Owlknight

:I am no frisking filly - my old bones ache after a gallop like that one,: Neta said ruefully. :With any luck the ladies have affrighted that cold-drake into a new hunting ground - it will eat its fill and retire into torpor as it properly should, and we will not need to concern ourselves with it on the return journey.:

Neta looked terrible - all the dyheli looked terrible, and Karles didn’t look much better. Their coats were drenched and streaked with sweat and dust; they hung their heads, and their legs trembled with fatigue.

“You lot, go lie down as soon as you think you can without cramping up,” he said in a quick decision. “We’ll mount guard tonight without you.”

:Thank you,: Neta replied simply for them all. One by one the dyheli folded their legs underneath them and dropped to the moss and grass; following Darian’s example, each of the humans pulled a blanket out of their bedrolls and draped it over the prone bodies so that the wet dyhelis didn’t take a chill.

Darian squatted down in front of Neta. “About the . . . loss of Gacher. I’m sorry. Is there any ceremony for his death that we should do?”

:It has already been done,: Neta mindspoke. :What you all choose to do regarding Gacher’s death is yours to determine.:

They made camp, although it was still light; the early stop gave them time to hunt and cook food for a change. Kel settled in beside Darian and Keisha after his own hunt; the gryphon still looked somewhat shaken, and settled down on his bandages as an easy way of keeping pressure on them.

“I did not know the thing would ssscrrream like that,” Kel said finally.

“None of us did,” Darian replied. “I don’t know that anyone has ever gotten close enough to a cold-drake to find out.”

“The only time I’ve ever heard of anyone killing a drake, it’s been three or four Adepts at a distance,” came Steelmind’s dry comment. “No one has even been stupid enough to try to take on one on foot that I know of, and survive.”

Darian smiled a bit. “We certainly qualify as stupid enough.”

“Maybe, but according to Kerowyn, the Shin’a’in say that if it is stupid but works, it isn’t stupid,” Shandi added. It looked to Darian as if she’d forgotten whatever grievance she had with Steelmind.

Then again, she’s probably storing it up to use some other time. When he least expects it.

“I can only say that I hope never to meet with such a thing again in my lifetime,” Hywel told them all solemnly. “Killing such would make the Manhood trial for a legendary hero, and I am no such hero.”

At that, Steelmind smiled slightly, got stiffly to his feet, walked over to the young tribesman, and dropped slowly to one knee. While Hywel watched, Steelmind handed the young warrior one of his own valuable watersteel fighting knives.

Hywel took it gingerly, appearing startled. “What is this?” he asked, perplexed.

“I have no place in my life for anyone who is sure he can do everything. You just realized - and admitted - that you’re not invulnerable, or unbeatable, or perfect,” Steelmind said solemnly. “By my reckoning, that makes you a real man. Now I completely trust you, and I’ll have you at my back any time.”

Hywel admired the knife - and what it symbolized - for a long moment, before Kelvren broke the silence with his own comment.

“If you want rrreal perrrfection, you mussst find a grrryphon.”

Eighteen

Fog surrounded the campsite; there had been no rain last night, but it was a damp, cool morning. Kel had