THE SERPENT'S TOOTH, Part 14
Overhead, a storm rumbled and growled. I was standing under the cover of a shrine, but Dare was facing me from the middle of the temple's courtyard. The fact that she was standing in the rain didn't bother Dare at all - which was not suprising.
"James," Dare said cautiously. "Is there any way I can convince you to just go?"
"My wives and children are living in the same world as Ingrid's child," I pointed out.
Dare's expression indicated reluctant acknowledgement of the point I'd just made. "What if I told you that staying is the most dangerous thing you could do?"
I cocked my head at her. "Can you explain that?"
Dare pursed her lips before going on. She was obviously choosing her words with great care. "You killed Laufey Sigmundson."
"Yes, I did. And it was almost a disaster."
"So Emma told me. Do you understand what happened to you while you were within Laufey's circle of stones?"
A suspicion as to where this conversation was going suddenly seized me. Something cold seemed to trickle down my back.
"I was momentarily possessed," I replied slowly. "Something crawled inside me and I came close to killing everyone. I cut Rahne deeply - if it wasn't for her strong healing abilities, she would have died. I could just have easily done the same to Anna, and she definitely wouldn't have survived. And by then Olivia was injured and Emma was exhausted. They wouldn't have been able to put up an effective resistance against me. And it was only because they took some dangerous chances that I recovered in time."
Dare took a deep breath before continuing. "James, once you have contacted a great power..."
I suddenly recalled Illyana, the Angel, and the amulet.
"There is a connection," I finished very softly. "No matter how fleeting the contact is, some of that connection remains."
Dare just nodded in response.
I stared at Dare for a long moment. I still didn't understand exactly what was happening. It was still unfathomable to me that so many of those whom I trusted and cared for were pursuing such a dangerous course of action, but...
Then I made my decision.
"Benjamin, Gant, Jessica," I snapped. "We're leaving. Now."
I had to get out of there.
The rain kept falling. The courtyard was now seemingly abandoned except for Dare, myself, and the others. Even the gate guards had closed the gate and were standing outside.
Benjamin came up from behind me and stepped between Dare and myself. He handed me my cloak - doing his best to seem as if he was being casually respectful, rather than guarding me. His eyes searched my face. He was obviously both puzzled and deeply worried.
Gant, his expression terribly grim, also strode in my direction. To all appearances, he was simply being a good samurai, making himself available for any orders his lord might give. However, it was no coincidence that he was within clubbing range of Dare. He was also turning his head from side to side, trying to identify targets that might be otherwise hidden by the rain and in the nearby buildings.
Jessica got to her feet and headed for the stables and our horses. Samantha and Sophie trailed after her. As Jessica passed by Dare, she paused to curtsey. Samantha and Sophie did the same, but their faces were coldly expressionless as they carefully studied the priestess. For the first time, I could sense the trained killer in both of them.
However, it wasn't fated that we should be allowed to leave quietly.
Half-hidden by the rain, someone opened a simple side-door that led into the courtyard. Through the door, a small figure appeared. It was a young boy of just a few years, barefoot and clad in a patched and modified servant's tunic. By the boy's side - holding his hand - there was a hooded figure wearing a nondescript traveller's cloak. The boy seemed surprised by what was happening, but then he ignored everyone else in the courtyard as he began staring at me.
Dare followed my gaze and saw the boy. "No..." I heard her whisper involuntarily.
In the boy, I could see a resemblance to Ingrid. Which meant that I also saw a strong echo of Loki himself.
But it was in his eyes - suddenly inquisitive and serious - where I saw his true nature. Those eyes were not as I expected. They were in a much younger form, but they were still the eyes of an old friend.
I finally understood why the boy had been allowed to live.
The hooded figure released the boy's hand. Still peering at me through the rain, the child began to slowly walk towards me.
Then the hooded figure stepped back and closed the door behind him, leaving the boy out in the courtyard with Dare and I. Given his importance, it seemed incredible that the boy had somehow slipped away from his mother and whoever else that had been tasked with guarding him. But I suspected that particular child was quite strange.
