The Yellow silk

CHAPTER 13

Li froze, sword still at Staso's neck. Tycho thought faster than he did. He spun the young woman around to face the stairs. "Stop him!" he hissed.

Startled, she spat out imperiously, "Don't come up!" Tycho prodded her and she added, "What is it?"

The unseen man on the stairs seemed taken aback by the orders from above. "I… I just came in with news and found the others trapped! It was Tycho-he must have escaped. Are you all right?"

Tycho's gaze darted to Li. The Shou grimaced. It had only been a matter of time! Tycho whispered hastily to Staso's interpreter. "I'm fine!" she called down. Her eyes were wide with shock and fear, and it seemed she relayed Tycho's words purely out of instinct. "Tycho must have gotten out!"

"Dilla says she didn't see him or his Shou friend come through the shop."

Tycho clenched his jaw. "Li?" he hissed.

"Li?" Staso's interpreter repeated out loud.

"Hooded?" asked the man on the stairs, Tycho winced and poked the young woman. She squeaked.

"Stall him!" Li said softly. He grabbed Staso's fallen hood with his free hand and tossed it to the scarred man. "Get that back on." At the stairs, Tycho whispered to the young woman-she called down to the man below to deliver his news.

The answer that came back wasn't good. "There's fire in dockside. A tavern called the Wench's Ease."

Tycho stiffened. Li's stomach tightened. An accident? It didn't seem likely. He hauled Staso to his feet, sword close to his neck. The long blade was awkward so close, and he would have dropped it for a dagger if he could have. "Tie her again," he told Tycho. "Fast." As the bard grabbed for the long piece of silk and looped it quickly around the interpreter's wrists, Li thrust Staso over to the head of the stairs. The man below-a guard even younger than the interpreter, it seemed-looked up and alarm spread across his face.

"Get off the stairs," Li ordered him. He said it slowly and clearly, making sure the young man understood every word-and that he ctrald see the sword at the Hooded's throat. "We're coming down. Keep all your men back!"

The man nodded. He stepped down the stairs backward and vanished. Li heard him yelling.

Staso snarled something out, a long threat. Li growled back at him, pulling the sword closer, but he just kept babbling harshly. Tycho gave the interpreter a shake. "What's he saying?"

The young woman swallowed. "Even if you get out, do you think I'm going to let this pass? You've threatened me. You've made me look weak in front of my men. You know my identity. You-"

"That's enough," said Li. He tightened his grip on Staso. "You listen to me," he said over the hooded man's unintelligible threats. "We're not going to tell anyone who you are. I gave you back your hood, didn't I? Keep peace with us and your identity stays a secret. Come after us or try to kill us, and his magic-" He nodded to Tycho. "-will whisper your secret and word of your hideout to every person in Spandeliyon. Including Brin. I'm sure he'd like to see you again."

That made Staso's voice stumble. "Good," Li said tightly. "You understand." He gave him a nudge onto the stairs. "Now move."

They went down slowly, Staso first. His interpreter they left bound in the upper room. As soon as they were on the stairs, she began screeching. Her shrieks followed them all the way down into the room at the foot of the stairs. The young guard was waiting below. "Out ahead of us," Li told him. He moved and they followed him out into the Hood-ed's hall. Two of the three guards Tycho had charmed into sleep were there, swords bared. Li made sure they saw his sword. "Keep back," he warned.

"Li," Tycho murmured, "the man with the crossbow isn't here."

"I know." He steered the Hooded to the door leading back down to the leatherworker's shop. Tycho darted ahead to pull the door open and moved back to keep an eye on the guards behind them. Li shoved Staso into the short hallway beyond, twisting him toward the murder slots in its wall. A shadow moved on the other side. "You'll kill him first," Li warned. The shadow shifted, though it didn't withdraw.

Tycho closed the door and drove his dagger into the floor to wedge it shut. Li nodded for him to pass the murder slots first and followed after, using Staso as hostage and shield.

The stairs down to the shop below were clear. The shopkeeper herself gave a sharp gasp at the sight of the Hooded held captive. "Open the door; then step away," said Li. She did and light flooded into the shop, throwing a sharp shadow behind her as she backed away into a corner. Tycho slipped cautiously through the door and peered up, checking for any new ambush and nodded. Safe.

Li took Staso right up to the doorstep and turned him around so they were both facing into the shop. "You should know," he said, "how close you came to dying when I thought you were Yu Mao. I may not be my brother, but you should be just as afraid of me."

