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I repeated this for Granuaile’s sake and she laughed

"You are certainly top dog," she said to him

"Atticus, have I told you before that I approve of your apprentice?"

Yep Every ti evaporated after a fewnoise The accusatory clinking of Granuaile’s throwing knives resuan to wonder when she would say so for a privatefor so with her

Oberon halted abruptly as we approached the ainst his head and gru about that cave doesn’t s and so did Granuaile She didn’t have to ask as going on; she could tell Oberon was talking toa nasty bird and dead stuff, and I do Except I also smell a human And a bear"

A human and a bear? Thata bearskin

"It’s kind of war

"In a cave?"

Well, let’s go check it out Cautiously

I drew Moralltach as silently as I could fro a knife and her staff behind ravelly hillside unnaturally loud toahead and the soft, dry rasp of a bird’s throat

My sword crested the lip of the cave’swished to attack the bare blade When nothing did, I risked a peek

Two black eyes glared at me over a sharp beak Oberon’s vulture was perhaps ten yards away, standing in a pile of bones and rotting tissue and watching estive of a nest; it was more of a mess hall, with an emphasis on the mess It wasn’t convenient to water and it reeked, but it would work if we cleaned it out The high ceiling was kind of a bonus We had to convince the current resident to leave first

"It’s just the vulture," I said "Come on up, but watch out for the beak"

Vultures have no strength in their talons to speak of, because their prey typically doesn’t try to run away from the skin Strangely, the vulture showed no signs of alarm when I advanced to the lip of the cave Even when Granuaile hauled herself up, I didn’t see a threatening display of the wings The bird continued to stare as if it expected us to drop dead and provide it with lunch

It hen Oberon appeared that the vulture finally showed signs of alar a vulture

Oberon barked and growled, showing his teeth, the hair on the back of his neck raised "Atticus, that thing is a thing!"

What?

"It’s not nors, and grew--but not into a nastier vulture Itelse entirely The neck thickened, the beak becas becas, but what roared at us fro bear!"

"Gods damn the Greeks and their unholy hybrid monsters!" I muttered, then addressed the creature in Greek "Are you a talking bear-ain and Oberon tried to bark louder, but then the creature spoke in a rios of Thrace, son of Polyphonte Who are you?"

I was tempted to tell him "nobody," but I wasn’t Odysseus and he wasn’t Polyphe else would beback to me This fellow had been turned into a vulture by Hero; his mother and brother, because they were the "kind of nice" Thracian aborios was the loathsome one He’d been spawned because his ed to tick off Aphrodite, so the goddess of love rios and Oreios were born

"Aren’t you supposed to stay a vulture?" I asked

"I was taught how to transform by Thracian witches I served them for a time, until I opened their bellies and ate the as I don’t hunt the puny iven me, I am left alone It has been many years since I was sent a sacrifice Who sent you?"

"Whoa Hold on We’re not sacrifices We’re just out looking for the handsoht this was a likely one"

I shot soht, circle round behind him and bite him on the back of the harios said, idly scratching his belly in confusion

"Oh, yeah Love what you’ve done with the carrion Most people don’t think of using carrion as an accent for their décor, but I think you’ve stu"

Granuaile whispered to ?"

"Knives only Do not engage hiroused, "If you are so interested in décor, why do you coed "Sometimes people in caves are impolite But I can tell you are civilized"

The bear threw back its head and laughed an ursine laugh

"Knife to the throat now," I told Granuaile, and she had thrown it before I finished the sentence