She was shaking and leaning on Toxte’s hip, the sole of her left foot cut and swollen, hating the feel of the bandages and the soft doeskin boot she had to wear to protect the wound from dirt. It cut her off from the ground, left her feeling out of sorts and irritable, and it was such a little thing amid the horror of the Melody being here, but perhaps that was why she couldn’t stop focusing on it. It was small, and so it was easy. Understandable. Nothing about the Pechaqueh greed and hate and arrogance was understandable.

Toxte’s arm tightened around her chest as she fidgeted again, and his mouth brushed the top of her ear in a kiss. She turned her head into it.

Apok kept on speaking, Elder Rix signing his words. Xessa looked around the faces closest. Fear was the overriding emotion everywhere, closely followed by despair. They were cut off from the fields and the harvest that would be ready any day now. They were cut off from the Swift Water and now had to rely solely on rainfall – and the Wet was ending. All of the Paws who’d been fighting in Tokoban, pushed relentlessly and inevitably backwards, were now considered lost. They couldn’t expect reinforcements. They were surrounded, and they were outnumbered. They had non-combatants to protect.

‘Our only option is to defeat them in open combat,’ Apok was saying and Xessa felt the ripple of disbelief go through the crowd. Toxte’s arm tightened on her ribs until he shortened her breath and she squirmed to loosen his hold. ‘If we wait behind our walls, we are only ever going to be on the defensive. If we attack, we have the chance to break their spirits and overwhelm their numbers. Our warriors will march out at dawn.’

There was another ripple and Apok and Rix both paused as the crowd shifted. The high elder glanced sideways at Rix, and the eja elder’s shoulders slumped before he nodded. Xessa stood straighter, one hand fisted in Toxte’s tunic.

‘Now that the Swift Water and the fields and orchards are cut off, the council asks the ejab to volunteer for the reserve. You would only fight if there was no other choice, but we cannot deny that it may come down to you being the last line of defence between our civilians and the Empire. We ask you to think carefully and come to the council house at dawn with your answer.’

Shit and fuck.