those terrible flames. Even at a distance, Mika could feel the heat of the fire. He felt his eyebrows shrivel and the hair on his scalp began to steam. But if it wasn't human, that meant that it could only be… not human. Mika felt his soul cringe with fear. He tried to scuttle backward but was brought up short by the pillar.
The frightening apparition lifted its arm and pointed at Mika with a long, blue, flame-tipped finger.
'Mika-oba!' it proclaimed in a deep, hollow voice that somehow vibrated deep within Mika's skull and the hollows of his bones and turned his insides to jelly. 'Mika-oba!' it repeated, and Mika was sure he felt his teeth starting to melt.
'Mika-oba!' it thundered yet a third time, and Mika realized that it was waiting for him to reply.
'Yes-s-s-s?' he quavered in a small voice.
'Mika-oba, you have dared to defy me,' roared the creature, and the flames shot out in ail directions in shades of deepest red that crackled and spat angrily.
'I… I didn't mean to, sir-your worshipful- ness,' croaked Mika. The hair of his nostrils tingled with every inhalation as he tried desperately to remember how he might have offended this being. But try as he might, Mika could not remember any way in which he might have angered the being, and even worse, he did not even know who or what the thing was. He just knew that it was very, very real and could probably turn him into a crispy nomad chip with one wave of its fiery hand.
'It was an accident,' Mika whimpered, hoping that the thing would accept an apology. 'I didn't mean it. It'll never happen again, you have my word.'
'Of that, I am quite certain,' said the fire-thing. 'You hive dispatched Iuz to a place from,which he will not return. But you have disrupted my plans, and that makes me very, very angry.'
The creature lifted its hand and started to point at Mika again. Mika didn't know what was about to happen, but neither did he wish to find out.
'Wait!' he screamed. 'I'm sorrv. I'm sorry! I didn't know you had plans. I mean, of course you had plans. Of course YOU are upset. I can understand that. Why don't vou let me fix it? I can do that! I can do anything if vou'll let me. Let me help fix the plans. Please' I'd be glad to.All right? Yes? All right! Tell me what you want.Just don't fry me!'
Mika heard the pleading words pouring from his lips in endless line of pitiful drivel. He hated himself. But he also hated the idea of being turned into a fried wood chip. He could drivel for hours if it kept him alive.
The thing lowered its arm, and the blue flames wrapped themselves around its wrist, coiling in sinuous bands like a gold bracelet. It put a fiery fist beneath its flaming face and pondered Mika's suggestion; its eyes gleamed a deep carnelian red like molten rock. It stared at Mika, unblinking.
Mika was transfixed by the thing's gaze. He felt naked to his very soul and beyond. He knew that the thing, whatever it was, could see into the heart of his being and knew all of his flaws. He suddenly felt with certainty that the creature would find him wanting and kill him on the spot.
If Iuz, the demi-demon whom Mika had helped dispatch to some netherworld, had belonged to this creature, that meant the fire-thing was a full-fledged demon, far too powerful for Mika to even ponder killing. Mika realized that he was as good as dead. He wilted visibly, too frightened to attempt to flee, too frightened to do anything but stand there and wait for the end which he hoped would be quick and merciful.
'All right,' the demon said pleasantly, creasing its face in what Mika took to be a smile, the cnmson flames licking around the edges of its lips. ' Allowing you to set matters right could prove amusing. I will permit you to live for the time being… as long a $ you do as you are told. I will know, of course.:t ou deviate from that path, and retribution will be swift and final.
'Do not think your friends can help you,' added the demon. 'Your large friend, Hornsbuck, still sits against the far wall of the temple, his few brains quite addled by his encounter with the umber hulk. Your wolf, as you can plainly see, is near death. And the girl, the Princess Julia whom you cleverly turned into a wolf, is skulking over there in the shadows, still waiting for the chance to kill you. Nor will the magic gem that you obtained from the princess help. No, your only chance for survival is to do exactly as I bid. Do you understand?'
