The thought that Lucius would avenge him surprised Joe, considering how everything Joe did seemed to annoy him.

“I thought it’d be Jack,” he said.

“The coyote? He tried.”

“You didn’t hurt him, I hope.”

“Didn’t really get a chance.”

“Good.” Joe waited a beat, then added, “So was this the outcome you were looking to have?”

He couldn’t help the dig. Hell, the buffalo’s stupidity had gotten him killed, so Joe felt he was entitled to say pretty much anything he damn well felt like saying.

Minisino glared at him. “Things would have gone just fine if you and your friends had minded your own business.”

“What makes you think it wasn’t our business?”

“You’re a half-breed, but I don’t remember hearing that there was any cerva or fairy blood in that mix.”

“See, that’s where you screwed up,” Joe told him. “You have no respect for anybody but yourself. If you had half the heart you think you do, you’d understand that everything that happens is everybody’s business. You see something wrong, you do something about it. You don’t turn and walk away.”

“What the hell do you think I was doing? Cerva were being killed. I was going to stop it.”

“You know you can’t lie in this place, don’t you?” Joe said.

“I’m not—”

Joe shook his head. “No, don’t even try. Christiana had it right. You just wanted to be the big shot in the campfire stories. Anything you did was for the sake of power. To be looked up to. To be remembered. Tatiana cares more about those poor dead cerva than you ever did.”

“You think you know all the answers, don’t you?”

“No, just a few of the little ones.”

Minisino shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. You died with me today. Maybe you’ve got some big scary spirit power hiding there inside your half-breed body, but in the end it didn’t do you any more good than my army did me. I can still count the coup for your death.”

Big scary spirit power? Joe thought. What the hell was he talking about?

But all he said was, “I don’t think a coward’s blow from behind counts as taking coup.”

“Who cares? You’re still dead.”

Minisino turned away then.

“I’ll see you in the hunting grounds,” he said over his shoulder. “And when I do, I’ll kill you again.” He paused long enough to give Joe a grin. “Maybe that’s what eternal bliss means. I get to kill little pissants like you, over and over and over again.”

And then he disappeared into the fog.

Joe listened to him go. There was the sound of footsteps. Then something being dragged on the dirt. A splash. A creak of wood. More water splashing, this time against something hollow. Then nothing.