The Price of Power, page 21
part #4 of Greyhawk Adventures Series
The priest's hand continued to slice downward as the moon ate its way into the sun. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. As the priest's arm descended, Mika saw the flash of something bright, something metallic held in the man's hand.
But Mika was barely watching the priest, even though the nearness of his death could be measured in handspans. All of his attention was focused on the harpies, for now he was almost certain of something. The lead harpy was accompanied by a much smaller figure, and suddenly Mika knew that he was right.
He closed his eyes and concentrated as never before, his mind striving to remember the words to the mind-meld. In a burst of inspiration he added the charm spell, one he had used often on wavering maidens.
He forced his lips to utter the words, and then it was there, the blinding white flash, the link, the magic connection, and he was looking down at himself spread-eagled on the altar. Part of him saw himself through his own thoughts; the other part viewed the world through the thin, nictitating membrane of the circling harpy, felt the rush of cold, thin air through widespread feathered wings. A cold mind, harsh thoughts. Greed. Blood. Death. Thoughts of ripping flesh from bones. His flesh. His bones.
Then the charm spell struck and there was a second blinding, silvery flash filled with other thoughts, cartwheeling together in a melange of sexual ecstacy. Mika recoiled, shrieking 'no!' in his mind. But the other half of him cried 'yes!' and spiraled downward in a frenzy of anticipation.
The priest's hand was drawing closer, still gripped in the strange distortion of time.
"Save me!" Mika cried, all but screaming the message into the cold mind of the harpy. "Save me, as I saved you and yours when no one else would help! Save me and mine! This I ask you in the name of honor and all that is fair!"
He felt the harpy hover undecided; then, as the priest's hand began its final plunge toward his heart, the harpy dived, too, plummeting like a rock, straight for the altar.
The knife point actually scored Mika's chest before the harpy struck, knocking the priest sideways, striking him full on the back of the neck. Mika heard the spine crack, saw the man's head fall to one side, still alive, but unable to control the body which no longer responded to his mental commands.
The guards were thrown into confusion and fell back from the huge, flailing wings and evil gaze. The harpy sliced Mika's bonds with her razor-sharp talons and then, gripping him by the shoulders, rose almost as quickly as she had descended.
The harpy rose vertically into the gray darkness, the sun now completely engulfed by the dark, viscous moon.
Mika writhed in the painful grip of the harpy's claws. His heart quailed, although still inside his breast, for which he was immensely thankful. As he watched all those who were dear to him shrink in the distance, he wondered whether or not he had exchanged one horrible death for another.
Chapter 28
THE PYRAMID GREW SMALLER and smaller beneath them. Mika watched Hornsbuck and Lotus Blossom for as long as he was able, watched as they used the coming of the harpies to wrest themselves free of the guards, then attacked and killed them with their own weapons, abetted by the wolves.
Mika tried to keep his mind off the trickle of blood that inched its way down his body where the great talons gripped his shoulders.
The wall of the city below had been almost completely destroyed; a charred and smoking line of blackness ringed the city. Where the wall still stood, citizens had gathered and were throwing burning brands on the pitiful remains.
Destruction was rampant throughout the city; buildings lay crumbled and collapsed, while rusties of all sizes rummaged in the rubble, only now, with the advance of the sun, starting to withdraw.
Chaos prevailed over most of Exag. Here and there lone priests were being chased by angry citizens, but for the most part it was disorder of a simpler, happier sort. The Exagians, long denied freedom of pleasure, were making up for lost time with zealous excess that would bring headaches on the morrow: they ran naked through the streets, downing alcoholic beverages in great quantity, and frolicked with the opposite sex. Even as Mika was borne away, he felt a gladness grow in him that he had been able to bring about the collapse of such a repressive society.
Finally, the city—or what remained of it—was lost to sight as the harpy carried Mika high into the mountains. The blood had ceased to flow and his shoulders ached immeasurably where the creature gripped him, but pain was preferable to death. He did not complain.
