Rose Estes - Master Wolf

"Dramadine is a rare gem, occurring but seldom in nature, and it has never been replicated by man or mage. As you have heard, it heightens one's powers to the greatest potential. Such a gem would strengthen me and make me invincible.

"But it is not the gem alone I desire, for the princess herself is a conduit of power; her eyes, as you have no doubt noticed, give evidence of the strength hidden within."

"But how can you use her power?" asked Mika, noticing with a quickening of pulse and a thread of hope that the princess was standing on her own feet, no longer leaning against the old man, and her eyes seemed to be focusing more clearly. If only he could keep the old man talking until she regained her senses! If she heard what he was saying, she could not fail to recognize their danger. Maybe she would help Mika in some way, or at the very least, allow him the opportunity to escape.

"I will encapsulate her power," the old man said patiently, not seeming to notice that the princess was now erect and was staring down at her hands and arms, examining them in a puzzled manner as though she had never seen them before.

"The power of a virgin is very strong," said the old man. "It will rejuvenate this old tired body and make me young and strong enough to bring this world under my control. And I have you to thank for bringing her to me. Without your special brand of protection, she might never have reached me."

"How do you encapsulate a princess, and wouldn't just any old girl do? Does it have to be a princess?" Mika asked hurriedly, hoping to keep the magic-user from noticing the bright look of fury that Mika detected in the princess's eyes as she picked up the shredded remains of her filthy silk dress between her dirty fingers and stared at it in angry silence.

"It's really a simple process," said the old man, warming to the explanation. "I need only distill the essence of the virgin and place it in a crystal, or in this case, the gem.

"No ordinary virgin will do. This princess, despite her plain exterior, is the end result of several hundreds of years of breeding that have produced kings, queens, magic-users, and men of power. Although her potential is as yet unrealized, I shall bring it to greater heights than she would ever have realized as a mere human.

"But enough talking, let me show you what I mean." And with a gesture, he caused the princess's arm to rise above the filthy skirt and her grubby fingers pointed directly at Mika's chest.

Mika opened his mouth to yell and tensed his body to drop and roll, but before he could even move, a pale, sickly stream of ochre light shot from the princess's filthy fingernail and struck him full in the chest.

"I'm dead," he thought, and waited to die. But nothing happened. He looked at his fingers and wiggled them. He was still alive!

The old man looked as though he had swallowed a bitter potion. Thrusting the princess's hand out again, he seized her finger and pointed it at Mika a second time. He screamed out words that Mika could not understand, and a faint pink light wobbled from the princess's finger and then faded in mid-air before it even reached Mika.

Mika laughed out loud.

Iuz turned the princess around violently and shook her hard, staring into her eyes. She struggled in his tight grip and tried to break away. Iuz pulled her closer and scrutinized her intently as though reading a familiar text whose message had suddenly rearranged itself into strange and peculiar words.

A blank look came over his features, and his fingers loosened their hold. He looked old and lost for a moment and then, feeling Mika's gaze on him, lifted his eyes. Hatred leaped from the dark eyes, hatred so tangible that Mika felt as though he had been physically struck.

Iuz flung the girl away from him furiously, and she staggered for several feet before she gained her balance.

"She is no longer a virgin!" shrieked Iuz. "Not a virgin! And it is your fault! You've ruined everything! Now I shall be forced to depend on the gem alone!" And the edges of his cape began to shimmer. He began to grow taller, and his skin took on a rosy hue. Mika knew that he had waited too long. It was time to leave.

But the princess had other ideas.

She too seemed to have grown in stature. She was no longer asleep, and she marched angrily up to the magic-user.

"Forget it, old man," she said harshly as she shoved him aside, propelling him into the catatonic Hornsbuck. Hornsbuck swung his right arm in a reflex motion and caught Iuz under the chin, knocking him down into a dizzy heap.

"It's my turn, and I've got a few words of my own!" She stalked toward Mika, hatred blazing in her multi-colored eyes.

"You! You're to blame for this… this mess!" she screamed at Mika as Iuz wrapped his skinny hand around Hornsbuck's leg and began struggling to his feet.

"One minute, I'm at home safe in my castle where I belong. And the next minute I'm here! Wherever here is! And just look at me! I'm dirty! I'm filthy! My hair's a mess! My dress… my dress, or what little there is of it, is totally ruined! I even smell bad, if you can even imagine such a thing! And now! Now… thanks to you, whoever you even are! Certainly no one I would ever even talk to by choice! Look at you! You're… you're… YOU'RE NOBODY! I find out that I'm not even a virgin any more, and I don't even remember what happened!"

Iuz staggered up, clinging to Hornsbuck's tunic. He steadied himself and then turned and stumbled forward, his face a contorted mask of rage, his hands outstretched, reaching for Mika like claws.

The princess, never ceasing her litany of rage, batted him out of the way with the back of her hand. So accustomed was he to inspiring fear, the demon had no reason to expect an attack on his frail person. The princess dispatched Iuz with ease, knocking him to the floor at Hornsbuck's feet, where he lay stunned.

Mika almost felt sorry for Iuz. He could have told him that even a demon has something to fear from an angry woman.

The princess looked around with a stormy gaze as though searching for something to throw. Not finding it, she reached down the front of her dress and pulled out the tiny crystal bead that Mika had used for his spell of invulnerability. She gazed at it with a curled lip as though it were a slimy slug. She knotted her fist around it and yanked it hard, breaking the chain, then tossed it aside with distaste.

Her fingers sought and found a second chain, which Mika had never noticed, tucked at the edges of her dress. Dangling on the end of the chain was a gem the size of a goose egg that glittered a brilliant rainbow of green and blue.

"The stone. Dramadine!" Iuz muttered hoarsely as he tried to crawl to his feet. Mika stared at it with awe. So much death and anguish for one pretty stone and one unpleasant princess.

The unpleasant princess's nostrils were pinched and white, her brow was creased with a frown, and her eyes glittered with anger no less brightly than the gem. Her mouth was an angry slash in her dirty face.

She snapped the gem free of the chain and, drawing back her arm, she let fly. The shining stone flew through the air and struck Mika in the center of his forehead. Mika staggered off balance and the gem fell at his feet and bounced along the floor before coming to a halt several feet away. Iuz scrambled to his feet, his eyes fastened on the stone. Then he halted and screamed a hoarse flow of words, pointing his own claw-like finger at Mika.

Just then, Hornsbuck, who had been staring upward, his face bathed in the warm sunlight, looked toward them, his attention captured, finally, by all the noise.

Blinded by the bright light that had been shining directly in his eyes, he looked at the small dark figure in front of him and exclaimed joyously, "Lotus Blossom!" and wrapped his arms around the magic-user, interrupting him in the middle of his incantation.