Chapter 80: Hospitality Is a Contact Sport

Nell met the charge with the door.

The ironmouth's teeth punched through the lower panel. Wood split across the threshold. Nell stepped aside as its head came through, letting the ruined door take the weight instead of her knees.

Lark cut across its shoulder.

Dark blood streaked the pale floor.

The creature twisted toward him, jaws working. Kessa's arrow struck its flank before it could drive him against the wall.

Jin threw his pack onto the dry landing and came around the nearest pillar.

“This way.”

The ironmouth followed the sound.

Its claws went through the first grille. The bars bent beneath its weight, exposing a narrow channel of boiling runoff.

It stopped to drink.

Steam curled around the little ears. Its eyes stayed on Lark while its mouth dipped into the hot stream, as though drinking and planning to bite him were entirely compatible occupations.

Jin had been ready to throw a loose stone. He lowered his hand instead.

Lark checked his next stroke.

“Hungry?”

The creature lifted its bloody mouth and hissed at him.

The window opened in front of Jin.

Jin looked at his pack.

Then at the water.

“No,” Kessa said.

He hadn't spoken.

“Your face,” she told him.

Nell's chain caught the creature's left foreleg as it lunged again. She gave ground along the solid edge of the floor, drawing its head away from the landing.

Jin took out Jory's mug.

“This is a terrible use of a gift,” he muttered.

He wrapped a fold of his outer shirt around the handle, dipped the mug into the broken fountain's running spout and pulled it back before the heat reached his fingers.

The ironmouth turned toward the splash.

It wanted the drink.

It also wanted him.

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Jin came forward along the stone strip beside the channel. Four short steps from the pillar to the fountain, finding firm ground under each foot. He recorded the line, returned to the pillar and held the mug out.

The creature hauled Nell half a pace closer.

“Soon,” she said.

Jin moved in.

The jaws opened.

He tipped the mug before the teeth could close around it.

Hot water poured into the waiting mouth.

The creature swallowed, snapped forward and bit the handle off.

Jin jerked the mug's body clear.

He shoved the damaged mug beneath the stair rail, out of the creature's reach.

“One-star customer.”

The ironmouth came after him.

Its teeth caught the chain Nell was drawing clear. She slackened the links before the jaw could get a clean grip. The animal threw its head aside, expecting resistance, and stumbled when none came.

Lark moved with the stumble, keeping the creature's shoulders turned toward the fountain.

Jin used those ordinary steps to get around the pillar. He could see the start now, a pale chip at its base. He didn't have to cross the broken grille to reach it.

Nell let the chain slide rather than lose her fingers. Lark met the swinging head with the flat of his wooden sword, carrying the bite past Jin's shoulder as he reached the start.

Jin reached the start, selected Impact Hitch and drove toward the fountain.

Four strides.

The creature turned into his arrival, mouth still open from the failed bite.

He planted his heel and drove his knife beneath the jaw.

The saved rush carried the point through the soft hinge.

His trace vanished.

The ironmouth hit the fountain's broken base. Lark held its foreleg back until the last claw stopped scraping.

Jin stayed clear as the body broke into light.

A little curved piece of painted clay fell out of empty air.

He picked it up.

The mug had lost most of its handle. The creature wearing trousers still smiled from its side, absurdly pleased with the service.

Kessa took the mug while he unwrapped his shirt from his hand.

“Jory can mend it,” she said.

“I should have bought a cheap one.”

“You'd have tried to keep that too.”

He couldn't argue.

The little painted crown had survived. He wiped a thumb over it, careful of the sharp rim, and made himself put the mug down before looking at the new points. The handle could wait. The creature couldn't come back to take another piece.

Jin put two into Strength, one into Agility and two into Endurance.

Nell looked from the empty floor to the mug.

“Another task?”

Jin nodded.

“Reward?”

He nodded again.

She considered this with a gate worker's expression.

“Your employer's a criminal.”

“I'm gathering evidence.”

Edrin's crew came through the broken door behind them. The young hunter in blue took in the blood, the steam and the mug in Kessa's hands.

“You gave it tea?”

“Hot water,” Jin said.

“Of course. Tea would have been excessive.”

Jin put the broken handle inside the mug and wrapped both in the bread cloth. He returned it to his pack.

Across the hall, a broad west arch led into darkness beyond the reach of the viewing stones.

Nell tightened the brass badge's cord around her wrist.

“All four,” she said.

They went through together.