his side, lurched up behind me and, evading the creature's teeth with speed and reflexes worthy of the best artifacts, stuck the shoe heel into the human chest beneath the bull's head.
The beast bellowed and shuddered. Its great head snapped up and back.
My thigh ripped. I flew up and then down again, landing against the wall. Darkness closed in.
* * *
"Wake up, please. Wake up." Pol's raspy voice sounded like he'd cried himself to exhaustion.
I tried to open my eyes and saw his eyes—sea green and full of tears—floating as if in a sea of darkness.
The Minotaur . . .. A dream?
Sudden stabbing pain from my thigh brought me to full consciousness.
The pain came from a tourniquet which Pol was tying on my leg. He held an end of the cloth in his good hand and the other between his teeth.
He tied the frayed, bloodstained piece of cloth into a tight, tight noose around