Yet although they were guarded, nothing came to disturb the women's bloody work.

Just before dawn Aiko awakened to find Burel asleep in a chair at hand with his head cradled in his arms on the bed at her side. And as she stirred he came awake. He looked up at her and sighed in deep relief. Then noting where he was, he jerked erect. "I beg your pardon, Lady Aiko, but I did not mean to presume."

She smiled at him, then suddenly sobered and bolted upright, the sheet falling away revealing poultice bandages high across her chest and a glaring red tiger between her firm breasts. "The demon!"

"Slain," interjected Burel, looking away as she recovered her modesty. "You impaled it on its own sword. And though I took off its head, I deem it was already as good as dead."

Wincing slightly with pain, Aiko leaned back and looked about, the Ryodoan noting Alos snoring away in a bed across the room. "Where are we?"

"In the abbey, in the infirmary."

"And my swords?"

"At hand," he replied, nodding toward a table where rested her blades and shiruken. "Ferai retrieved them."

"And your blade…?"

"Egil."

"What of the demon's dark weapon?"

"They say there is no sign of it."

Aiko glanced over at the old man. "And Alos…?"

"Battered and bruised, and some broken ribs. He was stepped on by a camel wild to escape the demon's stench."

Suddenly Aiko's dark, tilted eyes widened.

"Milady?" Burel inquired, frowning.

She looked at him and reached out to touch his hand. "The peril, Burel: it is gone."

"Gone?"

"Entirely." She grinned and withdrew her touch. "I think you are no longer cursed."

Something unspoken hammered at his lips, but all he said was, "Thanks to you, Lady Aiko."

They sat in silence for a moment, then Burel said, "Are you hungry?"

"Immensely."

Burel shot to his feet. "I'll be right back with your breakfast."

As he rushed away she smiled and slid down under the covers; for the first time in her life she was ready to be cared for by a man.

"But I don't know how I did it," said Aiko, shaking her head in puzzlement. "There was a moment when everything went red, and next I knew Burel was carrying me."

They sat outside in the afternoon sun-Arin, Egil, Ferret, Delon, Aiko, and Burel. Alos was yet abed in the infirmary, demanding the acolytes serve him a tot of medicinal brandy to soothe his battered frame, or so he claimed, though nought was given him.

Aiko looked from one to another, her brow furrowed in perplexity.

"Was there nought more?" asked Arin.

Burel cleared his throat. "There was a loud sound, a strange sound, short and sharp and savage, something between a cough and a roar."

"Can you imitate it?" asked Delon, his bardic curiosity aroused.

Burel frowned and closed his eyes, remembering, and then he barked: "Gruh!"

Aiko looked at him, her eyes wide, but it was Ferret who said, "Did it sound rather like: Rruh!"

"Yes. That is more like it, but louder, much louder," replied Burel.

Ferret looked at Aiko, her gaze centered on the Ryodoan's chest, as if trying to see through her silken shirt; then Ferret turned back to Burel. "That is the chuff of an enraged tiger."

Now all eyes turned to Aiko, but she was as bewildered as any.

Egil asked, "How know you this, Ferai?"

"We had tigers in the cirque." Ferret looked toward the gate beyond which the remains of the demon lay, her thoughts on the furrowed right arm she and Egil had seen, an arm perhaps clawed by a savage beast, perhaps rent by the talons of a tiger when it aided Aiko to turn the sword backward and shove it into the demon's own gut. Ferret looked at the tiny Ryodoan and then shook her head to clear it of these vagaries.

Late that afternoon, armed and armored, Arin, Egil, Ferret, Delon, and Burel stepped under the portcullis and made their way through the tunnel.

As they came to the dark ruddy stain where the camel's blood had pooled on the crimson stone, Egil held up his hand, stopping all. Yet it was not blood from a camel that the five had come seeking, but a demon instead. For although Aiko sensed no peril in Burel or the surround, still they would put it to the test. Egil turned to the big man. "Remember, if a demon appears, step back inside."

Burel grunted and moved past Egil to stand just inside the opening, his two-handed sword gripped tightly. Then, weapon raised, he stepped forth from the holy ground to see whether or no another demon would appear.

None did.

Burel retrieved the demon's severed head, declaring, "In the name of my father, this I must destroy." But as he stepped back into the tunnel, lo! the head crumbled to dust and fell to the stone, where it burst into furious flames. Burel sprang aside, and the others stepped back from the raging fire, the heat intense.

"Huah!" grunted Egil. "Now we know why it didn't come in after you or your mother."

They turned to go back to the cloister, only to find Aiko standing behind, her swords glittering in the crimson dark.

"My Lady," protested Burel. "You should not be-"

"Oh, but I should," she replied.

They spent another fortnight at the abbey, Aiko's wound healing rapidly under the ministrations of Arin, though the Dylvana declared that it had less to do with her own skill and more to do with Aiko's splendid vitality, as well as the aid of the gwynthyme. Even so, the Dylvana bade Aiko to do no strenuous exercise, and so the golden warrior forwent her daily drills, though she did school Burel morning and night.

During this same fortnight, Alos, too, was treated with the golden mint, this in the form of a tea, which he grudgingly took, complaining that any fool knew a jot of brandy would make the tisane a much better medick. And even though bones knit slowly in the elderly, at the end of two weeks he was declared fit to travel, as long as he did not overexert himself and put pressure on his ribs.

Just after dawn on December 12, 1E9253, five hundred thirty-three days after Arin had had her vision, again the seven set out from the Cloister of Ilsitt, and once more women wept to see all of them go, but especially at Burel's leaving, for when he was gone, it truly would become a nunnery where no man trod, an unwelcome state for several within. Even so, these last two weeks, Burel had not pleasured any of those who had yet to speak their abstemious vows.

The demon, said some, took his desire away.

But others looked at the regard he paid to the yellow warrior and nodded to one another knowingly.

And amid tears and kisses and anguished good-byes, through the tunnel they fared-Aiko in the lead, her armor repaired, Burel following after, then Egil, Delon, Ferret, and Arin.

Once they were clear of the tunnel-and nothing untoward had occurred-then led by acolytes the camels came next: seven saddled for riding, four bearing supplies. As if remembering past terror, the animals balked at entering the confining way again, yet the handlers were adamant, and grumbling and protesting, the beasts finally went through the narrow passage.

When those also reached the far side-again with nothing of note coming to pass-then and only then did Alos venture into the dark strait, Mayam at his side, the old man moaning about his cracked ribs, though the abbess knew his words were impelled by fright. At the distant end, he peered out cautiously, trembling, and finally stepped forth, ready to bolt inward at the slightest need. But nothing appeared and so, grudgingly, Alos trudged to his camel.

Mayam stepped to each of them and murmured, "May Ilsitt favor you with her protecting hand."