Recknass took a step toward Hary, peering behind him into the dense cover of trees.
'Mika thought he heard some gnolls following,' Hary explained. 'He wants us to go on. Hornsbuck changed his mind and told me to join you in case you needed help with the princess.'
The excuse sounded logical to Hary, but Recknass seemed to doubt him, staring out of his one good eye with disbelief.
Shouldering Hary aside, Recknass dismounted from the roan and, still holding the princess, began walking down the slope in the direction that Mika lay.
The blood rushed to Hary's head and throbbed in his temples. A red veil fell before his eyes and his breath grew strangled and harsh.
It was not fair! Even the giant, a huge stupid brute whom the princess treated like a large dumb dog, chose to doubt his word in favor of the nomad, a man who had injured him cruelly while openly plotting to steal the princess!
A blind fury rose up in Hary's mind, a mindless madness fed by long years of frustration and unhappiness. Seizing a fallen branch from the ground, he struck the giant a mighty blow on the back of his head. Recknass staggered. Hary struck again and again and at last the giant fell, toppling to the ground like some massive, lightning-struck tree, burying the princess beneath him.
Hary dropped the branch and steadied himself against a tree, his breath rasping in his throat. Slowly, his mind cleared and he looked down at his handiwork.
Recknass lay sprawled on the stony ground at the base of a small tree on the steep slope. He lay face downward, the back of his head a soggy mass of blood and purpling skin. Here and there, bits of white bone poked through the skin. Yet still, he clutched the princess safely in his arms.
Closing his mind to the unspeakable act, the violation of all the codes he had lived by, Hary bent down and tried to turn the man over so that he might free the princess from his grasp. Then, as he touched the giant's arm, he felt a faint pulse beating beneath his fingers, and he realized with a shock that the man was still alive!
Hary was overcome with a terrible irrational fear that Recknass might revive at any moment, reach up and grab him around the throat and strangle him!
He began to tug at the giant, pulling and pushing, struggling to turn him over, terrified of the stentorian breathing sounds the giant made. At last the princess came free, and Hary sprawled in the dirt holding her in his arms.
Time seemed to come to a halt as he gazed down on the face of the woman he worshipped. He tenderly brushed a wayward curl aside from her brow and then noticed a smear of the giant's blood staining her bodice. It seemed sacrilege.
He ripped his scarf from his neck, and daubed at the blood. As he did so, he felt something move under the soft silk. It was a hard object. Bewildered, he noticed a thin gold chain and drew it forth from between the cleft of her breasts. Dangling at the end of the chain was a crystal bead which he recognized as belonging to Mika!
Hary sat back, shaken to the marrow of his being. He felt his heart break within him and he was overcome with grief. The wolfman had been there before him. The princess was no longer the pure innocent he had adored.
It seemed apparent that somehow the nomad had persuaded the giant to let him have his way with her, although such a thing seemed unlikely, for the giant loved her too and would never have let another man touch her, unless…! No! It all seemed too terrible to consider. Mika
Hary's mind whirled. Yet think as he might, his thoughts kept returning to the same conclusion. To his jealousy-ridden mind, there seemed no other explanation.
He sat there for a long time, cradling the princess in his arms, grieving for what had been and what would never be. In his bitter and lonely misery, Hary now admitted to himself the folly of his love and realized that the princess would never love him. It had all been but a foolish dream. She would never be his.
Then a strange coldness came over him and he looked at the sleeping princess in a different manner. Why not? Who would ever know? Not Recknass.
Not Mika. It was only fair. They had had her and so would he.
Some time later, some thirty yards down the slope, Mika wakened with a terrible, pounding headache. TamTur was pawing at him, whining and licking him full in the face as he dragged himself to a seated position.
'Stop,' Mika said with a groan, turning his head to avoid the wet endearment. Mika loved his wolf as much as the next man, but he drew the line at slobbery kisses.
There was some terrible commotion going on somewhere close. The noise echoed and thundered in his ears and he put a hand to his aching head. To his surprise, it came away sticky with blood.
Mika stared at his hand stupidly and tried to remember what had happened. But nothing came to mind.
He could remember climbing the slope with the princess and the giant, but his memories of that period were wrapped in a strange fuzziness as though he had been sick.
His mind was clear now, free of whatever sickness had gripped it, but still he couldn't seem to remember anything that would account for his presence under the tree. What was he doing here? Who had hit him and why?
It hurt to think. Mika would have liked to lie down, to rest. But there was all that noise. A man couldn't possibly rest with all that racket. Sounded like fighting.
Mika groaned. Maybe he had better go and see what was happening. He struggled to his feet, fighting the waves of dizziness and nausea that washed over him. He planted one foot resolutely in front of the other and staggered uphill, gripping the trunks of trees and overhanging branches to pull himself along. Tam was close at his side, whining happily and giving little leaps, trying to lick Mika's face.
'Down, Tam. Behave yourself,' growled Mika, fending off the wolf. 'Go see what all that noise is about and leave me alone.' But Tam ignored his orders, his concern for Mika far greater than his interest in outside events.
As Mika dragged himself up the rocky, tree-covered slope, there was a terrible pain-filled shriek and then there was silence. Muttering to himself, holding his pounding head, Mika tottered into the small clearing and stopped in open-mouthed amazement.
The two horses, the roan and his own irritable grey stood tethered to tree limbs, contentedly browsing on the tender tips of branches.
To the left of the horses, lying on the downhill edge of the clearing was the giant, Recknass, flat on his back, his skull a bloody ruin.
Mika gawked at Recknass in total disbelief, his headache totally forgotten. Someone had actually killed the huge brute! Mika could scarcely comprehend it. His mouth flopped open and he stared at the man thickly as though something would change or understanding would dawn if he only looked long enough.
But nothing changed and understanding did not dawn, no matter how long he stared. Closing his mouth, Mika blinked, gulped, and then gazed on the rest of the strange scene.
Sprawled on the ground next to the giant was the princess, her pink silk gown in disarray, exposing her slender, delicate legs from the knees down. Her hair was charmingly mussed, framing her beautiful face with clouds of shimmering black curls that cascaded down her chest, modestly covering her bosom, which rose and fell in a most provocative manner.
Mika would have liked to have examined her longer, and closer for that matter, but she appeared to be alive and well, albeit still asleep, so he reluctantly turned his eyes toward the third figure in the strange tableaux.
Lying on the ground furthest from Mika, on the far side of the princess, was Hary, who lay with his arms and legs akimbo. His bright blue eyes were staring up at the sky, unseeing, glazed with that terrible vague opacity that belongs only to death. A long-handled knife, which Mika easily identified as belonging to the giant, was buried to the hilt in the center of his chest. Clutched in his right hand was a heavy tree limb covered with gore.
It was too much to take in. Especially for a man with a headache that he didn't even know how he got. Mika's knees wobbled and he put a shaky hand out and sat down on the ground, staring at the bizarre trio, still trying to make some sense out of the situation.
'Well, they must have killed each other,' he said, slowly. 'That much is obvious.'
Tam looked at him sideways as though thinking that even he could have deduced as much.
'But why?' asked Mika. 'Why would they fight? I thought they were friends. The only one they disliked was me! I don't understand this at all. I don't even know what happened to me, much less them. Hornsbuck will never
