        It picked up the spear and held two halves of the shaft together.  Lyra suddenly worried that it did know what it was for, and that it was prepared to use a mending spell on it.  If she remembered her cultural anthropology class correctly, it was considered an act of contempt in minotaur culture to kill a foe with her own weapon.  Was their culture similar?  Even if it didn’t use it on her, the act of mending the spear was practically a declaration of war.