WOLVERINE'S WORLD - THE NIGHTMARE
We had to get upriver as soon as possible. If the Captain's scouting forces ran into the enemy first, that might trigger a series of pitched battles and meeting engagements for which his forces would not be prepared. The warriors of the Point would be defeated piece-meal. I'd seen it happen before.
If what I suspected was true, an overwhelming force had to be assembled as quickly as possible and then sent out to hit the enemy hard.
As a seeker, I have a certain rights and prerogatives. If we could find the enemy, then I could call for war in the Old One's name. If the Temple agreed, there would be little or no indecision, hesitation, or the usual seeking of petty advantage by lords and holders. The Blood all up and down the Huds would unite to deal with the common foe.
I hoped that would be enough. The last time, it almost wasn't.
But before I called the Blood to war, I had to be sure.
I was well after midnight when we met down at the docks. Rahne had brought David to meet with Emma and I.
"Give me the money," I told Emma.
Emma didn't look pleased, but she retrieved our small bag of silver from her satchel. I tossed it to David and he caught it one-handed.
"Find us a good boat - a large canoe will work. And we need it quickly."
David knew boats and the docks in a way we didn't. I was trusting to his expertise. He nodded, clearly impressed by the urgency in my voice. Then he and Rahne left.
I sat down, my back against some crates. Emma knelt next to me.
Some guards passed by. They paused for a moment to examine us, but then they recognized me. I nodded at them. They bowed and continued on their rounds.
Emma watched the wordless exchange and shook her head once the guards moved on.
"What's to stop you from abusing your authority?" she asked me.
I've been asked that before - always by Wilder or Folk. They really don't quite understand what I am.
"If I did that, then I would no longer be a seeker," I explained. "Then I would have no authority to abuse. And someone would kill me for that."
Really, it's all rather obvious to the Blood. For some reason, others seem to feel there are some missing steps of logic.
Emma's green eyes met mine. Then she just smiled.
It was cooler than normal. Emma unwrapped her travelling blanket, sat next to me, and wrapped it around us.
"Got room for one more in there?" Anna called as she approached. She had her gear with her. Apparently her stay in the Point was over.
Emma sighed as I held the blanket open.
Anna put down her bag and guitar case and crawled in next to me.
I was between Anna and Emma, the blanket over all three of us. Anna was curled into a ball, with her head resting on my chest. Emma had an arm around my chest and her legs intertwined with mine. My arms were around their shoulders. Under other circumstances, the experience would have been enjoyable.
Nothing was said. I had much to consider, Emma was disinclined to speak in Anna's presence, and Anna caught our mood and stayed uncharacteristically silent.
Anna dozed off first. Then Emma. I watched the river for a while, then my eyes closed.
An old nightmare appeared from out of the darkness of sleep. I had no choice but to mount up and let her take me for a ride.
We were at war with creatures from another world.
A host had been raised that was vaster than anything seen for centuries. Thousands of Blood samurai and ronin gathered in their packs and bands. The Wilder raised their crossed banner in the name of the Crippled Lord. The Iron Men flew overhead while the Spider Legion marched alongside us. The Folk put away their plows and took up their polearms and bows. Ancient Strange teleported in every Scatter warrior he could find. The College sent their mages. Illyana the Mad summoned her demons. Even the saner Green Bastards pitched in.
We passed by the battlefields at Prince and Trent, where the local lords of the Blood had been annihilated. Then we marched down the north side of the Dela river, towards the captured town of Delphi. We encountered the enemy late in the afternoon, just west of an inconsequential creek the locals called the Penpack. There was no hesitation by either side, the battle erupted immediately.
The fighting raged on and on, through the last of the day and into the night. The bodies of our warriors were everywhere, a carpet of the dead. In the morning light, it was obvious that we were losing. We wouldn't break, but we could certainly die. Something had to be done.
The eldest of the storm priestesses - a gentle and gracious lady whose life had been devoted to learning and peace - knelt in a pool of our warriors' blood. She open her robes, smeared blood-soaked mud onto her face, lifted her arms up to a brooding sky, and screamed a half-forgotten, half-forbidden plea for help.
