WOLVERINE'S WORLD - THE SPOT ON A MAP

The crowd at the foot of the dock parted to let me pass. Anna and Rahne appeared and began walking back to the inn with me. Anna was uncharacteristically silent - her deep yellow eyes watching me carefully. Rahne, on the other claw, immediately began asking questions.

"Is that thing in the boat really from Asgard?" she asked.

"More or less. There are many realms associated with Asgard."

"How did it get here?"

I shook my head. "I don't know."

"Why was Emma with that scary-looking Storm priestess?"

Anna finally spoke up. "Emma's an agent of the Temple," she told Rahne. Anna can be quite perceptive.

Rahne took a moment to absorb that before going on. "Just what the heck is she? Emma, I mean... she's not Folk. I think she's some kind of Wilder."

Anna just shrugged.

I glanced at Rahne. "Stop asking about Emma. Her secrets are her own."

"What do we do now?" Rahne continued without so much as a pause.

"Good question," I said softly - mostly to myself.

By the time we got back to the inn, the town's alarm gongs were sounding a signal that consisted of two rings, a pause, and then two more rings. Then the pattern repeated. That meant the Captain's samurai and the other warriors in his service should report. Also, his holders and lesser lords were to prepare themselves and their forces for a possible summons. The Point was readying itself for war. That struck me as a wise precaution.

The innkeeper loaned me a map of the region. Several customers watching curiously as I spread it out on one of the larger tables. Then I began carefully tracing the path of the Huds upriver from the Point. I was comparing the map to my memories of our recent voyage from Cats Kill. Hopefully, I would be able to find some kind of clue.

Anna crouched on the bannister that separated the entrance to the inn and the common room. Then she began picking out tunes on her guitar.

As always, the customers reacted well to Anna's music. They picked up their drinks and moved closer to where Anna was playing.

Then I found something on the map.

I looked up at Rahne, who was nervously hovering around me. "Go to the boat," I told her, "ask the captain if he would see me. Tell him it's a matter of great importance."

Rahne nodded and dashed out the door.

Anna smiled at me from her perch. "She's a good girl," she said.

"Cute, too," a Blood ranger dressed in buckskin chuckled from the next table. "Is she for rent?"

The flare of rage that went through me was startling. I thought I was long past that sort of thing.

My anger was obvious. Anna's face went tense and she lost a chord on the tune she was playing. From his place behind the bar, the innkeeper flinched. The other customers - a pair of Folk - went pale and froze. You could tell they were considering possible escape routes.

The ranger carefully put down his drink. He didn't look away from me, but he kept his gaze general, not meeting my eyes. His hands were flat on the table. For Blood, that was unthreatening, but by no means unprepared.

The worst of the Old One was with us. I could feel him all around us. He was watching and waiting, with cold eyes and a savage grin, eager to see the blood of his sons.

"There's no resemblance between you and her," the ranger said softly. "So I made an assumption that was incorrect. I meant no harm or challenge. I offer no apology."

I took a deep breath and let it out. Then I spoke. "You meant no harm or challenge. So no apology is required."

The ranger nodded and picked up his drink again.

Anna did something intricate with her guitar as everyone else in the room let out a sigh of relief.

I went back to my map.

Anna slapped me so hard my head rocked to the side.

"Dammit, Jimmy!" she snarled at me. Then she slapped me again.

I took Anna's hands in mine. She always could pack a punch.

We were up in the room. I thought it best to leave the common-room. Anna finished her set and then followed me upstairs. Rahne and the captain hadn't shown up yet. That wasn't completely surprising - the captain obviously had responsibilities to take care of before he could leave his boat and crew.

"What were you thinking!" Anna raged. "That horny bastard is half your age! He would have killed you! If you hadn't let the Old One loose, I could have settled him down with a flash of my cleavage and a dirty joke about his taste for youngsters!"

"You're right," I said with nod, but that wasn't completely true. That ranger was actually a lot less than half my age, and he wasn't the man who would someday kill me. On the other hand, I'd once seen Anna stop a riot by dancing naked on a rooftop. She's very good at distracting people. She's also a shameless exhibitionist.

"Perhaps some old memories got the best of me," I explained as best I could.

The anger seemed to drain out of Anna and she leaned into me. Her body was against mine and the top of her head was underneath my chin. Anna is such an out-sized bundle of charisma and energy that everyone misses the fact that she's just plain tiny. Rahne's actually a little taller than her.

"I see you're still finding kids to adopt," she said in a calmer tone.

"Yes."

"Seen Rose lately?"

"Just a few days ago, up in Cats Kill. She's still trying to save the world and change it simultaneously."

Anna chuckled. "It's a good thing I wasn't a few years younger when we met. Things might have gone very, very differently between us."

