The Yellow silk r-4 Read online

  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.

  Other figures were stirring out in the gathering shadows, though. Lander's teeth ground together as he peered through the ragged gap in the thatch. Hanibaz and Mosi were finally shaking off the effects of whatever magic Veseene-it could only have been Veseene-had blasted them with. Hanibaz had his wand out. Lander felt an urge to shout out to Veseene and Tycho, to warn them. The two bards seemed completely caught up in their music and entirely unaware of the recovering wizards.

  But Hanibaz hopped suddenly from one foot to the other, looking at the ground and cursing. Mosi looked down, too, and hissed audibly. The veil of flames around him winked out. Lander sat forward, peering through the gap and trying to see whatever it was they saw.

  His knees came down in a pool of ice-cold water. He gasped and rocked back again. Outside, Mosi called out a word and bright light flared.

  It flashed across dark water. Rapidly rising dark water. Lander's knees weren't the only things wet now. The water was rising in the collapsed shelter as surely as it was outside. "Brin!"

  The ranting halfling was standing on a sloping board. He turned around and slipped, hitting the water with a solid splash-and a scream so loud the water might have been boiling! He leaped for Lander. "It's the sea!" he shrieked "The sea is rising! Get us out!"

  This time there was no point in protesting. Whatever dangers there might be outside, they were preferable to drowning in a pigsty! Lander sloshed around in the water-it had filled a third of their little space in just moments-getting his legs under himself and bracing his arms against the fallen roof. He heaved.

  It didn't budge.

  "Harder!" shouted Brin. He was back on his sloping board, huddled desperately as high above the water as he could get without clinging to the roof itself. His eye was wild. Lander glared at him.

  "You could help!"

  Brin hissed like a wet cat and whipped a nasty little knife out of his belt. "Lift!" he spat. "Or you won't have to worry about drowning!"

  Lander stared at the knife, then at the wild-eyed half-ling, and heaved again, straining with all his strength.

  Icy water soaked into his wounded hip. His leg spasmed. He went over, slipping under the water. He righted himself hastily, shaking water out of his hair, and thrust as hard as he could against the roof. The water was at his belly now. "Wait," Brin said desperately, "it's wood, right? Wood will float, won't it? You'll be able to lift it then."

  "It's thatch over the wood," growled Lander. "When it's wet, it's heavier!"

  Brin wailed. Lander cursed as he slammed his shoulder against the roof. The water was at his chest-his shoulders. It clamped him in cold. Through the narrow gap, he could see pigs struggling in the water. Terrified squeals and shrieks echoed around Veseene's song. Brin wailed louder with each one. "Be quiet!" Lander yelled finally. "Be quiet!" There was another sound in the air- the alarmed shouts of men. Who…? Lander bent down and peered through the very corner of the gap. Men were stirring at the far side of the sty. The extra thugs Brin had called in, the ones that Tycho had put to sleep with a single spell-the cold water was waking them.

  "Hey!" he screamed. "Over here! Help us! Help us!"

  The only response he got was a frightened glance. Most of the men took one look at the wizards and the singing bard, and waded quickly through the waters toward the door into the Eel. The first one heaved it open-and was met by a wave of water. The festhaU was flooded, too! The water in the sty rose sharply. The thugs yelled and struggled on, making their escape. Veseene kept singing.

  "Li!" Tycho's shout drew Li's attention. He spun away from Yu Mao and looked.

  A shining light flashed up out of the alley like a comet, bright fabric a flickering tail. Li hissed. The Yellow Silk! He lunged toward it.

  But Yu Mao had heard the shout and seen the light as well. He leaped forward, landing in a crouch and bringing his leg up in a sweeping kick that caught Li in the belly. The blow sent him flying backward across the pitch of the roof. Slates cracked and skittered under him, the broken edges shredding his clothes and slicing into his back. He gasped, and gasped again.

  The Yellow Silk, given weight by whatever Tycho had wrapped it around, hit the roof and bounced. The fabric fell loose and a stone fell out to roll over the edge. The Silk slid to a
limp stop, alone and ignored. He twisted toward it-and Yu Mao sprang at him.

  Li pushed back hard against the roof and flipped up to his feet, dao meeting butterfly blades with a discordant ring. He twisted away from the block and stepped higher onto the slope of the roof, trying to get around Yu Mao. His brother flung out an arm and a sword. Li parried, knocking the blow aside, but another hard blow followed. "Ayeh! " shouted Yu Mao. "Ayeh! Ayeh!" Each blow forced Li a little farther away from the Yellow Silk and a little higher on the roof until he was straddling its very peak.