When she was done it seemed as if the entire world paused - waiting to see what would happen next.
Minutes passed. I began to wonder if the old pact had been forgotten.
Then the lightning came. It was like nothing I'd seen before or since, falling like explosive rain into the formations of dark-elf troops. Bodies and parts of bodies flew through the sky. There was a haze of purple-red blood that intermingled with a driving rain and made it smell and taste like copper. Thunder washed over our line again and again, rocking us back where we stood.
I looked up. Somehow, through the driving rain and the rippling storm clouds, I saw him. His red cape, accentuating a distant figure, flared and whipped high in the storm-tossed sky. His hammer blazed with blue and white light.
So few saw him. Those who knew who he was did not speak of it.
Our demons raged through the enemy rear. Elvish teleporters and spider infiltrators assassinated enemy officers and mages. Eldritch energies whipped around the battlefield like the titanic, frenzied, tentacles of great beasts. The Scatter, their faces and bodies now smeared with the red sign of the olden Avengers, sang their death songs as they advanced. Flyers dueled above us, the bodies of the slain crashing to earth around us. We Blood howled in our endless, berserk, fury - screaming the Old One's name as we abandoned our humanity and made that final, pitiless, charge.
The tattered line of dark-elves and their monsters bent back and back... and then finally broke.
Everything became chaos and mayhem.
I remembered a torn-open suit of priceless Iron Men armor. Dark, winged, creatures crouched over it, feeding on the screaming woman inside...
I remembered a spider soldier, one arm torn away, pounding at the body of dead troll with his remaining arm as he reduced it to a gruesome paste. I tried to pull him away, hoping I could get him to a healer in time. But he just shook me off, fell back on what was left of the troll, and died...
I remembered a giant stalking through the rain, lashing wildly in every direction with a club that was an entire tree. Tiny figures scaled his bleeding body, cutting and carving into the giant as they climbed up to his head and throat...
I remembered injured Folk militia-men, too hurt to fight, using their halberds as staffs as they staggered from body to body. They killed the enemy wounded and decapitated all of the dead they could find - even ours. So many had risen to fight again...
I remembered my sons...
Afterwards, what was left of our army entered the town of Delphi. Its people were dead, ripped open, drained of blood, and stacked in neat rows. They were sacrifices for a massive spell that we barely stopped in time. It didn't matter if the victims were Blood, Folk, Scatter, or Wilder - their lives had been nothing more than fuel for evil magics.
I woke with a start. Anna had my face in her hands and her lips were pressed against mine. Emma was holding me tight, her forehead against the side of my face.
"Wake up," Anna was whispering to me, over and over again.
David and Rahne came back. They had a fine-looking canoe.
"Are you all right?" Emma asked as she peered at me. She was obviously worried.
"I'm fine," I answered shortly.
Rahne tossed our packs into a canoe. Anna and David were holding the boat steady. Then she leaned over to kiss David goodbye and agilely stepped into the canoe. Part of me wanted to leave Rahne behind. Another part of me recognized that she was actually quite capable. I might need her. Just as I might need Anna and Emma.
The stakes were too high for sentiment.
Emma stepped close to me. "What's wrong?"
I looked up at the night sky. The edge of the moon was peering down at us from between dark, wind-torn, clouds.
"You saw my dream?" I asked.
Emma nodded hesitantly. She had been acting oddly around me ever since the nightmare. Her understanding of how old I was had just undergone a major revision. The truth amazed her.
Or perhaps she thought I was mad, and that what she had seen in my mind was no more than delusion.
"We captured the enemy leader," I told her as I continued examining the sky. "We crucified him to an ancient oak tree with nails of cold iron. Then our mages cast their finest spells of binding upon him."
"And somehow the bastard was gone the next day."
"You think he's back?" Emma asked tensely.
I nodded.
He was back. Deep down inside, I knew it.
Malekith was back.