other griffins circled, and she screamed her defiance and came on toward them, blood streaming down her sides.
It was a futile gesture. Even as she swooped upward, she saw the two of them fold their wings and drop toward her, heads down. Perched on their shoulders, just in front of their wings, the humans that rode them held on tightly.
In midair, one of them unshipped the bow that hung from his shoulder and held on expertly with his knees as he nocked an arrow onto the string. He paused to sight down the shaft at the wild griffin rushing toward him, and then loosed the arrow.
His aim was true. The arrow hit Saekrae in the face, the barb going straight through her eye and vanishing, shaft and all.
Saekrae’s neck jerked violently, and an instant later her wings buckled. She fell backward out of the sky and plunged earthward, headfirst, wings and legs flailing aimlessly. She was dead well before she hit the ground.
The three griffins came down to land at the edge of the trees where she had fallen, and the riders dismounted. The one whose griffin had grappled with Saekrae in the air quickly began to examine his partner’s injuries. They were deep but not life threatening, and he took a jar of brown salve from inside his tunic and started to dress them. “We can treat you properly when we get home,” he said, speaking the harsh language of griffins. “There, is that better?”
The griffin fluttered her wings. “I will be well,” she said. “Are you hurt?”
The man patted her neck. “Fine. You fought magnificently. That one was strong.”
“Only a common brown,” the griffin said dismissively. “But her talons were sharp.”
The man’s two companions ambled over. “How is she?” one asked.
The man straightened up. “She’ll be fine. Just a few flesh wounds. That was a brave thing you did there, Rannagon. I thought you were going to get yourself killed.”
Rannagon couldn’t help but look proud. “Thanks, Elrick. It took years to learn that, you know.”
The third member of the party rolled her eyes. “I told you you couldn’t teach him anything about archery. Shall we go and have a look at the beast now?”
“I’m ready when you are,” said Elrick. He turned to his griffin. “Will you come with us, Keth?”
Keth clicked her beak. “I will come.”
The little group entered the trees, with the humans going ahead, finding it easier to move in the confined space. The ground was boggy here, and they had to pick their way from rock to rock, sometimes using fallen logs or tussocks of grass to avoid sinking into the mud. The griffins followed with less care, keeping their wings tight to their sides to avoid snagging them on the undergrowth.
“Gods, what a dump,” Rannagon muttered, extracting his leg from a muddy hole that had claimed it up to the knee.
They found Saekrae lying on her back with one shattered wing crumpled beneath her. Her beak was open toward the sky, and her remaining eye was glazed.
Rannagon walked around her, taking in her size. He whistled. “She’s a fine specimen. Twenty-five years old at least, I’d guess. What a waste.”
Elrick followed him, noting the arrows poking out of her. “You’ve ruined the hide.”
“That wasn’t me,” said Rannagon. “Kaelyn did that. I was aiming for the wings.”
“I wasn’t going to take any risks,” said Kaelyn, joining them. “The thing was huge, and I didn’t know you were going to use one of your magic shots. Anyway, I’m damned if I’m going to do any skinning out here; it’d take forever. And you can forget carrying a stinking hide through that swamp.”
Elrick shrugged. “I’m not blaming you. I prefer the safer approach with these things. Let’s just take a few feathers and be gone.”
Rannagon had found his arrow embedded in Saekrae. It had gone in so deeply that only the tip of the fletching was visible among the blood and the vile muck of the ruined eye. He touched it with a fingertip. “By gods, I must have been in perfect form when I loosed that one. Are we just taking the feathers?”
Elrick was already wrenching out the long flight feathers from Saekrae’s wing. “If you want the tail or the talons, be my guest. Kaelyn, could you give me a hand here?”
Kaelyn fingered a clump of feathers. “They’re pretty rough. I’d say she hadn’t been eating so well lately. See how bony the haunches are?”
“Well, those farmers weren’t about to let her keep taking