"No," he answered. "Never."
Will nodded and Clara took his hand, but it was Jacob she looked at as his brother pressed his hand onto the glass.
And then they were gone, and Jacob saw just himself in the warped glass.
* * * * *
Fox was waiting where he had left her.
"What was the price?" she asked as she followed him to the carriage.
"The price for what?"
Jacob unhitched the horses. He would take them to Chanute, as compensation for the packhorse he'd lost. He could only hope that the Goyl would treat his mare well.
"What was the price for your brother?" Fox shifted her shape.
She was wearing her own dress again. It suited her so much better than the dress she had worn in the city.
"Don't worry about it. It's already paid."
"With what?"
She knew him too well.
"Like I said. It's paid. What's the Dwarf up to?"
Fox looked toward the stables. "Collecting his gold. It'll take him days. I was really looking forward to seeing him covered in stinking pollen."
She looked at the sky. It had begun to snow again. "We should head south."
"Maybe."
Jacob felt under his shirt for the imprint of the moth.
"You have maybe a year."
"Well? A lot could be done in a year. In this world, there was a cure for everything.
He had only to find it. Somewhere.
acob!
Will let go of Clara's hand. He looked at him, stunned, as Jacob stepped out from between the walls, but there was no rage on his brother's face, no hatred. The jade-skinned stranger had disappeared, though Will was still wearing the gray uniform.
He went up to Jacob, his eyes fixed on his chest as if he could still see the blood gushing out after the Goyl's bullet hit him, and then he hugged him, clutching him hard as he used to when they were children.
"I thought you were dead. And I knew it couldn't be true."
Will.
He stepped back and looked at Jacob as if to make sure there was nothing missing.
"How did you do it?" He pushed back the gray sleeve and touched his soft skin. "It's gone!"
He turned to Clara. "I told you Jacob would figure it out. I don't know how, but he always could."
"I know." She smiled, and in her eyes Jacob saw everything that had happened.