The door to the servant's quarters flew open once again and Ingrid suddenly appeared. She was also dressed as a servant and there was a frantic expression on her face. She ran over to her boy and grabbed him by his shoulders. She obviously intended to drag him out of the courtyard.
But by then it was too late. I'd seen the boy. And something else had seen him through my eyes.
There was an other-wordly clap of sensation - like a combined howl of recognition and triumph - and a blazing pillar of fire erupted in the middle of the courtyard. A sudden impulse of heat washed over us as the rain began to hiss and pop against the column of flame. Steam gushed out from the flame as the temperature rose a dozen degrees in a second.
The pillar of fire began to writhe and convulse. It was a gateway, and something was using it to try and force its way into our world.
Dormammu knew about the boy. And he was murderously interested.
Demons began appearing in the courtyard.
The demons were at least eight foot tall, broadly built and heavily muscled, with skin that was gray and rubbery. However, it was their faces that were their most appalling feature. There was no mouth, nose, or ears. Instead, a single, cyclopean, eye - a thick slit of red that spanned most of the width of the head - dominated an otherwise featureless face.
Long ago, Ancient Strange had described those creatures to me. He'd called them 'Mindless Ones'. They were the minions of Dormammu himself.
One appeared next to Gant, and Gant didn't even hesitate. With a brutal swing of his club, he smashed the creature flat. The demon lay on the cobblestones of the courtyard, the side of its head caved in and its crushed eye leaking strange fluids.
Dare finally recovered from being surprised, called out the name of the goddess, and her lightning began to fall. After that, it was impossible to hear anything but the crash of thunder. Giant gray bodies began flying through the rain - shredded and burned by Dare's lightning.
I sprinted for Ingrid and the boy, splashes of puddled rainwater springing up as I ran. Benjamin leaped over and past me. Just before he landed, a mindless one seized Ingrid by the arm - her arm bend unnaturally as the bone snapped - and threw her half-way across the courtyard. Meanwhile, Benjamin landed between the mindless one and the boy. I leaped forward and buried my claws into the creature's massive back. It recoiled soundlessly. Then Benjamin whirled his swords and the demon's throat gaped wide. There was no gush of blood. Instead, a thin orange liquid slowly oozed from the wound. It smelled strangely acidic.
Other mindless ones approached. I yanked my claws free and turned to face them, keeping the boy behind me. Benjamin was by my side.
Meanwhile Dare's lightning kept falling. As I engaged another demon, I glanced at her. Gant was covering Dare - making sure that none of the demons got too close to the priestess. Dare was tall for a woman, but she looked like a child next to Gant.
With a roar, Gant swung his club. Rainwater sprayed from it in a long arc until the club smashed into a mindless one. The demon careened off to the side, one of its arms shattered and broken ribs jutting out of its chest.
The massive courtyard gate began opening with painful slowness. A temple guard squeezed through the widening gap - and then another. They immediately found themselves locked in battle with three of the mindless ones.
At that moment, Jessica made a titanic leap and landed next to me in a mighty splash of water. She had Samantha and Sophie under each arm. A mindless one rushed at them. Jessica dropped the girls and jumped straight up, somersaulting in mid-air as she kicked the mindless one with both feet and knocked it onto its back. When she landed, Jessica caught the shortsword Benjamin threw at her and used it to slash into another demon.
Samantha and Sophie drew their daggers and swarmed over the demon that Jessica had knocked down. Samantha was trying to hamstring its legs, while Sophie sliced deeply into tendons just inside of one of the demon's elbows. The rainwater splashing around the girls and the downed demon suddenly turned reddish-orange.
I finished gutting the mindless one that was facing me - it staggered aimlessly away, trying to stuff long and greasy trails of intestines back inside itself. Then I crouched next to the thrashing demon that Samantha and Sophie were fighting and put my left-hand claws into the demon's single eye. The creature's eye burst, splattering me with some sort of ichor. The creature stiffened and went still.
