to NailBiter.
Chapter 4
'Don't put all your eggs in one nest.'
AND so, sixty-four days later, Shadow had brought Vindax safely to Vinok and almost to Ninar Foan--
'What rank is Shadow?' the girl demanded. She was red as a half sun, raging at having mistaken him for the prince, and he wondered how so tiny a form could contain so much anger.
'No rank, lady,' he said. 'I fly cover for the prince. But NailBiter needs to eat sometimes, so today I was advance scout.' He tried a smile, but it died unanswered. 'We saw two unexplained visitors arrive ahead of us--'
'How can you have no rank?' she snapped. He thought that in calmer moments she would be quite attractive, almost a beauty, and she had none of the buckteeth or other deformities which had worried Vindax. She qualified politically; physically she might very well satisfy his need for a royal breeding partner.
'I am just Shadow. I fly cover for the prince, bird fodder.' She opened her mouth to argue, so he added, 'By birth I am a commoner, lady.'
That helped not at all--she had knelt to him. Why the rage? She was not the first to have made the error, for the subtleties of court insignia were little understood in these remote parts, but no one else had taken it so hard. And the starry eyes had not been for him, obviously.
The horizontal sunlight was cut out momentarily as an eagle came in to perch. This was the second stranger, then, the failed hunter, and he had found easier prey, for a vicunya hung from the great beak.
'Who's this, lady?' Shadow demanded.
'My groom. And you address me as Lady Elosa, or my lady: not just lady!'
'Not me,' Shadow said. 'They have special rules for me. Come along, I must check him for weapons before the prince gets here.'
She stalked along beside him angrily. The groom had come through the bars and was looking for a hooding pole so he could pull back his bird's blinkers to let her eat. He flashed Elosa a huge grin.
'Got one!' he crowed. He was very young and no obvious threat.
Then he saw Shadow. He shied, whipped off his helmet, dropped his goggles, and made a deep bow.
'Who the hell are you?' Shadow demanded. The nose, the eyebrows, the whole face and the build--it was uncanny.
The lad went pale under his dust streaks and windburn. 'Tuy Rorin, Your Highness, groom to His Grace--'
'I am not the prince,' Shadow said, and almost added,
Of course there were innumerable royal bastards floating around Rantorra. Perhaps one of those by-blows had been banished to the far end of the realm and this was some impoverished descendant, a royal cousin.
'Oh! Beg pardon, my lord,' the boy said, but his eyes flickered momentarily toward Elosa and then downward to hide a smile.
'Attend to your mount, groom,' Shadow said. Then he roared:
Elosa uttered something very like a scream.
NailBiter had decided it was cawking time.
Lady Elosa's magnificent silver had agreed.
The two were side by side, with a futile length of chain dangling from NailBiter's ankle. His comb was fiery and thrashing with excitement, his plumage blown up until he looked twice as large as normal. Holding his kill with one foot, he had ripped off a leg and was offering it, and at the exact moment Shadow noticed what was happening, the silver accepted. NailBiter seemed to swell even more; he tore off the head and offered that. And that was accepted also.
'Stop them!' Elosa wailed.
'Ha!' Shadow said ruefully. 'You stop them, lady! It's too late. Much too late.'
'IceFire! She's priceless! And a bronze! Father will kill me!'
Eagles mated for life, and those two had just signed the contract.
'Do something!' Elosa demanded, stamping her foot in frustration.
'There's nothing we can do,' Shadow said. 'Except decide what to call their firstborn--IcyFingers, perhaps? Or Hotfoot?'
The groom guffawed, and Lady Elosa switched from woe back to fury.
Shadow walked over to the courting couple; they were much too intent on each other to be a threat to him. He checked to make sure that his bird had not injured his leg, and he removed the useless leash--the ancient staple had come out of the wall. NailBiter offered a tasty beakful of offal; IceFire gulped it and nibbled playfully at his comb.
Shadow refastened NailBiter. The bird needed no special liberty for his wooing, for it would be a long time in human terms before the two got around to consummating their union. Then he slipped back through the bars as more birds came soaring in.
Lady Elosa was still raging. 'Careless oaf! Why did you not check that staple when you tethered your bird?'
'Did you check yours?' Shadow asked, tiring of this tantrum thrower.
She gasped. 'Insolence! My father will have you flogged!'
Shadow was not afraid of the duke, but the king was another matter. 'Will he so? But it is your father's responsibility to maintain this aerie. NailBiter belongs to His Majesty, who has breeding plans for all his birds. He will certainly judge the case himself. Perhaps he will have your father flogged.'
She was too outraged to reply.
More birds arrived, carrying a couple of troopers and the countess, Lord Ninomar, and the lithesome lass who professed to be his wife. Those two had both caught goats. Where was Vindax? The aerie was filled with laughter and the clattering of shackle chains.
The groom was openly grinning now--with Vindax's grin. 'My lord?' he asked diffidently. 'That was a magnificent kill you made, if I may say so.' He had Vindax's charm, also.
'I'm not a lord,' Shadow said. 'And you certainly may say so.' He smiled. 'I didn't see it myself--I had my eyes shut.'
The kid looked at him carefully, wondering if he was serious. 'Would you mind explaining how you did it, sir? How can you control a bird at that speed?'
'I don't try to,' Shadow said. 'His reflexes are so much faster than mine that it would be stupid, like fighting with the flat of an ax instead of the edge. That's my opinion, anyway. We saw you try and fail, and the prince asked if I could do it. Well, I could barely see the cliff from that height, but NailBiter obviously thought he could make the strike. So I gave him the signal and let him try.'
NailBiter had dropped like a house.
Elosa frowned. 'Father says that an eagle carrying a man is very different from an unloaded one. If you don't keep control in the heat of the chase, then its instincts will fly you both into the ground.'
Ninomar and the others had started to approach and then stopped to stare in astonishment at Rorin.
Shadow shrugged. 'I'm sure your father is very knowledgeable, lady, and I admit that most trainers follow him. But some don't! After all, NailBiter has never flown without a burden. Even on his first glide, I suppose he bore
