Felicity had promised to come back when it got light. The first gray stripe had barely reached the vault floor when she eased Victor's wing off her legs, collected the mouse, the dried fish and the bell ball, and worked her way out from under Voss's arm. He caught her around the waist in his sleep. She put his hand on the warm spot she'd left, kissed his crooked ear, and made it upstairs in time to hear the little boy telling his sister there was still plenty of morning left.
She filled their water bottle at the barrel outside the cupboard and knocked with the hand that held the ball. One clear jingle came through the wood, followed by a scramble and the sound of somebody trying to look dignified after turning over a bucket.
"I said I'd come when it got light. I hope nobody got out the good china." She sat on the floor outside the cupboard and rolled the ball across the threshold. The girl caught it with both hands and shook it beside her ear. Her brother stayed by the bucket until Felicity passed him a strip of fish. He broke it exactly in half for his sister before he saw there was a second one.
"You didn't have to share that one, sweetheart. I counted two of you yesterday, and I've had a very quiet night to check my math."
"I'm Frost," he said. "She's Luna. She wanted to tell you last night, but you might have gone away."
Felicity gave him the stuffed mouse. One seam had worn thin enough to show a puff of white stuffing, and he tucked it back in with his good hand. "I used to save telling people things until I knew they were going to stay, too," she said. "Sometimes that gets lonely. You can ask me when I'm coming back as often as you like."
Luna crawled straight into her lap. "Stay a bit longer, Mummy." Felicity had been reaching for the water bottle. Her hand missed it, and Frost caught it before it fell. His sister had already settled with her ear over Felicity's heart, entirely unaware of what she'd just done to it.
"I've got time for breakfast," Felicity managed. She held them both while they ate. When she finally needed to stand, Luna pressed a chipped marble into her palm. A faint light shone through the nick in the glass. Luna said it was for protection, and Felicity put it in her pocket with the same care she'd seen Victor give his best blade.
Voss was sitting barefoot at the other end of the hall. He opened an arm, and she went into it. "She called me Mummy," she whispered against his sweater. "I thought I ought to tell someone before I spend the rest of the day telling absolutely everyone."
"Tell Victor first. I'd like to be in the room when he realizes he married you barely a week ago and he's got two children to feed by lunch." Voss let her laugh into his chest until she could face going downstairs. At lunch Victor cut two extra pieces of bread without a word, and after that nobody had to remind him.
For the next four mornings Felicity went back. Frost grew comfortable enough to complain that the fish left little bones in his teeth. Luna brought her a different bit of broken glass each day for an opinion on whether it counted as jewelry. One evening, repairing the mouse's loose seam between her husbands, Felicity let slip that she'd been an orphan. Her foster mother had kept everybody fed and never learned which children hated peas. It was surprising how much you could miss someone remembering a small thing like that. The next morning Voss sat picking bones out of a strip of dried fish with the tip of his knife.
By then the cubs came downstairs of their own accord. They were with Finch when Tommy's alarm wire rang in the lower corridor. Felicity knew the sound. She had barely turned before a hand closed on her satchel and pulled it off her shoulder. A rat beastman handed it to a boar behind him. A third man had his boot against the service door to keep it open.
"We've got people who need a healer," the rat said. His fingers reached for her wrist. "We only need to borrow you."
Felicity stepped back onto his foot and shouted for Tommy. A moment later the boar hit the wall hard enough to crack a tile, with Victor's fist still in his shirt. Rose caught a second man by the ankle. When the rat made for the door with Felicity still inside his reach, Tommy pulled water from the wash trough and drove him halfway up the wall. He slid down unconscious in a puddle beside her bag.
The wolfhound matron came running, furious at men she'd just seen try to take "my healer." That little word, my, cost Felicity what patience she had left. "You could have asked me to come along. Instead, I'm explaining to two children why somebody tried to drag me out of the building. We'll be leaving with them in the morning."
Victor backed her in front of the whole lobby. Voss took the satchel off the floor and made the men who'd tried to take her leave the bank as soon as the rat could walk. Later, behind the closed vault door, Victor laid a map across their bedding. Tidehaven on the coast had running water, power and paid work. He'd give up the bank before he'd ask her to sleep another night with one ear turned toward that alarm.
At first light Felicity put the question to the cubs. Frost already had the mouse packed. Luna put her hand in Felicity's and asked if there was breakfast where they were going. "There is if he comes along," Felicity told her, pointing to Victor. "I married very well on that front."
They took the east road with Frost tucked against Voss. By the time Felicity smelled salt, both children had made her stop to look at six things they personally considered treasure. Beyond the sea wall, a lamp came on over a closed gate. A woman with a spear stepped out of the water beside it and pointed the blade at Victor's chest.