“Yes. Males bring complications. Violence. But there are a few bands with males and females, and some with all males. There are far fewer males born now. Anyway, we try to avoid them.”

“Do you grow food?”

“Some. Potatoes, carrots. Some we trade with other bands. Some we forage. The breadfruit was from a single tree. We think we’re the only ones to find it so far. Onions don’t grow up here – that was a trade. You’ll have seen the skynut trees. Sometimes we catch fish or birds. We’ve started drying insects too. And fruit.”

“Fruit?”

“Mangoes. Plums.”

“You live up here with nothing from the towns?”

“Not nothing. We scavenge and trade. Some of us are from those towns. Sometimes we get things from buried towns too. Is that it?”

“How did you find each other?”

“Some of us are – were – the mothers and children the Domins held after the women got pregnant for men in the Squad. They escaped, stayed together. Some found us, like you did, but in other places. No one has found Jiba until now.”

“Some of you never had families?” Bibi asked.

“Some never did. Some don’t remember. Others lost theirs in a dozen different ways. Now we are a tribe, not a family. It’s a different thing. We look after each other. If there’s conflict, I have to decide for the good of everybody.”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-five.”

“What happened to your family? How can you talk so easily about putting us out to die?”

Caroni’s eyes shone in the flickering light. “I don’t tell my story to strangers.”

“What about when it’s your time?” Bibi said.

Caroni shrugged. “I don’t know if I’ll survive ten years. I don’t know if I’ll survive next week.”

“When will you decide about us?” Sorrel asked.

“Nextnight.”

“Suppose we just walk away from the camp?”

“Better than the Burning Rock Plain, I imagine. But the band will probably want to find you.”

“We’re no threat to you.”

“You are. If you survive, you’ll tell about this ravine with the river. If the Toplanders or Domins catch you, they’ll make you talk.”

“About the Toplanders… are they real?”

“Very real.”

“Is it true they capture Lowlanders for slaves?”

“Yes, they’re at Cibao. We’ve never been there – hard to find somewhere better than Jiba. We’ve heard about the slaves – well, more than that. Rashelope found a girl who’d escaped from the Toplanders once. Every finger was broken, she was blinded in one eye. She died before Rashelope could get too much from her. She kept saying a word no one understood. Drax. Drax. They’re brutal, the Toplanders. Worse than the Domins.”

There was a longer silence.

“To get this straight – ” Bibi began, but the Zorah interrupted.