  The sun was under the horizon now. Purple twilight lay across Spandeliyon-Li could see across the waterfront and most of dockside. Down in the shadows, there was music. Tycho's strilling. And a song, a beautiful song. Veseene! The power of her music spread out into the night like the wind of a storm.

  Some small part of that power touched him, too, surging through his heart and blood. Li drew a deep breath and clenched his fist tight around his dao as Yu Mao stepped up to the ridge of the roof. His eyes were narrow and hard. His butterfly swords were raised for a killing blow.

  Li looked at his brother. "Why?" he asked again. "Why throw everything away to join pirates? Why murder the expedition from Keelung when you could have been first among them?"

  Yu Mao's reply hissed between his teeth. "Because I was tired of being the first among them!" Li froze. Yu Mao's face writhed with hate and anger. "I said you wouldn't understand! Younger children never do! What was the name of Kuang for you? Something to be proud of, a key to open doors. For me it was the lock on a prison." Butterfly swords slashed the air. "Always perfect, always the heir. When you're older, Yu Mao, you must do this. When you lead the family, you must do that. This will be your house. Mei will be your wife. And what was there to do but nod and obey? I was the responsible elder son of Kuang, molded by the family, the traditions of eighteen generations of elder sons pressing down on me from dawn to dusk and in all but my deepest dreams."

  He pointed a steady sword at Li. "No more. All my dreams are free. Now I'm the first generation!"

  "Yu Mao-"

  "What do you know of the weight of family, Li Chien?"

  Li's jaw tightened. "Family," he said, "sent me to kill my brother." Yu Mao sneered-and thrust out, thrust high, the butterfly swords cutting deadly, spreading arcs through the air.

  "Ayeh!"

  Li swayed away from one flashing blade and swept his dao up against the other. His empty hand punched forward, forcing Yu Mao to dodge back. He whirled around, swinging the dao with all of his strength. "HrahfYu Mao got a sword up. It turned the blow, but only barely. Yu Mao staggered and Li pressed him, swinging again. "Hrah!"

  His brother dropped. Both butterfly swords came up this time. Straight up, the hooks along their backs catching the dao. Yu Mao twisted his massive forearms and the blades locked together. He stared up at Li. "When you see our honored ancestors," he said, "let them know I won't be joining them."

  With a heave of his shoulders, he wrenched the dao away and sent it plunging over the edge of the roof. Yu Mao surged back to his feet. Li flung himself aside as the butterfly swords chopped down.

  The water rose fast. Tycho hopped up onto the bench beside the table, and onto the table itself with Veseene and Laera, trying to stay ahead of it. Still playing, he stared in amazement as Veseene's song brought a flood into the sky and the alley. Hanibaz and Mosi weren't just staring, though. For a single moment as Mosi called up magelights and they saw what Veseene had done, they were, perhaps, startled, but then each mage cast a spell. Hanibaz spoke a word, spread his arms, and soared up into the air above the flood. Mosi spoke a different word and spun his finger in a circle. The water before him calmed and flattened into a disc-he stepped up and forward, standing firmly atop the water.

  Their eyes shining in the magelights, the wizards turned to the trio caught on the table. Hanibaz's wand rose. Tycho swallowed. Grouped together with nowhere to go, they were an easy target! "Veseene!"

  His old mentor's eyes crinkled. She raised an arm. Her song changed.

  The other voice that had joined her song, the chill susurration of waves crashing against rocks, surged to a crescendo. Behind Mosi, the floodwaters began to froth and churn. The wizard spun around just as they rose up into a dark, swirling column. He gaped. Hanibaz, whirling in midair, gaped. Tycho gaped, too.

  Magelights made bright reflections on the column's surface. The reflections blinked. Jets of water erupted from the column and swept out like arms.

  Hanibaz swooped around, diving away from the ele-mental's watery grasp. Mosi, however, pointed his hand at the arm that reached for him and shouted a word. Fire roared out in a scorching path and the creature's limb hissed away in a cloud of steam. A shriek like a storm crossing the open sea burst out of the elemental and it seemed to sway and shrink back. Veseene's eyes narrowed and she poured new force into her song. Hastily, Tycho picked up the intensity on his strilling, adding to her voice. The elemental surged back to its full height. A new arm emerged and lashed out. Mosi flinched and almost stumbled off his disc before gasping out another spell. A veil of fire swept around him once more. The elemental hissed and recoiled.

