Page 56 of The Only Way Out Is Up

“We really made it,” I breathe. “A hundred stripes.” If you’d told me a month ago, I’d have laughed in your face.

“We’re not done yet,” she says, grinning. “There’s still a month before the Ascent starts. We’ll build up the main pot a bit more, then use it to upgrade Star.”

I nod eagerly. I already have plans for the Mark 5. I’ve picked up some tricks from our opponents, and I have an idea for increasing his total output by stringing multiple MOVE sigils along the same line—

“Or, you know, just saying, we could keep doing this until we’re all rich enough to buy palaces,” Weslai says. “Throwing that out there. Think about it.”

“Money won’t get me to Hod,” Ky says.

“Yeah, but what’s so great about Hod, really?”

“Besides.” Ky glances at me, as though worried I might be tempted. “This is a pittance compared to what we’ll get if Taj does well in the Ascent.”

She doesn’t have to convince me. I don’t just want to feed my family; I want them in a place where they’ll never have to worry about thugs or Twisted ever again.

“Yeah, but I’m not getting a cut of that, am I?” Weslai sighs. “Fine, fine. You’re the client.”

“I’m going to deposit this,” Ky says. “Taj, you’re going to make sure Star is ready for tonight?”

“He’s ready.” Frankly he’s taken so little damage in the last few fights that maintenance has become trivial. “I thought I might, um, come along with you. For protection.” I give an awkward shrug. “It’s a lot of money you’re carrying, that’s all.”

How exactly I would be able to protect Ky (without Star to back me up) is open to question. Fortunately, I get the sense she doesn’t buy my excuse; she puts her head to one side, then smiles one of those radiant smiles.

“I could use someone to watch my back, sure. Come on.”

We walk to a different part of Malkuth, one I haven’t visited before. It looks a lot more… official, for lack of a better word, which kind of gives me the creeps. Arbiters are everywhere, patrolling in pairs and—equally creepy—greeting the residents with smiles instead of harassing them. The people we see are well-dressed, for Malkuth, and give a general impression of prosperity.

A wide-open square forms the heart of an orderly market, with vendors in neat rows and shops with broad windows lining the outsides. Children run freely under the tolerant eyes of parents and Arbiters, rather than drawing curses and kicks as they do in the densely packed slums. It feels halfway to Yesod, and when I mention this Ky nods.

“One of the main stairs is just over there,” she says. “There’s plenty of visitors, so the Arbiters keep things orderly.”

She doesn’t seem at all worried by this, though she has her hair—easily her most distinguishing feature—bound up under a cap again. I have to stop myself from looking away every time an Arbiter meets my gaze. That just makes me look suspicious.

“Relax,” Ky says without turning her head. “We belong here.”

“You belong here, maybe.”

“It’s all about attitude. Here.” She steps closer, until we bump shoulders, and puts her arm through mine. “Does that help? We’re just a young couple running some errands.”

It does help, in the sense that it redirects my anxiety along entirely different lines. I haven’t gotten much opportunity to be alone with Ky since our flight from Yesod, and having her so close makes my palms sweat.

“Up there.”

She indicates a solid-looking two-story structure with the character for bank worked into its decorative facade. A man in a dark uniform nods to us and opens the door to an interior with a dozen tiny desks, each separated from the others by tall dividers. Ky strides up to the closest empty one and sits down, while I hover awkwardly behind her. In a few moments a clerk takes the seat opposite, pen poised over a ledger book.

“A deposit,” Ky says brightly, and sets the sack on the table. “For Eclamia Ginnick.”

“Very good, miss.” The clerk spills the coins into a tray and counts them, fingers blurring. “I make it ten stripes, two tenths, and five hundred eight bits.”

“Perfect. Thank you very much.”

And then we just leave, the whole transaction lasting less than a minute. Ky has explained to me how the bank works, but I still can’t bring myself to believe it.

“But how do you know they’ll give it back?” I say to her in low tones as we leave. “They’re the ones with the big building and all the guards. Why wouldn’t they just keep it?”

Ky sighs. “It’s like I’m lending it to them. Do people borrow money in the undercity?”

“All the time.”