The Care and Feeding of Griffins (21 page)

31.  Ringing His Bells

S
he took no chances with herself, flighty-headed female that she was, but followed the river back to camp, which meant she couldn’t help but pass the bridge again.  This time, the minotaur was standing on it.  Waiting for her, she realized, as he began to stalk toward her.  And it was a full-blown stalk too, complete with lowered horns, burning eyes, mammoth fists, and tensely-rippling muscles.  Taryn could feel her pace slowing and her grip on Aisling tightening.

“
Where have you been
?” he bellowed, the very instant he came within bellowing range.

The tone of proprietary outrage left Taryn positively gape-mouthed.  She forgot all about wanting to find this fellow and say her diplomatic sorries.  After the time she
’d just had, she simply didn’t have it in her to play along.  Her Irish rose and she snapped back, “What possible difference does it make to you?”

“
I
am the lord of this valley and
you
—”  His hand flew out and thumped her in the chest with two fingers hard enough to stagger her back a step.  “—are beholden to my rule.  Now answer, human!  Where?”

Taryn was not a violent woman, but she was beginning to see red in the shape of a bull.  Her teeth tightly clenched, she looked up at him and said,
“Mister, I’m ringing your bells the very next time you poke me like that.”

“
Aye?”  Whap, went his hand on her chest.

Taryn stumbled back again, but found her balance quickly.  She glared up at the minotaur through the shadows of her bangs and he glared right back at her.  Taryn put Aisling down, gave him a pat to comfort his rising anxiety, and then jumped up and slapped the minotaur in the face as hard as she could.  It hurt her hand a lot.

His head had turned at the impact and he stayed that way, gazing out over the river with a thoughtful expression.  His breath was steady and serene.

Taryn picked Aisling up again (her griffin was gaping at her, his little eyes like gold marbles), stepped around him, and started walking.

“Aye, all right,” he said behind her.  She heard him turn and follow in long strides that quickly brought him beside her as she marched.  “You warned me and I earned it.  Now you will answer.  Where have you been?”

“
I must have blinked and missed the moment when we got married and you developed the right to know, but since you asked
so
politely, I’ve been down in some woods by the lake.”

“
Alone?” he asked sharply.

“
No.  I was with—”  She paused to think hard, and realized that the magus had never actually introduced himself.  “—some man who lives there,” she finished.  “He has a little cottage in there and it’s still, in case you were curious, none of your damn business.”

“
Jerk,” Aisling added, still in that heartsick, half-sobbing tone of voice, one that was at odds with the threatening display he showed the minotaur.

“
Everything is my business, human, and you would do well to remember that.”  His hand closed on her shoulder, spinning her around to face him.  She never would have thought it of the bovine persuasion, but there was nothing in the world that could frown quite so impressively as a bull.  “Now answer honestly and believe that I will know a lie if you speak it, which,” he added with dark solicitude, “I well remember that you never do, so stay your striking hand.  Why did you seek the wizard out?”

The hand that did not grip her shoulder was closed on the haft of his axe.  There was no mercy in his eyes.

“I wasn’t seeking anyone out,” she said, beginning to frown herself.  “I wandered away from the river, lost my bearings, and something was after me.”

“
Something?”

“
The man said it was probably something called a fellcat.”

His expression changed minutely, but it was difficult to read just how. 
“Did you see it?”

“
No, but I heard it.  And, yes, I panicked and I ran into the woods,” she finished with an angry flush.  “If I hadn’t stumbled on the man’s house, I’d probably be in pieces all over your precious valley and wouldn’t your life be easier?”  She tried to shrug out of his restraining grip and his fingers dug in tighter.  “
What
, already?”

“
How long stayed you at that place?”

“
What are you, the good-neighbors Gestapo?”

“
How long
?” he roared.

Taryn and Aisling flinched back together and all at once, she saw his flaring nostrils, burning eyes and rigid posture in a whole new light.  He was angry, sure, but not as much as he was scared.

“I don’t know,” she said quietly.  “Not long.  His…friend took a swipe at Aisling and I ran out.”

The minotaur
’s eyes narrowed.  “Were you not afraid of the beast that pursued you before?”

“
No.  The man—”

“
He is no man,” spat the minotaur, with a brutal cut of his head that made his horns howl.

“
He gave me something to keep them off.”  She dug in her pocket for the bottle the magus had given her.  “And I should probably put some on if—”

He released her with a shove and slapped the bottle to the ground, where he shattered it under one massive hoof.  The scent of char was instantaneous and overwhelming.  Taryn backpedaled with her eyes burning and the minotaur pursued her.

“What in the hell is the matter with you?” she exploded, and doubled over, coughing on the stench of smoke.  Aisling was squirming, trying to claw out of her arms and away, his eyes bugged out and his breath a dry wheeze in his little lungs.  “What kind of—”

He seized her arm and dragged her several steps upwind to where the air was clear.  He let go of her and stepped back, half-raising his axe and glaring in the direction of the lake.  His voice was harsh as he said,
“Take nothing more from his hand if you value your life.”

She gaped at him, literally unable to believe her ears. 
“Are you threatening me?”

“
Nay,” he said.  “Not I.”

He said it with such conviction, and without taking his eyes from the lakeward side of the valley, that Taryn
’s anger was utterly dispersed.  She stared at him, now more confused than ever.