He gave the hooded man a hard push that sent him stumbling away and jumped back through the door. He pulled it shutxm the sword blade, jamming the weapon between door and frame right at the level of the interior handle. The sharp metal would make it hard for anyone to pull the door open quickly from inside. Tycho was already up the stairs. Li leaped up after him and the bard handed him his dao. Crown Alley was quiet, the few people hastening along it and talking in sharp voices about the fire in dockside blissfully unaware of what had taken place above the leatherworker's shop. He and Tycho joined them in a slow, deliberate walk away from the Hooded's lair and back toward dockside. His heartbeat was thunder in his chest.

Tycho cursed with every breath. "How many balls are we juggling now, Li?"

"I don't know." He looked up and down toward the waterfront. Smoke stood stark against the late afternoon sky. They were a block beyond the Hooded's lair now. He glanced at Tycho. "When would be a good time to run?" "Now!" spat the bard. They ran.

Fire had claimed the Wench's Ease. Flames kissed every board and beam, turning gray wood to black char then to white-gray ash that glowed red underneath. The roof of the tavern had disappeared at one end, collapsed as the fire ate through the beams beneath. Smoke belched up through the ruin and into the sky, a thick cloud that cast a storm shadow over the yard-over the entire neighborhood. Cinders drifted back down like burning snow, sizzling as they hit the flowing muck melted by the fierce heat and churned up by the feet of a mob.

People were everywhere. Fisher folk. Merchants. Guards. Some had formed bucket gangs, scooping water from a nearby well or soft snow from fading drifts. Some were shouting over the fire's roar, screaming for a priest or a mage with the magic to quench the flames. Others had hooks on poles for pulling down burning walls or long brooms for beating out cinder fires.

No one, however, was trying to save the Ease. The tavern belonged to the flames. It was as good as gone. The mob worked to keep the blaze from spreading farther into dockside. People who had homes or shops in the other buildings around the yard were carrying out anything that was light enough to carry, frantic to save what they could. Tycho had a good idea where the priests and mages that they called for would be: working their magic farther uptown. Even if dockside burned, middle town would be safe.

His own magic was of no use here. The door of the Ease stood open and shattered, a portal into the heart of an inferno. Above it, the tavern's painted sign had blistered and scorched from buxom wench to twisted crone.

The heat drove away the sweat of their run from Crown Alley as Tycho led Li through the surging crowd. They found Muire underneath the tree in the yard, huddled against the cold wood of its trunk. Rana was with her and one-legged Blike. The matron of the Ease was sobbing as she watched her tavern vanish into embers and ash. She looked up and saw Tycho and her smoke-reddened eyes flashed. "You!" she screamed and hurled herself at him. Rana tried to stop her, but Muire slapped the other woman back and grabbed for Tycho. He dodged away.

She was quicker and had him with a second grab. Dragging him close, she shrieked in his face. "This is all your fault! You^and your quarrel with Brin!"

Tycho's heart shrank. "Brin? Did Brin do this? Muire, I-"

With a sudden crash and crackle, the other side of the Ease's roof fell in. A new cloud of cinders bellowed up and flew around. Many swarmed like insects toward another building. An army of broom and bucket wielders chased after them. Guards with long poles moved in to poke at the tavern's burning walls, trying to topple them inward before they crumbled out. Muire moaned and fell back. Tycho managed to catch her and ease her back against the tree. He looked to Rana and Blike. "Was it Brin?"

"Sweet truth," spat Blike. "Danced in like a jig and hopped up to have a talk with Muire. And while he's talking and she's getting whiter and whiter, we all start to smell smoke. Before we can move, Brin jumps down and runs out, slamming the door behind him. Someone jams it from the other side and we're trapped like bread in an oven. We had to break the door to get out."

"Bastard halfling wanted to kill us all!" Rana added. She pointed a thick, blistered finger. "It was revenge for what you and your elf-blood friend brought down last night!"

Tycho stared at that pointing finger and looked up. "I.." He swallowed and spread his hands helplessly. "Rana.Blike. I didn't mean to…"He turned. "Muire"

The tavern keeper glared at him and shook her head- at Rana. "Brin didn't want to kill us," she said softly. "He was just playing the same games he always does. If he wanted us to burn, we'd still be inside. He wanted us to get out." Her eyes went back to Tycho. "He knew you'd come," she said. "That wherever you were hiding, you would come when you heard the Ease was burning. He told me to give you a message."