  Hanibaz came about in the air, his cloak whipping with the breeze of his passage, and dived back at the creature. His wand flicked and the red stone in it flashed. For a moment, the same red light flickered through the elemental, and it shuddered. The dark water swallowed the light. Both arms crashed up at Hanibaz. The mage dipped and swooped desperately.

  Over the wash of surging waters, the shouts of the mages, and the music of his own strilling, Tycho heard another cry. He looked up and saw metal flash through magelight as Li's dao plunged down into the swirling floodwaters. Up on the Eel's roof, two figures struggled. "Veseene," he shouted. "Li needs help, too!"

  Veseene looked up. Tycho saw her tense. The fingers of her raised hand opened wide and her song rose with the power of an entire choir. Like a woman gathering her skirts, the elemental turned and swirled. Water surged after it, flowing up and into its liquid form, adding to its bulk.

  And it grew. The arms that pursued Hanibaz Nassor swelled-an entire river of water snaked across the sky and swatted him out of the air. He slammed down hard into the already collapsed and partially submerged pig shelter. Mosi Anu cried out as the water grabbed his disc and sucked him right into the elemental's body.

  Likewise caught in the pull of the rushing waters, the entire Eel shifted and lurched. On its shuddering roof, Li and Yu Mao staggered apart.

  The impact of Hanibaz Nassor did what Lander had been unable to do: the roof of the collapsed shelter folded under his falling body, lifting up a full foot above the water at its near end. Magelight flooded in. Hanibaz lay half-submerged among the wreckage caused by his crash. Lander stretched over and hauled the wizard's head up out of the water. His eyes flickered briefly. "Brin," Lander called against the sudden roar of the water elemental outside, "he's still alive!"

  The halfling unwrapped himself from the post he had been clinging to and looked at the barely conscious wizard. He flicked his one-eyed gaze to the gap above the water. With an unholy cry, he swarmed through the beams of the broken roof and squirmed out, flipping up on top of the roof. "Brin!" Lander yelled. He gave Hanibaz a push that rolled him out of danger of drowning and half-swam through the water over to the gap.

  New light-golden light-flared like dawn as he stuck his head out through the gap. He squinted against it and looked up.

  The water elemental that swelled up abruptly above them shook even Yu Mao. His swords hesitated in their fall and Li rolled aside. Not enough! Yu Mao's eyes snapped back to him and he swung his weapons sharply.

  The Eel shook as the water elemental turned. Thrown off balance, Yu Mao staggered. His butterfly swords chopped down into slate. Li staggered, too, though, slipping to one knee and sliding across the shaking roof.

  Loose slates clattered past him as he slipped and spun.

  Light flashed in the periphery o
f his vision. He twisted around.

  The Yellow Silk hung by a fold of fabric that had become wedged between two slates.

  He looked up. Yu Mao was crouched a few feet higher on the roof. Their eyes met and Li's heart twisted one final time. "Yu…" he breathed. His brother snarled and lunged. Li scrambled for the Silk, snatching it free, and letting it unfurl as he rolled to his feet.

  Sunlight caught by weavers and dyers in ancient times shone out as bright as the day it had been captured. It blazed across the night of Spandeliyon, turning the dark Jfloodwaters blue-gray and the writhing column of the water elemental green and froth white. Li held the Yellow Silk high and the pride of Kuang rippled like a hundred summer days. Yu Mao's charge thundered on the Eel's roof. Li whirled toward him, the Silk billowing out in his hand.

  "Ayeh!"

  Yu Mao's butterfly swords sliced down. Their edges met the Silk-and slashed the shining fabric into ragged ribbons. Its light winked out.

  Most of it. Yu Mao met Li's eyes again. They both looked down. One last shining bolt was clenched in Li's hand, plucked from the Yellow Silk of Kuang and hidden behind the rippling fabric.

  Its other end pierced Yu Mao's chest. Li opened his hand and the bolt of light vanished. Yu Mao's eyes rolled back. Li watched his brother crumple backward. Smoke curled from the edges of a wound that showed no sign of healing.

  Up on top of the shelter roof, Brin let out a wordless cry as the big Shou fell. Twisting around, Lander could just see the halfling's face blotched white and red with rage. His entire body trembled and his hands clenched into tight fists, his right squeezing his little knife so hard that blood oozed between his fingers.

  Lander choked and flinched back into shadow.

  Brin screamed again and whirled around. His right hand flicked out***

  At the first scream, Tycho turned, still playing along to Veseene's song. Brin was standing on the roof of the collapsed shelter, staring up at Li and Yu Mao's fallen body. The bard caught his breath. "Ves-"