As they circled even higher, Mika felt the tingling begin for the fifth time, as he knew it must. This time it was not quite so bad, though almost bearable in its intensity. Perhaps it was because he was expecting it. After all, if destroying a city didn't deserve a demon finger, what did? Or perhaps it was because he was growing used to it. Whatever the reason, he was able to remain conscious throughout the horrible process. Or maybe it was even part of the demon's plan for tormenting Mika, for he was able to remain alert and watch as the harpy, accompanied by her child, now fully feathered and flying alone, carried him to a dank, depressing aerie high on the flank of the mountain overlooking the city.
The harpy looked at Mika, her eyes dark and blank and filled with cold cunning, tempered by another emotion Mika struggled to identify.
Mika tried to find some shred of warmth, some slightly human emotion to relate to, but there was nothing. He tried to avoid looking at the harpy's body, which was grotesque beyond belief. The face was hideous enough, cold, dark eyes bereft of the slightest vestige of warmth. The mouth was slack and wet, and sharp teeth, accustomed to the taste of human flesh, glinted in the light of the newborn sun. The hair that covered her head was brittle and lacklustre, and it stuck up at odd angles like hay from an ill-made stack. The flesh was white and pale, chapped and rough from exposure to the elements, and bore little resemblance to the soft, clean, sweet-smelling flesh of women he had known in the past.
The carrion stench of the ugly creature was enough to gag a weaker man. Mika was forced to admit that he was a weaker man, so he took care to breathe through his mouth. The body was an awful caricature of all that was meaningful in Mika's life, the withered, pendulous breasts a parody of feminine beauty.
Below the waist, the harpy was less difficult to look at since her nether regions were rounded and feathered, ending in powerful wings, gigantic thighs, and chickenlike legs with three immense, taloned toes.
The youngling, whom he had to thank for his life, was only slightly less ugly. Already tiny breasts were beginning to form on the narrow chest, and her feathers were a soft and silky gray. Her face was not terribly unattractive if you squinted, and her hair would have been almost decent with a good wash.
Mika smiled at the youngling and began to wonder why one never heard of male harpies, when the elder female shrieked in his ear and shoved him toward the edge of the aerie.
"All right, all right!" said Mika, wondering how it was that mothers always knew what you were thinking, whether or not they were able to mind-meld.
Then the female reached out and grabbed Mika with a powerful grip, pulling him toward her in spite of the fact that he was digging in his heels, resisting.
The harpy smiled at him and cooed gently, spittle drooling out of the corner of her mouth. She batted her eyelids coyly. With a terrible shock Mika identified the strange look in her eyes as passion!
Mika was horror-stricken! Love with a harpy! Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! The thought was almost too horrible to contemplate, but he knew he dared not show his dismay or she would kill him outright.
What followed was a nightmare. The harpy drew him to her, enfolding him in her arms while pressing her body against his, nibbling on his ears and the back of his neck. She held him immobile with her powerful wings and ran her hands over his body. He struggled, but it was no use, she was just too strong. She played with him, her fingers alternately caressing, stroking, pinching, pulling, teasing. Racked with revulsion though he was, Mika found himself responding to her expert ministrations!
He cursed his body and pictured disgusting thoughts, like liver and onions, baby puke, and maggots, but nothing worked—his body continued to react, and for once the curse failed to do its awful work. He tried to push her away, but the wings pinioned his arms, holding him prisoner while the harpy continued to have her way with him.
"Stop! I'm the man! This isn't the way it's supposed to be!" shreiked Mika, but the harpy paid him no mind at all, nuzzling him and stilling his cries with her mouth. And his body, traitorous thing that it was, defied him, acting independent of and ignoring his loud mental protests.
At last he could fight no longer. Seduced from without, betrayed from within, he gave himself up to his fate.