Tycho froze. "What was it?"

"Go home."

Veseene. Brin had done something to Veseene. Tycho knew it immediately. "Divine Tymora, smile on a stupid dock rat," he breathed. "Li!" He spun around. "We have to-"

The Shou caught his shoulder and pointed across the yard.

Mard Dantakain was marching toward them. Soot streaked his face, and he had one of the long hooked poles in his hands. He looked ready to kill with it. "Tychoben Arisaenn!" he bellowed, his voice even louder than the fire. "Where is my daughter?"

Tycho's heart skipped. If Brin had gone to Bakers Way, Veseene wouldn't have been the only one he found there. Mard was practically on top of them. Tycho swallowed.

"Gods witness me," he protested desperately, "I don't know!"

"You're a damned liar!" Mard swept out with the pole.

Li reached out and snatched it from his grasp. He whirled the pole up into the air, spinning it around in his hands as he took a fast step back. The broad, heavy hook on its end came down behind Mard's legs. The guard captain tried to jump aside, but Li pulled hard and Mard slammed down on his back. He leaped up quickly, but the Shou spun the pole again. This time the straight end cracked across his belly. Mard folded up around it with a grunt and went down once more.

People were staring and other guards were shouting. Li flung the pole aside. "Come on!" he yelled. He started running.Tycho flashed Muire a look of apology, darted past Mard, and sprinted after Li.

The sound of the fire, of Muire's sob, and Mard's roaring rage followed them. The way from the Ease to Bakers Way was shorter than from Crown Alley to the Ease. Somehow, though, it seemed longer. Brin had set the Wench's Ease on fire. What had he done to Veseene and Laera?

Thankfully, no smoke stood out above Bakers Way. The man who had been watching the street earlier was gone. Li shouted caution, but Tycho flung open the outer door of the building and charged up the stairs screaming Veseene's name.

He caught himself on the door frame of their rooms and stared. The door had been shattered. Big pieces of splintered wood were strewn across the floor. Sprawled in the middle of the room was a corpse.

For a moment, Tycho's heart simply stopped-and rushed back to life as he realized it wasn't Veseene.

"Jacerryl," said Li quietly from behind him. The Shou pushed past and knelt down beside the dead man. Tycho swallowed hard and joined him. JacerryFs wounds were horrific. "What did this?" Li asked.

"Black Scratch," Tycho replied. The body stank of death and pig dung. He pointed at the knife wound over Jacerryl's heart. "With help."

"Brin must have caught him. There's not enough blood here, though. He died somewhere else." Li took hold of the corpse's shoulder and heaved it up enough to peer underneath. "There are pieces of the door and broken dishes under him. He was dropped here after your rooms were wrecked."

Tycho rose and turned around slowly. The cupboard had been opened and everything spilled out. The fireplace had smoldered down to ashes. The room was cold-the shutters on the front window were flung wide, letting light and wintry air flood in. Veseene's couch had been overturned and his cot smashed. The door of the back room was open as well and by the light of the open back window, he could see more damage in there. Destruction for the sake of destruction, he guessed. He couldn't have said if anything was missing.

Li could. "Yu Mao's butterfly swords are gone," he said.

"Brin must have taken them."

His strilling had been hung by its strap above the fireplace mantle. There was a folded piece of paper wedged under the strings. Suddenly numb, Tycho stepped across Jacerryl's torn body and pulled out the paper-it came free with a soft jangle. He unfolded it.

Come play me and Veseene a song. You know where. Bring the Yellow Silk of Kuang.

The note wasn't signed. The devastation in the room was signature enough. Tycho clenched his teeth and thrust it at Li. The Shou shook his head. "I can't read it."

"You probably don't want to." He read the note out loud and Li choked.

"Brin knows about the Yellow Silk!" Li's hand went to his arm. "How is that possible?"

"Yu Mao," Tycho pointed out. "He probably told Brin all kinds of stories about Shou Lung. When you started throwing bolts of light around last night, he must have recognized the Yellow Silk's power."

"But the Silk is our family's greatest treasure," protested Li. "Yu Mao wouldn't have…" His voice faded as Tycho gave him a long look and he closed his eyes for a moment. "I suppose Yu Mao could have done anything, couldn't he?"

"After hearing what Staso said, I don't think anything I heard about him would surprise me. The Silk might be why Brin was looking for you last night, too." Tycho's eyes narrowed sharply even as the words came out of his mouth. "No, that's not right. Brin was looking for you before you used the Yellow Silk."

