Chapter 55 Three

At sunrise, a baker struck a basket with his broom.

A black quill punched through the broom head.

Theo stopped watching the sky.

The basket tipped. Bread spilled across the paving, followed by a bristling creature broad as a small dog.

The baker let go of the shaft as its jaws closed on the wood.

Theo caught the falling end in his good hand.

Jin stepped aside, ready to move.

The creature sprang.

Theo glided across its line. He set his right foot, turned the broken shaft toward the open mouth and drove forward as it landed.

The wood went in beneath the upper jaw.

He kept moving, shoulder against its flank, carrying it into the curb.

The creature scrabbled.

Theo pinned the head and pushed until it stopped.

Pale light crossed the paving. Quills and flesh disappeared.

The broom fell into empty space.

Jin watched his face.

“The window,” Theo said.

“I know.”

“Three EXP. Level Two.”

He dragged the back of his good hand across his mouth.

“Five points.”

Jin nodded.

Theo caught the front of his coat and pulled him into a fierce, awkward hug.

Jin held on.

Neither moved immediately.

Then Theo stepped back and read his choices aloud.

“Three Agility. Two Endurance.”

He tried a short glide between two stones. The turn came in tighter than he'd expected.

He laughed.

When he reached for the shaft with his left hand, pain checked the movement.

Selene had come from the convoy yard at the noise. She looked at the sling.

“May I?”

Theo glanced at Jin.

“Your arm,” Jin said.

Theo turned back and nodded.

She loosened the cloth and put her hand over the fracture. White-gold light entered beneath her fingers.

His breathing caught.

“Tell me if that changes.”

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“It is changing.”

The tightness around his eyes eased. His fingers moved.

He caught her free wrist.

“That's enough. Thank you.”

Selene hesitated, then let the light go.

Theo lifted his arm out of the loosened sling.

Bent it.

Put both hands around the broom.

“Thank you,” he said again, without a joke anywhere near it.

She nodded, looking as though she'd rather fight another gravefin than be thanked in the middle of the street.

The baker took his broom and gave Theo a loaf.

“For the thornrat.”

Theo looked at his two hands holding the bread.

“I like your horrible holiday destination.”

Jin took half the loaf.

“Breakfast tax.”

Theo took some back.

“Border dispute.”

They brought Kessa to the bowyer's street after breakfast. Fenn, a stooped woman with a string burn across one thumb, gave her a plain practice stave.

“Show me.”

Kessa drew it.

Fenn changed it for a heavier one.

Kessa's mouth changed as she pulled.

“There,” the bowyer said.

Kessa paid four silver from her own purse and left the drawing and old grip.

“Sunday,” Fenn said. “Come ready to argue.”

“I usually am.”

Back in the rented room, Jin put their pins, phones, Theo's badge and his steel knife into the closed wire cage. Theo slipped the paper bird between their phones. Jin left his purse in the chest.

They crossed home together.

Mira looked at Theo's empty sling.

Then at his two working hands.

She gripped the left one so hard he laughed.

“Sorry.”

“Don't be.”

He put his other hand over hers.

Mira found a jar she'd been unable to open and handed it to him.

Theo twisted the lid with his left hand.

It came off.

He stared at it. Then at her.

“Again,” he said.

She closed it and handed it back.

Jin watched them repeat the ridiculous little ceremony twice before he put the kettle on.

“You're going to make me ask for every jar now,” Mira said.

“Yes.”

Theo smiled down at the lid in his palm.

Jin quietly gave them room.

He went back alone later, carrying his pin and knife in the cage, to help Selene unload the last convoy cart. When she'd finished answering one man's question, he took the crate she was reaching for.

“You can talk. I'll do this.”

Her hands stayed lifted for a moment.

Then she lowered them.

By the fourth crate she'd sent two other men to people who knew more about their particular problems.

She looked surprised by the empty space around her.

“Your friend?”

“Home. Rehearsal at five.”

“And your dinner tomorrow.”

“I haven't forgotten.”

“Neither have I.”

Jin returned home empty-handed after leaving his gear in the room.

At five, he sat against a rehearsal studio wall while Ms. Choi watched Theo cross the floor.

The left arm lifted with the right.

The turn ended where he'd wanted it.

“Again,” Choi said. “Slower. Stop proving your arm exists.”

Theo flushed and tried it slower.

This time Jin could see the pause inside the turn. The place Theo chose to let the audience catch up.

Choi nodded once.

Jin kept his applause quiet until the run was over.

Outside, Theo straightened his collar while they waited for their ride.

“I can fight a cliff hound,” Jin protested.

“Cliff hounds have no taste.”

The taxi driver looked at them.

“Your girlfriend's very pretty.”

Theo finished the collar before answering.

“I'm his friend. His girlfriend's prettier. Considerably more dangerous.”

The driver laughed.

“So's mine.”

Jin got into the car while Theo was still enjoying himself.

His phone buzzed.

Yu-ra.

One o'clock tomorrow. Mum's seen the raid recording.

A second message followed.

She's asking what you meant by “gift shop.”