“You might yet escape.” The envoy made the confession even as it looked to their overturned wagon. “Yet your vehicle will need time to be put right, something you cannot do while fighting us. Even as we speak, hundreds more of the Brotherhood are riding to our aid, called hither by the sounds of battle and breaking bones. If you flee right now and the wind holds, you might well outdistance them all. But if you are delayed by fighting—” This time it was the envoy’s meaning and not his speech that trailed off.
“It’s a damned bluff!” Simna wanted very badly to rush forward and separate the taunting skeleton’s skull from its shoulders. “Let’s finish them!”
Ehomba ignored him, straining to listen, to pierce the distant woods with hearing that was more acute than that of most men. Strive as he might, he knew that there were among his companions ears far more sensitive than his own.
“Ahlitah?”
The big cat sniffed the air even as it listened intently. After a moment, yellow eyes looked in the herdsman’s direction. “I think I hear something. It might be the wind—or it might be fleshless feet. Hundreds of them.”
“Might be, might not be—what need for speculation?” Simna took a step forward. “By Geewenwan, I say we put an end to this!”
“They are mounted and we are afoot,” Ehomba sensibly pointed out. “It is a doable thing, friend Simna, but as the envoy points out, killing even the dead takes time. All of you have come this far because of me. I will not give up your lives for a cause become yours only by accident.” Lowering his sword, he approached the envoy.