'What about my brother?' Caramon looked questioningly at Cloudreaver.
'As yet,' Cloudreaver replied grimly, 'there is no sign of the mage.'
'So we know Kit is imprisoned near the center of the old city,' said Tanis. 'We also know that she's well guarded. How many are we now… twenty, thirty?'
No one volunteered an immediate reply. Tanis looked around the group. Brave but tense faces stared back at him. Everyone realized the numbers heavily favored the minotaur forces.
Cloudreaver shrugged. 'Perhaps Bird-Spirit will know something more about the camp when he returns,' Cloudreaver said encouragingly. 'He is not only my chief of scouts, but an expert tactician when it comes time for battle.'
'Whatever the odds, we have to attempt a rescue tomorrow,' Sturm said. The other companions murmured their agreement.
'Yes,' assented Cloudreaver in a solemn tone. 'Tomorrow.'
Almost involuntarily, everyone glanced upward. Already the sun had disappeared from the sky. A rosy twilight would precede the cold night.
'I suspect we'll have our fill of fighting tomorrow,' Flint said grumpily. 'Best thing to do is make sure we're ready.' With that, the old dwarf pulled out his battle-axe and whetstone. The rest of the group settled down to similar preparations for battle.
Winging his way back to the temporary camp, something below caught Bird-Spirit's attention. He circled around and backtracked to get a better look. A minotaur soldier was rolling around near a large hole in the ground, apparently fighting, but what was he fighting with? Bird-Spirit risked dipping down for a closer look.
The bull man, at least seven feet tall, was dwarfed by the creature it fought-a hulking, four-legged armored monster with a raised crest on its back, taller than the minotaur and almost twice again as long. The bizarre creature moved low to the ground on four horny paws, striking out repeatedly at the minotaur and snapping at him with its jaws. The creature had knocked the minotaur to the ground and was keeping him from getting up with its vicious assaults.
Waving a forpann, the minotaur attempted to stab the creature with the trident part of his weapon. If he was successful, he could use the weighted net to pin down the beast and finish the kill. Off balance and dodging the creature's attack, however, the minotaur was having trouble landing a blow. Each jab of the creature's claws drew more blood.
Fascinated, trying to determine what the thing fighting the minotaur was, Bird-Spirit dropped farther, hovering just above the fray.
The minotaur managed to jump up and hurl himself across the beast's back. Holding on with one hand, the minotaur stabbed the creature under its crest, where its plate of armor stood out from its back. With a keening cry, the creature leaped several feet into the air, just beneath the hovering kyrie.
Only then did Bird-Spirit realize what the creature was. It was a bulette, sometimes called a land shark, a voracious predator so rare that neither Bird-Spirit nor any other kyrie that he knew of had ever seen one.
From the small basket dangling at his side, Bird-Spirit pulled out what looked like a bundled vine.
Below him, the minotaur's momentary advantage had evaporated. The bulette had managed to twist around in midair, landing squarely on the minotaur's shoulders. The bulette began to slash at the bull-man's legs and back with its clawed feet. At the same time, powerful jaws fastened around his neck.
Just at that point, Bird-Spirit swooped down and threw the tanglenet over the bulette. Consisting of a rare plant called choke creeper, the tanglenet quickly enveloped its target, pinning it down in a living constraint. Whenever the bulette tried to move, the plant constricted, its rubbery tendrils wrapping tightly around the brute monster.
Bird-Spirit doubted whether the tanglenet would have been as effective against the bulette if the savage creature hadn't been wounded. It also helped that the bulette, preoccupied with its own fight, hadn't noticed the kyrie until it was too late.
The kyrie warrior dropped to the ground and cautiously approached the bulette. The monster neither thrashed about nor cried out. It remained exceedingly still, as if dead, regarding Bird-Spirit with malevolent yellowish eyes that chilled the kyrie's blood. Neckless, the bulette's head jutted out from beneath its collar of armor, ending in the ferocious, pointed jaw that resembled nothing so much as that of a giant snapping turtle.
The tanglenet continued to weave around the bulette, immobilizing the creature's head, binding its armored, blue-green body and limbs ever more tightly. Off to the side, the minotaur twitched in his death throes. His blood drenched the desert ground, staining it red.
Bird-Spirit knew that the voracious bulette attacked and consumed anything in its territory, burrowing underground when it wanted to rest, breaking to the surface when it detected vibrations that meant new prey was nearby. No person or creature stayed in the locality of a bulette by choice.
Like all kyrie, Bird-Spirit possessed magical knowledge from the ancient world, a body of knowledge that predated by centuries the magic of the three moons and included the ability to communicate with any animal. Despite misgivings about the bulette, the bold kyrie decided to try to talk to the monster.
'I mean you no harm,' Bird-Spirit said, speaking in the universal animal tongue. 'I wish to speak with you about why I am here-and about the minotaurs who are swarming over this island.'
The creature continued to stare at Bird-Spirit in silence. Finally it responded.
'I do not care about you or your petty interests. My interests concern keeping my stomach full. Those stupid bull-men who deny their animal heritage and hold themselves above us are of no concern to me.'
Not only was the bulette malicious but it was also thickheaded, thought Bird-Spirit.
'Right now I would think that one additional interest you might have would be to see that the wound on your back is tended to.' Bird-Spirit had noticed that a green slime, probably the bulette's blood, was oozing steadily from the wound inflicted by the minotaur. 'With my healing skills, I will take care of the wound if you will simply hear me out.'
Suspiciously the bulette answered, 'Although I am your prisoner, you would find it hard to kill me, kyrie. Even so, it would appear I have few alternatives.'
'Minotaurs from Mithas have established an outpost on this island. As you must know, the bull-men either exterminate or subjugate all who stand in their way. This does not bode well for you or any of the other creatures on Karthay.' Bird-Spirit paused to make sure the bulette was listening.
'We kyrie have our own reasons for wanting the minotaurs off Karthay as soon as possible, but we are too few to overwhelm them. Only a small group of kyrie warriors, a handful of humans, a dwarf, and an elf make up our company. We would benefit greatly if a skilled general such as yourself, and those animals you chose to command, fought at our side.'
Bird-Spirit calculated that an appeal to the bulette's inflated opinion of itself would be useful. He was right. If a great, hulking, beady-eyed monster could be said to puff up with pride, the bulette did.
However, the monster almost immediately reverted to its thickheaded posture. 'I need neither kyrie nor anyone else to destroy the minotaurs. If I cared to do such a thing, I would do it myself, slowly, one by one, over a period of time. Why should I join with you?'
Bird-Spirit had no doubt that the bulette was probably right. Left to its own devices, it could eliminate the minotaurs on its own, given enough time. But Cloudreaver, Caramon, and the others couldn't wait for that eventuality.
'If you ally yourself with us, we promise to cede this island to you and the other animals as your domain for the next one thousand years. As the leader in battle, you no doubt would be recognized as the supreme chief of the island,' Bird-Spirit added. He couldn't read the effect of his appeal in the bulette's cold, blank eyes. 'And then there is the matter of your wound, which through magic I am able to heal.'
The bulette remained impassive. Bird-Spirit waited patiently. The wound continued to secrete green slime.
'My injury first,' the monster finally said. 'Then we can discuss who might join us in a battle against the minotaurs.
The bull-men have no friends among the creatures on this island. Of course,' it seemed to chuckle, 'neither do I.'
