Her hands were slow and she bore a look of concentration rather than contrition, but Xessa understood. She flashed a glance at Tayan – ever the peace-weaver, it seemed, for of course it was he who’d taught her.

‘I would …’ Ilandeh tried and then paused. She swallowed hard and Xessa narrowed her eyes in suspicion. ‘I would like to learn. If you would teach.’

‘Learn what? To be eja?’ she signed, though she thought she knew the answer.

Ilandeh looked horrified at the suggestion when Tayan translated and Xessa’s chest warmed at it. ‘To sign.’

Everyone was watching her. ‘I’ll be gone soon and for who knows how long?’ Tayan signed when her gaze reached him. ‘You need another friend. You do,’ he interrupted before she could respond.

Ilandeh tapped the wood under Xessa’s foot. ‘Gift for you,’ she signed, clumsier now. Dakto handed her a basket woven from palm and she pulled from it a long cord threaded with tiny, red-dyed bones. A charm. ‘Bat,’ she signed. ‘For …’ She looked to Tayan. ‘Sight,’ she finished.

It was as if they were all holding their breaths waiting for her to respond. Ossa rose to his feet, ears up and ready for her command. Toxte put his hand on her leg again and this time left it there, warm and rough.

Sight. So I can see fucking idiots creeping up on me and trying to get me killed?

‘Thank you,’ she signed instead, and only because Tayan wanted her to. ‘It’s lovely.’ She held out her hand but Ilandeh smiled with delighted relief and scrambled across the mats.

‘… braid it for you,’ Xessa just saw before the Xentib fingers were at her temple. She sat stiff and stony until the charm hung in the mass of her hair with the others. Ilandeh surprised her again, pulling her into a quick hug and kissing the side of her face, before she hurried back across the room to Dakto’s side. Together, they unpacked a stoppered jar and some leaf-wrapped meat and cornbread. Tayan appropriated her spare cups and they filled them with beer and portioned out the food.

‘Please enjoy,’ Dakto signed, and despite Tayan’s protests – Xessa said nothing – the Xentib left them to it.

Xessa realised Toxte’s hand was still on the bare skin of her leg. She put her own over it and squeezed and the look he gave her was hot and questioning. It spoke directly to the part of her mind that watched the way he moved, graceful as a dancer, as a killer, that watched the crinkle around his eyes when he laughed and how comfortable he was in his own skin. She swallowed and then managed an embarrassed smile, wondering if the heat in her cheeks was visible to everyone else.