Mika shivered in spite of the heat emanating from the demon. His hand rose to clutch the great blue- green jewel that hung from the fine-spun chain around his neck. He gulped, trying to swallow the huge lump that was stuck in his throat, and nodded his understanding, unable to speak.
'The princess was but a pawn, her malady conveniently contrived,' said the demon, referring to the enchanted sleep that had felled the princess. Before she had been mistakenly transformed into a wolf, that is.And before Julia-for that was the princess's г. агг. е and now the wolfs name, of course-before Julia, in a misguided pique, tried to kill Mika. And before in all the confusion, the earthly form of Iuz had been destroyed. Oh, what a muddle! Mika hivered again.
'My business was with her father,' continued the demon, its voice still reverberating in Mika's bones and making him feel quite ill indeed. 'The princess was but one insignificant portion of his payment.'
'Payment?' asked Mika in a gravelly voice, all of his spittle dried to dust. 'Payment for what?'
'Why. the price of power, of course,' replied the demon 'You don't suppose that power is given freely. do you? The man had a pact with me. I gave him power, and in return he gave me whatever I wanted.'
The demon crossed its legs leisurely, planting its heel in a shower of sparks that skittered across the pavement toward Mika like iron to a lodestone. The demon laughed as Mika shrank back and gusts of burning air buffeted him, singeing the edges of his leather tunic and lighting tiny fires on his cape in a half-dozen places. Mika frantically beat out the flames, feeling the fire scorch his palms.
The demon's laughter diminished to a chuckle, which produced no new flames.
'So what happens now?' asked Mika, grimacing at the pain in his hands. 'What happens to the king? What happens to the Princess Julia? Do you still want her?' he asked hopefully. 'Will that set things right?'
'Oh, I don't want the princess,' said the demon. 'I never did. That was Iuz's business. I have no need of a princess. And I already have her father since he defaulted on his payment.'
'Where is he?' asked Mika, wondering if he really wanted to know. 'And what do I have to do to set things straight?'
The demon tapped its crimson chin with a long, tapering finger of flame and stared at Mika with its terrible carnelian eyes. Mika felt himself growing nauseous.
'That might be interesting,' the demon replied at length. Then, standing upright, it walked around the far side of the altar and, resting its fiery palms on the broken slab, leaned over the silent body of the all but forgotten wolf.
'Go to Exag, the walled city. That is where you will find the king, where he awaits my displeasure.'
'What am I to do once I get there?' asked Mika as he eyed Tam nervously, wondering if the wolf was alive or dead or if the nearness of the fire demon were cooking his poor, helpless flesh.
'I haven't decided yet,' replied the demon. 'I will let you know when I think of it. The price of power is quite costly, as is my forgiveness.'
Forgiveness was something the demon had never granted to anyone or anything, but Maelfesh saw no need to mention that little fact to the human. The fire demon quite liked the manner in which Mika groveled. It was refreshing. It had been a long time since Maelfesh had been anything but bored. Living forever had its drawbacks. After you saw and did everything a few dozen times, things tended to get a little dull. It just wasn't any fun when you always knew the end of the story.
Maelfesh had ceased dealing directly with humans several millennia ago, having graduated to demi- demons and the like, higher life forms, according to way of thinking. The demon had regarded it as a promotion at the time, but had forgotten how predictable demons were, being programmed to accept leadership of the hierarchy. Humans were quite unpredictable and were seldom, if ever, willing to accept the existing hierarchy of power, human or otherwise.
Even now. this miserable, half-literate, over-sexed brute of a Wolf Nomad was contemplating the odds of successfully double-crossing the demon and escaping unharmed. Maelfesh felt the flicker of hope as it rose in the human, mirrored by the gem that hung from his neck. The demon smiled to itself as it pictured what was to come. Maelfesh was almost glad to have been thwarted; it was going to be great fun playing with this nomad. I might even miss him when he is dead, Maelfesh thought. But not for too long.
'Don't even think about trying to break your word,' said the demon as a corona of white-gold flame shot out and formed a gleaming diadem around its head. 'I will know what you are thinking, and should you deviate from my strategy, revenge will be swift.'