And suddenly, he seemed to give up.  His head bent and then he turned away, looking back briefly before staring off in the direction of Taryn
’s camp, and then finally meeting her eyes.  He swung his axe back up and into its back strap and let his empty hand slowly lower to his side, clenching on the air.

“
I have chosen to believe you once when you said you meant no harm,” he said.  “More fool I, perhaps, but I find that I believe you still.  So I will tell you simply, human, keep you well away from him and his wood.  There are dangers beyond reckoning in Arcadia.  You may or may not be one of them, but he has been well-proved.” 

The magus had said he
’d made mistakes.  What kind of mistakes could possibly provoke this kind of reaction?

The minotaur set his jaw in a bullish scowl and said,
“Ashes from your fire and the smell of smoke in your hair will keep the fellcats from you as much as anything can.  But if they choose to hunt you, human, no wizard’s potion can stop them.  Go back to your encampment.  There, you are as safe as any magic can make you.”

He started back toward the bridge, then paused and came back to her. 
“And know this,” he said, and leaned down so that his eyes were nearly on a level with hers.  “I allowed you to strike me, human.  I shall not do so twice.”

Her temper flashed. 
“You brought that on yourself, buster, and I’ll do it a hundred times if I have to.”

His steel eyes sharpened. 
“Aye,” he said, cementing into fact a matter that had previously been mere speculation.  “Over-arrogant as the skies are broad.  ‘Ware you, human.  Tis a poor proxy for true bravery.”

He straightened up, turned and left.

Taryn watched him stride across the bridge, silently fuming.  Once he’d vanished into the forest on the other side, she glanced down at Aisling.

He looked at her, looked after the minotaur, looked at her again.  His feathers pressed flat. 
“Jerk,” he said, and hissed.

“
You tell him,” Taryn sniffed, and headed for home.

Indignation gave her enough steam
for maybe fifteen minutes, but after that, her furious stalk began to fade.  She’d set out this morning to find the minotaur and apologize.  Instead, she’d found him and slapped him.  Yeah, he’d asked for it, but still.

Taryn turned her head, still walking slowly along the bank.  On the far side of the river, there was a little dark dot that was the minotaur, keeping pace with her.  Staring at her, she was certain, although she couldn
’t see his face from her.  She didn’t need to.  He was staring at her.  She could feel it.

She sighed, bringing her trudging feet to a halt, and looked down at Aisling. 
“Well, what do you say?” she asked glumly.  “Should we give him another chance?”

Aisling
’s eyes searched her lips as she spoke, his beak snapping as though he were trying to eat the words as they left her.  His naked wings fluttered.  He chirped.

“
Okay, good call.”  Taryn glanced once more across the glittering divide of the water.  The minotaur had also stopped.  When she turned around and headed back for the bridge, so did he. 

His legs were longer than hers.  He got ahead of her fast and was halfway across the bridge when she
’d only just reached it.  She turned in, her heart in her throat, watching without surprise as he came for her. His horns lowered and his fists clenched as he walked.  When she stopped, so did he, although he scraped his steel-capped hoof across the cobbles first.

“
That didn’t go very well,” said Taryn.

He raised his head, but that was all.

“I actually came out here hoping I’d find you,” she continued, and took another step towards him.

He met her with a step of his own, covering a full meter easily in a single stride.  He drew his axe from his back-strap in the same movement and slapped it into his palm ringingly. 
“You were seeking me, human?” he rumbled, and struck sparks off the cobbles with his hoof.  “You have found me!”

She stopped walking.  So did he.

“I wasn’t exactly seeking,” she said, fixing her gaze firmly on his face.  “But I knew that if I just wandered around looking helpless long enough, you’d turn up to threaten me.”

He snorted.  There was no humor in the sound.  It was a wholly bullish response, one that was not angry yet, but ready to be annoyed. 
“When I threaten you, you will know it.  What do you want with me?”

“
I thought I’d invite you to dinner.”

He went very still for just an instant.  This time, when she stepped forward, he stepped back.

“Why?” he demanded.

“
To apologize.”  She ran a hand sheepishly through her hair before returning it to Aisling’s head.  “For shouting at you and swearing at you…and teaching Aisling to swear at you.”

The minotaur
’s gaze flicked to the griffin.  He frowned.  “Aisling,” he said.

Aisling hissed and shook his featherless wings.

“That’s just what I call him,” she said, capping the griffin’s eyes.  “I know it’s over-arrogant and all—”

His gaze came back to her, narrowed.

“—but I just couldn’t call him ‘Hey, you’ all the time.  Where I come from, that’s rude.”

She waited, but he didn
’t seem to take the hint.

“
My name is Taryn,” she prompted.

“
Is that meant to win me, human?” he asked, lowering his horns.  His hands flexed on the haft of his axe.  The edge gleamed.  “What do you want with me?”

Her Irish briefly got the better of her. 
“Civility,” she said.  “But clearly, I’m not going to get it out of you.”  This wasn’t going to work.  Taryn sighed.  “Look, I’ve been here for…”  The days blurred behind her, uncountable.  “What seems like a long time.  I left my family and my home and my whole world and…and I’m lonely.”

There was a change in him, one she was sure she did not imagine.  Not a softening, exactly, but for the first time, she got the impression that he was listening and not merely facing off against her.

“I know I haven’t exactly shown you my best side so far,” she went on.  “And I suspect that you haven’t either.  But we’re both reasonable people, we’d ought to be able to settle our differences without name-calling and axe-swinging.”