Then Anna got up on her toes and our lips met. Kissing an Elf has its oddities. They have sharp canine teeth and there's a smokey taste that some don't like, but I find quite pleasant. It's like a good peaty whiskey.

Suddenly, Anna's hands were inside my shirt, her fingers gently tracing the lines of my chest. I had a hand tangled in the hair on the back of her head, and the other had a firm grip of the base of her tail. I had her firmly pinned against me. Anna likes that.

And then Emma walked in the door.

Emma slapped me so hard my head rocked to the side.

"Dammit, James!" she snarled at me. Then she reached back to slap me again.

As my wife, Anna gets to slap me twice. As a woman who is not-my-wife, Emma only gets to hit me once.

I took Emma's hands in mine.

Anna was back downstairs. The moment when she stalked past Emma to leave the room was like watching two mountain-lions who've just realized they have a territorial dispute. I'd actually expected to see bloodshed.

Emma closed her eyes and went still. A long few seconds passed before she opened them.

"I'm sorry," she said very evenly.

I let go of her wrists. Emma hesitated - and then took the opportunity to button my shirt.

"Olivia and the other priestesses are meeting," Emma told me once she was done. Her tone was almost formal - as if she were delivering a report. "Most of them are dithering. Olivia wants to send out scouts and search for any sign of a portal between Midgard and the other realms. If anything is found, she thinks we should put together an army as quickly as possible and destroy the intrusion."

I nodded. "Not a bad plan. Remember when the dark-elves invaded Delphi? The local lords gave them too much time to establish his position and bring in reinforcements. It took everything we had to throw them back."

Emma smiled at me briefly. "You have this strange habit of talking about events from long ago as if they happened yesterday."

I just nodded agreeably. Then something in the window caught my eye. The moon was just a sliver, but it was rising. It split the reflection of my face into two halves.

"Olivia's right," I said mildly, my eyes on my bisected reflection. "It would be best if we settled this as quickly as possible."

Rahne brought the captain up to my room. Then she and Emma wordlessly left.

"Do you know what's going on?" the captain asked me plainatively. "The entire town is in an uproar. The Captain's samurai are marshalling and the holders and petty lords are seeing to their defenses."

"There may be an other-worldly intrusion," I answered.

That brought the captain up short. Then he let out a long whistle.

"What do you need me for?" he asked. "Let's make this quick - I have a sudden urge to get back on the river and be on my way."

I pointed to the map - it was laying open on the bed. "I need you to take a look at something."

The captain walked over to the bed and frowned down at the map. "This is a standard chart for the Huds," he said.

I pointed to a spot on the map that was just north of the Point. "This part isn't as I remember."

The captain examined the area I was pointing at. Then he nodded. "I know what you're talking about - there's a stream feeding into the Huds there, but it's not on the chart. And it's new. It wasn't there when we came upriver the week before last, but it was present two days ago when we were on our way downriver. I thought that perhaps an old channel or trapped ox-bow lake had re-opened. That happens sometimes. I made a note in my log to let the navigator's guild know about it."

"You know the river far better than most." I said. "Did anything seem unusual about it? Anything at all?"

The captain paused to consider my question. Then, after a few seconds, he answered. "Yes. There was a haze - like a light mist - coming off that new tributary. That made it difficult to get a clear view up the water-course. That struck me as odd because the weather conditions weren't right for it."

That was enough for me. I circled that part of the map with a small length of graphite.

We had something to work with.

There was a fair-sized crowd in the common room, listening to Anna play. Rahne was among them. I examined the crowd. Nobody was paying any particular attention to her.

Emma was out on the porch. She was sitting on a bench, watching the street traffic. The people passing by the inn were moving more urgently than usual.

I sat next to Emma.

"I intend to scout upriver," I told her. "There's a place that's worth investigating."

Emma nodded. "Do we leave immediately? Or tomorrow morning?"

"It could be dangerous," I warned.

Emma smiled, glanced at me, and shook her head. "Dangerous? Really? That's a pity, because my travels with you have been so quiet up till now."

"I'd rather you and Rahne stayed here in town."

"That's not going to happen," Emma said with a shrug. "Rahne has come to care for you - not as a woman, but as a girl. You are becoming like a father to her. And as for me... well, I have my mission to consider."

I examined Emma's face. "Your mission isn't to keep an eye on Rahne, is it?"

"No."

"Why was it decided that I'm worthy of the Temple's attention?"

Emma shrugged again. "You aren't the only person who watches for signs, James. Dare saw something in you. She prayed for guidance, consulted with the other priestesses, and then talked with me. She decided that you should be watched. She felt it was the will of Lady Ororo."

Then Emma paused before continuing. "You have some remarkable women in your life," she added dryly.

I couldn't help myself. I let out a snort.

A smile flickered across Emma's face.