front of her. “No, no. It’s a bit heavy for that. Just try not to make too much of a mess.”
Eluna tore into it, digging her talons into the floor.
Arren tried to ignore the sound of splintering wood. “How is it?”
“Good,” Eluna mumbled.
Arren returned to the table and his own lunch. “It’s got to be better than this sausage. I can’t believe someone went to the trouble of smuggling it.” He ate it anyway. It wouldn’t keep while he was gone.
Once they’d finished eating, Arren stood up and brushed the crumbs off his tunic. “All right. We’d better go and see Flell, and my parents, and let them know what’s going on. Are you ready?”
Eluna yawned and stretched. “I will come.”
Arren picked up the roll of leather. “Mum and Dad will be glad to get this. There’s twelve pairs of boots in it, if I’m any judge. Well, let’s go.”
He stuffed the scroll in his pocket before he left. They’d probably want to see it.
They visited Flell first. Never politically minded, and lacking an official position, she lived close to the Eyrie in a fine stone house that had once belonged to her mother. Its large windows must have been a help to her because she saw Arren coming and came out to meet him, her griffin following at her heels.
“Arren!”
Arren embraced her. “Hello, Flell!”
They kissed, while Eluna nipped playfully at the other griffin. Flell’s griffin was only a chick, as tall as Arren’s knee. It rubbed itself against Eluna’s foreleg, cheeping.
Arren stooped. “Hello, Thrain. Remember me?”
Thrain fluttered her wings and lifted her beak toward his hand. She sniffed it for a moment, and then bit him lightly on the finger. Arren flinched, but didn’t move, and the chick let him scratch her behind the ears. “Food!” she said.
Arren fished in his pocket and found a piece of dried beef. “Well, how are you?” he said to Flell, while Thrain ate it. “I meant to come and see you earlier, but something came up.”
Flell smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “I missed you. Come on, come in.” She ushered him inside.
They went to the main room and sat down together by the fireplace. Flell made tea for them, and they drank it together in companionable silence.
“What happened to your arm?” Flell asked.
Arren glanced at it. “We raided a smugglers’ den this morning.”
“Oh!” said Flell. “How did it go?”
“Quite well. We caught two of them, and . . . sort of caught a third. Eluna killed him.”
“Oh no,” said Flell. “Have you talked to my father about it yet?”
Arren nodded. “It’s all right; Eluna was only defending me. But there’s a problem . . .”
Flell listened while he explained. She was a little younger than him, delicately built, with a freckled face and light-blue eyes. She looked seriously at him while he told her about the bounty he was setting out to take, though he did not say that it had been her father’s idea.
“So, you’re going all the way to—where did you say it was?”
“Rivermeet. It’s right at the edge of the Coppertops.”
Flell looked unhappy. “Arren, you don’t have to do this. I can help.”
Arren shook his head. “I don’t need it, Flell. I can deal with it myself. Anyway, it shouldn’t be too hard. I can fight this thing.”
“But you’ve never done anything like this before.”
“It sounds pretty straightforward to me,” Arren said confidently. “I’ll plan it out—set an ambush. Just like catching a smuggler. Find the wild griffin’s den, flush it out—”
“But you won’t have Bran with you,” said Flell. “You’ll have a lot of farmers.”
“Farmers, guards, what’s the difference? They can throw rocks and obey orders. And they want this griffin dead or caught. Its crime is against them, after all.” He hadn’t added that the thing was a man-eater. He didn’t want to upset Flell.
Flell looked wistful. “I wish I could go with you.” Thrain, sensing her worry, hopped up onto her lap and snuggled down. She petted the griffin, her eyes still on Arren.
He started to feel slightly uncomfortable. “I’ll be fine. Eluna will protect me.”
“Do your parents know?” Flell asked.
Arren shook his head. “I was going to go and visit them this afternoon. In fact”—he looked out the window and sighed—“I should probably go soon. I have a lot to do today—got to get my affairs in order before I go. Rannagon said he’d choose someone to look after the marketplace for me, but I have to talk to Gern and the rest,