The Yellow Silk - Don Bassingthwaite [83]
"Why would they do that?"
"It's your beljurils. I heard that Tycho tried to cheat you out of them yesterday but that you gave him time to give them back. The next thing I knew, though, I heard from a friend that he was putting out word that / had stolen the beljurils!"
Last night at the Ease, Tycho had said something about
Jacerryl, but Brin had been so intent on Li Chien… Lander caught Brin's gaze. The halfling's eye just narrowed and he shook his head at him. To Jacerryl, he said, "Did you?"
"On Tyr's holy balance, no!" Jacerryl gave a shiver. "You know I'd never cheat you, Brin! As soon as I heard what Tycho was saying, I went out looking for him."
"And you found him."
Jacerryl nodded enthusiastically. "Bind me, I found him! I confronted him but he had his Shou beat me up!"
"Did he have his Shou get you drunk, too?"
Jacerryl gaped and whined in protest, but Brin just gave him a hard snarl. Jacerryl shut his mouth. Brin glared at him. "It takes a brave man to come to me just to claim innocence. Why not go to your brother?"
"If I went to Mard, I'd have to tell him why I'd gone looking for Tycho in the first place. He'd have thrown me out of his house if he didn't throw me into a guard station jail!"
"So you went and drank until you decided it was better to come to me."
Jacerryl shook his head. "Just one glass, Brin! Just one! It's not like you're an easy man to talk to!" A grasping edge of desperation crept into his voice. "I know what Tycho did with the beljurils-what he was going to do anyway. I heard him and the Shou talking about it."
"That was clumsy of them." Brin put his elbow on his knee and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. His eye was a hard black gem focused on Jacerryl. The man swallowed.
"They thought I was unconscious," he said quickly. He held out his hands. "Sweet truth, Brin! Don't you believe me?"
Brin stared at him. "I believe you're a piss-desperate liar who has worked himself so far down a dragon's throat that he actually thinks he can get out by going all the way through to the other end."
He flicked a finger.
Lander choked and scrambled for the fence around the sty. Jacerryl, too drunk and scared to think, didn't have a chance. Black Scratch let out a bellow. Hooves churning snow and muck, the boar charged. Jacerryl managed to scream as the animal's tusks ripped through clothes and flesh, tearing into skin and muscle. Blood splattered the snow. Brin's other pigs squealed in excitement at the mayhem.
A second toss of Black Scratch's bristly head opened a gash from hip to chest. Lander heard the cracking of bone even over the squeals and bellows. A third toss caught… something… and Jacerryl was lifted up into the air, shrieking terribly. Black Scratch twisted and shook. Jacerryl came flying free and rolled across the sty to crash into the fence right in front of Lander. Splintered ribs poked free of his wounds. Ruined organs spilled bile and foul juices. A choking cough shook him and bloody froth sprayed out of his mouth. Brin leaped down off the table and shoved past Black Scratch. Jacerryl's eyes rolled toward him.
Brin pulled out a dagger, spun it around his fingers once, and plunged it straight into the man's heart. Jacerryl spasmed-and died. The halfling whipped the dagger free. Black Scratch snorted and snuffled at the corpse, and turned away to chase back the other pigs.
Lander stared at the savaged body for a moment then looked up at Brin. "He could have told us where the beljurils are." Brin shrugged and wiped his dagger on the dead man's clothes.
"Doesn't matter. Tycho will know, too. He'll tell us." The dagger went into Brin's belt. He stared at Jacerryl's body as well, but when he glanced up, there was a wicked grin of inspiration on his face. "Take him over to Tycho's rooms and dump him there."
Lander grimaced. "What about Veseene?"
"Don't worry," said Brin. "She's not there."
Something in the way he said it sent a shiver up Lander's back. The wheelbarrow he had used to muck out the sty the day before was leaned up against the side of the pig