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Tavi picked up Dodger&039;s trail within an hour, but frohout theonly to drink from an icy brook and to eat soht with hi up to his na back and forth through the barrens

Though gloorew ever taller and darker with stor presence of the mountain and kept his focus on his work Noon ell past when he finally caught up to the wily ram and his flock

He heard the sheep before he saw them; one of the ewes let out plaintive bleats He looked back over his shoulder, to where his uncle followed several dozen strides behind him, and waved a hand to let Bernard know he&039;d found therin off his face, and his uncle answered Tavi&039;s ser had led the flock into a dense thicket of brambles and thorns nearly as tall as Tavi hier&039;s curling horns and approached the old raer snorted and pawed at the earth with his front hooves, shaking his curling horns threateningly Tavi frowned at the rahed better than a quarter ton, and the tough breed ofenough and strong enough to defend theressive when threatened Careless shepherds had been killed by their overexcited charges

A sharp, sweet snized the scent of slaughtered sheep, of offal and blood

So

Tavi approachedaround He found the first dead sheep, one of the lambs, several yards short of the bra for clues as to what had killed the animal

It hadn&039;t been slives Slives could kill young sheep, even adults if they had nuh, but the poisonous lizards swared them into strips of flesh and bared bones The lale wound-a massive, clean cut that had nearly severed the laht have been capable of inflicting such a wound, but when one of the great mountain beasts took a kill, it either devoured it on the spot or else dragged it off to a secluded lair to feed Wolves-even the great wolves of the savage, barbarian infested wilds east of the Calderon Valley-could not have struck and killed so cleanly And besides, any predator would have begun to devour the laround around the larossly disturbed Tavi checked around quickly for tracks, but he found only the hoof-marks of the sheep and then some marks he was not familiar with, and could not even be sure were tracks One partially disturbed track may have been the outline of a human heel, but it could as easily have been the result of a round stone being rolled out of its place

Tavi rose, puzzled, and found two round between the first lae in the thicket-another lamb and a ewe, both dead of siht have been capable of causing those wounds, but furies rarely attacked ani compelled to do so by their crafter If an anis, only ahunting knife or a sword, and th to help as well

But the frontier valley rarely had visitors, and none of the holdfolk wandered through the pine barrens Garados&039;s loo presence made the land for miles about it seeet a good night&039;s sleep so near the old er, who remained in the entrance to the thicket, horns presented in warning, and Tavi suddenly felt afraid What could have struck down those sheep that way? "Uncle?" Tavi called His voice cracked a little "So, his eyes taking in Dodger and the flock,

then the dead sheep upon the ground Tavi watched his uncle take it in, and then Bernard&039;s eyes widened He rose and drew the short, heavy sword of the legionare from his belt "Tavi Come over to me"

"What?"

Bernard&039;s voice took on a sharp edge of anger and command that Tavi had never heard in uncle before "Now"

Tavi&039;s heart began to pound in his chest, and he obeyed "What about the flock?"

"Forget them," Bernard said, his voice crisp and cold "We&039;re leaving"

"But we&039;ll lose the sheep We can&039;t just leave them here"

Bernard passed the sword to Tavi, scanning slowly around the of his bow "Keep the point low Put your other hand on the small of my back and leave it there"

Tavi&039;s fear rose sharply, but he forced it away and obeyed his uncle "What&039;s wrong? Why are we leaving?"

"Because ant to get out of the barrens alive" Bernard started pacing silently away from the thicket, his face set in concentration

"Alive? Uncle, what could-"

Bernard tensed abruptly and spun to one side, lifting his bow

Tavi turned with hi trees before the wail from their opposite side Tavi whipped his head around, but his uncle was slower, spinning his entire body with his bow at arth, an arron back to his cheek Tavi could do little but watch their attacker coht feet tall and er-looking than a racing horse&039;s, and tipped icked claws Its head sat on the end of a long, powerful, flexible neck, and sported a hawk&039;s beak, enlargedand viciously hooked Its feathers were colored in all dark browns and blacks, though its eyes were a brilliant shade of gold

The bird bounded forward, taking a pair of steps and leaping into the air, both claws co forward to rake while it beat at the air with ridiculously undersized wings Tavi felt his uncle shove at him with his hip as he turned, and fell away and to one side, Bernard between hi horror

Bernard loosed his arroithout sighting The arro, struck at a poor angle, and glanced off the thing&039;s feathers, skittering away in a blur of

black and green fletching The beast landed on Bernard, its claws raking, its vicious beak whipping forward and doard him