The harpy played him like an instrument, strumming the low notes and then rising higher and higher, bringing him to the very brink of crescendo before pulling away and starting again. Over and over it happened, the harpy smiling blissfully, Mika nearly gibbering with the constant rise and fall of unrequited emotion. Intensely pleasurable though it was, Mika did not know how much more his poor body could stand and wondered if one could actually die from such efforts.
Once again it began. In desperation Mika decided that he would try a mind-meld again, only this time without the blasted charm spell, for that was undoubtedly the reason for the harpy's attentions. Hopefully he would reach whatever dark place passed for her mind and persuade her to let him go.
The passion started to build in him. Closing his mind to it, he clutched the magic gem in his gauntleted hand, the only item of clothing left to him, and began to chant the now familiar spell. As the last word left his lips, there was the feeling of floating, the feeling of empty space, of spiraling down, and then he was joined with the harpy.
The emotion took him then, swept him away, joining, combining both his feelings and those of the harpy. Higher and higher they rose, and Mika almost imagined he could feel the wind rushing past him, so intense was the passion. Then he opened his eyes and nearly fainted, for he did feel the wind rushing past him. They were airborne, circling higher and higher in the cold, thin air above the mountain!
Mika screamed and began to struggle, pushing against the harpy and wriggling wildly. It was more than either of them could bear; the harpy lost control and seized Mika tightly with her arms as her great wings beat the air in powerful, measured strokes, exploding in a white heat that blended with a brilliant kaleidoscope of colors more intense than anything Mika had ever experienced. As the ecstasy ripped through her and was passed along to Mika, he screamed aloud, his voice echoing off the mountains.
And then, incredibly, the harpy let him go! Her arms just opened and released him! The shock of falling brought him back to his senses, and he seized her ankles with both hands, gripping them tightly. The mind-meld was slipping, almost gone, but he could sense the feeling of satisfaction, of lust satisfied, of irritation that the man-thing was still hanging on. Suddenly Mika knew why there were no male harpies. There were no such things! This was how female harpies mated, and when they were done their human partners were simply discarded like so much garbage!
The link was gone. There was no way to reach her mind again unless Mika used the gem, but at the moment he did not want to take his hand off her ankle. The harpy began trying to shake him loose, flying up and down in erratic patterns. Mika held on tight. She tried to strike at him with her wings, but she lost altitude, dipping perilously close to the tree-tops. She tried to pry his hands loose, but he held on for dear life—his dear life. But his body was tired, and hanging on grew more and more difficult with every passing heartbeat.
The harpy, sensing his exhaustion, looped in the air and spiraled, trailing Mika behind like a strange banner. At the last moment she gave a great jerk, and he felt his grip loosen . . . and then slip away.
The great feathered creature flew down alongside the screaming man as he plummeted through the air. As she came level with him she plucked the shining gem that she had so admired off his neck and then flew away, back to her aerie, leaving the human to his destiny.
Hornsbuck and Lotus Blossom and the wolves watched and listened helplessly from many miles distant as Mika, a tiny speck in their eyes, fell through the air screaming.
They found Mika around mid-day, caught in the upper branches of a towering pine tree. There did not appear to be anything wrong with him other than extreme exhaustion and a multitude of bruises. He later explained to his companions that as he drew near the pine, the demon hand shot out of its own accord, seized a branch, and broke his fall. The magic gem was gone and Mika had acquired another demon finger, but that did not seem to trouble him greatly, for even though he seemed too exhausted to speak, he wore a huge, contented smile on his face.
Chapter 29
WITH LUFA'S HELP, a guide was arranged who showed them the way through the Yatil Mountains and across the western border of the Caliphate of Ekbir. Fortunately, their horses had been recovered, and the grateful Exagians made certain that Mika's group left with heavily laden supply bags.
Neither Mika nor Hornsbuck nor Lotus Blossom had any interest in encountering any of Ekbir's large army, and they did their best to maintain a low profile as the princess's time for birthing drew near.
