danger.
Still locked in position, Mika turned his head and looked over his shoulder, wondering what enemy he would see, and there… there looking back at him, was the princess!
Glaring was a better work. Hatred blazed out of her blue and green eyes, and Mika felt his lust for Starr dwindle away as though it had never existed.
Starr moaned as she ground her hips up to meet Mika's and circled his neck with her arm, trying to pull his head down to hers.
'Mmmmmm,' he muttered, kissing her perfunctorily, but quickly twisting his head around to glare back at the wolf who was still staring at him.
'Oh,' cried Starr as she raked his back with her nails.
'Owww!' yelped Mika.
'Ummmm,' murmured Starr.
Mika cast one last furious glance at the princess, then turned back to Starr, hoping to recapture the wonderous feeling he had lost.
Starr moaned and wriggled in response to Mika's kisses and caresses, but try as he did, he could not free himself of the princess's ominous scrutiny. No matter which way he moved, he continued to feel the force of the princess's gaze on his unprotected body; the moment slipped away and was not regained.
Filled with rage, he rose to his feet and threw a rock at the princess; but she merely ducked and took shelter between two boulders where he could not reach her easily and contined to watch him, a sullen expression in her odd-colored eyes.
'Is something wrong?' Starr asked, arching her eyebrows as he returned to the cloak. She snuggled into his embrace, her head cradled on his arm. 'Do I not please you?'
'I like you just fine,' muttered Mika. 'It's not that at all.'
'Oh, what is it then?' she asked, curling a tendril of chest fur around her finger.
'Uh, nothing,' Mika said glumly, now knowing with certainty that the curse had begun to take effect. What a time to happen! It could not be simply that the princess was watching, a thought he dismissed as unlikely. Tam had often watched him cavort with other women with merely an amused expression at the foibles of humans, and it had never had this dwindling effect on him.
Mika sighed, nearly consumed with despair. He sat up and grabbed his tunic, Starr all but forgotten. Now more than ever he realized how important it was for him to get to Dramidja and find the red stone.
As he bent over to put on his tunic, the stone dangled from his neck, spattering intense blue prisms of light across Starr's body. Perhaps curious, or perhaps merely annoyed at the interlude which had not developed as expected, she reached up and, before Mika realized what she was doing, grasped the magic gem and pulled the thin chain over his head.
'It's beautiful,' Starr said as she slipped the chain around her neck, allowing the glittering, blue-green stone to drop between her breasts. 'You don't mind if I keep it, do you?' she asked playfully.
Seemingly out of nowhere came a streak of black and the stone was seized, snapped shut between strong jaws that pulled the chain tight.
'Urrk!' gasped Starr as the chain cut deep into her throat, threatening to cut off her air.
'Help! Do something!' she gurgled in a peculiar, high-pitched voice. But Mika could do nothing, for he had fallen to the ground, his hand gripped by the terrible, red flame of pain that burned its way into his flesh and left him crying out in agony. He did not have to remove the metal gauntlet to know that somehow he had angered the demon and now possessed a third horrible demon digit.
Mika was never certain how long he lay naked on the cloak, wrapped in pain and misery, but it could not have been long, for when he regained his senses, things were much as they had been when the pain began.
Starr was still on her back, her hands wrapped around the chain as she tried to prevent it from biting further into her throat.
At the opposite end of the chain, the gem clutched firmly in her teeth, was the princess. Her feet dug into the ground as she jerked on the chain with all her might. Each tug elicited some further gasp from Starr, her face darkening perceptively and her eyes and tongue protruding in an ugly manner.
Disregarding his own pain, Mika leaped to his feet and ran toward the princess, who swung around in the opposite direction, avoiding him. The change of direction caused the chain to pull against the mass of Starr's hair, thus easing the pressure on her throat. Unfortunately, this change of direction also jerked her forward on her hands and knees and brought her face to face with the snarling wolf.
The princess gave a sharp tug, and Starr fell forward, breaking her fall at the last moment by planting her palms against the ground, bracing herself against the wolfs strength.
'Help!' shrieked Starr, her voice nearly drowned out by the princess's growls.
Mika grasped his sword, and with one swift blow, severed the chain that connected the two women. The princess gave Starr one last malevolent look and then dashed up the bank and was gone, the remains of the chain dangling between her teeth, the gem still in her possession.
'Oh,' sniveled Starr as she dropped to the cloak and wailed. Mika sank down beside her and cradled her in his arms, smoothing her hair tenderly and murmuring soft words of comfort.
'Why did she do that?' Starr asked shakily, her eyes magnified by tears as Mika daubed gently at the cuts on her neck with damp moss, grateful that she had not been killed.
'Uh, it's a long story. The necklace actually belongs to her,' said Mika.
'That's silly,' Starr sniffed. 'How can a necklace belong to a wolf? And how come you have two wolves? I didn't think that was allowed.'
'It really is a long story,' said Mika. 'And I don't really have her, she's just sort of traveling with me.'
'Well, I don't like her. She hurt me,' Starr cried. 'She's dangerous. You should get rid of her before she kills someone.'
Mika sighed. Drenched in his own misery, he stared at the gauntlet, all the while doubting that Starr was very high on the princess's list either, and wondering how on Oerth he would ever get the magic stone back.
They dressed in silence, and Starr wrapped the shawl around her neck to cover the ugly red bruises. Walking apart with no sign of their earlier warmth and affection, they made their way back to the village.
CHAPTER 16
The drums were beating softly yet insistently, announcing the gathering of the full council of the clan. Mika had refused Starr's offer of her home to make himself ready, knowing that she would be far happier if she never saw him or his wolves again.
In fact, at the last minute he had decided to not ready himself at all, to appear before the council just as he was, unwashed and ungroomed, so as to present an image of himself as a rough, tough warrior, to offset any and all doubts that might arise over his manliness.
He knew from years of watching his father prepare for meetings that such was not the norm, but Horns- buck would surely arrive looking his usual untidy self. The two of them would look as though cut from the same mold.
Feeling reassured, he examined himself in a pool of still water for any external evidence of change. Nothing appeared different except his manhood, which drooped sadly, huddling into itself as though knowing that it had failed and wished to hide; and, of course, the metal gaundet concealing the demonic monstrosity that had once been his hand and now tingled with three demon digits.
Mika condescended to retie his hair, which was coming loose from its braid and sagging about his ears. He knotted a thong of leather around the end of the braid and jerked it tight, wishing that it were the princess's neck.
He brushed bits of moss and dirt off the beautiful, blue cloak, admiring it once again, then straightened the soft, gray doeskin on his hips. His fingers lingering on the buttery softness; he wondered why he had never purchased such a garment before and had made do with hot, bulky, ugly, leather tunics for so many years.
Suddenly, lightning shot through his mind and he withdrew his hand as though burned, frightened by the
