She heard no sound of men talking. She heard no sound of footfalls, nor press of branches swept aside as they searched into the woodland for the runaways. She eased forward into the cover of a stand of pipe-brush. Her ears stung as the wind picked up. Still nothing. Crouching, she tipped to hands and knees and crawled through the muck to the shelter of a bush from which she could see the path.

Six bodies sprawled on the ground, limp and torn, several still twitching. She forced herself to scan the path.

The eagle chirped.

She slunk along the line of bushes until she could see where the path pushed onward. With wings spread and head raised, the eagle waited. A bundle of clothing had fallen to the ground beneath it.

It wasn’t clothing. The eagle was standing over Jerad, cruel talons fixed on either side of the boy and its gaze pinioned on the dead men it had ravaged.

She found a stout stick on the ground, tested its heft. With this pathetic weapon, she walked onto the path.

“Jerad!”

The eagle flared its wings wider. She halted. Like the eagle she, too, was panting, angry, scared, injured in her own way. When it looked at her, she returned its fierce gaze without fear.

“We’re friends, not enemies,” she said, a little testily.

Its mouth gaped, showing its tongue. Was that a good sign, or a bad one? She took another step and a third, by stages moving closer until she could see that Jerad was alive. The eagle was guarding him.

“You saved us,” she said, hoping to sooth it with her voice.

It swiveled its head, measuring her.

“N-Nallo?” His voice was so soft she barely heard it. “I’m scared, Nallo. Did you see what it did to those men? Is it going to kill me?”

“Hush!”

At her agitated tone, the eagle flared again, and Nallo said, more harshly than she intended, “Stop that! He’s just frightened! You’re scaring him.”

He sobbed, so she grasped the stick more tightly and held it a little above and across her head as if that flimsy stick could ward off the eagle should it strike. She walked at a measured pace right up to the huge eagle. Under its wings and the vicious-looking beak, she knelt beside Jerad and coaxed him to his knees.

“Come on, now, Jer! If the eagle meant to kill you, it would have done it already.”

“It’s going to eat m-m-me.”

Really, the boy was impossible. “No, it isn’t. Get up.”

“They play with animals, and then eat them alive.”

“Get up!”

He clung to her as she dragged him away from the eagle and off the path. “It tore that man’s head off. It stuck that man right through the chest with its claws. Did you see?”

“It protected you, Jerad.”

She shoved the boy down into a heap of sodden leaves ripe with smells released by the rains. Turning, she examined the eagle. The heavy feathered brows made its stare more intense, and naturally the hooked bill with its pointed tip looked daunting. The top of its bill was colored a bright yellow, and yellow rimmed its mouth behind the bill. Its feathers had a golden sheen, shading darker along the wings and breast, patched with white. Its legs, too, were feathered, shaped like leggings. Its talons were skin and claw, big enough to enclose her chest.