Ehomba stood perfectly still. “That means you are marooned here now as well, and will never be able to rejoin the Brotherhood.”
Teeth chattered. “No, but I’ll have something better. I’ll have their revenge. You promised your bones to us in return for our letting your friends go. Then you called them back. Charlatan.” The edge of the knife pressed a little deeper. The herdsman felt a tiny trickle of warmth start to flow down past his collarbone to his chest.
“I did no such thing,” he protested softly. “I left you my insides, as was agreed. If they preferred my company to yours, that is no reason to blame me.”
“Isn’t it? As if you didn’t know they would find a way to return to you.”
“Actually, I was not sure. I hoped they would. I need my insides. They are of more use to me than to you.”
“They won’t be, in a moment.”
“Bruther, what … ?” Holding his sword in a firm, two-handed grip, Simna stepped out of the shadows. The looming mass of Hunkapa Aub stood to one side of him, a softly growling Ahlitah on the other.
“Keep your distance!” the envoy shouted warningly.
“Etjole …” Seeing the knife that was gripped in the skeleton’s hand, the swordsman measured the distance between them. Too far. “If you cut him …” he began.
“What?” The envoy cackled amusedly. “You’ll kill me? You’re more than a century too late to make that threat hold up, traveler. When I’m through with him, maybe I’ll have your bones too. They look to be an interesting set, all squashed down and out as they are.”
Simna looked as if he wanted to say something else, but he was interrupted by a loud crack, the dry cry of splitting wood. Automatically, everyone’s gaze snapped upward into the night. Everyone’s, that is, except Ehomba’s. The instant the skeletal assassin’s attention was diverted, he broke free of the bony grip and threw himself forward and down. Reacting, the envoy of the Brotherhood raised the knife, hewn from the shinbone of a comrade, and was about to strike lethally downward when the enormous broken bough landed on top of him with a reverberating crash.