‘I didn’t see them come along the cliffs in either direction,’ said James. ‘Did you see them come along the road?’

‘No, I don’t think so.’ But we hadn’t really been looking, had we? I wasn’t definitely sure.

‘They must have come through the town, then,’ said James, confidently, as though that answered my question. But none of us knew what that meant really. We couldn’t remember what was out there beyond the shore. We didn’t know what it looked like. We didn’t know where they could live.

Next to us, Kate had stopped sobbing. Her shoulders were still shaking, but it was with the aftermath of a big cry, when you’re tired from the effort of your tears, and your body is still quivering and gasping randomly without you meaning it to. I risked reaching out to pat her on the back sympathetically. ‘They’re amazing, though, aren’t they?’ I said.

‘Yeah,’ said James. I waited for the smart comment, for him to say something like how they’d learnt their skills from him, or something like that. But there was nothing. He just stood there, watching them too. They were moving back up Long Street by now, the two women leading and the men behind. Their crossbows were strapped on to their backs again, but they still carried their spears. Above them, the blue-haired woman was still watching the shore below with her binoculars. Every so often she’d also scan slowly across the water and up to us. I wondered what she was looking for.

‘Do you think they’ll ever come back?’ said Kate. She gave a sigh.

Neither me nor James answered. It was amazing just to know that they were out there, somewhere. But, yeah, I really hoped they’d come back.

They turned left, up one of the streets that were obscured from our view by houses. The crowd around us dispersed and choirs started to form again.

‘There’ll be a whole sea shanty saga in this, won’t there?’ said James, with a grimace. ‘I reckon they could come up with ten verses about it. At least.’

‘Oh, a hundred, I’d have thought,’ I said.

‘If we’re lucky, they might have it ready by tonight,’ said James. ‘What a treat!’ He started laughing. ‘Oh god, if that happens, I want to sit next to Lana during the performance; she’ll be full of rage. Brilliant!’

The blue-haired woman had started to gesture again. The reply of the fighting team wasn’t visible, but she seemed to pause, and then repeated the movements again.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

‘Wait,’ said James, ‘it’s the same sign . . .’

‘As what?’

James stood up straighter, squinting out at the shore. ‘The same sign as when they were fighting the kriks before . . .’

‘So . . .’