Lander shifted himself away from Brin's foot. The noises coming from outside didn't sound promising: shouts, screams, and a lot of squealing pigs. There were tiny holes in the thick thatch that covered the roof of the shelter, presumably torn open by Brin. Through one, Lander could see Mosi Anu and Hanibaz Nassor. Tycho was writhing on the ground before them. Through another, he could see Li Chien as he struggled in the midst of a seething herd of pigs. Facing him was the biggest, hairiest, dirtiest Shou he had ever seen. "Who is that? " he yelped.
"Kuang Yu Mao," spat Brin. "Lift, damn-"
Kuang Yu Mao's head flowed, shifted, and for less than a heartbeat became a boar's. Black Scratch! "Bind me!" howled Lander, shoving himself as far back into thetr little space as he could go. Brin reached out and slapped him again.
"We need to get out there!"
Lander slapped him right back. This time he caught him, and the force of the blow spun him around. "Bind and tar you, Brin!" Lander cursed. "I'm staying right here!"
The halfling glared at him and opened his mouth. Anything he might have said, however, was lost in a sudden, sharp yell from outside, a bellow so loud it shook straw from the broken thatch above them. Lander cursed again and covered his head.
Li felt the sudden cry all the way through his body, from his ears deep into his bones. Magic, it had to be more magic-except that whatever spell had been cast, the wizards seemed to have caught the worst of it. They were staggering, hands pressed over their ears.
He wasn't going to question a lucky break, though. The abrupt noise struck terror into the pigs, fear breaking through Yu Mao's eerie power over them. The animals scattered and ran in panic. Li ran, too. Yu Mao might call the pigs again and he wasn't going to be trapped a second time! In the corner of the sty, a wheelbarrow had been propped up between the tall, plank fence and the wall of the Eel. Li sprinted for it; leaping onto the wheelbarrow; bouncing off a stout fencepost; and vaulting onto the Eel's low, almost-flat roof. Up out of the shadows of the alley, red sunlight caught him, the last light of the day. He dashed away from the edge of the roof and whirled around.
With shocking grace, Yu Mao-following the same route-leaped up onto the roof as well. "Ayeh!" he screamed, shaking his swords.
"Hrah!" shouted Li. His dao flashed bloody light as he whirled toward his brother.
A second volley of Mosi's darts stabbed into Tycho and he writhed with the agony that wracked his body. The Yellow Silk winked at him from his sleeve. A bolt. A lash. Anything to deliver swift retribution to the mage! He stretched and reached, but it seemed as if his arms wouldn't obey him. When he tried to move them, they flopped about like long eels squirming in the bottom of a boat. He looked up. Hanibaz, wand at the ready, and Mosi, still veiled by his fiery shield, were stepping warily closer. Tycho groaned and forced himself to his knees. "Stay back!" he said. Some strength flowed back into his arms and he raised them threateningly. "Stay back or-"
"Or what?" laughed Hanibaz. "What are you going to do to us, bard? " He lifted his wand.
The roaring, musical shout that blasted them was so loud that the force of it swept debris along the ground and set Mosi's robes flapping, so loud that it was an almost-visible rippling in the air. Even on the edge of that power, Tycho howled and covered his ears. Within it, Mosi and Hanibaz were sent staggering. When the shout ended a heartbeat later, their ragged screams filled the seeming silence. He stared at them. What…?
"Tycho!"
A voice filled with music and maybe just a hint of the power that had blasted the wizards called his name. A voice he hadn't heard speak with that strength in two years or more. He whirled around.
Veseene stood on the table as if it were a stage. She stood strong and proud, a hand on Laera's shoulder for balance only. Her body trembled, not with palsy, but with a charged and vibrant energy, like a tuning fork that had just been struck. "Tycho!" she called again.
Her mouth was stained red. A pouch, likewise stained red, lay at her feet. The tea pouch. Empty. Laera's eyes were stunned and frightened.
No wonder Veseene's voice had seemed muffled when he had ordered her to run. No wonder she had fought Laera to stay.
She'd eaten the raw, wet tea herbs at full strength.
A moan forced itself out of Tycho's throat. He staggered to his feet. "Veseene, what have you done?"
"Tycho!" she said a third time, a note of command creeping into her voice. "Come here! Do you have your strilling?" Numbly, he nodded and slid the instrument around from his back. It had acquired a few fresh scratches and one of the tuning pegs was cracked, but a strilling was a sturdy instrument. Veseene smiled and power gleamed in her eyes. "Then come here! I need you!"
She straightened herself, held her head high and began to sing with a force that seemed impossible for her frail body. Tycho froze, caught up in the beauty and strength of her song. It pulled on him like the moon on the tide, a wild and liquid music. Magic swirled among the notes. Even when he'd first met her, before the palsy had set in, he'd never heard Veseene sing like this! For a moment, he could picture her as she must have been at the very height of her power. Veseene the Lark, magic flowing like a second voice in her song.
Then she hit-very briefly-a false note. Her voice, her song, faltered for just a heartbeat.
The clash of metal on metal broke into the music. Tycho whirled. Up on the rooftop of the Eel, Li fought with Yu Mao. Butterfly swords fell in unison against dao. Li staggered.
"Tycho!" called Laera. "Tycho!"
Veseene needed him. But so did Li.
Tycho tugged the Yellow Silk out of the sleeve of his coat. Golden light flashed in the sty as he unfolded it a little bit, just enough that he could snatch up a rock and wrap it in the brilliant fabric. He darted forward. "Li!" he shouted-and hurled the rock-weighted Silk up onto the roof. It shone in its arc like a shooting star. With a whispered prayer that Li got to it first, he turned his back, set his strilling against his shoulder, and pulled his bow from the strap.
Bow on string brought music echoing out of simple wood. He found the note that Veseene had missed and threw it back to her, pure and sweet. Her voice caught it and sent it ringing into the gathering night, her song restored. Tycho picked up the melody as she sang, improvising a harmony to accompany it. He walked back toward her, taking up a position beside her makeshift stage. Magic-Veseene's magic-wrapped around him. It tingled across his skin and in the tips of his fingers, a thrill that sank deep inside him and brought shivers to the pit of his stomach. Laera could feel it, too. Tycho could see the wonder in her face. He smiled at her -a smile that slipped a bit as another voice joined their song. A deep and powerful voice, soft but cold, a chilling susurration. The shiver in him turned to a shudder. He glanced up at Veseene. Her face glowed with exaltation and confidence. And control. Whatever this new voice was, she had called it. He swallowed his fear and played.
Old Veseene's singing was amazing. Lander had frozen, listening in wonder, as soon as her voice took flight. And he had laughed at her weakness the previous night? If he got out of this, he was going to be making some deep, deep apologies!
Brin was still raging at the wood and thatch that trapped them, barely aware, it seemed, of Veseene's music. Li Chien and Yu Mao had taken their fight to the roof and Brin seemed determined to join them. Lander could hear the sound of swords from high above, but there was nothing to see.