Chapter 57 The Other Woman Has a Sword

“Now?” Jin said.

Yu-ra nodded.

From the sofa, Theo lifted a finger.

“My pin's in my coat. Please don't lend her your terrible pronunciation.”

Min-jae looked over from the doorway.

“Pin?”

“Long story,” Jin said.

“Private story,” Mira corrected. She caught Min-jae's sleeve. “Come downstairs? I promised I'd show you the bookshop before it closes.”

Min-jae looked between them, then picked up his jacket.

“You can just say private.”

Mira stopped tugging his sleeve.

“He's right,” she told Jin.

Min-jae gave a little shrug. “I haven't told you everything either.”

Jin nodded. It should have been obvious. Somehow he'd still made his friend stand there waiting for an excuse.

Jin winced.

“Sorry.”

“You will be if she makes me carry the dinosaur.”

Mira put the dinosaur under his arm.

Theo watched the door close.

“Remarkably accurate prediction.”

Yu-ra checked her phone. “Tomorrow's exhibition starts at three. I need to be there by one. Tonight I'm free until dinner.”

“I'll bring you back before seven.”

“Six thirty,” she said. “Mum packed leftovers. You're helping.”

He found a zipped shopping bag. Their phones, her small handbag and Theo's loaned pin went inside. She unfastened her necklace and put that in too.

Theo took the closed bag from him and tested the handle.

“Looks romantic. Are you eloping or returning a kettle?”

Jin took it back.

In the kitchen, Yu-ra offered her hand.

He selected the empty guest slot. The window asked for the person standing against his palm.

“Still yes?”

“Jin.”

“Right.”

He held the bag, closed his fingers around hers and counted three slow beats.

The kitchen vanished.

Yu-ra's grip tightened.

They stood beside the narrow bed in Aster. Beyond the window, violet cloud caught the morning light above roofs Jin could still hardly believe were real.

For several seconds she said nothing.

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Then she went to the window.

Jin set down the bag and gave her room.

“Those things on the roof,” she said. “Are they birds?”

“Probably.”

One unfolded six legs and scuttled down a chimney.

“Definitely not that one.”

Below the window, a woman was arguing with a boy carrying an enormous empty flowerpot. He insisted it had broken itself. She made him turn it around; a wooden ball dropped out of the hole.

Yu-ra laughed before the boy could finish his next explanation.

“People live here,” she said softly.

He looked at her.

“I know. Stupid thing to say.”

“I thought the same thing.”

She leaned her shoulder into his. For a while they watched the boy negotiate his completely hopeless case.

He put on his own pin and passed her Theo's. Her fingers brushed the glass at her collarbone.

Outside, a man shouted about hot chestnuts.

Yu-ra turned toward the sound.

“I understood him.”

Jin smiled.

“Usually that's where he gets you.”

She kept hold of his hand down the stairs.

The innkeeper glanced up from a tray.

“Another visitor?”

“My girlfriend.”

Yu-ra's fingers squeezed his.

The woman looked pleased.

“The pretty boy yesterday—”

“Friend,” Jin said.

“I hadn't finished.”

“I have experience with the sentence.”

She laughed and pointed them toward the convoy yard.

They found Selene trying to persuade an enormous carter that his splintered tooth did not require the Hero's personal attention.

“There's a dentist on the next street.”

“But you're here.”

“And he has the chair.”

The man considered this formidable advantage and went.

Selene turned, saw their joined hands and smiled before Jin could get nervous about introductions.

“You made it to lunch.”

“Survived it.”

“There were onions,” Yu-ra said.

“Ah.”

Jin looked between them.

“That wasn't a battle report.”

“You introduced it as one,” Selene said.

Yu-ra offered her free hand.

“Song Yu-ra. Thank you for helping Theo.”

“Selene. He stopped me before I overdid it.”

She shook the offered hand. Her eyes moved down to their grip, then back to Yu-ra's face.

“You're a fighter.”

“Yes.”

“A good one?”

Yu-ra glanced at Jin.

“He hasn't complained.”

“I haven't had enough breath.”

Selene laughed. She had a wooden practice sword tucked through her belt, quite different from the white scabbard on the bench behind her.

Yu-ra noticed it.

“Were you training?”

“Trying to. People keep bringing me teeth.”

“I could leave you to it.”

Selene studied her for a moment.

“Would you rather try?”

Yu-ra looked past her at the open patch of packed earth. Two carters were moving a cart out of it. A split practice post stood at the far end.

“Your world's swordsmanship?”

“Some of mine. I can't speak for the world.”

Yu-ra finally let Jin's hand go.

He watched her loosen her shoulders. The small change brought back the woman who'd stepped under the loomjaw's mouth.

“I'd like that.”

Selene fetched a second wooden sword.

Jin went to sit on the bench.

“You can help,” Yu-ra told him.

“Excellent. From here?”

She took off her jacket and handed it over.

“Hold this.”

Selene added her coat to the pile.

“Thank you.”

Lark appeared in the yard doorway, chewing an apple. He took one look at Jin under the clothes and stopped.

“New profession?”

“International relations.”

Lark sat beside him.

In the clearing, Selene raised her practice sword.

“No light. First three touches. Tell me if the rules don't suit.”

Yu-ra tried the grip, changed it and nodded.

Jin put the jackets down beside him. He knew that nod.

Lark stopped chewing.

“She's quite good, isn't she?”

“You should finish your apple.”

Yu-ra moved.

The first crack threw a white splinter into Jin's lap.