Mika awakened, feeling only slightly better than death. It was obvious that Tam felt no better, for his eyes were still crossed, his tongue still swollen, and the bump on top of his head was even larger than before.
Mika groaned as he crawled to his knees and slowly stood up. He felt awful but knew that nothing was to be gained by staying here. Anything would be better than staying. Well, almost anything.
Mika glanced down at his hand, hoping he had imagined the awful occurrence, but the demon finger w*s still there, each circular scale gleaming bright green in the morning light.
He sighed deeply, knowing that there were many dungs to be done. Town. He had to get to town to buy provisions so they could begin the demon's mission.
Mika walked across the temple slowly, grimacing w*h every step as the tender, swollen flesh of his soles grated against the broken pavement. The roan had fatally materialized and seemed glad to see him, having eaten all the weeds and grass within its reach. It whickered happily and, tossing its head up and down, nudged Mika painfully on his burned chest. Mika untied the reins and drew the horse behind him as he made his way toward Hornsbuck.
The big Wolf Nomad sat with his back against the wall of the temple, staring vacantly into mid-air. His green eyes focused on Mika without much interest. "Lotus Blossom?" he asked querulously, yet without seeming to really expect an answer.
Hornsbuck's huge, ham-sized fists lay idle in his lap. His great, reddish blond, brisdy mane and enormous, full beard hung limp and bedraggled. It seemed to Mika that Hornsbuck's skin had lost its tone; it hung from his bones like the flesh of an old man who had been much heavier in his prime. It seemed that he who had always been so full of the flavor of living had given up and, if left alone, would soon drift off into death.
Mika was alarmed. How could he ever succeed on this devilish journey without Hornsbuck! Forgetting his own problems, he knelt down beside the man and pulled him to his feet. Hornsbuck did not help Mika, nor did he resist. It was like dealing with a child.
RedTail, Hornsbuck's big male wolf, circled nervously, whining softly, seeming to understand that Mika was trying to aid the man he followed. Under normal circumstances, RedTail would never have allowed Mika to touch Hornsbuck. But these were not normal circumstances.
Once he was on his feet, Hornsbuck mounted the roan with Mika's help. RedTail watched anxiously.
Tam staggered to his feet and tried to join them. He took two uncertain steps and then lurched off drunkenly to the left. His momentum carried him for a short distance, whereupon he lost his balance and fell to the ground, whining.
There was only one thing to do. Mika trudged over to the wolfs side. Closing his eyes, he repeated the words to one of the few spells he knew by heart, a sleep spell. He had found it useful when meeting voung women. Awakening from unexpected naps, ihev found themselves cradled in his arms. Some- rimes they stayed there.
Tam stopped whining and began snoring, a peculiar snorting-wheezing-whistling sound, but anything was better than looking at his poor, crossed eyes. Mika picked the wolf up in his arms and, grunting under the weight, carried him over to the horse.
The roan shied and rolled its eyes as Mika neared, but it held fast. He draped the wolf over the horse's hindquarters, behind the saddle, and tied him securely like a sack of oatmeal.
Mika looked around the temple, checking to see if be had left anything. His leather pouch lay crumpled on the stones at the base of a pillar, the horns and vials, healing angents crushed and ruined. His sword and the Princess Julia's knife lay in the center of the room where the battle with the demi-demon, Iuz, had taken place. Mika lifted his hand and stroked the blue-green that hung from his neck. The princess. There was no avoiding it. He knew that he had to find her.
Mika scanned the temple, searching, but the princess was nowhere to be seen. Could she have left? For a moment his heart leapt within his breast and he hoped with all his being that it were true, that she had left and gone off on her own. But then he was overcome with worry that she might have done so. The princess was part of the mission and, like it or not, she was needed to unravel the mess and put things together right.
Mika crept around the edges of the temple as quietly as his swollen feet could manage, looking in all the darkened nooks and crannies where she might have hidden.
He found her at last, huddled beneath the great stone altar, her eyes, one green, one blue, glowing out at him from the darkness. As he held his hand out toward her, she growled and bared her teeth.
"I should have known," Mika said with a sigh. "Unpleasant as a woman, unpleasant as a wolf. Why would I expect anything different?" He turned aside as though to leave.
While Mika was fairly adept in dealing with women, he excelled at handling wolves. He was a Wolf Nomad, after all. And while the princess was familiar with being a woman, she had been a wolf for only a short time.
As Mika drew back, the princess lunged forward to bite him, the hatred glowing bright in her eyes. That was what Mika had been waiting for. In a motion almost too fast to follow, he seized the princess behind her neck and, pinching the skin at the base of her neck, lifted her clear of the altar as easily as if she were a small kitten.
Mika carried her, as she snapped futilely and snarled loudly, back across the temple to the patient roan. He rummaged in the saddlebags, whistling cheerfully through swollen lips, not allowing the princess the satisfaction of knowing how much his arms ached and how much he longed to set her down. Finally he found what he was looking for, a sturdy length of smoked rawhide. It would not last forever, but it would do for the time being. He tied it firmly around her neck and knotted the other end around the horn of the saddle. Try as she might, she could not free herself quickly. Everything was ready-well, almost everything. Mika removed Hornsbuck's cape from around his massive shoulders and fitted it around his own. It covered most of his body, having been made for a much larger man. Falling to his ankles, it hid his burned flesh and singed clothes from sight. But his boots were badly charred and tattered. Muttering an apoiogv to the bemused Hornsbuck, he removed the s boots as well and placed them on his own feet. They were so enormous, that he had difficulty keeping them on, but if he shuffled, it would be all right, His head and hands were another matter. His hair been burned away to mere stubble, and his face was puffy and peeling and scarlet red in color. And there was little matter of the demon finger.
Mika spread his arms wide and modeled his new headgear for the wolf. RedTail looked away and whined, seemingly embarrassed by the pink silk turban.
But Mika was pleased. There was little or nothing he could do about his hand except keep it hidden from view beneath the voluminous cloak, but now he was fit to go out in public.
He grabbed the roan's reins firmly and, making certain that the princess could not reach him, he made his way through the carved set of double doors and left the temple of Iuz.