiccans and LARPers. Everyone thought it was my geek phase but I approached this as serious study. I learned a little bit here and found a dead end there. I decided the best source of information came from people who were into real medieval history and folklore. Recreationists, Ren Faire enthusiasts and such. By the time I graduated from high school I could list all the mistakes in Braveheart. ”
    “You didn’t keep it up?” Severin asked.
    “By my sophomore year in college my father got worse. I decided to concentrate on medicine. By junior year I switched to nursing. That way my dad would always have a caregiver. One who wouldn’t ask uncomfortable questions.”
    “I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you,” Severin said. Then he held the bow in front of me and I marveled at it.
    A dozen of details flooded my mind. I’d always been a great student. What I studied stayed in my brain. I ran my fingers along the stave. The yew was the preferred wood of bow makers. One side was light blonde the other darker, one type of wood was flexible the other provided strength. This was the weapon that dominated the battlefield during the Hundred Years Wars.  It was so successful the English kept using them right through the Elizabethan Age. When Henry the Eighth’s flagship the Mary Rose sank it carried hundreds of these bows. When the wreck was rediscovered they found the bows were still perfectly preserved because the water at that depth was nearly free of oxygen.
    I shook my head at how much of that had come flooding back to me with one touch.
    Severin drew back the bow string. His chest and shoulder muscles flexed and I felt a warm surge between my thighs.  Jesus, I was a geek.
    “You’re right,” he said. “This did come off the Mary Rose. That ship carried hundreds of longbows bu t few of them were this special.”               “Special?”
    “The yew tree this bow was made from was marked by the fae. So it was more than an ordinary tree. And this is more than an ordinary bow.”
    He tossed it to me.
    “You try it.”
    I had drawn a bow before. My first two years in college I had to take a sport so I decided on archery. I was even pretty good. But if this was a true Tudor longbow it had a draw weight of a hundred and fifty pounds which meant it took a hundred and fifty pounds of pressure to bring it to a full draw. Fortunately you didn’t draw a bow with only your arms. Proper technique used the back, shoulders, almost the entire upper body.  It was more like a bench press.  Still that meant I would be bench pressing a hundred and fifty pounds.
    “I work out a lot. But not that much,” I explained.
    Severing just smiled.  “Try it.”
    I shrugged and pulled back on the string.
    It was just like trying to press a Nautilus machine set to one fifty. My form was a little off but even after I made my adjustments it was still hard.  I