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"I don&039;t know Cloth and some leather in a braid It doesn&039;t look familiar"

"That&039;s a Marat collar We need to get out of the barrens, Tavi"

Tavi looked up, startled "There aren&039;t any Marat in the Calderon Valley, Uncle The Legions keep them out There hasn&039;t been a Marat here since they had the big battle years and years ago"

Bernard nodded "Before you were born But two cohorts at Garrison doesn&039;t necessarily keep the in numbers There&039;s a Marat warrior up here, and he isn&039;t going to be happy that we killed his bird Neither is its mate"

"Mate?"

"Marks on the top of her head Mating scars We killed the feo"

Bernard nodded, the motion weary, unsteady "Co close to his uncle One of the sheep let out a bleat, and Tavi frowned, looking up The san to trot about, shoving theroup with his horns

"Brutus," Bernard said, his voice gruff and unsteady He drew in a deep breath, expression becoo of the bird Take us both back home"

The stone hound dropped the bird and turned toward Bernard Brutus sank down into the earth again Tavi felt the patch of ground he stood on begin to quiver and roan of tortured rock, a slab of stone perhaps five feet across rose up beneath the river The earth-raft drifted toward the entryway to the little clearing, slowly gathering speed

Bernard et back" Then he laid down and closed his eyes, his face and body going ilanced at his uncle, frowning, and then back at the sheep Dodger had theain and had presented his horns-and not toward Tavi

"Uncle Bernard," Tavi said, and he thought his voice sounded high-pitched and panicky "Uncle Bernard I think so"

Tavi&039;s uncle did not respond Tavi looked around for his uncle&039;s sword, but he had left it lying beside the herdbane&039;s body, and it was noo dozen strides away Tavi clenched his hands into frustrated fists This was all his fault If he hadn&039;t shirked his duties to i for Dodger and his uncle wouldn&039;t have needed to follow him

Tavi shivered Suddenly, the possibility of death see stark and close

Shadows fell over the valley, and Tavi looked up to see racing clouds darken the sun, and he heard a distant ruin to sway and stir, and the earth raft see pace of a , Tavi found hiht already be too late

Tavi sed If so came after them now, his uncle would not be able to help hih, whistling screech came from the trees to the west of them, up the slope

Tavi jerked his head in that direction, but saw nothing The screech repeated itself

Another herdbane

A second screech answered it, this tily close at hand A third? Brush rattled perhaps fifty paces back in the trees Then again, closer Tavi thought he saw so in

"They&039;re co," he said, in a quiet voice

Tavi sed Though Brutuset there in time to help the another herd-bane as he lay unconscious, and Brutus&039;s focus was all on bearing the pair of them back toward home

Which meant that the only way his uncle could escape was if the herd-banes went looking somewhere else If someone led them off in another direction

Tavi took a deep breath, rolled off the earth-raft to one side of the trail, and lay completely still If the herdbanes tracked move and the trees and brush swaying in it He would re plenty of noise and motion, to draw the hunters away froain, and Tavi felt a tiny, cold raindrop splash on his cheek He looked up and saw vast and dark clouds growing around the mountain Another cold raindrop fell on him, and he felt a rush of fear that nearly forced him to eht out in the open Without the solid protection of the steadholt&039;s walls or the protection of his own furies, he would be nearly helpless before the storht, Tavi picked up several rocks that see Then he turned to the west and hurled the stone on the highest arch he could e

The stone flew in silence and struck on a tree trunk, ainst the base of the tree and held still

There was a whistle fro

h the brush, toward it Tavi heard steps behind hireat dark form flashed past hih trail Brutus&039;s passage had er than the first It ran on its toes, though its talons rattled against fallen pine needles and its feathers brushed through the lireens It went toward the spot where the stone had landed, vanishing back into the brush

Tavi let out a breath He threw another stone, farther away, back toward the clearing, rather than in the direction where Brutus was slowly bearing his uncle to safety Then he crouched low and headed back toward the clearing hi a new stone every few paces The wind kept rising, and an to fall

Tavi labored to keep his breathing as silent as he could and crept back to the clearing, quiet as a cat, creeping the last few paces on his belly, under the overhanging branches of one of the evergreens The sheep were nowhere to be seen

