BREAKING AND ENTERING
1902—New York
When they finally arrived at the building, Jianyu looked up and found the darkened windows of the apartment where Cela said Evelyn lived and wondered—not for the first time—if the path he had placed himself on was the right one. As a child, he had never intended to become a thief. And now, because of the choices he’d made, he was without country or home, far from his family and in a situation beyond his imagining or his control. For a moment he looked up at the darkened sky above him, the sweep of stars that were the same constellations of his youth.
He found the stars that were the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, as he often did on clear nights. In the tale, the two were banished from each other, divided by the band of the Silver River, just as he was divided by a continent and a sea from his boyhood home. But Jianyu’s own choices had led him from his first home, and there would be no magpies to carry him magically back, and even if there were, he couldn’t go. Not without the queue that was prescribed by Manchu law.
The future to come was unknown. His path was surely here now, in this land, but what might he do with it? Where might he go or what might he become if he were not bound by the Brink, now that he could not return to his homeland? And if the Brink was to remain, how would he choose to live in this world, where he was?
But the questions were premature. No future would be possible if the stone fell into the wrong hands. So he would make the choice to become a bandit—a thief—once more, to have a chance at some other future.
“You’re sure she lives here?” Jianyu asked.
Cela nodded. “I had to fit her wardrobe a few months back when she was too busy or lazy to come in when the theater was dark. We should have plenty of time.”
“We?” Jianyu said, turning to her as panic inched up his spine. He couldn’t get the stone and keep her safe. “You’re not coming,” he said, his tone more clipped and short than he had intended.
“Like hell—”
“I need you here,” he told Cela, trying to calm her temper before it erupted. There was not time for an argument. “To watch for any trouble.”
“And just what am I supposed to do if I see some?” Cela asked doubtfully.
“Warn me.” Before she could argue further, Jianyu added, “Can you make a birdcall of some sort? The window is open.” He pointed to the way the curtain fluttered from the open window.
He knew she was angry, but he could not linger. Before she could stop him, he had opened the strands of light, pulled them around himself, and started for the building.
It was a simple thing to find Evelyn’s rooms, but when he let himself in, the apartment was not what Jianyu had expected. The woman herself was like the ostentatious kingfisher in her dress and adornments, but the rooms were cold and barely furnished, with clothes heaped about in haphazard piles. It was the kind of place someone came to sleep off the effects of too much Nitewein or because they had no other option—not because it bore any resemblance at all to a home. Jianyu almost pitied her for living in such a place, but then he reminded himself that her actions did not lend themselves to pity. Evelyn had made her choices, and now she would bear the consequences of them.
There was enough moonlight coming through the open window that he could navigate easily enough, searching through boxes and under beds. He worked methodically, lifting silken stockings and then replacing them as carefully as he could, so it would appear that no one had been there. Better not to warn her.
He was sorting through the piles on her bed when he heard the sound of an owl.
Not an owl, he realized when the sound came a second time . . . and then a third. Cela.
Placing the piles of clothing back the way he had found them, Jianyu was already heading toward the door when he heard the click of the lock releasing. With nowhere to go, he pulled the bronze disks from his pocket and used them to open the wan moonlight and wrap it around himself. Certainly, Evelyn would be able to sense him, but if he was quick, she would not be able to catch him.
Positioning himself next to the door, he waited. But the person who came through was not Evelyn after all.