Tayan stepped forward. ‘Xentib! Gate’s open,’ he roared as loud as he could. Those nearest looked back and then sprinted towards the gate without hesitation. Tayan and the rest flattened themselves against the buildings, urging them on. More and more left the protection of their warriors and began to flee, and the first were passing them when a flight of arrows arced against the morning.

‘Stop shooting!’ Tayan screamed, waving his arms. ‘Stop shooting.’

But the Xentib were moving as one now, all of them running, and more arrows were falling among them. One shattered on the stone in front of Tayan, the flint head ricocheting through the air to hit him below the eye. He rocked backwards at the impact and felt the immediate, hot rush of blood.

‘Stop!’ he yelled again as the Xentib raced past him and the Yaloh followed, faces contorted with mad and inexplicable rage and a terrible sort of justice.

Lutek and some of the warriors tried to get between Yaloh and Xentib, but they were too mixed in together now and the attackers were hacking spears and axes into the backs of the fleeing people. They were yelling too and being ignored, and the runners were slowing as they got trapped in the narrowness of the gate, fighting and snarling and screaming to get through.

More people racing into the street from the far end – Tokob, shoving people out of their way so they could get in. Tayan felt a moment of utter panic at their appearance, but then they too started dragging Yaloh out of the mass and forcing them back. Holding weapons to them until they backed away. The street echoed with conflicting voices and orders and screeching, and the shaman waded back in, hauling on the arm of a Yalotl with an axe raised. He fought for the weapon, shouting incoherently, clung on even when the man’s other hand punched him in the face, right in his split cheek.

Tayan howled and headbutted him, pure instinct, and felt the man’s nose crunch under the impact. He ripped the axe out of his hand and shoved him backwards. ‘Fuck off,’ he screamed right in his face, and stepped into the gap to stop the next, dropping the axe. He wasn’t going to fight Yaloh, no matter what.

Too slowly, the Tokob overwhelmed the rioters and wriggled through their number to form a cordon between them and the Xentib, who continued to struggle out through the gate as the fires intensified, choking them all in black smoke. When the last Xenti had run through the city gate, Tayan went to look. None of them had stopped once they reached safety and the fastest were already disappearing into the jungle below.

He turned back into the city. ‘What the fucking fuck was that all about?’ he shouted and a few sullen Yaloh turned to face him, hostile.