The Beggar Who Devoured Heaven

Chapter 12: Rules of a Hunted Man

The fight lasted twelve breaths.

Ren Kai counted them. He had never seen anyone fight like Yue Shuang. She did not shout. She did not jump. She moved through the riders like cold water through a crack in a wall, and where she passed, men dropped their swords and fell down. The captain with the bronze disk lasted longest. He lasted eight breaths. Then he looked at the thin silver line across his sleeve, and he fainted.

Exquisite, said Sergeant Pan, in a trembling voice. Look at her feet. Look at her back. I have waited a very long time to see a back like that.

Do you want a moment alone? said Madam Du.

YES.

Yue Shuang wiped her sword on a rider's cloak. She picked up the bronze disk from the floor, looked at it, and crushed it between two fingers like a dry biscuit.

"Rules," she said without turning around.

"What?"

"You have been hunted for days. That is clear. You steal badly, you lie worse, and you flinch at every sound. You will not survive another week alone." She turned. Her cool eyes landed on him like two small knives. "I am going to the Silver Lake Court through Wolf Pass. You are coming with me."

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Ren Kai. That is my sister, Ren Lan."

"Ren Kai," she repeated, as if she were writing it on a list of things to keep an eye on. "Good."

"Am I under arrest?"

"Yes."

"For the buns?"

"For the buns. And for being a mystery." She pulled a thin silver cord from her sleeve, tied one end around her left wrist and the other around his right. It was surprisingly tight. "You are a boy with a price on your head, and a sister whose lungs are older than her age. I do not like mysteries. I will keep you until I understand."

"That is kidnapping."

"Arrest."

"It looks like kidnapping."

"Then it is a very polite kidnapping." She held up one finger. "Rule one. You do not steal. Rule two. You do not lie to me. Rule three. You eat when food is offered."

Ren Kai opened his mouth.

"Rule three is not negotiable."

Boy, said Old Crow, from deep in his head, I will be honest. I have been a thief for sixty years. I have never seen anyone so badly outplayed in one evening.

They left before dawn. Yue Shuang carried Ren Lan on her back, which was a new and strange thing. Ren Lan kept her chin on the sword girl's shoulder and talked the whole way.

"Do you like noodles? I like noodles. Big Brother is very good at buying noodles, but not at keeping them. What is your favorite color? I think mine is yellow. Do you have a brother? Would you like one? I could lend you mine."

"No," said Yue Shuang.

"He is very cheap."

"I said no."

But she did not put Ren Lan down. Ren Kai walked behind them at the end of the silver cord, like a goat on a very short rope, and Old Crow laughed in his head for a full hour.

Wolf Pass was a narrow road cut into a gray mountain. Pine trees leaned over it like old men. The wind carried the smell of snow. By midday, they reached a small village at the foot of the cliff, where a woman in a red apron sold dumplings from a steaming basket.

Yue Shuang bought four plates.

She put one in front of Ren Lan. She put one in front of herself. She put two in front of Ren Kai.

"Eat."

DO NOT, said Old Crow.

"I cannot," said Ren Kai.

Yue Shuang put her chopsticks down very slowly. "In the Silver Lake Court, refusing food is the worst insult there is. It means the host is not worthy to feed you."

"I do not think that."

"Then eat."

"He is allergic," said Ren Lan, helpfully. "To being full. He gets sleepy and sad, and then he falls over."

"That is called a normal stomach."

"Not his."

Yue Shuang looked at him for a long time. Her eyes were very sharp. He held his breath.

"You are the strangest boy I have ever met," she said at last.

"Thank you."

"It was not a compliment."

She ate both plates herself, fast, with her lips pressed in a thin line. Then she paid the woman in the red apron, gave her a little extra, and did not say one word about being refused.

She is hurt, said Madam Du, more kindly than usual. She wanted to feed you. Perhaps no one has ever let her.

Ren Kai felt something small and uncomfortable twist in his chest. It was not hunger. He had no time to decide what it was.

At the next table, a man had put down his cup. He had been staring at Ren Kai's chest for some time.

"Five hundred gold," he said softly, and drew a hooked knife. Two friends rose behind him, one with an iron chain, one with a spiked club.

Yue Shuang did not even turn her head. "Sit down," she said. "I am eating."

"Stay out of it, miss. This is none of—"

Ren Kai moved first. He seized the steaming dumpling basket and flung it, and boiling water hissed across the leader's face. The man screamed. The chain whistled through the air toward Ren Lan's head, and Ren Kai threw himself across the table and took it on his shoulder, with a crack that turned his whole arm white and numb.

DUCK! roared Sergeant Pan, a little late. Always duck at a chain!

Then Yue Shuang stood up. It took three breaths. When it was over, three men lay in the dust, and the woman in the red apron was standing very quietly behind her basket.

"That was reckless," said Yue Shuang.

"It was a chain."

"You have no sword."

"I had a basket."

The corner of her mouth moved. It was not a smile. It was a very small, very angry cousin of one. She looked away at once.

They climbed all afternoon.

They climbed all afternoon.

By evening, the road curled around a great gray rock, and a stone gate appeared ahead with two lanterns hanging from its beam. A cluster of notices hung on the board beside it. Yue Shuang stopped to read them, because she read everything. Ren Kai stepped up beside her.

The top poster was new. The ink was still shiny.

It showed a boy's face. This time, someone had drawn it very carefully. The nose was right. The messy hair was right. Even the small scar on his chin was there. Under it, in black letters, was one line.

WANTED ALIVE. THE BOY WITH THE MOUTH. FIVE HUNDRED GOLD.

And next to it, in smaller ink, was a second drawing.

It was a girl, about ten years old, very thin, with big sharp eyes. She was smiling a little. It was Ren Lan.

Under her face, in red letters, were these words:

THE GIRL ONLY. UNHARMED. TEN THOUSAND GOLD.

Ren Kai could not breathe.

Yue Shuang read the poster once. Then she read it again. Slowly, she turned her head and looked at Ren Lan, asleep on her own back.

"Twenty times," she said quietly. "The Sect wants the girl twenty times more than the boy."

She turned her cool, sharp eyes on him.

"Rule two, Ren Kai. You do not lie to me. So tell me what is wrong with your sister."