“Shut up, Private!” Captain Bulmammon studied the faces of the Sivaks. They were studiously blank, soldiers following orders.
Suddenly, the grapple clutched in Bulmammon’s claws swung out toward the fifth Sivak in line. Its barbed tips slid easily beneath the Sivak’s belly scales, sliced into a meaty gut. The snapping-turtle face of the Sivak showed nothing, not even surprise, until blood streamed from beneath his beaklike upper lip. The others snarled and growled, fell out of ranks, moving away from their slain fellow.
Captain Bulmammon hauled on the free end of the rope. The line went taut up to the bough, and then beneath the bough, yanking the impaled lizard forward across the grassy ground. In moments the twitching corpse of the soldier was being hoisted, lurchingly, into the air.
Private Baeron stared, openmouthed. As he drew the line in, Bulmammon explained. “After all, Private, to catch a fish, I have to bait my hook.”
Once the shivering form hung a good fifteen feet into the air, Bulmammon crossed to a nearby tree stump and knelt to tie off the loose end of the rope.
Dusting off his hands in satisfaction, Bulmammon turned and issued orders. “You two, take up posts fifty paces to the north. You two, the same to the south. You three, take the west. The private and I will remain here. Watch for signs of the dragon. When it comes to take the bait, close in. I’ll blind the creature with a magical flare-look away when it goes for the bait, or you’ll be stumbling blind-and then I’ll rope the beast to the tree trunk. It’ll be spraying fire, certainly, but it won’t be able to see, or to burn the rope without torching itself. Move in, then, and attack with swords. Any questions?”
The Sivaks were already melting into the darkness. Bulmammon watched them go, then hefted the second grapple and its length of line. He headed for the oak’s trunk.
Private Baeron accompanied Bulmammon. As they neared the grisly corpse hanging from the tree, the private slowed, then stopped altogether. He stared in astonishment at the bloody corpse. Lambent light illuminated the face.
Karl gasped and looked at Bulmammon. The private squinted, and blinked, and rubbed his eyes. He stared back at the corpse. “Captain?” he cried. “Captain, why has the traitor turned into you? It has your face!”
Bulmammon was hooking the second grapple into the tree, about five feet off the ground. With patient preoccupation, the Aurak assassin uncoiled the rope, laying it in a large loop on the ground beneath the body. He circled the tree again and threaded the rope across a low branch.
Karl’s gaze shifted between the face of the dead Sivak above and the live Aurak below. They were the same, right down to the distinctive red coxcomb.
Bulmammon laughed, a clicking, scissoring sound. He finished his preparations by covering the loop of rope with kicked dust, and then he paid out the free end as he backed toward their sentry position. “It’s an old Sivak trick. They take the form of their slayer for three days after they die, so the murderer can be found, or so they can demoralize the killer’s friends and kin.”
Private Baeron followed the Aurak into the red gloaming. “What good does that do, sir?” the private asked.
“Despair and grief make you weak. You do stupid things,” Bulmammon said. He settled into position behind a brush-shrouded boulder.
“Like I said, it’s better to be connected to no one.”
Karl looked at the slowly swaying corpse, and the black pool of blood forming by drops beneath it. A shudder ran through him. “It’s a good thing you discovered the traitor, before he ruined the mission.”
“He was no more a traitor than I am,” said Bulmammon. “Now shut up. The dragon will have smelled the meat by now.”
The sound of something large moving through the forest was followed by an interval of silence, as though the dragon had stopped, was checking to see if anyone was around. They heard two brief snorts. A small cave mouth on a nearby slope briefly glowed with fire. That was a warning. Most creatures would be wise enough to flee a dragon, even a wounded baby dragon. Few would try to trap and kill one.