Chapter 15: Break the Chain

Morbius did not argue.

He looked at Su Ye's bandage, and then at the cord lying above it, and something crossed his face and was gone.

"Both ends must agree," he said. "Do you, Su Ye?"

"Yes."

"You understand that he will no longer feel your pain. If you fall, he will not know it."

"Then he'll have to be near me."

Su Ye's voice was rough.

"That's all I want from him, anyway. To be near me because he chooses it."

Morbius took Lu Chen's left wrist in a cool hand.

He pressed his thumb into the place where the chain's mark sat under the skin.

It flared white, the way it had every time Lu Chen had tried to speak, and for a moment the pain was so bright he could not see.

Then it went out.

Lu Chen stood swaying on the wet grass, breathing.

Something that had been in him since the morning he woke in the garden was gone.

He had stopped noticing it days ago.

Now the quiet where it had been rang in his ears.

"It is done," Morbius said. "The rule of silence stands for the hall. You may speak to him of everything else."

He glanced once more at the red cord.

"I will call for you again."

Then there was only the pond and the gray beginning of the morning.

"Tell me what you feel," Su Ye said.

"Nothing."

"Nothing at all?"

"I can't tell if you're hurt."

Su Ye dug his thumbnail into the bandage over the cuts.

His face tightened.

Lu Chen watched him do it and felt only the cold air on his arms.

"Ask me," Su Ye said.

"Are you hurt?"

"Yes. A bit."

He laughed, a cracked, surprised sound, and wiped his eyes with the back of his wrist.

"There. You had to ask."

"I'd rather ask."

"Come on."

Su Ye took him by the hand and led him through the dark house, past Su Lu's door, up the back stairs to the room at the end of the east wing.

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