They join hands, initially in silence (6)
I believe the answer is:
wrists
'they' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are plural nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'join hands initially in silence' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'initially' could be 'ist' (ist resembles 1st) and 'ist' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wrists that I've seen before include "Hand joints" , "Arm joints" .)