Isaho had finished all the fruit and the glass of canned milk from Mandall’s trove and had just a few bites of kaslik left; she was pushing them around with her fork, her eyes so heavy with sleep it was obvious she didn’t know what she was doing.

Thann slipped from xe’s chair, moved around the table. Xe tapped Isaho’s arm, signed, +That’s good enough, Shashi. Time for bed.+

Isaho’s mouth moved and Thann thought for a moment she was going to protest, then she leaned heavily into the anya, yawned and murmured, “Carry me?”

+A big femlit like you+ Xe finished with the flutter of the fingers that was anya laughter. Then xe slid xe’s arms under Isaho’s legs and lifted her from the chair. It wouldn’t be long before xe’s baby was indeed too big for xe to carry and the thought pierced xe to the heart.

Isaho’s pallet was in the pantry which had been a walk-in refrigerator before Mandall had taken the door off. It was the safest place in the apartment.

They lived on the second floor of a five-floor building that once had been a fancy hotel, most of which was rubble now; their rooms were in the back of the hotel’s restaurant-one of the private dining rooms, a piece of the kitchen, a bathroom whose toilet still flushed when Mandall poured the dirty dishwasher or bathwater into the tank, the old refrigerator and the laundry room which Mandall, Bazekiyl, and Thann used as their bedroom.

There was a candle burning by the sink in the kitchen and another in the pantry. Thann settled Isaho on the straw pallet, fetched a basin with a bit of water, washed her face and hands. +Now+ she signed. +Get yourself undressed while I fetch your toothbrush.+