Mika looked at the princess, his eyelids heavy with fatigue, and in that foggy state, she looked quite lovely, almost as beautiful as she had when he first laid eyes on her. His half-closed lids filtered out the dirt and the smudges and the torn clothes and the snarled hair. In his mind's eye, she was fresh and clean and lovely.
He yearned to see her awake, with her eyes open, staring at him with love. He tried to picture what form her gratitude might take, for now it was he alone who would win that reward when the spell was lifted-now that the others were dead.
Of course, there was the small matter of finding out who had placed the spell, persuading him to lift it, and emerging alive in the bargain. But that was another matter… and one that he would think about later. Still thinking of the princess and his reward, he closed his eyes and slept.
"Time to go, Mika. Best be awakening," said a loud voice, rupturing the pleasant dream into splinters.
Mika opened his eyes and stared up Wearily. Hornsbuck leaned over him, shaking his shoulder, a smile splitting the great beard.
Mika groaned and closed his eyes, trying to recapture his dreams. The princess had been just about to take off her dress.
"Go away, Hornsbuck. It's the middle of the night."
"Pah!" snorted Hornsbuck. "Get up lad, get up. Time's a wasting, the sun will be up any minute now. It's time to go!"
Mika opened his eyes and glowered at the ceiling of branches. The dream was gone and would not return. He turned his head and looked at the princess who lay scant inches from him, then closed his eyes and sighed. Sometimes dreams were far more preferable than reality.
He sat up and groaned. Mornings were not his favorite time of day. Hornsbuck handed him a stick, layered with grilled chunks of deer meat, singed and covered with a fine layer of ash. "Eat up," he advised. "We won't be eating for a while to come."
Mika closed his eyes and did as he was told, finding it strange indeed to compare this meal with his last and declare it far inferior. Being a wolf had its advantages.
They packed the meat in two bundles made from the hide of the deer. The meat, unsmoked, would last no more than two days without going bad. But Hornsbuck said that it would be more than adequate, although he still refused to give any explanation of where they were going.
Other than the meat, which they loaded on the roan at Hornsbuck's insistence, they took as much grass as they could gather. They cut the grass off at the roots and bound it in sheaves, and Mika was thankful that it was both lush and abundant or Hornsbuck would have left the roan behind. Lastly, they heaved the princess up into the saddle and tied her in place in front of the pile of pitch-soaked limbs Hornsbuck likewise deemed vital for some reason.
Mika took the opportunity to try and clean the princess up a bit, smoothing down her tangled hair and trying to wipe some of the dirt off her dress.
"Leave off," growled Hornsbuck. "It won't do any good, and the damn female probably won't approve no matter what you do. You can't ever please a woman. Why, once I brought back a whole bagful of hydra eyes for a woman… thought she could string 'em on a necklace, do something pretty with 'em. Almost got myself turned to stone getting 'em for her. And did she appreciate 'em? No, she did not! Threw them away! Said they made her sick! Can you imagine? Women. Pahhh!"
Hornsbuck eyed Mika critically. "If you need to do something, braid your own hair. You look like a damned woman with it down on your shoulder like that!"
Mika sighed, refraining from mentioning the painful bruise that still covered much of his scalp, and he scraped his hair into a loose braid to appease the older nomad who had definite ideas of what was appropriate.
Hornsbuck grunted with approval, then, taking one last look to make certain that nothing was being forgotten, turned and began leading them in a northwesterly direction.
They walked for several hours, leading the horse by the reins. They met nothing living, although they found a number of gnoll and hyena corpses, all of which had been chewed upon by hyenas or hyena-dons, most forest dwellers being too choosy to eat such foul offerings.
Only once did they find humans, a driver and a nomad, or what little remained of them, made unrecognizable by the severity of their wounds and the teeth of predators. They quickly buried the pitiful remains, said a few words, and hurried on their way.
The forest was thinning now, the sablewood and roanwood trees giving way to smaller softwoods- white-barked birch and quaking leafed aspen. The soil underfoot was changing from soft loam to hard-packed earth and stone. Periodically they were forced to skirt large boulders that stood alone like giant monoliths.
Hornsbuck called a halt and turned to look at Mika, his brow furrowed in deep thought. He studied Mika wordlessly for some moments as though filled with uncertainty. Then, coming to some decision, he sighed and shook his head.
"Look, Mika," he said gruffly. "No man alive knows what you are about to see, excepting me an' RedTail here. I learned it from someone else, and he's dead now. It's secret. You can't tell. You've got to promise. Give me your solemn vow."
"All right," said Mika, puzzled as to what could possibly be so important.
"Don't promise unless you really mean it," growled Hornsbuck. "I mean, even if they pull your toes out with their teeth, you can't tell. It's that kind of promise I'm asking for."
"All right," Mika said slowly. "Even if they pull my toes out with their teeth, I promise not to tell," he vowed, wondering all the while who "they" were and why they should want to do such a thing. Surely Hornsbuck was exaggerating.
"By the spirit of the Great She Wolf, Mother of us all, Guide of our spirits and protector of our souls, I Mika, son of Veltran, do promise never to tell this path to any man, not even if he pulls off my toes with his teeth and other horrible things," intoned Horns-buck, holding up his hand and nodding at Mika, commanding him to repeat the words.
Mika held up his own hand and repeated the words word for word, feeling foolish all the while. Tam sat on his haunches and looked up, tongue lolling, laughing. Mika refused to meet his eyes.
Satisfied, Hornsbuck lowered his hand and resumed walking. The ground began to rise underfoot. The trees grew sparse and then disappeared completely, giving way to a dense mat of coarse and prickly bushes. They shoved their way through them with difficulty. Once again, they began to encounter the strange boulders, although now there were more and more of them, the ground more rock than dirt. The land began to rise in a series of low, jagged hills, stretching away to the far horizon. Mika was not pleased at the thought of traveling across such harsh open land and started to speak.
Hornsbuck chopped off his speech with one slash of his hand and held it up as though forbidding Mika to speak while he stared in all directions with sharp eyes, scanning the forest behind him intently.
Seeing nothing and receiving unspoken confirmation of some sort from RedTail who had been busily snuffling the air with upturned muzzle, Hornsbuck led the roan to a large boulder that stood nearby, a boulder seemingly no different from any of the hundreds that surrounded it. He then gestured for Mika to follow.
Mika did so, thinking that they might be taking a brief break, but Hornsbuck dropped to the ground and began moving stones at the base of the boulder. Mika stared down at the grizzled nomad, totally bemused. What was the man doing?
Hornsbuck moved to the opposite side of the boulder, making certain that the roan was out of the way, and then leaned his shoulder against the rock.
"Get over here and help," he growled, looking up from his efforts and seeing Mika staring at him strangely. Mika joined him, putting his own weight against the rock, although he had absolutely no idea what on Oerth they were doing or why.