Chapter 54 Worth It

Jin met it on ordinary feet.

A hooked paw tore his sleeve. He turned with the blow, trapped the foreleg against his ribs and drove the knife into the soft angle beneath its shoulder.

The creature twisted.

He couldn't hold the whole body still. He went with it, planted his knee against the cart wheel and pulled the blade toward the ribs.

The jaws caught his coat.

He let the cloth tear.

The hound tried to leap.

Jin dragged it into the wheel and struck beneath the jaw.

Its claws scraped down his side.

He kept cutting until the pale wash took the body from around his hands.

No new heat. No sudden strength to wash the tremor out of his elbows.

He had won with what he'd brought.

Beyond the carts, white light crossed the grass. Selene's hound dissolved beneath it.

She lowered the barrier only after the last family was on the road.

The little boy peered over the wagon's side.

Jin tried to smile at him.

The child offered a broken biscuit.

He took it with a hand that was still shaking.

Lark picked his way out of the ruined tent.

“Your sleeve,” he said.

“Was very brave.”

“I'm talking about your arm.”

Jin looked at the shallow claw marks. Blood had stopped running from them already; the coat looked much worse.

Selene cleaned the cuts with a little light and cloth from the wagon. She didn't try to make him look as though the fight hadn't happened.

Kessa gave Lark his folded tent.

“I think it has more air now.”

“Excellent. I've always wanted to sleep outdoors inside.”

They got the six carts moving.

Jin rode beside the child for the next stretch. The boy fell asleep against his mother's side before the second mile, still holding the rest of the biscuit.

At dusk, Aster's white walls rose above the road.

The refugees passed through the north gate with Selene walking beside the first cart. A waiting healer took the boy while his mother climbed down.

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Selene counted eight silver into Jin's palm.

“For arriving.”

He tried to return the borrowed blade.

She pushed it back toward him.

“Keep it. You used it well.”

At the inn beside the convoy yard, he paid three silver for three nights. Thirty-nine remained in his purse.

In the rented room, Jin crouched with his palm against the floor.

Sixty uninterrupted seconds.

Outside, Lark argued with a broken shutter. Kessa told him to stop trying to win against it.

The new point settled into the route.

Jin stood, put his purse in the small chest and packed his knife and both tongue-pins into the wire cage.

The kitchen returned after three seconds.

Theo looked up from the table.

Jin set the cage down.

“I can pay.”

Theo's gaze dropped to the torn coat.

“Did you get that trying?”

“Doing the job.”

“All right.”

He didn't ask Jin to make the answer prettier.

Mira brought in the paper bag with the yellow trainers. She set it beside the chair and stepped back.

Jin took out the shoes.

Two more cliff hounds, and he could be buying another Level. Instead he selected the guest profile waiting beside Theo's name.

The shoes' old soles shone yellow beneath his hand.

For one heartbeat they looked new.

Then they broke into pale threads.

Theo sat down very slowly.

“That was a very expensive bus ticket.”

Jin closed the window.

“Still yes?”

Theo stood.

“Get the cage.”

He went to fetch his soft black boots and a coat that made Mira stare.

“You had those ready.”

“I had time.”

“Since Tuesday.”

“Quite a lot of time.”

Jin packed their phones and Theo's badge beside the pins and knife. He closed the little cage door.

Mira straightened Theo's sling.

“Come back,” she told him.

Then, to Jin:

“Bring him back.”

Theo kissed her forehead.

Jin gripped the cage handle and took his friend's good hand.

The kitchen held for three seconds.

Then Aster's rented room surrounded them.

Theo's fingers tightened against Jin's.

They were still there.

Jin fastened his own pin, gave Theo the newly bound one and showed him where it needed to touch skin.

Theo clipped it beneath his collar.

A woman laughed in the street below them. He turned toward the window, startled by understanding the words.

Jin put the cage on the bed, opened it and handed Theo his phone.

“You have until five tomorrow, right?”

Theo nodded.

“Then let's go outside.”

Jin took his purse from the chest before they went out.

Beyond the inn's door, the capital opened beneath a deep violet sky.

Theo stopped.

For a little while, he didn't seem to know what to do with either hand.

Then one caught the back of Jin's coat.

“It's real.”

“Yes.”

A boy on stilts passed them offering paper birds for a copper each. One bird had been painted with an expression of immense disapproval.

Jin paid a silver and took the change. Theo held the paper bird beside Jin's face.

“Family resemblance.”

Jin took the bird and put it on his friend's shoulder.

Theo's smile changed.

“My display,” he whispered. “It says I can earn EXP.”

He looked at Jin.

“Three. I need three.”