Chapter 69 A Brief Announcement

“I thought I'd at least keep my feet,” Jin said from the sofa.

Theo set his training bag upright.

“That statement has put people in hospitals.”

Jin got up. He tried the stance once more with the smaller practice pad.

His hands caught it. His feet slid.

No field. No held pressure.

He put the pad down before Theo could hit him again.

“The technique works there. The part that keeps the weight from going through me doesn't.”

Theo looked at the blue tape on the floor.

“Your other skill catches you.”

“Me arriving. Not something arriving at me.”

“Perhaps stop inviting heavy things.”

He picked up his bag and paused at the door.

He left the smaller pad hanging from the apartment's old exercise bracket. Jin usually took it down after practice; this time he left the strap looped in place.

“You watched my whole run Friday.”

Jin looked up.

“I want you there next time too. That's all.”

“I'll be there.”

Theo nodded and went.

Jin stood in the quiet room for a moment, then put the blue tape away.

At eight that evening, he was in Merrit's ring with a knife at his hip, his phone in his hand and several people arguing over how quickly he'd be eaten.

He'd carried the phone back in the zipped bag, then left the bag and purse at the inn. Lark had come with him again.

Nell was fastening the old bell-eater collar around the rattlecat's thick neck behind the west gate. She'd cut away the ruined leather. The spring clasp shone bronze as she worked. Someone had replaced its broken hinge pin; fresh hammer marks showed beneath the new rivet.

“Does that control it?” Jin asked through the bars.

“Catches a tug. Once. Long enough to get a chain on.”

“Once?”

“Then it needs charging again. Don't rely on it.”

Above them, Merrit lifted both hands to the benches.

“The quarry's famous beastmaster!”

“Not a beastmaster,” Jin called.

This page copied a chapter from NovelPhoenix without the author's permission; the author's version is the one that supports them.

The audience laughed.

“Modesty,” Merrit assured them.

The window opened.

Jin looked at his phone.

Then at Merrit.

“May I provide a statement?”

“Please.”

He moved to the ring's edge and opened the voice recorder. Wearing his pin, he spoke the announcement into it; Lark listened to the Common words and started to smile.

The finished recording ran fifty-eight seconds. Jin checked the timer, then the volume. His phone had enough battery for considerably more embarrassment than this.

Merrit leaned over the rail to look at the little device.

“A speaking stone?”

“Something like that.”

“Would you sell it?”

“You haven't paid for the first performance.”

Lark covered his mouth with one hand.

“Too long?” Jin asked.

“For your funeral? Not nearly.”

He tested the first sentence at full volume. The nearest row heard his recorded voice quite clearly. Lark repeated the words back without needing anyone to translate them. A woman in the second row demanded that he speak up when he died.

Jin moved her stool closer to the phone's place on the rail.

“Premium seating.”

He walked two routes from a flat white stone in the sand: three strides left toward a low step beneath the benches, four right to the west post. He chose the left as his first escape. Both shared the same start.

Nell looked at him through the gate.

“Ready?”

“Professionally.”

He pressed play, set the phone flat on the rail and went to the white stone.

His own voice filled the sudden hush.

I, Kang Jin, hereby announce my defeat. Friends, creditors and people who came hoping for a refund—

The gate rose.

The rattlecat came out low and fast.

Jin moved left.

Its tail hit the sand where his leg had been. Bone punched a shallow crater beside the stone.

He reached the low step, planted his heel and turned with his knife raised.

“Left!” Lark shouted.

“Left!” the rattlecat answered from his right.

Jin started toward the voice.

Its teeth grazed his sleeve.

He fell back against the step and kicked it across the muzzle.

—remember me as a man who tried very hard to be paid in advance—

The jaws closed on his knife's spine.

He let his elbow fold instead of trying to hold the blade still. Its head came past his shoulder; he drove his knee up beneath the jaw and wrenched the knife free.

The horn plates rattled along its back.

Jin saw the tail fan rise.

He dropped flat.

Bone struck the underside of the audience rail.

The front row stopped laughing.

Nell caught the control chain and leaned back. The collar flashed. For a heartbeat the creature stopped as though it had hit a wall.

Then the spring clasp cracked open.

It whipped around toward her.

Merrit shouted something from above the gate. Jin heard only keep them watching.

Lark jumped into the ring.

His wooden blade struck the tail before it could sweep Nell's knees. Silver light opened a bright cut across the fan.

The creature screamed in Jin's voice.

It sprang toward the gap under the rail.

Toward the woman who'd asked him to speak up.

Jin got both hands around its hind leg and pulled.

—and if, despite all my reasonable precautions, I have been eaten—

The beast dragged him through the sand.

He could hear the rest of his announcement coming.

There wasn't much left.