‘This is not the first time,’ Elder Apok said. ‘Other lowland villages have reported sightings and missing hunting parties, bodies discovered on game trails. They haven’t yet reached the towns below Malel’s slopes, but it seems there are Melody warriors at large in Tokoban now, too. It is no longer just in Yalotlan that we are fighting. Although their main strength has retreated, there seems to be a pattern emerging of skirmishes where we least expect them.’

‘Why?’ High Elder Zasso of the Yaloh demanded, her voice a thin croak.

‘Many reasons,’ Lilla found himself saying. ‘To put us on edge; to make us fearful to leave our villages or towns; to cut off communication between settlements. Perhaps they want us sending out double-strength Paws when hunting in order to weaken the defences of villages. Perhaps it’s all a distraction so they can continue building pyramids to bring the song ever closer.’

Behind him, Lilla heard a snort of what might have been laughter from the Axib prisoner. His back prickled.

Kux leant forward, her eyes fixed on Zasso. ‘Whatever they have planned, however many their numbers roaming Tokoban, they seek to keep us off balance and penned in up here while they consolidate their hold on our homes.’ She flung a hand passionately towards Aez. ‘He admitted it when we captured him. He said Yalotlan belongs to the Empire already. He called us trespassers.’ Her voice was a sibilant whisper on the last word and it lingered in the sudden, disbelieving silence. And then, uproar.

Lilla sat within it like a leaf on the current, helplessly buffeted this way and that. He ached for Tayan, for his husband’s pragmatism and unquestioning faith in him, but also for his sense of the absurd. The slender shaman had a knack for dispelling tension and they needed it now, needed it desperately before they worked themselves into a frenzy and made a rash decision. Unless …

‘Stop. Stop!’ Lilla bellowed and the council chamber rang with echoes. ‘The Empire wants unthinking, angry responses; it wants us to mount a poorly planned invasion; it wants us to leave ourselves exposed. None of us know how much of their Melody they marched back to Pechacan. Did they even go that far? Who’s to say they’re not five sticks into Xentiban, just waiting for us to over-extend ourselves trying to regain lost land?’

‘Stolen land,’ Kux grated.

‘Stolen land,’ Lilla amended. ‘But we have to give the peace-weavers a chance. We can’t go on the offensive while Tayan and Betsu argue for peace.’

‘So we just let them keep on stealing land and lives? Stealing people to make into slaves? No!’ Kux was loud, vibrating with anger.