The food had a lot of meat in it, extremely rare, plus some kind of chopped-up something like stuffing. The sticky white stuff was probably cheese of some kind, and there was a sort of pottage which likely wasn’t meat but instead featured mushrooms and hazelnuts, as well as a sharp flavouring Lee couldn’t identify. Every element jarred with all the rest, by any culinary standard she was familiar with, but the Nissa were tucking in with gusto and she did her best. Khan shared a sympathetic glance with her. “Fucked if you’re a vegetarian,” she remarked drily.

When everyone had finished, Murther stood, ponderously and with help. She regarded her guests for a brooding moment, and Lee wondered what on Earth they looked like to her, these thin, angular humans and their rodents of unusual size.

“I have spoken with the Wayfarers,” Stig announced, translating for her. The woman’s gesture, up and out, made it plain she meant the creature-ship that had brought them. “They are ready. When morning comes, they will depart. You and you and you must go with them, as shall we.”

The three “you’s were Khan, Rove and the rat translator, and “we” was apparently Stig and Murther, or possibly a wider Nissa delegation.

“And the rest of us?” Sabreur asked sharply. He had been very quiet since they arrived. “For the record, and in the full understanding that it won’t matter a damn, you’re laying claim to two citizens of the United Kingdom.”

“Julian—” Khan started, but he waved her down.

“I said ‘for the record,’ ” he emphasized. “I know that what I want and who I am doesn’t mean a damn right now. But I can’t just…let it go by without at least registering a complaint.”

Stig cocked an ear and then went on with his translation. “For the rest of you, you have a choice. If you choose to journey with us, then the Wayfarers will carry you. If you choose to stay amongst our people, that too is possible. If you wish to return to your own places, this can be achieved, when conditions allow it.”

Afterwards, Lee and Mal, overfed, short on sleep and apparently safe for the first time in a good while, lay together on the soft synthetic rugs by the hut’s inward-sloping wall.

“We could stay here,” Lee said thoughtfully. “Learn the language, find a place. They seem friendly, and there’s space. We could do what you did, help out with their interdimensional-explorer project, go visit the Birdmen again, or…anything.”