Chapter 58 Holding the Coats

Selene's sword bent against Yu-ra's and sprang away.

Her heel scraped a line through the dirt. She turned with the impact, letting the wooden blade slide past her shoulder, and touched Yu-ra's sleeve.

“One,” Lark said.

Jin retrieved the splinter from his trousers.

“Are we charging for those?”

Nobody answered.

Yu-ra went forward again.

This time Selene didn't meet the blade. She slipped outside it, left hand opening, but Yu-ra stopped her own cut halfway through. The pommel turned toward Selene's wrist.

Selene drew back.

Wood snapped against her ribs.

“One each,” Lark said, sitting up.

“Too much?” Yu-ra asked.

Selene shook her head. She rolled her shoulder once.

“I reached.”

They separated.

Jin had seen Yu-ra be patient with frightened teammates and completely merciless with monsters. He hadn't seen her smile like this while someone was trying to hit her.

He wanted, rather inconveniently, to kiss her again.

“Coat attendant,” Lark murmured. “Your professional expression.”

Jin shut his mouth.

Selene pressed forward behind three quick cuts. Yu-ra caught the first, stepped away from the second and gave ground before the third could reach her.

Selene's left hand moved.

Yu-ra's gaze flicked toward it.

Jin nearly called out.

Too late.

Selene's sword tapped her thigh.

“Two to one.”

Yu-ra looked at the empty hand.

“That's filthy.”

“People usually watch the glowing one.”

“You said no light.”

“There wasn't any.”

Yu-ra laughed and came back harder.

The carters stopped pretending to arrange sacks.

Jin could follow the beginning of each exchange. After that, the blades seemed to find places his eyes hadn't reached yet. Yu-ra drove Selene toward the post, then suddenly stepped aside, leaving her opponent's next parry meeting nothing.

Her sword touched Selene's shoulder.

Two each.

Lark put the apple down.

“She's brought you here as luggage, hasn't she?”

“Valuable luggage.”

The last exchange started low. Selene showed the same opening at her wrist.

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Yu-ra didn't take it.

She struck the practice sword near its tip, forced it outward and crowded in behind the contact.

Selene's free hand caught her sleeve.

Both women turned.

Two wooden blades hit flesh almost together.

Almost.

Yu-ra stopped, sword against Selene's side, a wooden edge already touching her own breastbone.

She looked down.

“Yours.”

Selene let go of the sleeve.

“Barely.”

Jin breathed out. Beside him, Lark appeared to remember his apple.

Yu-ra offered her hand again, breathing faster now.

“Once more sometime?”

“Please.”

The carters clapped. One whistled until his friend hit him with a sack.

Jin stood with the jackets.

“A very pleasant cultural exchange. Shall we try architecture next?”

Yu-ra leaned close enough for only him to hear.

“You were watching.”

“I'm holding your coat, not dead.”

Her ears reddened. She took the jacket with unnecessary care.

Selene accepted hers, rubbing the place on her shoulder where she'd been touched.

“You could have hit harder.”

“You could have used the light.”

“Some of it doesn't help with this.”

She held up her sword hand.

“I can put a blade through Demon armor and still give you my wrist for free.”

Yu-ra's smile softened.

“I got the wrist once. You stopped giving it to me.”

“Your front heel,” Selene said. “You lift it just before you change direction.”

Yu-ra looked down and tried the movement without lifting it.

Her brow furrowed.

“That feels horrible.”

“Mine too. When I try it.”

Yu-ra laughed. She made the turn once more, slower.

Selene looked at her, then nodded.

Lark picked up the discarded swords.

“I had planned to ask for a lesson.”

“Tomorrow morning,” Selene said. “Before I leave for the marsh camp.”

“Will there be a demonstration?”

“You can hold the coats.”

Jin patted the empty space on the bench.

“Warm seat. Excellent prospects.”

They left the yard as the innkeeper pushed her front door wider to catch the breeze. Yu-ra walked close beside him, flexing her sword hand.

Lark caught them at the gate with a handbill.

“Tomorrow evening. West quarry. They've trapped a bell-eater.”

The drawing showed a squat ape holding two enormous hands in front of its mouth.

Jin couldn't read the lettering. Lark tapped a line beneath it.

“Open hunt. Twelve gold for the team that brings it down. I want a look at the ground first.”

Jin looked at the illustrated hands.

Each was bigger than the artist's little hunter.

Beside him, Yu-ra was smiling down at her own hands.

“What?” Jin asked.

“Nothing.”

“That usually means something expensive.”

She looked at him.

“I haven't had to learn a new opponent that quickly for a while.”

He waited.

“I liked it.”

Beyond the inn, a pastry seller shook a pan over a brazier. Butter hissed. Yu-ra turned toward the smell with the same decisive attention she'd given Selene's sword.

Jin took his purse from the room before they went farther. He left the wire cage and sheathed steel knife beside the bed; this was supposed to be a walk.

At the stall, he paid two copper for two curled pastries, leaving thirty-eight silver and ninety-seven copper.

Yu-ra broke hers in half and offered him the larger piece.

“I have one.”

“Mine has more filling.”

“That's a serious allegation.”

He bent to take a bite from her fingers.

A scream broke out behind the stall.

Something white burst through a hanging sheet.

Three long necks snapped toward them. A wing struck the brazier sideways. Jin caught Yu-ra's wrist and stumbled clear as coals scattered across the stones.

The creature landed on the stall. Coins rattled inside the bulge beneath its throats.

All three heads turned toward Jin's remaining pastry.

His private window opened.

Yu-ra looked from the teeth to his face.

“You're getting an idea.”

“A business opportunity.”

“Jin.”

The nearest head bit through the iron pastry tongs.

“A difficult market,” he conceded.