"Maybe he knows more than we think-maybe he guessed that I would have the Silk." Li rubbed a hand across his face. "Maybe he just wants me because I'm Yu Mao's brother."

"Maybe." Tycho crumpled the note in his fist and hurled it into the cold ashes of the fireplace. An heirloom artifact of ancient magic in exchange for Veseene and Laera. He couldn't ask Li to give up his family's treasure, but if they didn't give Brin the Silk…Brin hadn't made any threats in his note but he didn't need to. He looked at Li only to find the Shou looking at him. Tycho drew a breath between his teeth. "What are we going to do, Li?"

"If Brin had the Yellow Silk, would he keep it or sell it?"

"Knowing Brin? Sell it."

"How much are the beljurils worth? "

"Probably not enough-and Brin likely isn't going to accept something he thinks belongs to him anyway." Ty-cho glared at Jacerryl's corpse and spat on it. "Damn you. Damn you and Mard and Laera!"

Laera.

Tycho ducked down and grabbed Brin's note out of the fireplace, smoothing it over his knee. Play me and Veseene a song, the halfling had written. He looked up sharply. "Li, Brin doesn't have Laera!" He jumped up, spinning around and sweeping the room with his gaze.

"Tycho, she could be anywhere!"

"Not if her father's still looking for her!" Tycho ran into the back room. Just as he had seen through the door, this room was a shambles, too. His chest had been dumped out and its contents spread across the floor. "Laera!" He ground his teeth. There was nowhere to hide in the two little rooms! His eye fell on the window. The rope that he had left knotted to the bedpost was gone. He leaned out the window and scanned the shadowed alley below. The rope was there, pooled on the ground. "Laera!" he shouted. He swung over the sill and let himself down until he was hanging by his hands and dropped the rest of the way.

A shadow in a narrow little niche gasped at the sound of his landing. "Laera?" Tycho called softly. He went over and crouched down, reaching for the shape huddled inside. "Laera, it's all right. It's Tycho."

She all but fell out of the niche into his arms, weeping desperately and gasping his name over and over so fast it was almost incomprehensible. He tried to help her stand up, but her arms and legs were knotted-when he tried to straighten them, she gasped again, this time in pain. How long had she been wedged into that tiny hole? He began to massage her joints gently as he murmured comforting words. "Shhh… it's all right. It's all right."

"Tycho?" The bard glanced up. Li was leaning out of his window.

"She's fine," he called back. "Just stiff. We'll go around and come up the stairs." He looked back to Laera. "Do you think you can walk?" She drew a shaky breath and nodded. Tycho helped her stand. As he took her hand to lead her out of the alley, though, she hissed. "What is it?" Tycho asked.

"My hands," she whimpered. He uncurled her fingers gingerly and clenched his teeth at the site of flesh scraped raw. "The rope," Laera said. "I slid down the rope to get away."

"We'll put ointment on them upstairs," he said. "Can you tell me what happened while we walk?"

She told him what little she had seen and heard of Brin's sudden visit and her escape. Even when everything had gone quiet again, she had been too terrified to move and had prayed desperately that Brin and whoever was with him-Lander most likely, Tycho guessed-wouldn't come looking for her. Just when she had thought it might be safe to move again, though, there had been more noises above: cursing and the heavy thud of something falling.

That would have been Jacerryl's body being brought in, Tycho knew-and winced at the thought of what lay waiting for Laera in the room. They were on the stairs. He called ahead in Shou. "Li, cover the body!"

"I already have!"

Laera, however, wasn't so easily fooled. As soon as they crossed the threshold, her eyes fell on the blanket-shrouded form sprawled out on the floor. A short shriek escaped her and she stiffened. "Veseene?"

Tycho hesitated then drew her over and uncovered Jacerryl's face. Laera shuddered and looked away. "What happened?"

"Brin killed him."

Li had set the couch back on its legs. Tycho sat Laera down and tried to find a little pot of ointment that had been in the cupboard. When he did, the jar was cracked. He split it open the rest of the way, scooped some out on his fingertip, and rubbed it gently into Laera's right hand.

