Page 30 of The Only Way Out Is Up

I give a modest shrug. “There’s lots of crossbeams lower down. It’s only a challenge for the last fifty meters or so.”

“But—if there was a junk delivery from Above while you were coming up, it’d scrape you off the wall like a bug!”

“It’s a risk, yeah.” I give a sheepish grin. “Hasn’t happened yet, though.”

“Skies Above,” she says, shaking her head. “Okay, you’re insane, let’s file that away. You’d go back the same way?”

“That was the plan.” I look down at the glove and wiggle my fingers. “I may need to fix this first.” Though where I’m going to get a STRONG sigil on Yesod in the middle of the night, I have no idea. I might be able to cannibalize one from Star, but he’d never let me hear the end of it. “And there’s no way I could take both of us.”

“I have easier ways to commit suicide, thanks. I’ve got a better idea. It’ll get us down to Malkuth, and we can hide out there for a bit. You coming?”

Star speaks up. [Query: do you trust her?]

Not really.

I consider. I could cut my losses, retreat to the sewers and deal with the damaged glove, then climb back down on my own. But that would leave me back where I started, with Clawmark enforcers breathing down my neck, only without any leads. While nothing about tonight has gone as I intended, I have at least managed to meet up with Ky again. I should stay with her at least long enough to hear this mysterious job offer.

But we’ll stick with her for now, I tell Star.

[Assessment: uncertain.]

No kidding.

“Yeah,” I say aloud. “Lead the way.”

To enter Yesod, one has to use the heavily guarded main stairways, where polite but insistent Arbiters check passes and inspect bags. Leaving, on the other hand, ought to be comparatively simple; anyone on Yesod, by definition, has permission to go to Malkuth, so it’s just a matter of finding the right door.

In our case, however, there are additional complications. While the ways down aren’t as fortified as the ways up, they’re still watched, in case anybody from down below tries to circumvent the one-way gates and razor wire. Arbiters can grab you and demand to see your pass on any vague suspicion; you’d have to be lucky indeed to avoid them entirely.

Our luck runs out when we’re nearly there, passing through a park lined with leafy green trees. (Trees! My mind still boggles sometimes.) At the other end, Ky tells me, is a barely used passage to the lower tier. Before we can reach it, a woman in a dark blue uniform strolls nonchalantly out from behind a hedge and smiles humorlessly.

“Shit,” Ky hisses. “Okay. Just hold still and let me talk to her.”

My backpack squirms. Star is tucked away in there, annoyed about not being able to see properly. [Query: what is happening?]

Arbiter.

[Suggestion: if you let me out quietly, I can take them by surprise.]

Ky says she can handle it.

[Reminder: you said you did not trust her.]

Entirely fair. But if we were to kill an Arbiter, I can’t even imagine the consequences. Better to let Ky take her shot. She puts on a haughty smile and strides forward to meet the woman as though she has every right in the world to be exactly where she pleases.

“Miss,” the Arbiter says curtly. “Mind telling me where you’re going? And identifying your… companion?”

She looks me over with obvious suspicion. Ky isn’t exactly well-dressed at the moment, but her clothes are still of a cut and quality suitable for Yesod, while my own attire makes me look like, well, a thief, and a bloodstained thief at that.

“I do, in fact,” she says. “And my companion is my own responsibility. Come along.”

She takes a step forward, but the Arbiter puts out a hand to block her path.

“Pass?” the woman says.

“I’m sorry?” Ky sounds genuinely offended. “Are you serious?”

“Pass. Now.”