The Shou said nothing. Tycho wondered if the man had followed what he had just said. 'Master Kuang?'
'I understand,' the Shou said narrowly. He stood stiff and said in words that sounded carefully practiced, 'The man I'm looking for is a one-eyed hin-a halfling-who was mate on a ship called the Sow. His name-then-was Brin.'
Laughter died instantly. Grins disappeared. Even Ty cho felt his anger drain away. 'Master Kuang…'
Kuang Li Chien gave him a sharp glare. To the crowd, he said, 'I will reward anyone who takes me to Brin. I have business with him.'
For a moment, no one moved. Then a chair scraped back. 'I'll take you to Brin,' called a voice.
Lander stood up.
Breath caught in Tycho's throat. He glanced at the Shou. The man was giving Lander a measured look that turned into a curt nod. 'Very well.' He twisted around and set his tankard, still full, on the bar. As he picked up his saber, Tycho caught his eye and tried to give him a slight shake of his head, a silent warning. Kuang Li Chien just pressed his lips together and turned away. 'I will give you the reward when we find Brin,' he said to Lander.
'Fair enough.' Lander adjusted his mantle and walked over to the door. A box beside it held cheap torches for patrons who needed them. Lander flipped a coin into the box and took one, holding it over a candle to light it. In only a moment, the torch was burning and a wreath of smoke surrounded Lander. He opened the door. Cold air and snow gusted inside. 'After you,' he said.
'No,' insisted Kuang Li Chien, 'I will follow you.' Lander shrugged and stepped out into the night. The Shou followed him without a backward glance.
The door slammed shut on a silent tavern. No one said anything-at least none of the Ease's regular patrons. At the table Lander had just abandoned, his men began snickering and jostling each other as they rushed to drain their tankards. After a few long moments, they rose and walked out the door as well. Once they were gone, Tycho blew out a long breath. 'Bind me,' he murmured. He lifted his tankard to his lips, gulped the bitter ale, and turned around to glance at Muire. Her face was hard. Both of them looked at the Shou's untouched tankard. 'Dead man's ale, Muire,' Tycho said.
The tavern keeper took the tankard and dumped the ale inside into a slop bucket. Tycho nodded and turned back around. Throughout the Ease, conversation was muted as people dived deep into their ale. Tycho pulled his strilling back up to his shoulder and put bow to string. Music rippled out, bringing sound back into the tavern and pushing away memory of the Shou's brief, ill-fated visit.
CHAPTER 2
Joing off with the man in the red tunic was a risk. Li clenched his teeth as the door of the stinking tavern slammed shut behind them. That had been his intent though, hadn't it? Find a dockside tavern and use one of the locals to locate Brin. The information he had obtained through haunting the wharves of Telflamm had been enough to suggest such a strategy would be the quickest and least obtrusive means of finding the hin-man. He could feel that he was close now-anticipation was a knife twisting in his gut. Maybe he should have waited for daybreak. Maybe he should have found a more reputable guide.
The short, hairy singer's pathetic look of warning had been an insult. Li didn't need to be warned. The man in the red tunic would most likely try to rob him. But to be so close to Brin… sometimes it was necessary to walk with the wolf when you were stalking the tiger.
Out in the yard, the corpse was still hanging from the tree. The man in the red tunic gave it a lingering gaze as they passed then glanced briefly at Li. The Shou pressed his lips together and said nothing. The man wouldn't let the silence rest. 'I'm Lander,' he said.
'Kuang Li Chien.'
'So what's your business with Brin? Why are you looking for him?'
Li gave Lander a thin look. 'It is a thing between Brin and me.'
'Brin doesn't like being bothered. Just to warn you.'
'Thank you for the warning, but what Brin likes or does not like is of little concern to me,' Li said bluntly.
His guide shrugged.
They walked on. The falling snow was forming a thick blanket on the ground and made Lander's torch hiss threateningly. Apparently used to such miserable wet and cold weather, Lander tramped ahead, ignoring the layer of snow that built up on his head and shoulders. He began to talk, filling the snow-muffled silence with pointless prattle. Questions about Li's arrival in Span-deliyon. Comments on the quality of ale at the Wench's Ease. Biting remarks about the hairy singer, Tycho-it seemed the thug and the singer didn't get along. That was little surprise. Based on his own brief experience with Tycho, Li didn't much care for him either. He only half-listened to what Lander was saying, though. The man had a gravelly, clipped voice that turned every word into a rough grunt, and following his babble closely would have taken most of his concentration. As it was, his concentration was already focused on peering through the thick curtain of snow and trying to keep track of their surroundings.
It wasn't easy and the glare of torchlight on the falling snow only made it worse. The street that they followed was narrow and twisting, clearly not the same route that he had taken to the tavern from the docks, though it had seemed when they left the Wench's Ease that they were headed back in that direction. Still, they should surely have passed close to the water once more by now. If they were following a reasonably straight route. Li fixed his gaze on a particularly crooked doorway. 'When I said I was looking for Brin,' he said, choosing his words carefully, 'the people in the tavern were afraid. Is Brin dangerous?'
An extended commentary on winter weather interrupted, Lander blinked. 'Yes,' he said after a moment.
That was no surprise, Li thought. By all accounts, the hin had been a scourge as a pirate. 'Dangerous enough that even the mention of his name is frightening?'
Lander shrugged. Snow fell from his shoulders. 'Brin controls this part of the docks. He's a bad man to cross. Someone goes looking for Brin, they're looking for trouble.'
'And yet,' commented Li, 'you would anger him by robbing someone who is looking for him.'
Lander's pace faltered, but not by much.
'We've come this way before,' Li said.
'It's the snow,' grunted his guide. 'It's confusing if you're not used to it.'
'I have walked in snow before.' He paused then added, 'The reward I mentioned is easier earned than taken.' He gave his dao a meaningful rattle in its scabbard. Lander glanced down at it once and then looked away. He said nothing more.
Neither did Li. The Shou allowed himself a slight smile of triumph. If things went so easily with Brin, he would be well pleased.
The first hint that his warning had perhaps not been as successful as he thought came in the form of a sudden sound in the darkness, the abrupt crunch of a foot on old snow. Quick as a thought, Lander was whirling on him almost before Li had a chance to register the sound or the four figures that came rushing out of the shadows on three sides-the men Lander had been sitting with in the tavern. Li drew a sharp breath. Lander's silence hadn't been shock, he realized. He had been listening for his allies!
The men wasted no words on threats. Lander was closest and he swung his torch like a mace straight at Li, the flame of it guttering blue with the force of the blow. If he had been expecting Li, his blade not drawn, to jump back, however, he had guessed wrong.
Li stepped into the arc of the torch and swept up his sheathed dao to turn Lander's swing. His right hand jabbed forward underneath, stiff fingers hitting Lander just below his ribs. The thug choked, doubled over, and staggered away. In the wild light of the swinging torch, Li stepped back, let his pack fall to the ground, wrapped his hand around the grip of his dao, and drew the weapon in a swift, smooth motion.
Two of his attackers wavered, startled by this sudden whirlwind of action. Li slashed at a third in a threadbare coat, driving him back a step. 'Damn it, Serg, hold your ground!' Lander croaked in warning. 'Nico, watch the saber!'
The fourth attacker managed to get his own sword up. Blades clashed, the lighter western sword skittering under the wide, heavy dao, but still stopping it. Li lashed out with his empty scabbard, cracking the stiff wood into