They wintered in the thick of the Udgru Forest, enduring the cold of Fireseek and the brisk, damp winds of Readying and finally, the soft sweet breezes and gentle days of Coldeven, the land renewed itself and life was born, in a continuing affirmation of hope.
Two cublings were born unto the princess, easily and without much pain, for which Mika was eternally grateful. One was male, the other female, and both appeared to be entirely wolf. And yet . . . and yet there was that niggling doubt, for the female had blue eyes and the male green, and their limbs seemed slightly longer than was seemly for ones so young. Their pelts, while dense and sleek, felt more like hair than fur. Mika looked into the princess's eyes and wondered.
One bright morning in the month of Planting, Mika, Hornsbuck, Lotus Blossom, RedTail, Tam, and the princess and the two pups, who frolicked at her heels, stood on the shores of the Dramidj Ocean and looked across the blue waters draped with heavy mists toward the distant island that still, even now, held the answer to their lives.
There was still much to be done. The princess had a throne to claim and a kingdom to rule, as well as the problem of how to regain her human form.
Hornsbuck was committed by the code of the Wolf Nomads to see the mission through to its conclusion, no matter what was required, and RedTail would follow him to the ends of the Oerth.
Lotus Blossom was determined to follow Hornsbuck and prevent him from throwing his life away in the name of that stupid Wolf Nomad code of honor.
Tam was determined to follow the princess and the man to whom he owed his allegiance, hoping that their purposes—and their paths—did not differ.
And Mika . . . ah, Mika. Mika was determined to go to the island and find the magic blue and red gems that would return his hand to normal, restore the princess to her human form, and remove the curse that was slowly tainting his manhood. And, when that was accomplished, he hoped that the princess would finally show her gratitude for all that he had done in a most womanly fashion. After all . . . what would she have done without him?
Epilogue
THE DEMON MAELFESH was happy. He had been amused for a time, which was a very unusual occurrence. Why, he had actually laughed aloud several times! He couldn't even remember the last time he had laughed—maybe it was the time he had roasted that fat demi-demon over the volcano. He had screamed for several centuries before the demon finally died. That had been fun, but it had also been several eons ago.
He had forgotten how humorous humans could be with their silly machinations, always trying to affect the outcome of their short lives.
It was too bad that the gem had been lost; it had provided quite a nice mirror onto the life of the human. He didn't suppose there would be much to interest him in the harpy's cave. Still, one could never tell.
The demon was so pleased that he snapped his fingers and sent down a shower of flaming meteors that fell on some thatched cottages belonging to a village of poor peasants on the outskirts of Yecha, setting the buildings ablaze.
Yes, humans were definitely fun. Maelfesh made a mental note to look in on them more often. After all, even a demon deserved a good laugh every eon or so.
But demon Maelfesh was also angry. Very angry, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He realized that the human Mika, that miserable excuse for a Wolf Nomad, had escaped his clutches. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that he had been tricked. Maelfesh did not like being tricked. It made him angry, and when he was angry whole worlds trembled!
The demon scanned the Oerth searching for the man, Mika, knowing that he was alive somewhere, knowing that he would find him. When he did, the Wolf Nomad would remember the curse of the demon hand as belonging to the good old days.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ROSE ESTES has lived in Chicago, Houston, Mexico, and Canada, in a driftwood house on an island, a log cabin in the mountains, and a broken Volkswagon van under a viaduct.
At present she is sharing her life with an eccentric game designer/cartoonist, three children, one slightly demented dog, and a pride of occasionally domestic cats.
Other books written by Ms. Estes include nine of TSR, Inc.'s ENDLESS QUEST® series of books, as well as Children of the Dragon and The Turkish Tattoo published by Random House, and Blood of the Tiger from Bantam.
She wrote the best-selling Master Wolf, the first GREYHAWK™ book in the continuing adventures of Mika, shaman of the Wolf Nomads, and is hard at work on the next one.
