"I would eat well for many days on your carcass-as would my mate and her young."

"Well, now, that's not very nice!" I chastised him.

"I must think of my clan," he said. "They must survive."

"Of course," I said. Thinking quickly, I added, "If we were to ambush and kill them, I would have no problem leaving those fighting men there for you to feast upon."

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128.

Cheryl Brooks The vulture turned aside in a disdainful gesture.

"Too tough. You and the young ones would be far more tender."

I was tempted to set fire to the branch he was sitting on for voicing that opinion, but tried to see it as a compliment, instead. "But they are much larger and would last longer," I pointed out.

"True," he said, though he sounded reluctant to admit it. "One in my position cannot always be selective."

"Well, I suppose I can't blame you for trying."

"It's all I can do," he said. "We learn patience very young, but there are times when I feel compelled to simply kill something, instead."

"Never thought of arranging battles to come out to your advantage, then?"

"There are seldom battles amongst you humans.

Pity," he said again. "Wish you were more warlike. Your men train for war, but you are still much too peaceful for our purposes-and the fact that you tend to bury your dead is a most annoying waste of food."

"I can see where it would be," I agreed. "But forgive me if I find the idea of being eaten rather unsettling."

"But you would be dead," the bird said reasonably.

"What would it matter?"

"Oh, I suppose it wouldn't, but it still gives me the creeps."

"The creeps?"

"Yes," I replied. "You know, something that makes your skin crawl to think of?"

"Like having one's feathers plucked?" the vulture suggested.

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"Yes," I replied. "Exactly like that. Would you like to be eaten?"

"No, I do not believe I would," he replied after reflecting on this for a moment. "But one day, I am certain I will be."

I took a peek at Rafe, who was carefully pulling an arrow from his quiver. "Then might I suggest that you take off now," I said calmly, "or we may be having you for lunch."

I could feel the wind as his wings beat the air when he departed.

Not surprisingly, Rafe was irate. "Couldn't you have kept that thing bewitched for a moment or two longer?"

he demanded. "Carnita has wanted some of those purple feathers for a long time."

"She'll have to wait a bit longer, then," I replied.

"Besides, I have no control over birds, Rafe. I didn't do a thing to it."

"I don't believe that for a moment," Rafe snorted.

"I've seen you bewitch animals before."

"I do not 'bewitch' anything," I said loftily. "I merely look at them. If they don't fly away, it is because I don't shoot at them."

I stole a quick glance at Leo and caught a glimpse of his smile as he turned to hide it. At that moment, the only thought in my head was that it would have been nice to ride double with him so I could have had my arms around him throughout this long, cold journey. It occurred to me to ask Morgana to pretend to be lame, but it would have slowed us down too much. Pity, I thought, echoing the vulture.

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130.

Cheryl Brooks Rafe growled as he let his arrow slide back into the quiver.

"Or growl," I added. "You know, you'd be a much better hunter if you didn't do that."

"I hunt very well, thank you," he shot back. "When I don't have you here to warn the animals that I'm about to shoot at them."

The look I gave him would have withered an oak.

"Did you see me do anything at all?"

"No," he replied, "but you are a witch, Tisana. You are capable of many things. I've seen too much to not know that about you-and the rest of your kind."

He had an odd expression on his face, which prompted me to say, "I didn't bewitch you, Rafe. Whatever you may think of me, believe me, I wouldn't do that, even if I could."

"Yes, well, just don't bewitch my slave," he cautioned.

"Nor do I want you giving him any of your radical ideas about abolishing slavery."

"Abolishing slavery?" I echoed. "Radical? Really, Rafe, you haven't been keeping up with your history lessons! I wouldn't be the first to want slavery abolished, nor will I be the last!" I also thought he should have considered that possibility before he brought Leo to me for healing. Given my "radical ideas," I might have sent Leo on his way with renewed health and the promise of freedom. "On the other hand," I remarked casually, "Leo would be a great help to me. Maybe I should buy him from you."

Rafe waved aside this possibility as being remote.

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reminded me. "And Carnita would not wish to sell him, in any case."

"No, but you might," I muttered.

"What was that?" Rafe demanded.

"I merely said that you might consider it at some point," I said carefully. "You may decide you don't want Carnita to have such a slave."

"Oh, and why not?"

"He has a certain...appeal to females."

Rafe regarded Leo with scorn. "He just looks like a big cat."

"True, but you know how women love their cats."

"Carnita would never stoop to loving a slave," he scoffed. "She knows her own value too well."

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," I said. "You may think he just looks like a big cat, but, trust me, he is much more than that."

"You've simply become attached to him, as you would any pet," Rafe said knowingly.

