Yan stayed in the inn’s deep bath until the water cooled around his shoulders. The road dust had taken three days to settle into his clothes and hair; the hot water loosened the last of it. He leaned his head against the smooth stone and considered whether the bath was large enough to count as a room.
Bai knocked on the wooden screen. “Have you become part of the plumbing?”
Yan opened one eye. “The water is clean and hot. I’m considering staying.”
“Then I’ll have the innkeeper charge you rent.”
“I’ll pay in compliments.”
“That doesn’t cover soap.”
Ning laughed from the next room. The inn had given her a quiet bed away from Ashfall’s furnace smoke. She had washed her hair and hung it to dry near an open window. When Yan stepped out, she was pinning her clinic notes inside a cloth case.
“Ready to eat?” he asked.
