Rose Estes - Master Wolf

"All of us are counting on you, RedTail: me, Hornsbuck, the princess, and your old pal, Tam. You wouldn't want us to die down here, would you?"

RedTail's tongue lolled out of his mouth and Mika stifled an impulse to boot the beast. Calming himself, he continued.

"Look, RedTail, old pal, this is all your fault in a way. Yours and Tam's. If you'd come when we called you, Hornsbuck would be all right now and we'd be on our way. But you two wanted to stay and fight. So why don't you just cut out this nonsense and get us the hell out of here, 'cause if you don't I'm going to kick you from here to Sunsebb!"

Red Tail gazed up at Mika as though calculating, then, twisting his head free, stood next to Hornsbuck and sniffed him thoroughly. Rising up on his hind legs, he poked his muzzle into Hornsbuck's chin and nudged the man hard several times. Hornsbuck rocked on his feet and Mika took the torch from his hand and steadied him so that he didn't fall over.

Red Tail whined plaintively and dropped to the ground. He looked up at Mika, all humor gone from his eyes, then turned and set off at a steady lope.

Time passed. endlessly. Tunnels passed. To their left. To their right. Up. Down. And sometimes sideways. RedTail led and Mika followed.

The passage grew more and more elaborate once they left the great hall. The walls were smooth dressed stone or inlaid with mosaics that glittered in the torchlight. Intersecting passageways were cause for high vaulting ribbed ceilings and elaborate columns and pillars with delicate carvings that Mika did not care to examine.

It was an extraordinary, fascinating place, rich with the artifacts of some bygone culture. But Mika was not interested in architecture, nor in solving the mystery of the vanished inhabitants. All he cared about was getting out.

The meat was beginning to go rancid; grass, water, and wood for the torches were nearly depleted. Mika and TamTur were exhausted and frightened. Horns-buck still drooled and the princess still slept, dirty and uncombed, her dress hanging about her in tattered disarray.

"Man the barricades!" shouted Hornsbuck, his mind obviously drifting back to some ancient battle. Mika ignored the outburst, plodding stolidly ahead through the dark corridor, trying to believe that the wolf really knew where he was going and that they would not die down here in the dark, surrounded by cold stone.

The first time Hornsbuck spoke after the encounter with the umber hulk, Mika had rushed to his side, thinking that perhaps the older man had shaken off the effects of the spell. But it had not been so. "Flay him alive! Boil the rascal in oil!" he commanded, ordering unseen underlings to do his bidding.

Since that moment, Hornsbuck was alternately silent and staring, or loudly vocal, reliving much of his life in disjointed bits and pieces. He raved and hollered, chuckled and cajoled, and gave orders that went unanswered. But the worst of it was that he mistook Mika for someone named Lotus Blossom and frequently sought to enfold him in his hairy embrace. After the first mustachioed kiss, Mika was careful not to be taken unawares and made certain that Hornsbuck walked behind the roan.

Perhaps it is true that the gods protect fools and small children because the party met nothing more fearful during the rest of their journey than one measly foot-long centipede which quickly scurried out of their way.

Mika thought his eyes or the torch were failing when everything suddenly paled to grey. Slowly he realized that the passage had been rising for some time and that it was daylight, blessed daylight, filtering down through the tunnel ahead.

Mika's step quickened as he hurried up the passage, while Hornsbuck bellowed out some fragment of a nightmare.

"Greed! Sloth! Envy! Avarice! Hatred! Deceit! War! Obsession!" roared Hornsbuck, a litany of all the evils of the world spewing from his mouth like stones from a sling.

"Keep it down, Hornsbuck," said Mika. "No telling what's waiting out there."

"Oppression! Wickedness! Pain!" hollered Hornsbuck, and Mika shook his head and gave up, concentrating on the growing light ahead of him.

The roan snorted happily and trotted up the last few feet of the passage, the light outlining his body in a shimmering aura. RedTail and Tamlur followed, tails curled high above their backs.

Mika stood at the mouth of the passage and leaned against the marble pillar that flanked it. He rested his forehead against the cool stone, closing his eyes against the bright sunlight that filtered down in dust-filled beams from the narrow openings that circled the columned dome high above his head.

In his heart he gave thanks to the Great She Wolf for bringing him out of the dark passageways. Then he heard the roan neigh and stamp his feet in alarm and Tam growl low in his throat.

Danger! Mika lifted his head quickly and moved forward into the room, squinting his eyes against the bright light. He stepped over the hunks of broken stone that littered the floor, trying to focus. He drew his sword and blinked his watering eyes. Behind him, he heard Hornsbuck trudge into the room and stop.

"I thank you for bringing me the princess," said a creaky old voice, somewhere off to his left. Mika crouched low and whirled, facing the direction the voice had come from, holding his sword out in front of him and sweeping it back and forth.

"Put down the sword like a good lad," the voice said soothingly. "I know you don't want me to hurt you again."

Mika blinked his eyes furiously and things began to come into focus. Light and dark separated, flowed together, blurred, and then separated once again.

Outlined in the bright sunlight, dust motes raining softly on his shoulders, stood a small dark figure holding the horse's reins. The sunlight was so beautiful, the voice so gentle. And Mika was tired. Tired of danger. Tired of fighting. Tired of being afraid. All he wanted was for things to go back the way they had been, to be normal again. For one brief moment, his sword arm wavered, and he was sorely tempted to do as he was told.

But the roan had no such problems. His ears were plastered flat against his head and his eyes rolled wildly. His teeth were bared in a square-toothed grimace, and his breathing was harsh and rattled in his throat. His legs were stiff and braced hard against the pull of the bridle.

The wolves were in total agreement with the horse. Tam and RedTail circled the small dark figure, their tails curled above their backs and their ears twitched forward, alert, watchful.

Abruptly, Mika straightened up, alert now to the danger. He had no need to go closer. He knew who the old man was.

"I see you recognize me," said the little old man, his features slowly coming into focus. Mika shuddered and took a step backward.

"You have no reason to fear me," said the old man, his body still shrouded by the long, voluminous cape. "I have what I want now. Before, you made the mistake of coming between me and that which I sought. Now, thanks to your efforts, I have my prize."

"You mean the princess?" Mika blurted out in puzzlement. "Why would you want the princess?"

"It's a long story," said the old man with a dry chuckle. "A very long story. But since you've brought her to me, I suppose an explanation is the least I can offer."

"Lies! Oppression! Murder!" ranted Hornsbuck.

"Your friend understands," said the old man, nodding toward Hornsbuck, an amused look flitting across his withered face.

"This is my temple," he said, gesturing around him at the ruined building with a bony hand. "Or what little remains of it."

"There," he said, pointing at a massive block of marble that had broken in two and fallen on its side, "was the altar. Sacrifices were laid on its surface, and the floor ran deep with their blood.