THE SERPENT'S TOOTH, Part 17

Illyana returned to her human form before we exited the temple gates. Since the entire village was on edge, that seemed a wise decision.

Benjamin, Gant, Jessica, and the girls were waiting for me. Dare and Sigmund were with them. A cluster of temple guardsman and acolytes were carefully watching the members of my pack. Further in the background, a grim-looking squad of Lord Alban's samurai were keeping an eye on everyone else.

Benjamin took a deep breath when he saw Illyana. The others didn't react as strongly since they didn't know who she really was.

Dare gave Illyana and I a long and worried look as we approached. "How was your journey to the spirit world?" she asked.

"It was baffling and cryptic," I told her.

Dare smiled sardonically. "So in other words, it was the usual. I've only visited the spirits twice myself. The first time was after I finished my time as an acolyte. I spent a day wandering through a jumbled mass of ghosts who were howling as they mourned their pasts - I didn't sleep well for a year afterwards. The other time was just before I was raised to the senior priesthood. I had tea with a pretty Folk girl and a gentlemanly rabbit, as a smiling cat watched us from a nearby tree. We talked about complete nonsense, I remember something about queens and beheadings."

For some reason, Illyana let out a chuckle. Dare - probably wondering who Illyana was and where she had come from - gave her a brief glance. Illyana kept her face neutral.

Then Dare turned her attention back to me. "Perhaps I just don't have a talent for communicating with spirits."

I gave Dare a stern look. "I know what you're thinking of doing if Dormammu enters our world."

Dare didn't say anything for a long moment. When she finally spoke, she sounded resigned.

"Somebody in the spirit world has a big mouth," Dare observed.

"You have no idea," I responded dryly. "But that's not important. What's important is that summoning the Phoenix is not a winning strategy."

Everyone within earshot stirred uneasily.

Dare actually shrugged. "Actually, I wouldn't be able to do it. I'd need the help of more priestesses than actually reside in the Alban temple. And besides, I'm sure there's a secret Graymalkin agent or two hidden amongst the temple staff. They'd assassinate me as soon as they realized what I was up to... and that's assuming Priestess Carol didn't decapitate me first."

Then she gave me a meaningful look. "But still, if the situation were to become desperate enough..."

Beside me, Illyana hissed.

"I was alive during the Burning," I interrupted.

Illyana fell silent. Dare didn't reply, but she was obviously amazed.

"It was two hundred years after the war between the Wilder and the Folk," I continued. "There was no warning. The Star-Folk - my grandfather and grandmother called them the Shi'ar - attacked with weapons that are almost impossible to describe. Their initial strike was in the great lands across the western ocean, and to this day nobody knows why they attacked there first. I was in the land of Chin at the time, and I saw the worst of it. Settlements were smashed and forests burned to cinders in an instant. Mountains shook with terrible avalanches. Great mushroom-shaped clouds towered into the heavens. It seemed like the end of the world."

"Then the Phoenix arose, her light blinding the world as she ascended into the sky. After that, the great ships of the Star-Folk began to fall. They burned their way down to Earth, tumbling and breaking apart as they plummeted. The ground trembled and the seas heaved for miles around wherever they struck."

"The Phoenix won," Illyana added suddenly. "She defeated the Star-Folk utterly. And then her very presence began killing the survivors of the Shi'ar attack. Fire's raged from horizon to horizon. The air was so hot that it was almost impossible to breath. Rivers and seas became black with ash. But eventually - nobody knows why - the Phoenix left. You could see her bright red-and-orange light recede as she raced deep into the night sky. Nobody knows what devastation she caused in the depths of space before she finally returned to her slumber."

I continued. "The Star-Folk killed many, Dare. But the Phoenix almost finished us off. Do not attempt to summon her. Unless, of course, you're planning on performing a mercy killing on our entire world."

Dare was still silent, but she nodded in agreement.

Before I left town, there was somebody I had to see. We didn't really have the time, but if I didn't meet with Lord Alban, there might be a clash of arms that would result in a greater delay than any time lost to politeness.

As I entered the great-hall of his manor, Lord Alban was the very personification of a frontier lord taking time from his busy affairs to greet a visiting fellow noble. He was seated at the hall's main table, talking to several of his underlings. The conversation ended as I approached, and the lord's advisers politely bowed and withdrew. I wondered how much of that was staged and how much was real. Probably a bit of both.

There were more samurai stationed about the hall than the last time I was there. And, in what was definitely not a matter of complete coincidence, they all had the hard-bitten look of experienced warriors. There wasn't a single youngster among them.

Gant could actually fit into the great hall. He was slightly behind me and to my left. As we advanced, he carefully examined each of the samurai in turn. The samurai returned his gaze. You could actually see everyone calculating the most efficient way to kill each other.

Benjamin was next to me. Many of the samurai were paying so much attention to Gant, that they were ignoring him. However, the smarter samurai were also considering Benjamin.

Lord Alban's wife - a formidable Wilder woman who had never spoken a word in my presence - was giving me a long and steady look. Meanwhile, Lord Alban pushed a wine cup and a bottle before an empty chair. I sat down, waved away a servant, and poured my own drink.

"Lord Alban," I said in polite greeting. "Thank you for seeing me. I regret any trouble my presence may have caused."

The Lord waved away my apology.

