Chapter 66 An Offer With Teeth

“Two,” Jin repeated. “As in there might be a One?”

“Or a batch number.” Lark rubbed grit out of the lettering. “I make swords, not collars.”

“You make swords?”

“Bad ones. That's why I carry this one.”

Rusk stopped at the foot of the ramp and looked back.

“Bring it up.”

They found him on a bench beside the quarry's bonesetter. The woman had one hand on his shoulder and the other gripping his wrist.

“Look at me,” she said.

“I'd rather—”

She pulled.

Rusk made a noise Jin was glad nobody asked him to translate.

When he could speak again, the hunter took the collar in his good hand.

“Merrit's.”

He pointed at the stamp: a mouth inside a little sunburst.

“Runs the menagerie by the south wall. Takes wagers on things with more teeth than the people wagering.”

“He lost something,” Kessa said.

Rusk looked toward the ruined pit.

“He can keep losing it.”

Kessa went back down with a lantern. She returned carrying two arrows. One had a split shaft; the other was missing its head. The other two had gone somewhere under the broken stone.

She put the damaged pair in a separate loop on her quiver.

Her thumb stayed against the new bow's grip.

“It didn't pull low,” she said.

“No.”

“On the stairs. I thought I was going to rush the draw.”

Jin looked at the bow, then at the two ruined arrows.

“You didn't.”

She nodded once, still looking down.

He waited beside her until she was ready to join the others.

“Eight good ones,” she said. “Enough to get home.”

The quarry owner arrived with twelve gold in a little wooden box. Rusk set six aside for his own crew, then pushed two each toward Jin, Kessa and Lark.

Jin looked at the coins.

“You caught me.”

Rusk glanced at his newly set shoulder.

“Next time, be lighter.”

The chapter appears on the page where its author publishes, but it was copied here without approval; reading there supports them.

Jin closed his fingers over the two gold.

At the gate, a woman in a patched red coat was waiting beside a narrow handcart. She had a chain wrapped around her left forearm, each link padded where it touched her skin.

She saw the collar in Lark's hand and stopped.

“Well,” she said. “That saves us chasing it.”

Rusk's expression changed.

The woman with the chain had stopped just outside the lamplight. Rusk beckoned her closer with two fingers.

She came, reluctantly.

Whatever stood between them, it wasn't the collar.

“Nell.”

“Rusk.”

Her gaze moved to the sling the bonesetter had improvised.

“Sorry.”

He didn't answer immediately.

She looked at the three of them.

“Which one made it clap?”

Jin kept his hand down.

Kessa pointed at him.

“Betrayed for nothing,” he said.

Nell studied him, then took a folded card from her coat.

“Merrit wants to meet you. Tomorrow evening. South-wall yard. He heard it from the man who went to fetch more shields.”

“I don't train bell-eaters.”

“Good. Neither do we, apparently.”

Rusk snorted, then regretted it.

Jin looked at the handcart. It carried a blanket, two water flasks and an absurdly small basket.

“You came for that thing with this?”

“I came to see where it had gone.” Nell tapped the basket. “There's no bell-eater in there.”

“Disappointing. Excellent business model.”

She held the card out again.

“Three gold for a performance. Two silver now, if you're interested. He wants the collar returned too.”

Jin looked at the card, which remained completely unreadable.

Then at Lark.

“It says three gold,” Lark said. “Tomorrow. Eight in the evening.”

“What sort of performance?”

Nell's mouth pulled sideways.

“You and a creature. Show him what you did. If you don't like the arrangement, return the advance and leave.”

“Is he expecting a beastmaster?”

“He's expecting a crowd.”

Jin took the card.

“I'd like to look first.”

Nell put two silver into his palm.

“Look with your eyes. Not your neck.”

She left the collar with Lark, pointing out a little spring clasp beneath its torn leather before walking away.

Rusk watched her go.

“She used to hold the gate for my crew.”

“Why leave?”

“Show work pays even when nobody gets bitten.”

Jin looked at the card again.

“An industry leader in optimism.”

They walked back to Aster. Kessa set the pace; Lark carried the collar, and nobody suggested singing.

At the inn, Jin put his two gold and the advance with his old coins in the chest: two gold, thirty-nine silver and ninety-seven copper. He left the card beside them. Lark took the collar to his own room across the hall.

Jin left his pin and knife in the borrowed cage and went home empty-handed.

His phone was still charging.

Yu-ra answered on the second ring.

“Home?”

“Home.”

“How was it?”

He sat down carefully.

“Ape. Very large hands. Appreciated the arts.”

“You got hit.”

“A few reviews were mixed.”

“Jin.”

He told her about the clap, the vent and Rusk's shoulder. She listened without interrupting.

“Did the others get back?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

For a moment neither spoke.

“I'm glad you called,” she said.

“Promised.”

“I know.”

After they hung up, he found a message from Theo.

Saw the chair clip. You owe me royalties for every time I've had to sit through you.

Jin was typing a very reasonable refusal when the next message arrived.

Also. You're on her stream.

Below it was a screenshot of Yu-ra's animated avatar holding a tiny red ribbon.

The title read: YES, THE IDIOT IS MINE.