Rising back to my feet, I bellowed to Samantha and Sophie, "Protect the boy!" It was the only thing I could think of that would absolutely attract their attention and keep them out of the worst of the fight.
The two girls immediately dashed for the boy.
Lightning was still crashing into the demons - Dare was actually doing more damage to the monsters than anyone else in the courtyard. More than a few strikes also impacted into the pillar of flame, driving back whatever it was that was trying to come through. However, more mindless ones continued to appear.
The main door to the temple itself opened and an elderly and white-haired priestess of Blades - her name was Carol and she was the mistress of the temple - dashed out into the courtyard. She was wearing robes instead of armor, but the katana she was wielding whirled into the first demon she encountered with deadly efficiency. Behind her, a dozen-or-so acolytes and guardsman followed. A wide-eyed and obviously frightened Fire acolyte picked up a mindless one with telekinesis. For a moment, it writhed in mid-air, but then the priestess smashed it against the courtyard wall with so much force that the demon burst messily apart in a spray of ruptured flesh, broken bone, and shattered stone.
In the midst of those reinforcements was an unfamiliar woman wearing the distinctive cloak of House Strange. She took a moment to unleash a bolt of magical energy that sent a nearby demon flying over the temple wall. It was aflame as it tumbled head-over-foot in a long arc that I estimated would end in the river.
Ripping open the throat of the demon I was fighting, I backed away from its collapsing body. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I could see Ingrid's boy. Samantha and Sophie were standing protectivly on either side of him, with their small daggers in their hands. All three children were soaked by the pouring rain.
As I watched, Ingrid's boy seemed to peer carefully around the courtyard. Then he made a series of strangely fluid gestures with his hands. His mouth was moving, but there was no way I could hear him speak. That really wasn't important, since I'm sure I wouldn't have understood the language he was speaking. Around the boy, a halo of red and blue energies appeared. Then those energies almost immediately formed into circles that began orbiting his body. Arcane sigils appeared in the air around him.
Obviously startled, Samantha and Sophie edged away.
Then the spell that the boy was weaving reached its climax...
The pillar of fire dominating the center of the courtyard simply vanished. After that, the mindless ones began - one-by-one - to pop out of existence. Even the dead and wounded demons disappeared.
Within a few seconds, the enemy was gone. Baffled priestesses, acolytes, and temple guardsmen were left standing in a courtyard that just a few seconds before had been a vicious battlefield.
Dare made a two-handed cutting gesture and the last of her lightning - focused on where the pillar of fire had been - stopped. The rain slowed, but didn't go away. Gant was still guarding Dare. I saw her put a hand on Gant's arm and say something to him that I couldn't quite make out. A troll can't blush, but Gant came very close. Then he gave her a hasty bow.
Across the courtyard, an acolyte helped Ingrid to her feet. She was battered and bruised, and one of her arms was broken, but she was still able to move haltingly. After all, she was Asgardian-blooded and they are a resilient bunch.
I crouched down until I was roughly at eye-level with Ingrid's boy. Then I cupped some rainwater that had pooled onto the ground in my hands and used it to wash demonic ichor from my hands and face. I wanted him to recognize me.
In face and form, the boy was just that - a boy. His face was wet and his hair bedraggled, but in his eyes I could see so much more.
Through the boy's eyes, the spirit of someone I'd thought to be dead and gone looked back at me.
"Hello, Stephen," I said softly. My ears were ringing so badly from the thunder that I could barely hear my own voice.
"Hello, James," he replied with a very familiar smile, actually I more read his lips than heard him speak. "We seem to have a problem here."
Then he reached a small hand out to me. I took it in mine and squeezed gently.
And then - just before Ingrid arrived and awkwardly scooped up her boy in one arm - Stephen vanished from the boy's eyes. Now there was just a frightened child looking back. He drew back from me, but Sophie put a comforting arm around him.
Samantha said something, but I couldn't make it out. I tapped one of my ears.
"He's a strange one," Samantha said more loudly. Sophie nodded in anxious agreement.
Getting to my feet, I smiled grimly down at the girls.
"You're more correct than you know," I told them.