The Beggar Who Devoured Heaven

Chapter 7: Auntie Du's Kitchen

Ren Kai did not eat the next day.

Ren Lan pushed half a rice cake toward him at breakfast. "I am not hungry," he lied. His stomach growled so loudly that a pigeon flew off the roof.

"Big Brother, you are being strange again."

"I am training."

"For what?"

"To be lighter."

She frowned at him, but she was smiling too. Her cheeks had color in them for the first time in months, and her cough was soft and small. Ren Kai kept his eyes on her face. He did not look at the number on her back. This morning it read 995.

The blue jars will not be enough, said Old Crow, when they were out in the street. They help her lungs. They do nothing for the mark. She needs strength, real strength, or her body will give out before the countdown does. Moonroot and Thread-of-Dawn.

"Where do I find those?"

Only one person in Azure City sells them. Auntie Du. The best poisoner in the nine provinces.

"A poisoner?"

Poison and medicine are the same thing, boy. Only the spoon is different.

"You said she sells medicine."

I said she is retired. I did not say she is nice.

Auntie Du's Kitchen stood at the end of Salt Street, under a red lantern. Steam rose from a dozen iron pots. The smell of garlic and ginger and bone broth hit Ren Kai like a wall, and his stomach nearly folded in half.

Do not eat anything, warned Old Crow.

"I am not going to eat anything."

Your mouth is open.

Ren Kai closed his mouth.

A line of beggars sat at long wooden tables outside. Every one of them held a steaming bowl. They were thin and quiet and smiling. But as Ren Kai walked past, he noticed their hands. Thin gray lines ran under the skin of their arms, like cracks in old stone. One man snored with his face in his bowl. A small boy stared at the sky with empty eyes.

Slow Sleep, muttered Old Crow. She puts it in the free soup. Tests new recipes on them.

Ren Kai's hands closed into fists.

"Come in, child!" A round old woman stepped out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a floury apron. She had white hair and rosy cheeks and a smile like fresh bread. "My, you look hungry. Sit, sit!"

"I need Moonroot and Thread-of-Dawn," said Ren Kai.

The smile did not change. But her eyes moved, very quickly, over his face. "Those are expensive."

"I have silver."

"I do not sell for silver, dear. I trade." She set a bowl in front of him. It was full of golden broth, with pink mushrooms floating on top. The smell was heavenly. His whole body ached for it. "Name three things in this soup, and my whole shelf is yours."

It is a test, whispered Old Crow. And a trap. Any normal boy would be on the floor in ten breaths.

Ren Kai looked at the beggars. He looked at the small boy with empty eyes.

"Nightshade root," he said. He took the bowl. "Ghost orchid. Grave moss."

Auntie Du clapped her hands. "Clever boy! Who taught you?"

"A dead thief."

"How lovely."

"These people are sick because of you," Ren Kai said.

"Beggars are cheap, dear," said Auntie Du kindly. "Medicine is expensive. A girl must do her sums."

Ren Kai drank the whole bowl.

BOY! screamed Old Crow.

The poison hit his stomach like a lit torch. Then the great dark thing at the bottom of him opened its mouth, and the poison was gone. It did not burn. It simply vanished, like a drop of water on a hot stone. The black mouth over his heart glowed, and one golden tooth flickered. Even the broth and the mushrooms were gone. His belly was as hollow as before. The hunger had eaten it all.

Auntie Du's smile finally slipped.

"That," she said slowly, "is not possible."

"It was a good soup," said Ren Kai. "A little salty."

She moved faster than a woman her age should. A fistful of silver needles flew from her sleeve, right at his eyes. Ren Kai flinched.

Ting-ting-ting-ting.

The needles bounced off his skin as if he were made of bronze. Iron Bell Skin still hummed in his arms.

YES! roared Sergeant Pan. CHEST OUT, BOY!

"Is that a ghost?" Auntie Du hissed. "You have ghosts in you!"

She threw a clay jar at his feet. Purple smoke exploded across the ground. Ren Kai held his breath, charged through it, and slapped his palm flat against her chest.

"Sorry," he said.

The golden mouth opened.

Colors poured out of her, green and purple and black, a river of poisons and recipes and old secrets. They flowed into Ren Kai's palm, and for a moment he knew a thousand things. How to brew a sleeping draught from a single petal. Which mushrooms could heal, and which could kill. The name of every herb in the nine provinces.

Auntie Du dropped to her knees. Her face, once pink and round, sagged into old, tired lines.

"Greedy boy," she whispered. She fumbled in her apron and pulled out a small black vial. "You will not take my arts and leave me alive to watch."

"Wait," Ren Kai said, reaching for her. "Do not—"

She drank it in one swallow.

For a moment, she looked almost peaceful. Then she smiled her warm baker's smile, and said, "Waste nothing, boy."

She fell forward and did not move again.

Ren Kai knelt over her, shaking. He had never watched someone die by their own hand. The red lantern swung in the wind. Around him, the beggars sat in silence, still holding their bowls.

Well, said a new voice, brisk and dry and slightly annoyed. That was rude.

Ren Kai almost fell over.

I had a pot on the stove, said the voice. Do you know how long it takes to simmer a proper bone broth? Hours!

"Auntie Du?" Ren Kai whispered.

Do not call me that. It is Madam Du. A pause. Oh, wonderful. Dead, and now I am stuck inside a beggar boy with a very noisy sergeant.

WHO IS A NOISY SERGEANT? shouted Sergeant Pan.

Welcome to the family, said Old Crow, sounding rather cheerful.

Ren Kai made himself move. He ran to the shelves and gathered Moonroot and Thread-of-Dawn, and then he turned to the beggars. "Madam Du," he said to the empty air. "How do I cure them?"

Why should I tell you?

"Because I asked nicely. And because you are inside me, so I can make you very uncomfortable."

A long pause.

...The green jar. Third shelf. Two drops in each bowl. Madam Du sniffed. You are going to be a very annoying boy to live in.

That night, Ren Lan drank the Moonroot tea and slept like a stone. Her cheeks were pink. Her breath was soft and slow.

Ren Kai sat by her mat, smiling for the first time in days.

It will work for tonight, said Madam Du, quietly.

"What do you mean?"

Just then, a thin golden light began to glow under Ren Lan's blanket. Ren Kai pulled it back. The mark on her back was burning bright now, red as a coal.

The number flickered.

995.

994.

993.

It did not stop until it hit 990.

Ren Lan screamed in her sleep.

Boy, said Old Crow, very softly. Heaven felt you eat.