She watched him without saying anything for a moment then she asked, "Brin has Veseene, doesn't he?" Tycho nodded. "Did you get back the beljurils?" He nodded again. "Then everything will be fine, won't it?n

Tycho looked to Li. The Shou was prowling around the room, poking through the wreckage as if there might be something else to find, some other clue to what had happened, lycho couldn't imagine that there would be. Abard's life was built on subtlety, but he felt like Brin had taken all of his and beaten it to the ground with a great big stick. He looked back to Laera. "No," he said bluntly. "It won't. Brin is holding Veseene hostage for Li's Yellow Silk."

Laera's big brown eyes flicked up. For a heartbeat, Tycho felt as if she were looking right through him and trying to see something larger, and then she tipped her head to one side. "You're going to give it to him, get Veseene away, then steal back the Silk." Tycho looked away, scooping up more ointment and spreading it on her left palm. She tensed slightly. "You're going to help Veseene escape so Brin never even sees the Silk."

Tycho's fingers moved up hers, smoothing the ointment onto her rope-burned skin. Laera sucked in a sharp breath. "You're… you're just going to give it to him?"

He said nothing.

"Bind you, Tychoben Arisaenn, you can't not give it to him!"

"It's not mine to give," Tycho whispered. "I can't even ask for that." He looked up. "Did Veseene tell you the story about Dain Gallidy and Eiter the Nar?" Laera nodded stiffly. "I thought so. Two days ago, you wouldn't have even thought of any possibility beyond a heroic triumph."

He let her hand go and looked at her closely. "If we get through this," he said, "I'll take you as my apprentice." Her eyes went wide. Tycho held up a cautioning finger. "But," he said, "I want you to go home. Right now. Whatever we do, it's going to be dangerous. We might very well not come back. If you're in your father's house, you'll be safe."

Laera held her head high. "Uncle Jacerryl lived in my father's house."

"And if you hurry back, you can claim some of his things before anyone's the wiser. I'll send you a message when it's safe." Tycho rose and started to pull her up.

She stayed right where she was, her jaw set and her eyes defiant. "If you're going to rescue Veseene, I want to go with you." She tugged her hand out of Tycho's. "If you're not going to rescue her, I don't want to be your apprentice."

"Laera…" Tycho growled.

Li's hand clapped him on the shoulder. The Shou's expression was grim. "Do you really want an apprentice who runs at the first sign of danger, Tycho?" He looked at Laera. "Will you slow us down?" he asked. "If you're captured, will we need to fight for you?" Laera's eyes darted from the Shou's hard face to Tycho's and back again. She swallowed.

"No," she said.

"Then I say you should come with us." He looked at Tycho.

The bard sighed and pressed his knuckles against his forehead. "All right," he said through gritted teeth-and glanced up sharply. "Wait-come with us where?" he asked.

"To make a delivery to Brin." Li opened his shirt and shook his left arm out of its sleeve. With his right hand, he loosened the knot that bound the Yellow Silk around his arm and pulled it free. Light shimmered as the folds of the silk fell apart; where the light played across his face, Tycho could feel the warmth of a summer's day.

The Shou held the Yellow Silk out to him.

Tycho stared at it. "Li," he breathed, "I can't-"

"— ask me for this? " Li's lips curled ever so slightly into a smile. "When you're in a small room, even a whisper is a shout." His hand didn't waver. "You don't need to ask. Yu Mao disgraced the name of Kuang. It's my duty to return honor to it."

"But this…" Tycho hesitated. "Yesterday, you asked me for help. I feel like you're doing more to help me."

"If that bothers you, I'll say that I'm doing it for Ve-seene. Or that I'm doing it for myself-I still need to ask Brin about Yu Mao's last days."

"If he'll talk to you without trying to capture you."

Li shrugged. "A chance I have to take. With luck, his answer will be that the captain's curse came to pass and Yu Mao lies with the Sow under the sea." He met Tycho's gaze with quiet calm. "Better me than a stranger; better me than no one at all-but better still that Yu Mao has already stood before the Lords of Karma and received their judgment. Thank you for giving me the chance to realize that."

He reached out and grabbed Tycho's hand, thrusting the Silk into it and folding his fingers around it. Tycho almost gasped-the Yellow Silk was warm! Just holding it, he could feel the energy within the woven threads, at once both as gentle and as intense as the sun itself, the pride of an old and honest family. He looked down at the precious, wondrous artifact in his hand-and up, a fierce smile on his face.

"Bind me," he said, "I've had just about enough of Brin. He's not going to get his hands on this and he's not going to get away with threatening Veseene." He turned around and reached up above the fireplace with his free hand to pull down his strilling. "If he wants a song, he's got one."