Brin's sneer was no surprise. In fact, they had been counting on it. Li forced his expression to remain neutral. Let the hin think they were desperate, he thought, that he had them backed into a corner…
That if he let them simply exchange the Yellow Silk for Veseene and walk out of the Eel, he would be losing the valuable beljurils. Blood in the water draws sharks, Tycho had pointed out. And in spite of his sneer, Brin's eye followed the bag as Tycho passed it to Laera. Lander's eyes followed it as well. Li murmured a silent prayer to Hsing Yong, the patron of fortune and prosperity. The sharks had the scent. It was time to whip them into a feeding frenzy-and, he hoped, to draw out an answer to the question that had brought him from Keelung to Spandeliyon. He stepped forward.
Black Scratch shifted at the sudden gesture and let out a snort, hot breath producing a great cloud of vapor. Brin's hand tightened on the boar's head. Li ignored the beast and glared at Brin with all of the confidence he could muster. 'You know who I am and what I carry,' he snarled. 'You must know why I'm here.'
'Kuang Li Chien,' Brin replied without hesitation, 'dutiful younger son of Kuang.' His sneer grew even broader and more mocking. 'Seeking vengeance for the death of his beloved brother, Yu Mao.'
In spite of himself, Li felt anger rising inside him. 'Seeking vengeance on him,' he said. 'I know how he betrayed his ship and our people to join the Sow.' It was gratifying to see Brin stiffen in surprise. So the hin hadn't guessed everything. Li returned his sneer. 'You sailed with him for a year before the Sow sank. That's how you came to know about the Yellow Silk.' He reached for his own pocket. 'Before you take it, tell me this and I will not also seek my vengeance on you: where is Yu Mao now?'
Brin released Black Scratch and grabbed Veseene with both hands, dagger tight to her throat. The old woman's eyes were wide. 'You're in no position to make demands!' he spat above the enraged bellows of Black Scratch. Lander jumped in to grab the boar and hold him back, but the beast's squeals spread to the pigs in the shelter. The din was deafening.
Li's hand moved closer to his pocket. 'Tell me! The Silk is mine to give. Without an answer, you will never get it, no matter who you threaten!' Brin's face twisted and Li added, 'If Yu Mao told you about the Silk, he told you I'm stubborn. Vengeance drove me along the Golden Way. Will one old woman's life stop me?'
'All right!' spat Brin. His sneer was fading, but his eye was as hard and bright as one of the beljurils. 'He's gone. Yu Mao died when Sow sank.'
The words hit Li like a hammer in the gut, even though he had been half-expecting them. Even though he had been half-hoping for them. The captain's curse-Yu Mao had not lived to forget Sow. Yu Mao was already dead. Suddenly it felt as though a great weight had been lifted from him. The fire of his rage faltered.
Brin must have seen it in his face. His grip on Veseene tightened. 'Now give me the Silk!'
Li clenched his teeth and his rage flared back to life. His hand dropped away from his pocket. 'Give us Veseene first.'
The trick to dealing with Brin, Tycho had said as they made their plans, is always to give him exactly what he wants. Do that and you're safe. It's when he's thwarted that he gets angry, and when he's angry, he's dangerous. Just like a shark.
'The Silk!' Brin snarled.
Li braced himself. 'Veseene,' he said. In his mind's eye, he saw Tycho's crooked smile. And when a shark is angry, it can't control itself. Try to spear a shark when it's in control and you'll never hit it. Get it mad and it will throw itself on your spear.
Brin's lips curled back. His dagger-bearing right hand flinched away from Veseene to point at his gathered thugs. 'Get them!' he howled. 'Get the Silk, get the beljurils, and kill them!'
The men lounging against the plank fence hurled themselves across the sty. Lander, Serg, and Nico lunged forward. Bor and Ovel closed from behind.
Words had done all they could do. It was time to spear the shark.
Li drew in a sharp breath, focusing himself. Grace and strength seemed to flow into his limbs. In a single smooth motion, he whirled around, left leg snapping out in a spinning kick that cracked into first Ovel then Bor. The thugs staggered back, stunned. Li let his momentum carry him over into a whirling horizontal flip that took him halfway across the sty. He rose with his sheathed dao held horizontally in front of him and a shout on his lips. 'Hrah!'
