Mika could not help but notice that the shaman started back at the mention of the demon. 'Oban, do you know of this demon?' he asked.
The shaman looked away.
'Tell us what you know, please!' Mika begged.
The shaman turned his head back toward Mika. His eyes glittered brightly as though he were feverish, and his thin lips curved in an unpleasant smile.
'I do not know him, but I know of him,' he said. 'Few make his acquaintance and live. He is all that is evil in the world, all that is foul and corrupt, all that is wicked on Oerth and… his name is Maelfesh!'
At the mention of the name there was a gasp, and those gathered in the building huddled together, pulling away, putting distance between themselves and Mika.
Mika felt as though his soul had been turned to ice. Maelfesh! The most evil and demonic of all demons. He had not even suspected that it was Maelfesh. Why would such a high-level demon bother with a lowly human? It just didn't make sense! Why! Why! Why! Feeling more lost than ever before, squeezed in the grip of something beyond his comprehension or capabilities, Mika was ready to give up. Hornsbuck read the surrender in his eyes.
'All the more reason to go on!' boomed the large nomad's voice.
Mika looked up and saw Hornsbuck lighting his pipe casually with a steady hand.
'You dare not do that, brother,' said Trabec.
'It would be suicide.' He expressed Mika's feelings exacdy.
'We are Wolf Nomads, not mouse-tailed cowards,' said Hornsbuck. 'Wolf Nomads laugh in the face of death. We tempt fate to the limits, and welcome danger with open arms. We do not run from demons!'
Why not just this once? thought Mika, groaning inwardly. That damned code of the Wolf Nomads was going to get him killed yet. But once the code was invoked, there was no going back-certainly not after it was invoked in front of an entire clan council. Now Mika was committed to complete the journey to its all but inevitable conclusion.
'Ow! Ow! Ow!' howled the council, each of them raising their horn mugs and toasting the courage of their brothers.
'Oh! Oh! Oh!' screamed Mika, but no one save the shaman heard him.
'What is to become of the princess?' asked Trabec in a somber tone.
'I am taking her to Exag and returning her to her father,' said Mika, glad to discuss something other than the death of his men.
'I had hoped to refill my potions and healing ungents and consult with your shaman on a matter of importance before we set out to finish our mission,' said Mika. 'Only this has prevented us from making directly for Exag.'
Trabec looked at Mika without speaking for long heartbeats, his dark eyes hard as flint. Finally, he spoke.
'I am not sure you should be allowed to continue,' Trabec said sternly. 'I am uncertain that you deserve the honor. Enor, your chief and my blood relative, would have strong words to say. In his absence, I must speak for him. How many more men will you kill in the doing? We would not care to lose our brother, Hornsbuck. Nor would we be able to dissuade him from what he considers to be a mission of honor and I consider to be a mission of death.'
A cold chill flowed over Mika, and it seemed that he could already feel the pain starting in his next to last finger. It had never occurred to him that he might not be allowed to finish the mission, to take the princess to Exag, find her father, and appease the demon. If that were to happen, he would be well and truly cursed! If the demon didn't kill him outright, the curse would finish him off for sure.
'No!' he boomed in a desperate tone. 'I do not ask for any men to accompany me. I will accomplish the mission on my own. No one will be at risk but myself. I beg you to allow me to complete this task!'
'You hardly seem to be the proper choice for such an important mission,' Oban said nastily. 'The princess herself dislikes you so much that even you admit that she has tried to kill you.
'I say that you cannot return a princess to her father in the form of a wolf,' Oban continued. 'Important diplomatic relations could be established that would work to our benefit if we changed her back to human form.
'Meanwhile we must not allow Mika to 9'metf- where near this girl, uh, wolf, again,' said Qha. 'Send someone else who can do the job correctly. I myself would be willing to volunteer under the circumstances.'
I bet you would, you sanctimonious old frog, thought Mika. I wonder what else you'd volunteer to do while you were at it.
'I agree with Oban,' said the shaman's assistant, a whey-faced, hollow-chested, scrawny fellow who bore a strong family resemblance to the shaman. 'I think Mika's done enough harm.'
There was a murmur of agreement around the circle as the various chiefs conferred. Mika could feel the tide swinging solidly against him. He jumped to his feet and opened his mouth to speak, desperate to try to explain what had happened, to tell them that there had been nothing else he could have done.
'I didn't-I couldn't-I, uh, tried, uh…' he stammered. But the voices only muttered louder now, expressions growing blacker. With a sinking heart, Mika looked into eyes that were dark with grief and anger.
Then, just as it seemed that all was lost, a single voice roared out. 'Wait!' it said with such force that it drowned out the rising clamor of voices, causing them to trail away into silence.
'Although it is true that our brother has a… a somewhat unique manner of doing things at times,' said Hornsbuck, still seated, 'I cannot fault him for anything that happened. And neither can any of you since, may I remind you, none of you were there to say otherwise.'
'But…' stammered Oban. 'But so many were lost and…'
'Through no fault of Mika's,' interrupted Hornsbuck. 'I was there, and I know. We did the best we could, and Mika deserves the opportunity to finish the mission. We have discussed the matter between ourselves, and I, for one, feel that he is capable of finishing it rightly. I say that you should give him the chance.'
So saying, Hornsbuck detached a wolf tail from the end of his braid and tossed it into the center of the circle, to the right of the fire at Mika's feet. 'I say yea.' He looked around the circle, gazing at each and every man in turn.
There was an undercurrent of muttering and then Oban, flushed of face, dark eyes glittering, scuttled to his feet and faced Mika. He ripped the single wolf tail from his own thin braid and cast it down to the ground, to the left of the fire at Mika's feet.
'I say nay,' he said in a cold voice.
'I say nay, also,' echoed his assistant, who threw his own tiny tail down beside Oban's.
There was a moment of silence; no man was willing to make the next move.
'I say yea,' said a soft, calm voice, and Trabec slowly detached his own full tail and placed it deliberately beside Hornsbuck's. There was a sharp, gasped intake of air and after that, there was no question of the final outcome. When the tails were counted, all but two had voted in Mika's favor.
'Where is this fabled gemstone?' asked Oban pointedly when the commotion had died down. 'I would see it.'
'Uh, the princess has it,' said Mika.
'What! How can a wolf carry a gemstone?' asked Oban. 'Why do you permit it? It could easily be lost!'
'It… it was sort of an accident,' said Mika. 'She seized it this afternoon, and I was unable to retrieve it. That is why I appeared before you in such an unkempt state,' he added in a moment of brilliance. 'I have been trying to get it back all afternoon.'
'You must retrieve it immediately!' directed Oban.
'I shall,' promised Mika, wondering how on Oerth he would manage to get the gem away from the princess.
CHAPTER 17
