Chapter 19: A Deer for Tekoni

Tekoni looked a lot better after her nap, which was a good thing, since she couldn’t have looked much worse before it. Nevy’s spell had done its job, even by long distance and at second hand. I had seen how she took the Power around her and used it, and it was easy enough once I saw the way it worked. No gunpowder was necessary, nor even any mumbo jumbo; that was just to focus the mind, which did all the work. Nevy was starting to get beyond that, though she wasn’t there quite yet.

I had gone back to being a sparrow again. If you ever learn how to do it yourself, I highly recommend spending your off time as a sparrow. It’s kind of enjoyable, flying here and there as you please, and worms really aren’t all that bad once you get used to them. I’d had two while Tekoni slept. When she sat up I changed back to myself. “You’re feeling better?” I asked her in Latin.

“Much better,” she said, touching her tummy cautiously. “I guess sleeping helped. I thought I would be ill again when I woke up?”

“I cured you while you slept. You need to make sure you drink a lot of water though. You’re very dehydrated now. When you eat again, eat very lightly.”

“I will,” she promised. “You’re a warlock?”

“Something like that.”

I saw her shudder. She was looking for escape routes again.

“Settle down,” I told her, trying to sound comforting. “You don’t have anything to be afraid of, except maybe Palégos and starvation. I’m just a man. How did you come to be a bear?”

She had shuddered at the sound of the Wizard’s name and she made a very Latin-looking sign against the Evil Eye. “I was kidnapped by slave raiders,” she replied, not at all surprising me.

“Where was that?”

“I lived in a town called Flavilia,” she told me. “The town was Mohican and Onondaga and Latin. Flying creatures came and carried many of us off.”

“The Flying Monkeys?” I asked.

“Monkey faces, yes. Faces like we were given, yes. The Wizard’s creatures. They put us in cages. There were maybe a hundred people over five days, from different tribes and towns in the north.”

“You were held up there, on the mountain?” I pointed toward the Wizard’s mansion.

“No. Someone told me it was Castra Taurorum (the Camp of the Bulls). They auctioned us as slaves. There were several bidders, maybe ten. The Wizard bought about one in three of us. Another wizard bought some too.”

“Palégos wasn’t the one behind the raids?” I asked, surprised. Flying monkeys definitely implied warlockery.

“We speak not his name!” she warned me. “It is cursed!”

“Huh. You oughta try my name!”

She looked doubtful, like no one’s name could be as scary as Palégos. “I don’t know if ... the Wizard was behind the raids,” she continued, having no idea what I was talking about, always assuming I did. “It seems likely. It was said that the profits of the sales went to Lord ... the governor himself.” I guessed Rægan’s name was cursed too, or maybe it just burned her tongue to say it.

“And the Legate isn’t a wizard?” I mused.

“Not that I know. But the Wizard is Lord ... the Legate’s man. They say he keeps the Wizard’s withered heart in a box.”

I almost told her that wasn’t possible. Turning myself into a sparrow wasn’t possible either. Flying Monkeys weren’t possible. I wasn’t even sure they were airworthy. Monkey-faced bears aren’t possible. Long distance healing spells weren’t possible.

Aged, aged couples turning themselves into teenagers and humping in church wasn’t possible either. The list just kept on growing. I kept my mouth shut. “The Wizard turned you all into bears?” I asked instead of arguing and making a fool of myself to myself.

“Yes.”

That wasn’t possible either, was it? “What about the rest of the slaves?”

“The prettiest went to His Excellency’s harem, I think. There are hundreds of women and girls there, so they say. Most of the men went to the mines, I heard.”

A harem of hundreds – every man’s dream, every man’s nightmare. There are valid reasons for monogamy. “Were you all women and girls that the wizard bought? Or was there a mix?”

“My group was women and girls,” she told me. “Some of his bears are men. They were there when we arrived. Most were sick and some have died since we arrived.”

“Probably because you eat a monkey diet in a bear’s body,” I mused. “Or a bear’s diet with a monkey metabolism.”

“I have been sick since I’ve been here,” she told me listlessly. “I don’t think we are expected to live very long.”

“We’ll see if we can fix that. How did Mister Wizard control you?”

“He can cause us pain merely by pointing at us,” she told me.

“But how can he control you when you’re out of his sight?”

“He’s aware of where all his slaves are. He can also ... I don’t know. Become us. Take us over.”

“I’ve seen that happen,” I acknowledged. “Do you think he can see you now?”

She wrinkled her brow in thought. “I don’t think so,” she said at length. “I’m not sure why, but I can’t feel his presence.”

“Keep not believing,” I advised. “Let me know right away if you hear from him. Or feel him.” I was pretty sure I had us blanketed now. I was actually getting this magic thing under control.

I did some serious pondering. I had a resource there, but she was weak and sick and undernourished. She would probably be more a hindrance than a help if I relied on her very heavily. I wondered if there was a spell that would cure her condition, put some meat on her scrawny bones. I suspected not. She’d simply burned up her body’s resources. The cure was food and rest and time.

I heard her tummy rumble again, not a gurgle of food poisoning, but from hunger. I suspected she wasn’t fond of worms. I wished I had Nannakussi with me. Sometimes I missed him almost as much as I missed Nevy, though not for the same reasons.

I didn’t have to wave my hand to put Tekoni asleep again, like the archbishop’s wife had me. It was what I wanted, so she lay down and emitted a cute little snore. I changed myself into something between a wolf and a big dog, since I wasn’t sure what the differences were between the two. I marked my spot, since my bladder was full, and set off in search of something suitable for a girl to eat.

The woods were teeming with game. It was seldom hunted, and when it was it was maybe for enough meat to feed a family or a small party. Lots of of the game came to the river to drink. I sniffed around until I caught what I thought might be deer, and I followed it. I found pellets – deer poop – that confirmed my opinion. The trail was crossed with opossom, skunk, groundhog ... if the deer didn’t work out, the last was an option, if a bit on the gamy side.

I stopped, sniffing the air. There was another smell. It was man. People don’t realize how much odor their feet carry. It was old, not fresh at all. I circled a couple times, sniffing for it, finally finding it. By then it was easy enough to follow, multiple trips by multiple feet, until I finally came to an old camp. There was a mostly collapsed longhouse, and I could see and smell where there had been cooking fires.

I sniffed closely at the ground and began digging with my forepaws. About eight inches down, I found flat stones covering a straw basket lined with clay. I didn’t need to move the rocks; my nose told me it contained corn meal. I covered it back up and sniffed until I found another one that contained dried beans. I had no way to get it back to where Tekoni was since I didn’t have hands, but after she’d fed up a little she’d be able to come to it.

I lifted a hind leg and marked the spot, then tucked the location into the edge of my human mind and trotted off after the deer. I felt guilty about letting myself get distracted because Tekoni needed an infusion of protein for strength, followed by lots of carbohydrates for energy. I knew where both were, but so far had neither.

My prey was a young doe, barely out of the faun stage. She’d be nice and tender. I could see where she had passed now. There were three of them together, one a year or so older than the other two. I could tell that from where they had stopped to pee. The human part of my mind was impressed by how much a wolf-dog could tell just from the assortment of smells.