‘My ears! They’re all different now.’ Crowflies cackle-cawed softly above them as he continued. ‘Rin noticed and there was this big meeting and then they said I had to leave! I begged them, I did. Said I’d do anything, even asked to be the next tribute. It didn’t work.’

I did this, thought Sa-at. It is my fault. But if I hadn’t got Crowflies to help, he’d have died. Him being alive is my fault too. He wanted to say something to Tal, but the words escaped him. Somehow it was much more difficult talking to people than it was to demons or trees.

‘Now I’m dead,’ said Tal.

Sa-at forced the words out before his nerves could stop him. ‘I could help.’

‘What?’

‘I could help you not be dead.’ He reached out and touched the young man’s arm.

‘I knew it!’ said Tal, brushing him off. ‘You’re a demon! I’m not agreeing to anything and I’m not looking at you! Get away from me!’

‘I’m not,’ Sa-at protested but it was no use, Tal was trying to run again. He didn’t get far, tripping over the first thing he went past and crying out as something sharp cut into the thick leather of his gloves.

The scar on Sa-at’s little finger began to itch and he absently scratched at it. He couldn’t think of any way to make things better and Murderkind’s words were sharp in his mind: ‘He will not live to see the sunsrise.’

If only Tal would calm down and listen. Then he could explain and they could start being friends.

‘Oh no,’ said Tal, sounding anything but calm.

Sa-at squinted but couldn’t see that anything had changed.

‘Sa-aat!’ said Crowflies with a note of warning. Then he understood. In the fall, a bramble must have got past the protection on the young man’s hands, grazing them. There would be blood, just a tiny trivial amount, more a smear than a drop. But that was all it took.

A strange hush fell amid the trees, as if the creatures of the Wild had all paused in their dealings to sniff the air and listen. Every leaf swivelled on its branch to point at Tal.

‘Oh no,’ the young man said again. ‘Oh no.’

This time, Sa-at didn’t bother telling him to be quiet.

‘Oh ho!’ replied a voice. It was much deeper than Tal’s, and rougher, and uglier. The sound of it made his scar itch like fire. In his guts, he knew that this was Crunch, one of the Red Brothers, and where there was one, the other two would not be far behind. Instinctively, he swung up into the tree next to Crowflies just as Crunch lumbered into view.