Chapter 50 A Very Small Scheduling Problem

“Two days,” Jin said. “I need to be home on Saturday.”

Selene looked at the wrecked barge.

Then back at him.

“Wedding?”

“Dinner with my girlfriend's mother.”

“That sounds harder.”

“I'm beginning to suspect it is.”

She pulled a small purse from inside her coat.

“Eight silver now. Eight when the road convoy reaches Aster. We leave at dawn, pick them up at the north crossing and enter the capital tomorrow evening.”

Jin looked at the coins.

At Lark, who was pretending not to listen.

“If you're coming too, stop pretending,” Selene told him.

Lark straightened.

“I was hoping to find a teacher in Aster.”

“Bring your sword. You can ask everyone you meet.”

Jin held out his palm. Eight silver fell into it.

Thirty-six in his purse now.

“There's something else,” he said.

Selene waited.

“I'd rather show you somewhere without an audience.”

At Calder's, with the backroom door shut, he told her and Lark where home was.

The other world. The kitchen. The fact that he could carry objects now, but couldn't bring a person.

Lark sat on the edge of the table.

“Of course. That's why you call your throws lunch.”

Calder took the tongue-pin when Jin removed it. Without it, the next question was only a questioning sound.

He held up one finger, touched the backroom floor and crossed.

Theo looked up from the kitchen table.

“Are you—”

“Back in a minute.”

Jin waited out the travel recovery, took his phone and returned with it alone.

He put the pin back on and played the street footage he'd shown Calder.

A bus crawled past the delivery van. Theo leaned into the final second, waving an oven mitt.

Lark watched the large vehicle twice.

Selene asked to see the people walking beside it.

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“None of them are running,” she said.

“No.”

“Is it always like that?”

“Sometimes somebody misses the bus.”

Her mouth moved, almost a smile. Then she watched the people again.

She didn't ask him to take her immediately.

“I won't keep you from Saturday,” she said.

Jin put the phone away.

“And I won't promise something I can't finish.”

“Good.”

He left his purse and pin with Calder before crossing home holding only the phone.

The clock over the training hall entrance read five forty when he arrived there with Theo.

Instructor Lim was putting covers over the force stations.

Jin lifted his E badge.

“I think this is wrong again.”

Lim stared at him.

Then at the badge he'd issued days ago.

“Show me.”

Jin struck the first pad.

The target slid up its track and hit the stop with a hard metallic clack.

Lim took the cover off a heavier station.

“That one.”

Three blows. Three readings in the D column.

Then a movement test against a padded armature that changed its attack between attempts. Jin walked two routes from the same mark, tried both with a pause for recovery between them and took the third attempt without the skill when the armature blocked his arrival.

He got hit once. Hard.

The second blow passed his shoulder.

Lim lowered the control.

“D.”

Theo leaned against the wall, smiling without saying anything.

Lim looked at him.

“You find this funny?”

“No,” Theo said. “I'm remembering some people.”

“Can I have the empty lane?” Theo asked.

Lim checked the clock.

“Two minutes.”

Theo pushed off with his right foot. His glide carried him across the mat, sling close against his chest. At the far end he turned too sharply and put a heel outside the line.

He swore under his breath.

Tried again.

This time he brought his good hand in instead of reaching for balance. The turn tightened. His feet stayed inside.

Jin started to clap.

“Don't,” Theo said, grinning. “I'm doing it twice.”

He did.

Lim left that lane uncovered until he finished.

The new badge felt heavier than the old one had, though Jin knew it wasn't.

He kept the E badge too.

At the shoe shop, Theo put a pair of plain black trainers in front of him.

“Those. Thirty-five thousand. Pay the woman before you choose something yellow out of sentiment.”

“You want yours back.”

“I want to recognize them when I get them back.”

Jin looked at the old yellow pair. River stains. Sand in the seams. A little pale dust from a creature that no longer existed.

He paid for the black trainers and changed into them. The yellow ones went into the shop's paper bag.

On the walk home, he told Theo about the capital trip.

“Tomorrow and Friday. I still mean what I said about bringing you.”

“I know.”

“You don't have to say it like that.”

“Then stop making it sound like an apology.”

Jin bumped his good shoulder with his own.

Theo bumped back harder.

Mira took the yellow shoes from them at home with the expression of someone accepting an unexploded device.

“Outside,” she said.

“They're historic,” Theo protested.

“So is mold.”

Jin put the new D badge beside the F and E badges on the table.

Mira looked at the three letters.

Then at him.

“Proud face?” he asked.

“Terrible,” she said, and hugged him.

His phone buzzed against her elbow.

Yu-ra.

Saturday. One o'clock. Mum says you can stop pretending you like spicy food.

Then:

I told her about the milk carton.

Jin closed his eyes.

Theo read the message over his shoulder.

“Oh,” he said happily. “You are finished.”