play for me.'
Laera tossed back long, glossy brown hair, narrowed her eyes in concentration, and began to play-quite prettily-The King of Pirates.
Tycho's grin turned into a choke. All they needed was the crowd from the Ease there to sing along! He was lucky that Laera's lessons took place in the library of the Dantakain home, where book-lined walls and thick doors muffled all sound. Back in dockside, the music would have carried through an entire flimsy building! He put a hand hastily over the strings of the harp, stilling them. Laera blinked and stopped. 'Ah, Laera,' Tycho said, 'I know your father is a stern man-'
'Tycho, you have no idea. He's been trying for eighteen years to keep me from growing up!' Laera pouted up at him with pretty brown eyes. 'I swear he still thinks of me as a little girl.'
It was hard to see how anyone could think of Laera Dantakain as a little girl. 'I was going to say that surely he must make you practice your lessons.' Tycho brushed Laera's hands away from the strings. 'That isn't one of the songs I told you to practice.'
'I heard some of the city guard singing it. Isn't it romantic? A pure-hearted maid swept away by the king of pirates to be his outlaw queen…'
Her fingers tangled for a moment with his. Tycho gave her a soft smile. 'That's not… exactly what it's about, Laera. You probably shouldn't play it anymore. It's a very low-class song and not appropriate for a fine lady.' Laera made a distinctly unladylike noise. 'Your father wouldn't approve,' Tycho added.
Laera's face screwed up. 'My father is completely tone-deaf. He's the Captain of the Guard. The only tunes he can recognize are trumpet commands in battle. You know he couldn't give fish-guts about-' Tycho cleared his throat. Laera glowered and corrected herself archly. 'You know he has no particular interest in whether I learn the skills of a lady.'
'I'm sure he wants you to be attractive to any potential suitors.'
'In Spandeliyon? In Altumbel? There aren't any.'
'Aglarond?'
Laera made a noise again. 'Live with the elves? I don't think so.' She swung the harp aside roughly-Tycho winced as the strings jangled-and bounced to her feet. 'I don't see why I need to learn the harp either. I like your strilling better.' She went over to where the instrument lay on a table. Tycho moved to intercept her before she could give it the same rough treatment as her harp, but she just put the tip of a finger on the chunky sound box and ran it along the curved body. 'That was all you needed to charm your way around the Sea of Fallen Stars, wasn't it?' She picked up the strilling and gave him a lingering look before turning her back to him. 'Can you show me the proper way to hold it?' she asked over her shoulder.
Tycho's smile grew a little wider and he stepped up behind her. Before he could put his arms around her, though, the library doors opened and a lean man with carefully dressed hair walked in. Tycho hastily turned right around Laera and began correcting the position of the strilling briskly. '… and, of course, the strilling is the traditional instrument of Altumbel. You won't find it played anywhere else.' He blinked and looked up at the lean man with an innocent gaze. 'Olore, Jacerryl. Come for a recitation?'
'Tycho was just telling me about his strilling, uncle,' added Laera.
Jacerryl Dantakain raised an eyebrow in polite disbelief. 'Was he now?' His eye fell on the abandoned harp then darted back to Laera. She flushed and returned the strilling to the table. Jacerryl nodded. 'It was hard enough to talk my brother into letting you take music lessons at all,' he said. 'You might want to keep your attention focused on the harp. It's a far more suitable instrument for a young lady than something vulgar like a screeching strilling.'
'Vulgar? 'Tycho felt himself flush as well. 'Screeching?
A strilling has more expression than any tinkling, bloody harp. There's nothing vulgar-'
'The harp,' said Jacerryl coolly, 'is the only thing my brother wants you teaching Laera. The only thing. Could I have a word with you in private?' He gestured for Tycho to follow him and went back out through the doors. Tycho glanced at Laera. She grimaced and stuck out her tongue at her uncle's back then winked at Tycho. He grinned but quickly suppressed it and went after Jacerryl.
