The Yellow silk r-4

by Don Bassingthwaite

  Staso glowered. "That's insane."

  "No one has accused Brin of sanity lately."

  "I hope he's sane enough to answer one question for me," growled Li. His hand tightened on the sword hilt. "You tell a good story," he told Staso, "and all I can do is apologize for what Yu Mao did. But I still need to know what happened to him."

  The scarred man shook his head. "I only know what I saw that last night on Sow and what I've heard since-or what I haven't heard. There's been no word of Yu Mao, alive or dead."

  Breath hissed between Li's teeth, and he caught Tycho's eye. The bard grimaced and Li knew that they were thinking the same thing: they had answers, but not enough.

  They still needed to go back to Brin.

  Li looked back to Staso and flicked the sword tip a little closer to him. "The beljurils that Jacerryl Dantakain sold you yesterday. Where are they?"

  Staso tipped his head toward a big chest in the corner of the room. Tycho scrambled for it, but Li stopped him with a hiss. He glanced at Staso's interpreter. "Let her open it," he suggested.

  The young woman's eyes, wide from the telling of her master's tale, shrank and she shook her head sharply. Li slipped the sword up against Staso's neck. "If the chest is trapped," he said, "you should tell her how to disarm it." Staso's mouth twisted and he said something softly to the young woman. She nodded desperately. Tycho freed her from her silken bonds and, one hand near his dagger, led her to the chest. Trembling fingers touched and slid, not along the obvious latch, but across the sides of the chest's lid. Hidden catches clicked. Hands still shaking slightly, the young woman twisted the front latch and lifted the lid.

  Nothing happened. She gasped and relaxed, deep breaths wracking her body, but she reached inside just deep enough to produce a small velvet bag. Tycho glanced into the chest as well. "Your dao is here, too, Li!" He snatched out the weapon and clipped it awkwardly to his belt. "Bind me, there's a lot of other-"

  "Don't take anything else, Tycho. We're not the thieves here."

  The bard swore softly, but stepped away from the chest, prodding Staso's young woman ahead of him. He tugged open the bag and spilled a tiny handful of gems into his palm. His face lit up. "They're all here."

  "Good." Li began to rise.

  A sudden yell from the stairs below interrupted him. "Hooded! Hooded!" Footsteps started up.

  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 we
re 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?"

&nbs
p; "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.