Then he and Quin shared a brief look between them, an unspoken goodbye, before Quin moved toward Shinobu and John ran toward Maud.
“You heard me,” John said as he arrived at her side. He looked shaken, and he was massaging the wound beneath his shoulder, which must be aching after the fight, but he also looked triumphant. “You heard me in your mind,” he said.
“I did,” she answered.
The Young Dread observed something different in John’s gaze. He was not looking over his shoulder to see where Quin would go or what the Middle’s servant boys were doing. He’d returned to the Young Dread, and she had his full attention.
“I’ve made my choice,” he told her. There was no need for him to say more; it was entirely clear that he had chosen to master himself and train with her.
She rested a hand on John’s shoulder and said, “Good. We will go to the next cave from your mother’s journal now.”
He was still out of breath from the fight and his run down the canopy. “No rest first?” he asked, with half a smile crossing his face.
“Rest?” she repeated. “Now, after the heat of a fight, is the best time to train your mind.”
Quin leaned against the face of the sail and edged her way toward Shinobu across the narrow lip of the girder protruding beneath the canvas. He was carefully making his way to her as well. He was wearing the focal, and his eyes were bright with something like terror. When they were close enough to each other, he grabbed Quin’s arms.
“Quin, I’m sorry. I left you. When I saw the disruptors firing, I—I…”
He looked completely shaken, and Quin guessed she must look exactly the same. The bombardment by disruptors had pushed her past her limit of endurance. He was holding her up, and she was grateful for it. Her legs weren’t quite able to hold her anymore.
“How did you get rid of them?” she asked.
“Oh God…I have so much to tell you.” He looked down to where the boys were now leaping back onto the first sail in a full-speed exit. Aircars were circling above the Bridge, loudspeakers ordering everyone off the canopy. “We should get out of sight.”
They edged their way back to the flap she’d cut and ducked beneath it together.
“I’ve got to take off the focal,” he told her.
Shinobu put his hands to the sides of the helmet, and with what appeared to be an immense amount of difficulty, he slowly pulled it off. As if it were too hot to touch, he dropped it onto the girder and used his foot to keep it from falling. Then, grabbing his head with both hands, he collapsed against the crisscrossed steel trusses.
“I see two of everything when I wear it,” he muttered. “Two sides to everything, and one side is so bad…”
Quin’s leg muscles were shaking. She sank to her knees and pulled him down with her, holding him against her tightly. The jangle of aftershock from the fight ran through her body. She caught a glimpse through the rip in the canvas: far below, John and Maud were disappearing into the shadow of a neighboring sail, moving in the opposite direction from the retreating boys. She averted her eyes from the steep drop.
“Quin,” Shinobu breathed, beginning to recover. He took her face between his hands and looked at her as though amazed to find her unharmed. She was shivering, the adrenaline still coursing through her, yet the intensity of his gaze made her feel warm all over. He kissed her softly again and again on her lips and cheeks and neck. “I’m so sorry I left you. I shouldn’t have left. How could I leave?”
“You scared me,” she whispered, holding on to his arms so he wouldn’t let go of her. “I thought I hadn’t been careful enough about hiding the focal and maybe it had done something irreversible to you.”
“I’m all right. I understand it now. Are you all right?”
Quin nodded. She was all right, though she was trembling uncontrollably. Now the canopy was trembling as well—a faint vibration from an athame was reaching up to them through the sail. The boys were leaving—or perhaps it was John and Maud. Shinobu’s gaze turned from her to look out through the tear in the canvas, as if he’d had the same thought.
“John was here,” he said. “Why? Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head. The confrontation with John felt as though it had happened days