‘Yes. I told you that the Corpseman had weak spots. Holes in the hard shell that I covered with my skin.’ Sa-at nodded. ‘And I told you that I wasn’t happy about it as a solution.’ Sa-at nodded again. ‘Well, there was this little boy, called Nant, who thought he was something special. He liked to show off by taking risks. If I stayed out later than I should, he’d have to stay out one minute later. If I found a half dozen twigs to use for the fire, he’d have to find a dozen. He didn’t really care about doing these things, just so long as he did them slightly better than the other children in Veren.

‘One day, one of the apprentice Gatherers had found a nice ripe Fleshfruit, about as big as my fist. Of course Nant, who was also an apprentice Gatherer, had to find one bigger. We all knew it was impossible but Nant wouldn’t hear it. He went tearing about the forest, turning over stones and poking in holes and coming up with nothing. Anyway, the suns go down and they make the call for everyone to come in, but when the elders are counting heads at the end of the day, guess who isn’t there?’

‘Nant,’ said Sa-at without hesitation. ‘It was Nant!’

‘Correct. I found his body the next morning hanging from the Stern Tree. What was left of it. The funny thing was it looked like it had been there much longer than a night. Whatever had killed him had stripped all the skin from his bones and sucked away every last drop of blood, leaving a remarkably clean skeleton with its insides completely dried out.

‘After I’d stared at it for a while, I had an idea. When I was sure nobody was about, I pulled Nant’s body off the tree and I took the skull and some other bones, like the shoulder-blades, that I thought might be useful. And I took these parts to my friend.’

‘What about the Stern Tree?’

Rochant opened his eyes. ‘What about it?’

‘You took something. What did you give it in return?’

‘Nothing. I didn’t know how things worked back then.’

Sa-at looked appalled as Rochant continued.

‘My plan was to make armour out of the bones for my friend. This proved difficult. I’d managed to borrow some of our Cutter-crafter’s tools, but I lacked the skill to use them. Even for a master, bones are hard to work. They chip and break easily. It didn’t take me long to waste half of what I’d recovered. When it came time to use the skull, I abandoned all subtlety.