The library opened off the rather grand entrance hall of the Dantakain house, a tall space of light and great pots sporting arrangements of evergreen boughs in pale imitation of summer greenery. Jacerryl said nothing as he closed the library doors behind them and nodded Tycho into the shadow of one of the potted arrangements. 'I mean that, you know,' he whispered. 'I got you this job by assuring Mard that you were completely trustworthy and nothing untoward would happen with Laera.'
'You said you wanted her taught worldly manners,' Tycho shot back. 'And she's going to come off as a backwater bumpkin if she doesn't know how to flirt. All she knew before I started teaching her she had learned from bad ballads and silly tales of chivalry.' He jerked his head toward the library's closed doors. 'She's got talent, but she just tried to play The Pirate King as if it were a romance!'
Jacerryl's eyes went wide. He just barely managed to turn a chuckle into an indignant cough. Tycho crossed his arms and gave him a glare. 'I didn't teach her that.'
'I don't think you did.' Jacerryl wiped his eyes. 'You better not let Mard catch you giving Laera such personal instruction, though. He's not a forgiving soul.'
'Trust me, I won't. Don't worry, I have everything with Laera completely under control. Nothing will get out of hand. This job has too many benefits.' Tycho looked Jacerryl over. 'You didn't bring me out here just to talk tome, did you?'
Jacerryl reached inside the doublet that he wore and pulled out a small tin tube about a handspan in length. The top of it was capped with a plug; a green cord wrapped lengthwise around the whole tube held it firmly in place. 'For delivery to our mutual friend,' he said quietly. 'As soon as possible. I believe he has buyers already waiting.'
'What's inside? ' Tycho took the tube and gave it a very gentle shake. A faint rattle came from within.
'Beljurils,' Jacerryl said. 'All the way from Calimshan.'
Tycho blinked and pressed his lips together, impressed. Beljurils were deep water-green gems, possessed of their own natural winking light. He had once seen a necklace of them, a fantastic flashing collar, at a ball in the Ches-sentan city of Cimbar. They were stunningly precious. Just one could buy half a block of the sagging buildings in dockside-or a grand home in a better part of Spandeli-yon. There had to be several in the tube. A fortune! And for his role in delivering them, Tycho would receive only five coins of gold.
His life wouldn't be worth a shaved penny if he tried to hold even one jewel back.
He undid the knot on the cord and eased the plug out. A twist of silk was wadded into the tube. Tycho shook it out and unfolded it carefully. Eight gems gleamed at him. He swallowed. 'Is that the right number?' he asked Jacerryl. The other man nodded. Tycho swallowed again and wrapped the gems back up, returning the silk to the tube, replacing the cap, and binding the green cord around the whole thing once more. 'All right then. I'll take them over as soon as I'm finished with Laera's-'
Down at the end of the entry hall, there was a loud hammering on the house's great doors. Tycho closed his mouth and palmed the tube, deftly slipping it up his sleeve as a servant came rushing past to answer the door. He gave Jacerryl a curt nod and the two men separated, Jacer-ryl turning to go deeper into the house, Tycho back to the library and Laera. He was reaching for the door handle when he heard the servant at the door sniff in distaste and say coldly, 'Beggars are considered at the kitchen door.' It was the heavily accented response, however, that made Tycho freeze and turn in disbelief.
'I'm not a beggar. I want to see Mard Dantakain.' Li stared at the servant, a delicate, long-nosed man. 'Is this his house?'
The man hesitated. 'Yes.'
'Is he at home?'
The servant's gaze slid down the length of his nose. 'Is he expecting you?'
'No, but-'
'Then he is not at home.' The servant began to swing the door shut.
Li ground his teeth and stepped forward, hitting the door with his full weight, knocking it wide once more, and sending the servant reeling. 'I have important business,' he roared. 'Is Mard Dantakain not the captain of your city guard? / want to see him! '
