The broken blade spun past Jin's cheek.
Rook followed it with a thrust.
Jin twisted. Steel opened the wet sleeve above his elbow and struck the step behind him.
He shoved the knife's surviving stump against Rook's wrist.
The handler punched him in the mouth.
Jin went backward down two steps, tasted blood and stayed upright.
“There's your lesson,” Rook said.
The sword came again.
Jin ducked beneath it. The edge scraped sparks from the quarry wall, close enough to fill his ear with the ring.
Then Garran snatched the fallen pole from the water and hooked Rook behind the knee.
The man stumbled, recovered and stamped on the shaft. Wood cracked. Garran let it go before the twist could take his good hand with it.
Kessa's spear darted toward Rook's chest.
He turned the sword across it, forcing the point wide.
Jin hit him.
Not the sword. Not the hand holding it.
His shoulder drove into Rook's ribs.
The handler grunted and slipped down a step. Jin followed, grabbing the red scarf before the man could recover his reach.
Rook's elbow struck his temple.
The quarry tilted.
Jin hung on.
Water closed over his shoe. Beneath it lay the broad stone he'd tested before climbing into the stolen bed.
He could feel where his heel belonged.
MARKED STEP: READY.
Jin planted it.
Rook tried to haul him sideways. His scarf stretched between their chests.
Jin's foot held.
One heartbeat.
He let go of the scarf, caught the sword wrist and turned beneath the reaching arm. His hip found Rook's weight.
The old Academy turn.
This time there was water underfoot, blood in his mouth and a man trying to kill him.
His legs held anyway.
Kessa swept Rook's rear ankle with the butt of her spear.
Jin drove through the turn.
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The handler hit the submerged stone with a splash that drenched them both.
The sword came free. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Jin caught it by the hilt, staggered back and pointed it at Rook's throat.
Two heartbeats. The hold faded.
Rook started to rise.
Kessa's point settled beneath his jaw.
Garran put one boot on his chest.
“Stay,” the veteran said.
For once, somebody did.
Jin stood over him, breathing through his open mouth. The stolen sword felt heavier than he'd expected. His arms shook, but he kept the point steady.
Rook looked from one weapon to the other.
“I can pay you.”
Jin spat blood into the water.
“You keep saying that to people whose money you took.”
“Ten silver.”
“Wrong customer.”
Bram arrived with the leather straps from the bell box. They bound Rook's hands while Garran and Kessa kept him between their weapons.
Jin looked toward the platform.
One helper sat behind the overturned chair with both hands on his head. The bowl man was gone.
“He ran,” Tamsin said. “While you were teaching.”
Jin handed Garran his sword.
The veteran took it in his left hand.
For a moment he only looked at the blade.
Then he tapped its flat against Jin's shoulder.
“Better.”
Jin laughed. It hurt his lip.
“Your reviews are terrible.”
They walked Rook back with his bells wrapped in his own scarf. Bram carried the remaining box. Tamsin fished her light pin out of the pool with Kessa's spear, swearing about the water in her boots.
Jin helped retrieve the bronze collar and the broken steel. Nobody asked him to carry the mattress.
He was almost disappointed.
At the watch building, the guard took one look at Rook and ran for the village reeve.
By first light, four armed riders had arrived with the reeve and a locked iron cashbox.
“Twenty for him alive,” the reeve said. “Ten for the glassmaw collar. We've been holding the money all month. I'd started to think we were saving for our funerals.”
He tipped silver onto the table.
Thirty coins.
The reeve pointed at him.
“You don't get a share.”
Bram counted six little piles before anyone could stop him.
Garran moved the sixth pile back into the other five.
“You aren't two people.”
“I brought the reel.”
“And I brought the sword.”
“Fine.”
Jin took his six silver.
One went to Tamsin, who made a beautiful performance of not looking relieved.
Two went to Bram for the replacement reel he'd chosen. The boy stopped arguing immediately.
Another paid for a steel hunting knife at the stall by the gate. Jin gave it to Kessa, together with the broken hilt.
She tested its balance.
“This one's better.”
“Your old one met a difficult client.”
She smiled and slipped it into her belt.
Jin closed his hand around the two coins left.
His. Still his after paying everybody. He opened his fingers to check.
Still there.
Siv arrived with hot bread and a bruise-colored apple jam. Mistress Vell came to demand her bed back, discovered it was recoverable and fed them breakfast anyway.
Rook left between the riders. Garran watched until the bells disappeared around the bend, then sat down beside Kessa and reached for the jam.
Jin took a bite of bread.
For the first time since the awakening hall, nobody was asking him to prove he deserved it.
Then the stallholder hurried across the yard with a folded note.
“A courier left this before dawn,” she told Garran. “From a buyer in Riverbend. Thought it was about your catch.”
Garran read it.
His hand stopped halfway to the jam.
“What?” Jin asked.
Kessa leaned over his shoulder.
“Five gold,” she said.
Jin sat up.
“For what?”
“The Beast Bride.”
Garran looked at him.
“Alive.”