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.