Ilandeh leapt high over the sweeping horizontal blow intended to cut her legs from beneath her, throwing herself at the eja even before the swing was finished, her knife reversed in her grip. One knee caught Tika in the chest and her hands came down on the backs of her shoulders. But Tika stumbled under the impact, somehow twisting as she went down, and the knife only ripped off a few bamboo scales sewn into the salt-cotton before they were both on the ground.

Ilandeh rammed her left elbow into Tika’s throat as the spear cracked across her shoulder blades and then the dog was there, coming in low and fast and silent, only the thud of its big paws alerting her. Ilandeh grabbed the back of Tika’s armour and jerked her into the dog’s path as it pounced, spoiling its leap so it twisted in mid-air, and her knife ripped open its flank as it landed. The dog screamed and so did Tika and the woman punched her in the eye and crushed her onto her back, wrestling for the knife.

Setatmeh, she was strong. Ilandeh thrashed and managed to slide half from under her, though the moment of inattention nearly cost her her life as Tika prised at her fingers wrapped around the knife hilt and tried to twist it so the blade pointed down at her own chest. Roaring, the bones of her wrist grinding, she fought Tika’s strength, fury, and body weight until she managed to plant her foot and drive up, twisting her hips and throwing the older woman back towards her dog again – not to fend it off, this time, just to roll her, keeping hold of Tika’s wrist as she did.

Ilandeh knew the ejab trained in some ground-defence techniques, but not as many as the Melody, and once she’d got one leg free she kicked it up. The eja reared up just slightly to avoid her flailing sandal, but it was enough. Ilandeh’s calf caught her across her throat and chest and she bent her knee to lock it around her neck and slammed her down with all the strength of her thigh and arse and back, twisting up as she did. Tika hit the ground back first, hard enough that her hands jolted on Ilandeh’s knife hand. Ilandeh wrenched free and pushed the blade into the woman’s side, ripped it out and drove it in again.