The ground underfoot was treacherous with blood and corpses, and Pilos slipped and went to one knee, pausing there for five heartbeats to suck in hot air before lurching back upright and engaging the next. Fighting for his rage and his honour and for the Empire. For the song, shattered though it might be.

But not gone. I will return to the Singing City and fix the song. I will do all that is necessary to restore the Singer to his glory and the song to peace. But first, we will claim this land, and when we build the pyramids and cap them with songstone, then will the Tokob goddess know true harmony. Then will she see glory and weep to be a part of it, reunited with the incandescence of the world spirit of which she is but a dull splinter.

Sucking in more air, Pilos joined his voice to that of his warriors, a bloody grin staining his face along with the slanting, late-day light.

XESSA

Sky City, Malel, Tokoban

33rd day of the grand absence of the Great Star

Heaps of dead littered Malel’s skin: Tokob and Yaloh, Pechaqueh, Axib, Tlaloxqueh, Quitob, Xentib, Chitenecah … piles upon piles of dead.

Xessa thought the stones of the city might shiver apart under the vibrations of voice and drum and stamping feet as survivors danced the death rites for as many as they could, mass rituals to sing the departed to rebirth.

She’d slept from dusk to midnight, wrapped in Toxte against the terrors of the day, doing her best to climb inside his skin and hide, until a sentry had woken them. It was their turn to relieve the watchers on the walls.

The thought of it gripped her insides with fear – in the darkness and the flickering, jumping light of torches, it was even harder to read hands or lips, to know what was happening or what she was being told. But with so many warriors dead or in the healing caves, even children were taking their turns as sentries. She would, too.

Thirst crawled into her throat as she limped through the city, Ossa limping at her side. It hadn’t rained today, and their water supplies were desperately low. The dog had refused to be left behind this time, and he’d slept better and drunk more than she had, for she’d given him his water ration and then shared her own. She licked dry lips and watched him pad at her side. Worth it.

Toxte left her for his own assignment further downhill and she stood and watched his broad back and the sway of his hair begin to vanish. Her chest tightened when he glanced back, just once, his hand raised. Xessa waved and nodded and turned away and tried not to feel the clawed hands of the lords of the Underworld dragging them apart.

I’ll see him at dawn.