The Yellow Silk - Don Bassingthwaite [98]
"Then I say you should come with us." He looked at Tycho.
The bard sighed and pressed his knuckles against his forehead. "All right," he said through gritted teeth-and glanced up sharply. "Wait-come with us where?" he asked.
"To make a delivery to Brin." Li opened his shirt and shook his left arm out of its sleeve. With his right hand, he loosened the knot that bound the Yellow Silk around his arm and pulled it free. Light shimmered as the folds of the silk fell apart; where the light played across his face, Tycho could feel the warmth of a summer's day.
The Shou held the Yellow Silk out to him.
Tycho stared at it. "Li," he breathed, "I can't-"
"-ask me for this? " Li's lips curled ever so slightly into a smile. "When you're in a small room, even a whisper is a shout." His hand didn't waver. "You don't need to ask. Yu Mao disgraced the name of Kuang. It's my duty to return honor to it."›
"But this… " Tycho hesitated. "Yesterday, you asked me for help. I feel like you're doing more to help me."
"If that bothers you, I'll say that I'm doing it for Veseene. Or that I'm doing it for myself-I still need to ask Brin about Yu Mao's last days."
"If he'll talk to you without trying to capture you."
Li shrugged. "A chance I have to take. With luck, his answer will be that the captain's curse came to pass and Yu Mao lies with the Sow under the sea." He met Tycho's gaze with quiet calm. "Better me than a stranger; better me than no one at all-but better still that Yu Mao has already stood before the Lords of Karma and received their judgment. Thank you for giving me the chance to realize that."
He reached out and grabbed Tycho's hand, thrusting the Silk into it and folding his fingers around it. Tycho almost gasped-the Yellow Silk was warm! Just holding it, he could feel the energy within the woven threads, at once both as gentle and as intense as the sun itself, the pride of an old and honest family. He looked down at the precious, wondrous artifact in his hand-and up, a fierce smile on his face.
'"Bind me," he said, "I've had just about enough of Brin. He's not going to get his hands on this and he's not going to get away with threatening Veseene." He turned around and reached up above the fireplace with his free hand to pull down his strilling. "If he wants a song, he's got one."
CHAPTER 14
Sunset raked across the west end of Spandeliyon's waterfront, lending warmth to the light if not to the air. The snow might be melting, but it was still cold enough that every exhaled breath produced a little cloud of vapor and every inhaled breath sank a chill into Li's nose and throat.
He said nothing as they-he, Tycho, and Laera-walked. The streets were empty, as empty as they had been two nights ago when he first arrived. Then, however, they had been empty because of the hour and the beginning of a snow flurry. Now they were empty because of a storm of a different kind: the fire at the Wench's Ease had drawn everyone who might otherwise be on the street to either fight the blaze or watch it. Thick smoke still reached into the sky, though it had gotten no thicker and the biting smell of it no stronger. The fire was slowly coming under control.
If Brin had planned the fire to get everyone off the streets as well as bring Tycho running to the scene, he couldn't have done a better job. The streets were so quiet that Li could hear the waves seething against the docks a short distance away.
As they approached the Eel, Laera stared at the sinuous form on the festhall's wall and shivered. Li touched her shoulder. "That's only a painting," he reminded her. "Don't be afraid of it. Be afraid of what we'll face."
She gulped. Tycho glowered at him.
"No more reassuring talks, Li. I don't think