Xessa tugged on her earlobe, pierced and cuffed with a dozen rings, beads, feathers and dyed bird bones. The sun cleared the horizon and flooded across the world and she threw off her blanket and let the rain patter against the skin of her arms and legs, into the open neck of her tunic.

Unbidden came the memory of Ossa leaping into the river to save her life, of the water swirling up to her thighs as she went in after him, that impatient, cold, and dangerous tug of current right before the Drowned rose and came for her again …

She shook her head hard, hair and ear cuffs slapping her cheeks, and then wrapped the blanket tight around herself once more. This wasn’t the morning to be remembering such things. Better to think of Toxte, not risking his life at the river, but the feel and taste of his skin and the deep steady throb of his heart when she pressed her face to his chest. A smile pulled at her mouth.

Movement, as Lilla pulled back the door curtain of the house he shared with Tayan. He waved and then pointed at the communal fire-pit. Xessa scowled, but he was right: it was her turn. Ossa shoved his head under her elbow and she paused on the step a while longer, scratching the dog’s neck and ears, pressing kisses to his muzzle. Ossa’s ears pricked and Xessa looked up; Lilla had his hands on his hips and a look of melodramatic outrage on his face.

The eja sighed and dropped her damp blanket before crossing to the pit to lay the kindling. The rain stopped as the sun rose higher. Steam would be rising from the stone soon, filtering the morning through its haze until it was as if the spirit world had overlaid the flesh world and magic was in everything.

She found the bow-drill and set to coaxing a flame into life, the exertion warming her arms and shoulder and back. She blew on the embers and then built the fire, enjoying the increasing heat against her face. Lilla squatted opposite to rest three small leaf-wrapped parcels around the edges. Xessa perked up, watching him until he felt her gaze and looked up.

‘Not a chance,’ he signed. She batted her eyes at him and put her head on one side, the way Ossa did whenever she had turkey or lizard. Lilla poked at a piece of wood with a stick. Xessa kept watching him and moved slowly, stealthily, around the fire and then shoved her head under his elbow, as the dog had done to her. Lilla burst out laughing even as he fell onto his arse and then Ossa added to the confusion, leaping into the tangle and seemingly managing to lick both of them at once.