Li reached out and snatched it from his grasp. He whirled the pole up into the air, spinning it around in his hands as he took a fast step back. The broad, heavy hook on its end came down behind Mard's legs. The guard captain tried to jump aside, but Li pulled hard and Mard slammed down on his back. He leaped up quickly, but the Shou spun the pole again. This time the straight end cracked across his belly. Mard folded up around it with a grunt and went down once more.

People were staring and other guards were shouting. Li flung the pole aside. "Come on!" he yelled. He started running.Tycho flashed Muire a look of apology, darted past Mard, and sprinted after Li.

The sound of the fire, of Muire's sob, and Mard's roaring rage followed them. The way from the Ease to Bakers Way was shorter than from Crown Alley to the Ease. Somehow, though, it seemed longer. Brin had set the Wench's Ease on fire. What had he done to Veseene and Laera?

Thankfully, no smoke stood out above Bakers Way. The man who had been watching the street earlier was gone. Li shouted caution, but Tycho flung open the outer door of the building and charged up the stairs screaming Veseene's name.

He caught himself on the door frame of their rooms and stared. The door had been shattered. Big pieces of splintered wood were strewn across the floor. Sprawled in the middle of the room was a corpse.

For a moment, Tycho's heart simply stopped-and rushed back to life as he realized it wasn't Veseene.

"Jacerryl," said Li quietly from behind him. The Shou pushed past and knelt down beside the dead man. Tycho swallowed hard and joined him. JacerryFs wounds were horrific. "What did this?" Li asked.

"Black Scratch," Tycho replied. The body stank of death and pig dung. He pointed at the knife wound over Jacerryl's heart. "With help."

"Brin must have caught him. There's not enough blood here, though. He died somewhere else." Li took hold of the corpse's shoulder and heaved it up enough to peer underneath. "There are pieces of the door and broken dishes under him. He was dropped here after your rooms were wrecked."

Tycho rose and turned around slowly. The cupboard had been opened and everything spilled out. The fireplace had smoldered down to ashes. The room was cold-the shutters on the front window were flung wide, letting light and wintry air flood in. Veseene's couch had been overturned and his cot smashed. The door of the back room was open as well and by the light of the open back window, he could see more damage in there. Destruction for the sake of destruction, he guessed. He couldn't have said if anything was missing.

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!"