Trehearne frowned and in the interval of silence he heard the noises
from the clearing--the whining growl of hounds and the sudden lifting
of human voices.
"Your parents?"
"No," said Torin. "They are still trying to catch our beasts in the
forest."
"Look out and see who has come, Torin."
He flattened himself in the corner behind the door. The boy opened it
and peered.
"Two men," he whispered. "A hunter whose name is Kurat--and a Vardda."
He drew back and looked at Trehearne. "They were hunting you?"
Trehearne nodded. His face had tightened and grown cruel. "Give me a
knife."
Torin handed him a skinning blade of crystal chipped to a razor edge.
Trehearne said, "Go and tell them I am dead from the hounds' tearing.
Tell the Vardda to come and help you carry out my body."
Torin hesitated, then he went. Trehearne heard him calling across the
clearing. The gabble of voices increased and Yann's familiar laughter
sounded. The boy was talking, telling the details of Trehearne's dying.
Yann strode into the hut.
He came confidently. He had nothing to fear. And then Trehearne's arm
was around his throat and the point of the knife was biting in under
the angle of the jaw.
"Don't move," said Trehearne. And again, "Don't move!"
Yann stood still. Blood was running down the side of his neck. "You'll
cut the vein," he whispered. "No deeper, please, no deeper."
He had not picked up any weapons on the way. There was none in his
belt, none in his hands. Trehearne took the point of the knife out of
Yann's throat and then he hit him. Yann fell sprawling on the floor. He
started to complain, and Trehearne kicked him, as hard as he could with
his bare foot, twice in the ribs, wanting to hear bone break. Yann's
breath came out with a rush. Over his shoulder Trehearne said to Torin,
wide-eyed in the doorway, "Keep watch, and tell me if anyone comes."
"They are busy with the hounds and with talking," the boy said. And
then, "Will you kill him?"
"I'd enjoy it." Trehearne touched Yann again with his foot. "You tried
it that other time, too, didn't you? God damn it, answer me! Didn't
you?"