“The first,” Sanone said. “As you said, so it begins. A child, a small girl, playing at the riverbank when a thorn rose out of the sand and drove into her foot and she died. We dug the plant out of the ground with spears, it was as small as my hand, burnt it in the fire. But how could it come there—in the center of the city?”

“Many ways. They could put seeds in the river upstream. They could be fed to birds to fall with their excrement. They are very wise, the Yilanè who make new things grow. When they do a thing they do it well. Everyone must be warned, precautions taken. Or do we leave?”

Sanone seemed older than his years at this moment, the lines in his face deeper. “I do not know. We will talk again tonight. Meanwhile there are certain things I must do to understand Kadair’s meaning in all this. It is very hard to know exactly what is the correct thing that must be done.”

Kerrick went with Sanone to see the remains of the plant, poked at it with a stick. “Very small—but the thorns are just as big as those on the full-size plants. Were there any more?”

“We searched. Just this one.”

“Everyone must wear leather around their feet. Strange plants must not be touched. The bigger children must look after the smaller ones. The children must stay in certain areas which will be gone over very carefully every morning.”

After this Kerrick was hungry and went to the fire where Nenne’s woman, Matili, always made room for him. She baked delicious meat in the ashes, coated it with clay that hardened so the meat was both tender and juicy. With this she had a paste in little dishes, made of fruit that had been mashed with salt and hot chilies, that the meat could be dipped into. It was very good and he was hungry.

Yet when he came to the fire Matili looked up at him coldly and made a gesture he had never seen before; with her hand held vertically in front of her nose, between her eyes. When he spoke to her she did not answer, but instead turned away and ran into the room where she and Nenne slept. It was mystifying and Kerrick was about to leave when Nenne appeared.

“I hope you are not hungry, Kerrick, for there is no meat.” He kept his face averted when he said this, which was not his way.

“What is wrong with Matili?” Kerrick asked. “And why did she hold her hand like this?”