‘And if you were not saved?’ Lilla pressed. Dakto wouldn’t answer and the Toko forced a laugh. ‘I see. So your slave and dog warriors only risk their lives for yours if they receive a direct order or there’s a guarantee of success? Otherwise they watch you die and feel, well, not very much at all, I expect. Relief, perhaps. And yet you still believe they all fight for the same cause? You think they actually believe all this monkey shit about the song and Pechaqueh superiority? No, my friend. They’ve learnt the rules of the game and they’re playing to win. Fight and stay alive until they’re freed, then get away from Pechaqueh control as soon as they can. They may never get their land and traditions back, but they’ve got more freedom than you have.’

‘Says the slave to the free man,’ Dakto said, but his smile was tight.

Lilla shook his head, knowing he was provoking the macaw and yet caring nothing for the consequences. ‘Says the free man to the slave,’ he contradicted. ‘Out of the two of us, I am the one with pure blood; it is yours that is mixed.’

Lilla didn’t give a single shit about the purity or otherwise of his blood or anyone else’s, and there had been enough inter-tribal marriages over the years for there to be no such thing as a full-blood anyway, probably, but he knew Dakto did care, and so he poked. And Dakto, for so long the garrulous warrior and friend, was tight-lipped. Lilla wondered whether anything the other man had said during the previous year had been true. Whether any of his traits or jokes or responses had been genuine. The cloak of his disguise had been perfect.

Dakto glared at him and Lilla made himself laugh again, though he could taste the sudden danger in the air. Sweat trickled down his back, itching.

‘Once they’re free, as long as they keep their heads down and pay lip service to your barbaric beliefs, they can do what they like. You, as a half-blood, will forever be at the mercy of their expectations. A free Axi fucks up? Well, they’re savages, what do you expect? But if a half-blood fucks up … you betray every Pecha, don’t you? You bring the blood into disrepute. Your shame is all Pechaqueh shame.’ Lilla shook his head in mocking sympathy. ‘Slave,’ he whispered. ‘Until the day you die.’