Tiamoko was waiting for her beneath a sputtering torch. His smile was weary but genuine. ‘You found your shadow, I see,’ he signed and pointed at Ossa. Xessa nodded, her mind still occupied with thoughts of her husband being swallowed by the night. They walked to their position and Tiamoko wedged the torch in place in the top of the wall and they stared out into the dark. Ossa lay down, resting his head on her bare foot. To either side, other sentries were arriving to take over from those who had finished their shift.

‘You should go,’ she signed after tapping his arm. He blinked slowly and she huffed. ‘Go on, go and rest. You’re exhausted.’

Tiamoko blinked again, staring over her shoulder. So tired he was practically asleep on his feet. Xessa slapped his bare arm, but instead of flinching he just narrowed his eyes and rose onto his toes. Cocked his head.

A cold shiver went down Xessa’s back and she felt the tiniest hint of a vibration through the stone pathway. Ossa’s head lifted.

She began to turn, but Tiamoko grabbed her shoulders and she squawked in pain as her injury roared at the contact.

‘They’re at the walls,’ he said, panic distorting his mouth. ‘They’re in the city.’

Xessa tried to make sense of it, but a dark figure slid over the wall behind him and she grunted a warning and shoved him out of the way, tried to bring her spear to bear but the attacker was already on her, a short man, thick with muscle, one side of his head shaved and tattooed. A Quitob dog warrior. Xessa could see the inked patterns clearly because the man had her in an embrace, her arms pinned to her sides, and he was hammering a knife into her back.

Bamboo and salt-cotton absorbed the first blow, and Ossa disrupted the second. The dog leapt at the warrior and tore his hamstring out and was gone before the man could turn on him. His leg buckled and he slid down Xessa’s front until she leapt back, spun her spear in her hands and punched it down between his shoulder blades with all her strength. There was no guilt or shock at this death – she didn’t have time for either.

A great flood of adrenaline dumped into her bloodstream and dulled all but the sharpest of her hurts. Tiamoko was fighting only steps from her, but more and more of the Melody were pouring over the wall like ants. A black tide that she didn’t know how to stop.