She coughed openmouthed in their direction, and their faces twisted in fear. They backed away, ducking their chins into their chests, but the guardsman with the sword continued to train it on me.

“We should kill them. Put them down.”

“But they’re sick!” the younger one argued.

“So? Fewer mouths for the city to feed.”

“My ummum says it is of Alani to kill the weak! We’ll be cursed!”

The older boy frowned. “She said that?”

“Yes!”

“Well,” he sighed, looking between us and the younger boy, as if debating himself. “Stay here with them. I’m going to find Lamusa. He’ll know what to do.”

The younger guardsman nodded, and the older one disappeared around the corner.

“Now stay put.” The boy trained his own wobbly sicklesword on us. Iltani looked at me with a glint in her eye, and I knew she had a plan. She sidled up to him, hips swaying, the grin of Alani on her face.

“You’re much too handsome to be wearing that awful frown.” She smirked. “Smile. Show me those teeth.”

The boy flushed crimson. “Stay where you are.”

She pressed her fingertip against the edge of the sicklesword. “Ooh!” She winced. “That’s sharper than I thought!” She sucked her finger. “I think I’ve cut it bad.” She looked up at him, eyes wide.

Nanaea and I tensed, looking for an opportunity. A moment of weakness.

And in one second, we had it.

“Let me see.” The boy dropped his sword a handsbreadth, and that was all the space we needed.

Iltani kicked him between his legs, and he doubled over with an “Ooof!”

I knocked the sword from his hands. “QUICK! Get his arms!”

Iltani and I wrestled his wiry arms behind his back while he gurgled in pain, and Nanaea whipped the linen from her head and knotted it around his wrists.

“His mouth!” I hissed as I held him still. “We have to shut him up like we did with the women!”

“I’ve got it.” Iltani took the blunt edge of his sicklesword and whacked the boy in the temple with one swift crack. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he was still.

“Get his legs. We have to hide him.” I spotted some scrub and hoisted him under his arms. “Over here!”

Yanking and tugging, we managed to pull him over into the bushes and threw some branches on top of him. I checked his pulse to make sure Iltani hadn’t killed the poor boy, but he was fine. I wasn’t sure he would be when his friend came back.

“Let’s go! We won’t have much time. We have to find more food since that stupid boy knocked all the grapes into the sand!” I whispered, and we darted into the cool, dank corridor, my heart beating hard and fast. There were empty doorways up and down.

“Look into each one. They must keep the stores in one of these. Go. Go!” Iltani commanded.

We raced from one room to another. But though I found dough rising in the warmth of the sun, hanks of meat hanging from hooks, and a room stocked with linens, there was no fresh food.