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."