But the second herdbane was already there

So was the Marat

This herdbane stood at least a head taller than the first, and its feathers were darker, its eyes a browner shade of gold It stood over the corpse of the bird Tavi had killed, one leg cocked up underneath its body, leaning its neck down to nuzzle its beak against its dead mate&039;s feathers

The Marat was the first Tavi had seen He was tall, taller than anyone Tavi knew He looked not unlike a man, but his shoulders were very broad, and his body heavy with flat, swift-looking h that see several pouches froerand thick and looked sickly white in the dih the rain clouds He had tied dark feathers into his hair, here and there, and they lent hie aspect

The Maratout to lay both wide, powerful-looking hands upon the beast He let out a soft, keening sound, which was echoed by thetheir heads

Then thehis lips apart, and his head turned this way and that, looking around him, white teeth bared His eyes, Tavi saere precisely the saht

Tavi re to breathe The Marat&039;s features were not difficult to read He was furious, and as the , Tavi saw that his teeth and his hands were stained with scarlet blood

The Marat stood and held a hand to hisfroh to her and lower, long and short Then he fell silent

Tavi&039;s brow furrowed into a frown, and he dropped his jaw a little, half-closing his eyes, and listened

After a ti answer Tavi had no way of knohat the answer said, but that there was an answer in itself was frightening enough The whistling co: There were more than one of the barbarians here

The Marat had returned to Calderon Valley

Perhaps they were sie from detection in the humanity-free area in the pine barrens around Garados Or perhaps, Tavi&039;s panicked thoughts ran, they were the advance scouts for a horde But that seemed mad A horde hadn&039;t been seen in more than fifteen years-not since before Tavi was born, and while they had enjoyed a brief spate of victory, destroying the Crown Legion and slaying the Princeps Gaius, the Aleran Legions had crushed the horde only weeks later, dealing them such a deadly stroke that everyone had assumed that the Marat would never return

Tavi sed But they had returned And if they meant to return in force, the Marat in the valley were probably advance scouts If they were, they would never let one rather skinny and undersized boy who had seen them escape to warn others of their presence

The Marat returned to glaring around the clearing He seized several feathers and jerked them out of the dead herdbane, then reached up and tied the sound at the living herd-bane,in that direction in long, stalking steps, its eyes sweeping back and forth

The Marat, meanwhile, dropped down to all fours He sniffed at the blood on the fallen herdbane&039;s claws and then, to Tavi&039;s disgust, leaned down and ran his tongue along it Then he closed his h it were a wine The Marat opened his eyes again, re around the floor of the

clearing like a dog after a scent He paused at the fallen sword and picked it up, staring down at the weapon stained with the herdbane&039;s blood Then he lowered the blade to wipe it clean on the grass of the clearing and slipped it through his cloth-belt

The wind continued to rise and changed directions at every breath Tavi felt it brush against his back He froze in place, sure that if he moved he would be immediately seen

The Marat jerked his head up, abruptly turning to look directly at Tavi&039;s hiding place The boy sed, tensing in fear The Marat let out another whistle and nal The herdbane stalked toward Tavi&039;s hiding place

Just like a chicken after a bug, Tavi thought And I&039;

But a few steps later, the herdbane let out a shriek, turning to face south The Marat followed the herdbane, golden eyes reading the signs of passage in the earth He crouched down, nostrils flaring and looked up with a sudden, eager light in his eyes

The Marat rose and began to stalk southward after Tavi&039;s wounded uncle

"No!" Tavi shouted He threw hi one of his re stones at the Marat His aih on the cheek, and blood welled froolden, bird-of-prey eyes and snarled soue Tavi could not understand His intentions, though, were clear even before he drew the glass dagger froer

The Marat let out a whistle, and the herdbane whirled toward hi teakettle battle cry the dead bird had used

Tavi turned and ran

He had run froer than hia of one kind or another, and Tavi had learned how to h the densest thickets of bracken he could find and slipped through reens

The wind grew stronger, filling the air with fallen pine needles and dust Tavi ran west to lead the of the herdbane and its s

The boy&039;s heart pounded like a smith&039;s hammer, heavy and swift He

knew that he was alone, and that no one would come to help him He had to rely on his oits and experience, and should he falter or slow, the pursuing Marat and herdbane would have hi over Garados had begun to spread over the valley Should the Marat, the storm, or the darkness catch him unprotected in the open, he would die Tavi ran for his life