It had not been a good morning. His stolen clothes smelled extremely bad and were very possibly infested with vermin. The boots were too small and one had a substantial hole in the sole. His stomach was empty and growling with hunger. He had spent considerable time skulking about the snowy streets hunting for a guard station or a member of the chy guard while avoiding the notice of people as best he could. After his encounter with Lander last night, how could he know who was or was not associated with Brin?
The peak of his humiliation had been turning a corner and literally running into Steth, the captain who had brought him from Telflamm. To the captain's credit, he had managed to keep a straight face when he recognized Li in his stinking, stolen clothes. 'Run of bad luck?' he had asked.
Li had not risen to the bait. 'I'm looking for a guard station,' he had said simply.
Steth had directed him around the corner and down two blocks. 'I'm in port for a few days until I go back to Telflamm,' the captain had called after him. 'I still have room on the return voyage if you need passage.' Li had not responded to that at all.
The guards at the station had been no help. A dishev-eled-looking guard had glanced at him as he entered, then had simply looked away. Li had stepped up and informed him that he was in need of assistance-only to have the man ignore him entirely. He had been in the middle of repeating his request, slowly and with great care, when the guard had finally looked up. 'I heard you the first time, elf-blood,' he had grunted.
Li had very nearly lost his temper. It had taken great restraint to explain politely that he had no elf blood, that he was Shou, and that he had been attacked in the night. The guard had listened with disinterest. He had only perked up when Li said he knew the name of the man who had attacked him. 'Who?' he had asked.
'His name is Lander. He works for a halfling named Brin.'
He hadn't even gotten a chance to explain that he was looking for Brin before the guard had burst out laughing. The guard had then shouted something to his colleagues, who had also burst out laughing.
Then they all threw Li out of the station and left him to flounder in the snow. When he tried to storm back inside, the guard had very seriously threatened him with arrest.
He had left the vicinity of the docks. If Brin had such a hold on the area that even the guards seemed to be on his side, maybe he needed to look elsewhere to find help. Li had headed inland, away from the water and toward the taller buildings he had seen from Steth's ship. He felt more confident here approaching people-though many of them now avoided him-and inquiries had directed him to a much larger guard station. This time the guard hadn't greeted him with disdain as an elf-blood. Instead, he had been firmly dismissed as a vagrant who had wandered up from the docks. Knowing better than to name Brin and Lander again, Li had drawn himself up stiffly and, with the relentless formality that never failed to produce results with the bureaucracy of Shou Lung, had demanded the guards do their duty in finding the men who had robbed him.
The only thing the demand produced was more laughter. Red-faced with rage, Li had held himself in check until the guards' laughter had settled down then he asked who their commander was and where he could find him. 'Oh,' one guard had said quickly, 'you'll be wanting to speak to Mard Dantakain. He's the Captain of the Guard. He'll most likely be at home right now. You just march right up to hightown and ask for him. Can't miss his house.' He walked over to the door and pointed farther into the heart of Spandeliyon to a small but solid fortress. 'He lives right beside the citadel.'
Li had stalked out with laughter ringing in his ears once more.
That wasn't going to happen again. As Mard Dan-takain's startled doorman recovered himself and more servants began to appear, Li stepped into the entrance hall and stood tall, trying to imagine that the filthy clothes he wore were actually a formal maitung robe embroidered with the symbols of his ministry and rank. 'I am Kuang Li Chien of the city of Keelung in the Hai Yuan province of the Great Empire of Shou Lung,' he thundered, 'and I serve the Son of Heaven in the Department of Lost Treasures! ' He glared down at the servants and anger lent him exaggeration. 'I represent Shou Lung in this place and I demand to speak with Mard Dantakain!'
'I'm Mard Dantakain.'