I was looking right at Leo and wondering what he might make of being referred to as a pet, so I saw the sudden curious intake of breath through his nostrils at the precise moment it occurred. He smelled something.

"Have you got the scent again?" I asked him.

Nodding, he said, "It is not the children, but it is familiar." He pointed into the depths of the forest to the south. "It is there," he went on. "Faint, but growing stronger." As the wind blowing from that direction had been responsible for scattering the original trail, it now seemed to be making up for it by bringing us a new one to follow. "Are you sure it's the same people we've been after?" I asked.

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132.

Cheryl Brooks "I believe it is," Leo replied. "Their trail must have turned here, and the wind is now blowing the scent back to us."

"Either that, or they've circled around to ambush us," I remarked, remembering what the vulture had said.

He'd been hinting that we might be in for some trouble, but his need for food had kept him from coming right out and saying it. "This forest is perilous, Rafe," I said earnestly. "If we're attacked, we'll all be in danger."

"So?" As Rafe was sitting there with a knife at his belt, a bow and quiver on his back, a sword in his scabbard, and a shield on his arm, he obviously felt perfectly capable of defending himself. I had my own means of defense, but Leo didn't have anything but his fists.

"Leo needs a sword," I said plainly. "Or at least a knife."

Rafe's expression was thunderous. "I will not give my slave a weapon to use against me," he said. Aiming a warning eye at me, he added, "And you will not either, Tisana."

"You always were an idiot," I remarked. "Too narrow-minded to see the entire picture."

"Which is?" he prompted.

"That there were at least four men who took your boys, Rafe," I said patiently. "What's to say that they haven't gotten wind of our pursuit and that their leader hasn't sent two or three of them back to take us out-or at the very least, try to slow us down? And remember this, while they're on horseback in the forest, they're vulnerable to attack themselves, but once inside a stronghold, we may never be able to take the boys back. We need to *132 *27*.

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be able to do more than just track them. We may have to fight." He seemed to be wavering ever so slightly, so I added, "Rafe, if you had done such a thing and assumed you'd be followed, what would you do?"

He sighed grudgingly. "That very thing," he admitted.

"You are right, Tisana. The concern for my children has clouded my judgment in this matter."

"So, give Leo a weapon," I prompted, "and while you're at it, you might also think about untying his horse from your saddle. He will not attempt to escape."

"How can you be so sure?" Rafe demanded suspiciously. "With a horse and sword? I'd be long gone, myself."

"With very little food and nowhere to go?" I scoffed.

"He isn't stupid, Rafe! He knows he's better off staying with us. But in the event that we are attacked, he must be free."

"May I remind you that he is a slave, Tisana," Rafe said.

"He may not have been trained in the use of weapons."

"You told me he was a good hunter and fighter when you brought him to me, Rafe," I reminded him. "Didn't you ask for more details when you bought him?"

Seeming to ignore this remark, Rafe turned to Leo.

"Which weapon would you choose?"

"I would take the sword," Leo replied. "Though I am proficient with a bow and knife, as well."

What Rafe thought of that, he didn't say, but with no more than the raising of an eyebrow, he unbuckled the scabbard. "What about you, Tisana?" he asked with a trace of amusement. "Going to rely on your wits, or would you like the knife?"

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134.

Cheryl Brooks "My wits will do just fine, Rafe," I replied. "Besides, you might need the knife if they get too close for you to use your bow."

Leveling a stern glare at Leo, Rafe said, "Have I your word that you will not attempt to escape or to use that sword against us?"

"You do," Leo said simply.

Rafe handed him the sword in a manner which seemed almost ceremonial, though it was perhaps more significant in other ways. Words like honor, faith, and trust flitted through my mind, and I knew that Leo would prove to be worthy of all of those things, though Rafe had no way of knowing it at the time. He was simply trusting my own judgment of Leo, rather than his own, and I had to admire him for that. Of course, Leo might have had something to do with it himself. Certainly, he could pretend to be more cold or sick than he truly was, but an inherent honesty seemed to shine out from his golden eyes when he spoke solemnly. He should have been a leader of men, not a slave, and that quality in him was apparent even to the most casual observer. Leo had not been a slave by birth, and he had a certain integrity about him that seemed to envelop him like a cloak.

Rafe had not spent a great deal of time with his new slave, but perhaps he could still see it, for, sitting there on his horse with a sword in his hand, Leo looked almost kingly. It was something in the set of his shoulders or the tilt of his chin-I couldn't have said, exactly, but it was there, nonetheless. Carnita might see him as a toy, and I might see him as a lover, but Rafe could look him in the eye, one fighting man to another, and know him for the warrior he was.

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warrior 135.