Stunned by Li's acrobatics, Lander and his men pulled up sharply in confusion and turned to face him-just as Tycho had hoped they would. Mostly as he had hoped, at least. Extra men and wizards? Red Wizards, too. Tycho knew them-Mosi Anu and Hanibaz Nassor. He growled a few choice words for Brin under his breath. In their original plan, he had counted on Li's stunning fighting to keep attackers back. The halfling's additional men, gathered up from across dockside, complicated things. At least he was still in the clear. He spun around to face the thugs from the fence, his hands swirling through the air and his voice ringing out with a song of gentle power.
Four of the thugs dropped to the ground in mid-step, fast asleep. The fifth stumbled, startled by the display of magic. Tycho stepped forward and kicked him viciously in the groin. The man dropped hard. Tycho turned back to face Ovel and Bor as they shook off Li's kick and came back to their feet.
Laera grabbed a spade that was leaning against the wall of the Eel and swung it against Bor's back. The blow was clumsy, but it was enough to send him staggering again. 'Tycho!' she called and hurled the spade at him. The bard snatched it out of the air and spun it in a high, menacing sweep. Ovel rocked back, avoiding the heavy metal, but Bor wasn't quite so lucky. The flat side of the spade hit his head with a clang. Bor went sprawling across the floor of the sty. Ovel had his sword out, though. Tycho only barely managed to get the shaft of the spade up in time to catch the blow.
'Laera!' he shouted. 'Go!'
Lander caught a brief glimpse of Laera Dantakain ducking past Ovel and Tycho and darting across the sty, the velvet bag of beljurils whirling over her head. A bloody fortune twirling like a sling. Ovel stared. Nico and Serg half- turned as well. Lander cursed and dived for her. He caught her, too, locking one hand around her arm and the other onto the velvet bag — just as Ovel caught Tycho's spade in the gut then across the back of the head.
— just as Li Chien launched himself at Nico and Serg with another roaring shout. 'Hrah!' The Shou's saber swept out of its scabbard. Nico's sword was out and Li Chien turned the saber against him first, slicing up in a backhanded arc that rang off Nico's hastily raised blade. Li Chien spun with the blow, bringing his weapon down and back around, slashing underneath Nico's sword. Nico fell back with blood pouring out of a wound that crossed his chest from ribs to shoulder.
The same whirling momentum spun Li Chien's off-hand wide and sent the empty scabbard slapping into Serg's face. As the thug stumbled back, Li Chien stepped around behind him, scabbard beating a stinging rhythm about his head until Serg brought his arms up to protect himself. Quick as a thought, Li Chien stooped down, dropped the scabbard and grabbed the tail of his own long coat, hauling it up and over Serg's head to trap his arms inside. His knee came up and drove sharply into Serg's belly three times in rapid succession. He released his hold on the coat. Serg, still shrouded in the long coat's thick folds, dropped to the ground with a groan.
Lander froze as the man who had just taken down two of his men in a heartbeat turned to him. Laera wrenched herself free and scooted back. The velvet bag of beljurils fell away as well, drawstrings tugging open as it slipped from his grasp.
Chunks of ordinary gravel tumbled out.
'Bind me!' he choked. Another switch. The girl had been nothing but a distraction! He scrambled to draw his sword. A hollow bellow of rage, however, froze him a second time. Froze him and Li Chien, and even Tycho. Lander had just enough time to spin around and see Black Scratch, bloodlust in the creature's eyes, thundering toward him. No, not toward him. Toward Li Chien.
He just happened to be between them.
He tried to scramble away, but he wasn't fast enough. A toss of Black Scratch's head caught him and jagged pain ripped across his hip. Suddenly he was up in the air, the world spinning around him. Then he was down, flat out on the ground and the only thing spinning over him was sky. Pigs were squealing like mad and pouring out of the shelter as if Black Scratch were the commander of an army, leading his troops into battle. Lander couldn't feel his leg for shock. He managed to turn his head, though. His trip through the air had taken only a heartbeat. Black Scratch was only just reaching Li Chien-except that the Shou wasn't there to meet him. Just as at the Wench's Ease, he was leaping up, letting the boar charge right under him. The ground in the sty wasn't the smooth floor of