The voice that filled the hall was confident, commanding, and very clearly irritated. The gathered servants fell quiet. Li looked up. At the head of a flight of stairs ascending to the second floor of the house stood a tall man with a strong build. His face was hard and sour. He wore an open vest and held papers in both hands, as if he had just risen from work at a desk. Li immediately bent in a formal bow. 'Honored sir, I-'
He hadn't gotten more than a few words out before the servants swarmed him, seizing him by the arms and shoulders. Li roared again and tried to shake them off, but they had a solid grip. The best he could manage was to heave himself upright again-only to find Mard Dantakain right in front of him. 'Well,' he said in a low tone, 'you're speaking to me. Now tell me why I shouldn't have you thrown in jail for invading my home.'
Li struggled for dignity. 'Honored sir,' he said with all the grace he could muster, 'I was told you are captain of the city guard. I need your help-I was robbed not long after arriving in your city last night and-'
'Robbed? Robbed where?'
'By the docks.'
Mard frowned and his face creased into deep lines as if well-used to the expression. 'What in Helm's name were you doing down there?'
'I… ' Words failed him. He held his head high and bluffed. 'I am a representative of Shou Lung. What I was doing there is the business of me and my emperor.'
The lines on Mard's face only grew deeper. 'So you're some kind of ambassador?'
Li hesitated for a heartbeat and then nodded. Impersonating an imperial ambassador. He would have been executed if he tried this in Shou Lung! So far away, though, there was no one to know any different. At his nod, though, Mard's eyes flicked up and down and settled on Li's face once more. 'Where's your staff?' he asked. 'I never met an ambassador without a retinue that could fill a room.' His nose wrinkled in disgust. 'And what happened to your clothes?'
'I was robbed,' Li said again. He clenched his teeth and hissed his words between them. 'My clothes were stolen. I need your help. I have been to two guard stations this morning and was thrown out of both.'
'You're close to being thrown out of here as well!' Mard snarled. 'If I take you up to the citadel, will Kargil Ninton recognize you?'
Li blinked and hesitated again. This time, though, he must have hesitated too long because Mard crushed the papers in his hand and spat, 'Lord Kargil Ninton, First Consul of Spandeliyon! The man any ambassador to Spandeliyon would go to see!' He spun around sharply and nodded to the servant who had opened the door. 'Get him out of here!' He marched back down the hall toward the stairs. Li stared after him, open-mouthed-and for the first time registered the black-haired man who stood to one side of the hall, watching and listening. Tychoben Arisaenn!
'Wait!' Li called. 'Wait!' He pulled against the servants who were trying to haul him back toward the door and managed to get one arm free. He pointed desperately toward Tycho. 'He knows me! He knows I was robbed last night. He dug me out of the snow!'
Mard stopped. The servants stopped. All eyes turned to Tycho.
The singer gave Li a single cold glance, his mouth set hard and tight. He turned to Mard Dantakain and raised his eyebrows innocently. 'He's mad,' Tycho said. 'I've never seen him before in my life.'
Rage fell on Li like a toppling wall of red-hot iron bricks. He was vaguely conscious of screaming something incoherent at Tycho, of snapping the elbow of his free arm into the face of one servant trying to grab him and stomping down sharply on the shin of the man who was still holding him. Then suddenly he was free as servants shouted and scrambled away. 'Mad? Mad? ' Li howled and hurled himself at Tycho.
The singer flinched back, raising his hands and opening his mouth. Li had fought spellcasters before, though. He dropped fast and swept out with a leg to knock Tycho's feet out from under him, but Tycho yelped and managed to hop and dance over the sweep. Li bounced up instantly and grabbed a fistful of Tycho's shirt before he could recover his balance. He hauled him in close and smacked him hard across the face. 'You lying dog!' he spat in Shou. 'You hairy, lying-'
Hands and arms grabbed him from behind. Li lashed out with his arm to the back and right and a lean man with a resemblance to Mard Dantakain went staggering back, one hand clutching his nose. A swift kick straight back should have caught another attacker, but didn't. This time Li caught a glimpse of the Captain of the Guard himself. Mard's face was dark red and angry as he dodged back expertly and closed again with his arms held wide. The Shou shot down, pulling a dazed Tycho over his head to receive Mard's grapple in his place. The impact slammed them all into a pair of doors that gave way under their combined weight and tumbled them into the room beyond.
