Chapter 31 The Floor Is Upstairs

The mouth closed.

The beam stopped being something Jin was pressed against and became something three body lengths above the street.

He swung his feet down and let go.

His trainers hit the paving. Knees bent, weight traveling forward; he rolled before the impact could drive him flat.

Dessa landed beside him and caught a falling lantern with the flat of her cleaver.

It broke anyway.

“Jory liked those,” she muttered.

The next pulse began.

Jin grabbed a post. Dessa hooked her arm around it above his and braced both feet against the base.

Overhead, the beam creaked against its iron fastenings.

Beyond it, the tiltjaw's raised head tilted toward the market again.

Jin watched the distance between beam and gill.

Five short strides beneath the wood. One arrival beside the red fold under the jaw.

“Can you burn that?” he asked.

Dessa followed his gaze.

“If I get close.”

She loosened the cloth around her cleaver's grip. Smoke curled from the scorched wrapping.

“One white flare,” she said. “Then the hand needs a rest whether I agree or not.”

Jin looked at the red fold that appeared when the tiltjaw lifted its head.

“That closes when it swallows.”

“Yes. Leave me an opening. Don't chase the teeth.”

On the far side of the fountain, a hunter hammered the butt of his bow against a loose railing, making the nearest whisker turn. Two people crawled out from beneath the wrecked stall behind him.

Kessa tracked the motion, arrow ready, waiting to see which way the real head went.

Jin tightened his grip on the knife.

“I'll open it.”

“From where?”

He pointed up.

She stared at him.

Then at his shoes.

“I thought the salon was bad.”

“You haven't seen the premium service.”

Kessa crouched behind the post, bow held close to her chest. On the far side of the square, Calder was helping the hunters pull people clear during each swallow.

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One hunter caught the edge of a loose awning and cut its ropes. The canvas fell across a broken stall, making a low tunnel to the bakery doorway.

People crawled beneath it.

The boy from the ribbon stood inside the window with a woman holding both his shoulders.

Jin looked back at the beam.

“I'll need it looking this way.”

Dessa grinned without much humor.

“That part's easy.”

Jin slid the knife into its wooden sheath and pulled the belt tight.

Kessa caught the end of a loose bench as the mouth closed. She dragged it beneath the beam, kicked one broken leg against the post and tested the seat with her foot.

“Use that.”

“Comfortable last meal?”

“A step, idiot.”

He climbed onto it. She caught his sleeve before he could jump.

“If you go out over the water, I can't catch you.”

He looked toward the dark gap beyond the dais.

“I'll try to fall somewhere convenient.”

Dessa stepped out as the mouth closed, caught the dais railing and pulled herself onto its lowest edge.

Her cleaver struck the folded fin.

Flame crawled along the cut.

The tiltjaw shrieked and swung toward her.

Jin jumped from the bench, caught the beam's edge and hauled his knees upward before the next pull arrived.

For a horrible moment he was folded around the wood like badly packed laundry.

Then the mouth opened above him.

His weight pressed upward.

He rolled beneath the beam until the soles of his shoes met its broad underside.

Down was there now.

Not forever. Not even for long.

He took one careful step.

Then another.

His body hung toward the street while his feet pressed into the wood. He kept one hand against the edge and moved toward the creature's exposed gill, registering the five short strides as he actually walked them.

At the end, he set his heel on the wide joint above a support post.

Solid.

The red gill fold opened and closed beyond his reaching hand. Too far for an ordinary lunge. Close enough for the knife when the head turned another fraction.

“Jin!” Kessa shouted.

He turned and hurried back along the beam.

The field released before his last step.

His feet came off the wood.

He caught the edge with both hands and hung there, looking at the drop.

Kessa stepped beneath him.

“Let go.”

“That isn't a plan.”

“Then keep hanging there until the next mouthful.”

He let go. She caught enough of his weight to turn the fall, and he landed against the post with his teeth clenched.

Above the dais, Dessa ducked a sweeping whisker and struck the fin again.

She was keeping the head turned, but each swing drove her closer to the broken railing.

“I've got the route,” Jin said.

“Good,” Kessa said. “She hasn't got all day.”

The tiltjaw's mouth opened.

Jin jumped toward the beam, caught it and tucked his feet against the first mark while the pull steadied.

The creature's damaged whiskers twitched. Its head began moving away from Dessa.

Kessa's arrow struck the remaining whisker on that side.

The head jerked back toward the burning cleaver.

Jin's feet found their weight.

He drew the knife from his belt.

He selected Braced Waypoint.

Five strides along a ceiling.

His body swept above the street, knife close against his ribs, the whole square upside down beneath his shoulder.

The last joint came under his heel.

The brace caught.

He reached for the red fold.

One of the tiltjaw's remaining whiskers struck the support post.

The beam shifted with a deep wooden groan.

The creature's head turned away from the cleaver.

Toward Jin.

The mouth began to close.