When hot droplets of his uncle&039;s blood struck his face, Tavi began to screa&039;s talons lashed out, raking and tearing One of theh leather breeches at the thigh Blood welled and flowed Another talon tore through his hair, doard his throat, but Bernard raised his ar the lethal claay on the wood of the bow The creature&039;s vicious beak darted down at hiain Bernard parried the attack away

The great bird&039;s beak darted to one side and snapped the heavy wood of the bow like a dry twig It gave ith a sharp detonation as the heavy tension of the string was released

Tavi raised the sword and started toward his uncle, screa, but it didn&039;t sound like his own voice It was too high, too thin, and too terrified to be his voice The bird&039;s head swiveled toward hi on him with a terrible, mindless intensity

"Brutus!" shouted Uncle Bernard, as the bird&039;s attention focused on Tavi "Take him!"

The earth at the bird&039;s feet shuddered and then ripped itself upward, as Brutus came to Bernard&039;s call

A thin layer of soil peeled back away froed up fro surf, head and shoulders of a great hunting dog reen as eht Brutus planted his front paws on the ground, hauling his pony-sized body forward, and stone jaws closed on the thigh of the attacking bird

The bird let out a whistling teakettle scream, and its beak flashed down at the fury&039;s head The beak struck sparks from the stone, and one of the earthen hound&039;s ears fell off, but Brutus didn&039;t sohis uncle&039;s sith both hands It struck at the base of the bird&039;s neck, and Tavi felt the blow in his hand as the bird struggled and thrashed, a quivering sensation like that of a fish on a line He drew back the sword and struck again Dark blood splashed and stained the blade

Tavi kept on swinging the sword, once dodging aside froain the heavy weapon bit into the bird&039;s body or neck Again and again, dark blood splashed up from the blade

Brutus wrenched the bird to one side and threw it to the ground with bone-crushing force Tavi screa the sword at the bird&039;s head like an axe Tavi heard and felt the crunch of i and its teakettle screams

Tavi trembled violently There was dark blood on his clothes and on the sword in his hands and scattered over the bird&039;s feathers and on the ground Brutus still held the bird&039;s thigh in his granite jaws A stench wafted up from the body, foul and rotten Tavi sed and felt his stomach roil He turned away from the bird&039;s body and toward his uncle, who lay prone on the ground

"Uncle," Tavi said He knelt down beside the man There was blood on Bernard&039;s clothes and on his hands "Uncle Bernard"

Bernard turned his pale face up to Tavi, his features twisted in a grih, squeezing until his knuckles had turned white "My leg," he said "We&039;ve got to tie off , boy, or I&039;m finished"

Tavi sed and nodded He put down the sword and unfastened his belt "What about Brutus&039;?" he asked

Bernard shook his head, a tight, sh to him like this"

Tavi had to haul with both hands to h to let hirunt of pain frohtly as he could and then tied it off Bernard let out another low sound of pain and removed his hands, slowly Blood soaked his breeches, but no fresh scarlet appeared The wound looked horrible Muscles lay open, and Tavi thought he caught a gliain, and he looked away

"Crows," he breathed He was still shaking, his heart still beating too quickly "Uncle Are you all right?"

"Hurting pretty good Keep talking to me until it passes a little"

Tavi fretted at his lip "All right What was that thing?"

"Herdbane They have thele "

"They kill for sport?"

"No Too stupid to knohen to stop Once they scent blood, they tear apart anything that moves&039;&039;

Tavi sed and nodded "Are we in danger now?"

"Maybe Herdbane hunt in pairs Go look at the bird"

"What?"

"Look at the crow-eaten bird, boy," Bernard growled

Tavi rose to his feet and went back over to the herdbane Its free leg twitched, the talons opening and closing spasmodically The smell of offal surrounded hi his nose and runted and sat up, though his head dropped for a round "You killed it with the first blow, Tavi You should have stepped back and let the thing die"

"But it was still fighting," Tavi said

Bernard shook his head "You&039;d laid its neck open It wasn&039;t going to be fighting for long Takes time to bleed to death, and until they do they can take you with theht behind its head"

Tavi sed and walked around the corpse, and around Brutus as well, until he stood behind the bird&039;s beak and looked as his uncle had directed hi disturbed the feathers just behind the bird&039;s head He knelt down and reached out with tentative fingers to brush some of the feathers away and peer at whatever it was

A circlet h cloth and hide enco in the muscle where it pressed "There&039;s some kind of collar on it," Tavi said

"What&039;s it made of?" Bernard rumbled