Chapter 59 Exact Change

“Pursegoose!” the pastry seller shouted. “Don't let it pay you!”

Jin drew his hand back.

The creature spat a copper at his shoe.

“What happens if it pays?”

The left head opened. Behind the beak, teeth folded outward in two wet rows.

“Understood.”

Yu-ra caught the seller by the shoulder and moved him behind the stone stall base. Another trader dragged the brazier away from the fallen sheet.

Jin backed toward an empty loading recess.

The goose followed the pastry.

Its middle head bobbed, almost politely. The head on the right watched his free hand. The one on the left watched his throat.

“Bad customer,” Yu-ra said.

“Still more attentive than most.”

He held up the pastry.

The creature settled back on its broad webbed feet. Its middle throat bulged.

Another copper flew out.

Jin caught it.

“Pleasure doing—”

The left head struck.

Yu-ra's hand closed around its neck. The beak snapped a finger's width from Jin's ear.

He shoved the pastry into the middle mouth and jumped away.

The right head lunged at his purse.

Jin twisted, took the blow against his hip and slammed into the recess wall. Stone scraped his elbow through the sleeve.

Yu-ra dragged the creature sideways.

Its feet gouged the paving. A wing beat against her shoulder with a sound like a snapped carpet. She planted her heel and swung it clear of the stalls.

The goose hit the empty loading space chest-first.

Jin moved out before the wing could pin him.

It came up faster than he'd expected.

The middle head spat the crushed pastry into Yu-ra's eyes.

She turned her face away. A wing hooked her knee. Jin saw her footing slip and snatched a fallen board out from under her heel before she landed on it.

She caught her balance with a hard stamp.

The goose used the moment to whip its lowest neck around her ankle.

All three necks twisted together. The trapped head tucked beneath the others, wrenching against Yu-ra's grip while the free beaks struck from opposite sides.

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She let go and stepped inside their reach.

Her trapped foot turned with the neck instead of fighting it. The coil loosened. She pulled free, bringing her knee up beneath the creature's breast.

Her palm hit the swelling crop.

A dozen coins shot out of the middle beak.

The creature staggered, choking.

“It's full of money,” Jin said.

“You're both going to be very happy.”

“I feel judged.”

The pastry seller pushed a long wooden peel around the corner of his stall.

Yu-ra took it.

The goose lowered its heads. Jin saw the wings gathering close against its body and pulled the seller back.

“Down.”

The charge scraped sparks from the edge of the stone base.

Yu-ra slipped past the middle head and rammed the peel between the other two necks. The shaft bowed across her palms.

White light ran along the wood.

The broad end flared.

She drove it upward beneath the crop.

The goose lifted off its feet.

For one extraordinary instant it hung above the paving, three outraged faces staring down at the woman holding it there.

Then the burning peel broke.

Yu-ra turned with the falling weight. She drove the broken shaft through the exposed hollow below the breast and pinned it against the loading wall.

The impact cracked a stone.

Its wings hammered once, twice.

Stopped.

Light spread through white feathers. The creature disappeared around the shaft, leaving coins raining onto the stones.

Jin's own receipt arrived.

His pastry bait had been worth considerably more than his dignity.

The seller crawled out and reached for the smoking shaft. Yu-ra handed it over, blackened end first. He changed his mind about touching it.

“Sorry,” she said.

He looked at the broken tongs, then at the crack in the loading wall.

“Keep the stick.”

Yu-ra stood holding the blackened piece of wood.

She wasn't looking at it.

Jin knew that expression.

“How much?”

She swallowed.

“Seventy-two.”

The seller began collecting coins with shaking hands. Someone across the lane applauded.

Yu-ra looked toward the sound, then back at Jin.

“Six.”

“Levels?”

“I'm Level Six.”

He felt his own grin starting.

“Twenty-five points,” she said.

“Yes.”

“I thought I'd get one.”

“You started at one. You get five new levels.”

“I know how numbers work.”

She laughed, a short, helpless sound, and grabbed his sleeve with her free hand.

Then she looked at the sleeve.

“You're bleeding.”

“The wall was hostile. No payment.”

She checked the scrape, found it shallow and pressed a clean handkerchief against it.

The seller came around the corner.

“You two all right?”

Yu-ra nodded. Jin held up the unbroken copper he'd caught.

“Refund policy?”

The man stared, then started laughing so hard he had to lean against the stall.

Jin gave him the coin with the rest of the scattered money. The purses it had robbed would have owners nearby; the seller was already shouting for them.

Two guards arrived, one carrying a net. Their faces changed at the cracked wall and burned peel.

“Pursegoose?”

The seller nodded toward Yu-ra.

“Visiting.”

One of Selene's carters leaned around the guards.

“That's him. The bird's student. I saw the lesson in Riverbend.”

The younger guard looked at Jin.

“Is she the bird master's master?”

Yu-ra slowly turned her head.

Jin shut his eyes.

Somewhere behind him, the seller began explaining the pastry sale to everyone who hadn't asked.

Yu-ra leaned close.

“Bird master?”

“We have to leave this country.”

She kissed his cheek, right there beside the ruined stall.

“Hold on. I want to hear about your qualifications.”