"Lord Ashe," he greeted me in return. "To what do I owe the honor of your latest visit?"

For several seconds, I tried to decide how to answer that. Lord Alban had a well-known reputation as a pious man. An honest answer on my part might fill him with awe - or offend him terribly.

Lord Alban noted my uncertaintly. Then, thankfully, he decided not to pursue the question.

"Never mind," Lord Alban said with a sigh as he picked up his own wine cup and took a long swallow.

I'd made it clear to Lord Alban that I was leaving town as soon as possible. It wasn't exactly said that I should never return, but I thought it would be a good idea to wait until Lord Alban's successor was in power before doing so.

Carol refused to speak to me. I felt no ill will towards her for that. Hopefully, she would someday forgive me for the madness I had unwittingly brought to her door.

Dare met us at the manor gate. She had Sigmund in tow. Samantha and Sophie were obviously happy to see him.

"How is Ingrid taking this?" I asked as I nodded in Sigmund's direction.

Dare shrugged. "Poorly. But she knows that he isn't safe here, and she's too hurt to travel. And for reasons that I don't claim to understand, she seems to trust you."

Then Dare turned to Gant, "Mr. Gant, my thanks for defending me during the fight in the courtyard. I am in your debt."

Obviously uncomfortable with Dare's praise, Gant quickly bowed his head. "A privilege, my lady," he rumbled in flustered embarrassment.

Over Dare's shoulder, I caught a glimpse of the children. Samantha and Sophie were showing Sigmund one of their games. I'd seen the girls do it before. It involved sketching a symbol on the ground, and then skipping over and around it in some sort of one-footed pattern that I couldn't discern.

Illyana was also watching the children. Her eyebrows rose after Sophie finished her drawing. Then Illyana looked at me.

The sketch was of a circle that contained two pairs of lines. One pair of lines crossed over the other. The proportions of the lines within the circle were odd - both parallel, and yet curving away from each other.

I recognized it immediately.

Then I turned to Dare. "Do you know Michael? He has a holding south of here."

Dare nodded.

"Please have our horses taken to him," I said as I handed her a generous sum of coins. "Ask him to stable them for two weeks. If we haven't returned by then, the horses are his."

"What are you up to?" Dare asked as she tucked the coins in her belt.

"We're going to Nyack," I told her.

She looked doubtful. "If you're planning to take a boat, two weeks isn't really enough time to get back and forth from Nyack."

"We have other means of transportation."

We walked to the village square.

"Why Nyack?" Benjamin asked in bafflement.

"Did you see the symbol that Sophie drew in the street?" I asked.

Benjamin considered that. Then his eyes widened in surprise.

"Sophie!" Benjamin called over his shoulder. Startled, Sophie looked at him.

"Back at the manor, you scratched something into the ground. What was it?"

Sophie isn't easily given to words. She was struggling to form some when Samantha quickly spoke up for her.

"It's just a part of the jumping game," Samantha told us. "There are seven symbols. That one is called the mage's mark."

Benjamin nodded and then turned his attention back to me. "I've seen children play that game before. Could it be a coincidence?"

"That symbol is obviously a representation of the window in the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum," I said.

Benjamin sighed. "The resemblance is clear."

We were referring to an ancient structure in the Grenich part of Nyack. It is the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Sorcerer Supreme and it's the center of Nyack's college of mystical arts.

"For a symbol representing the Sanctum Sanctorum to appear just now is obviously meaningful," I told Benjamin.

Benjamin glanced at Sigmund. The boy was now riding on Gant's shoulder and appeared to be vastly enjoying the experience.

"It's incredible," Benjamin muttered to himself. I'd told him about the spirit of Ancient Strange.

Then his attention turned back to me. "My lord, I won't question your interpretation of the signs. You're the seeker, not I."

I didn't correct him.

Illyana's teleportation circle rose around us as the landscape surrounding us changed. And then we were no longer in Alban. Around us, the vast city of Nyack stretched away in all directions. The overwhelming stench of that many people and animals concentrated in one place was a sudden shock. I'd had no time to adapt to it. Shaking my head, I snorted several times as I tried to adjust.

Even my nose-blind companions were discomfited by the smell.

We were on Bleaker Street, just across the street from the Sanctum Sanctorum. Most teleporters - especially long-range ones - are nowhere as near as accurate as Illyana.

"Good work," I told her.

Illyana nodded distractedly. It seemed to me that there was something sad in her eyes as she considered her surroundings. Perhaps Illayana was seeing Nyack as it was back when she was just a girl.

Everyone was peering about them. The children - Samantha, Sophie, and Sigmund - were clustered around Gant. The children were wide-eyed at the huge expanse of streets and buildings. On the other hand, Gant looked mildly disgusted. He shares my opinion about over-crowded urban centers.

Benjamin touched Jessica's shoulder and nodded towards the Towers. Jessica - who had probably never seen a building taller than the fortifications of Roch - gasped in amazement at the sight of the titanic ancient skyscrapers. As she and Benjamin watched, a tiny figure leaped from an open window of the Empire tower and snagged one of the wind-whipped cables that hung from its pinnacle. Then they adroitly kicked off from the wall of the tower and used the cable to swing across the face of the massive structure.

Benjamin had a slightly nostalgic look about him.

Jessica's face was lit with a delighted smile. "I have to try that," she said to nobody in particular.