Free Suited by Jo Anderton

ball as my body ached to do. I had killed a Half. She was just like him.
    Lad squeezed me. “Wish Kich was here.”
    “Me too.”
    I clambered through the wreckage of the factory door with difficulty. The afternoon light was failing. Laxbell must have sounded, unheard in this strange part of the city. For how many bells had we collected, then followed the will of the Keeper?
    We had to be back by Duskbell. I had to pass Lad to Kichlan and try and convince him that nothing strange had happened, certainly nothing that had made me fear for his brother’s life. On the first day.
    “Shouldn’t we go and look for them? How long have they been gone? Something might have happened to them!” Aleksey paced between Mizra and Natasha where they waited at the end of the alleyway. I could see Aleskey’s tension from the factory door.
    “What, like the ceiling falling in?” Mizra drawled.
    Natasha snorted a short laugh.
    Aleksey stopped dead. “That’s just the kind of thing– Why do you think this is funny?”
    “Here we are!” Lad called, his voice echoing too loudly from the rickety roof.
    Natasha and Mizra tried to hold Aleksey back, but he shook them off like they were children and ran across the courtyard. “Are you both all right?” He stared intently at Lad, then flicked his gaze to me. I couldn’t meet his eyes. Did he see the blood on my sleeve, the death on my hands?
    “Glad to be outside.” Lad wrinkled his nose. “Was old in there and smelled and there were loops that Tan explained.” He paused only to breathe, and I laid a hand on his arm.
    “Now, now,” I whispered. “Don’t say too much.”
    Lad checked himself, looked away from Aleksey and noticed Mizra. “Miz!” He hurried across the courtyard. “We saw loops!”
    I wobbled without his support. Aleksey noticed, and took my arm as we left the factory. “Did you, ah, find– No, collect any debris?” He stumbled over the words, unsure what to say, unwilling to let the silence and unexplained absence fester between us. It felt strange. Kichlan preferred to leave things unsaid; he could chew on silence for a sixnight and one and never grow tired of the taste.
    “No.” I said, hoping he would be quiet. At least with Aleksey in tow, Mizra and Natasha could not push me for answers. I was thankful for that.
    A cold Movoc evening wind sliced against my face. The pion-created light from lamps along the street flickered into life, too brilliant. My head hurt. “Lad and I need to go.” I thanked Aleksey, and swapped his arm for Lad’s. I turned to Natasha. “I have to get him back to Kichlan.” My voice sounded so distant, even to my own ears.
    “Take him. We’ll go back to Ironlattice and put this away.” She hefted the bag slung over her shoulder. Metallic jars – most still empty – clanged within. “And see you tomorrow.”
    Duskbell sounded, and we walked. Lad fretted, inhibited by my failing strength.
    Finally, we returned to the street corner. Kichlan was pacing, followed a few steps behind by Sofia. I paused at the sight of her. I had expected Kichlan to be waiting on his own.
    As soon as Lad saw his brother he released my arm, shouted, and barrelled through the thin stream of pion-binders making their way home this Frostday evening. A few shocked or irritated glances followed him, but nothing more sinister. I felt thin, strung out by my fear for him, by the day’s constant concern. Was this what Kichlan’s life was always like?
    Kichlan turned to be swept into Lad’s arms. I stopped, still on the other side of the street, and considered leaving them. Turning into the stream of people and being washed away by it, allowing it to carry me home. Surely it would be easier than facing Kichlan.
    But Sofia wasn’t about to let me do that. She pushed her small but solid way across the street, took my hand and drew me through the throng. “What are you doing?” she muttered, the whole way. “He was worried about you. You could at least