"That's very comforting."
"Tycho!" Mard Dantakain's voice echoed on the street and Tycho flinched. He turned slowly. Mard was stalking down the steps of the guard station, each pace tightly controlled as though he might fly to pieces if he let his guard down. That probably wasn't far from the truth. Tycho took a deep breath and stood his ground.
"What is it, Mard?"
"I owe you pay for this morning's lesson." He reached out and took Tycho's hand, turning it over and slapping coins into his palm with such force that the bard winced. TVcho looked down. Two gold coins stamped with circled dragons. He glanced up at Mard.
"Coins from Waterdeep." "Indeed," replied Mard coldly. "It seemed appropriate. They'll also be your final payment. Laera's lessons are now finished. I don't want to see you at my house again." His eyes glittered and he leaned close. "In fact," he said, "I'd recommend you take care that I don't see you again at all." He glared at Li as well. "Either of you."
He turned sharply and marched away. Tycho glowered after him, but slipped the coins into his pouch anyway and sighed. Li looked at him. "I cost you your job."
Tycho shrugged. "Waves roll in; waves roll out." If he had still been traveling, he might simply have boarded the next ship to leave port and moved on to richer pickings in another town. He might have lost the pay from tutoring Laera Dantakain, but there was still the Wench's Ease and-if he could find another discrete way of meeting Jacerryl-he'd still have his delivery runs. The little tube of beljurils wouldn't be the last thing Mard's brother would bring into Spandeliyon. It would all work out. "Waves will roll in again."
Li looked glum. His stomach growled audibly again. This time Tycho's grumbled in response as well. He rubbed his stomach and smiled at Li. The beljurils were already late-they could wait just a little while longer. "Come on, let me buy you something to eat. There's a place close to here." He began leading the way through the snow.
The place was a pie shop, not especially good, but cheap and friendly. Usually friendly. The shopkeeper's face clouded as Li follow Tycho inside. "No elves," he grunted, pointing at the Shou. "Get out."
Li flushed. "He's not an elf," said Tycho. He reached up and grabbed Li's head, twisting it around and pulling his hair back to the man could see his ears. "Do those look pointed to you? " He let Li go and scowled at the shopkeeper. "Two fish pies-no, three. With two mugs of hot soup. And this man deserves more than just an apology, so that soup had better be on the house!"
The shopkeeper muttered something indistinct and busied himself behind the counter. Tycho led Li to a table, the Shou rubbing at his scalp. "What is it with you people and elves?" he demanded.
"Altumbel was founded by humans who left Aglarond when the coastal settlements stopped fighting the elves of the inland forests and made peace with them. A lot of people in Altumbel still don't like elves."
"How long ago was this?"
Tycho stretched out. "About three hundred years. People around here are stubborn. Most have never even seen anyone with elf blood unless they happen to be former pirates and have traveled. They just have this vague idea of what elves are supposed to look like." He looked Li over. "Unfortunately…"
"Shou look that way, too." Li sighed and pressed his lips together as the shopkeeper came over with a platter bearing three fat pies, each a handspan wide, and two big mugs. The man plunked them down and got away again with unseemly haste. Li reached for one of the mugs and raised it to Tycho. "I'm sorry we began badly, Tycho. You're the only person in Spandeliyon who has given me any help at all." He hesitated and added. "Would you be willing to help me some more?"
Tycho paused with his mug lifted halfway to his lips. "After all this, you still want to find Brin?"
"No, not Brin."
"Right." Tycho nodded and blew across the steaming surface of his soup. He remembered what Li had hinted at back in the King's Chamber. "Brin's just a link. You're after his treasure."
"Treasure?" Li blinked. "I'm looking for my brother."
CHAPTER 5
Throughout Shou Lung," Li explained as they ate the pies, "my home city, Keelung, is known for two things: tea and silk." He spoke in Shou and the words rippled off his tongue with honest pride. "The Kuang family has worked in the silk trade since the earliest days of the city. We have been spinners, weavers, and dyers. We devised the unique yellow dye that made Keelung silks famous. Since that time, eldest sons have followed their fathers in the family tradition. My father, Yu Chien, is the direct descendant of the founder of the Kuang and head of the family. Records of Keelung show that Kuang have done business there for eighteen generations and family legends say that we were working with silk many generations before that."
"That's longer than Altumbellans have been hating elves," mumbled Tycho around a mouthful of pie. In his mind, though, he was kicking himself. Pirate treasure! What had he been thinking?
Li just nodded. "A few hundred years longer. Most recently, though, the Kuang have also been traders, selling the silks of Keelung to all of Shou Lung. Recently, the heads of all the silk families in Keelung made a decision that the time was right to expand our market beyond Shou Lung. They formed a trading society.for that purpose and assembled an expedition that would take Keelung's goods west to Faerun." His voice changed, becoming bitter. "In charge of the expedition was my elder brother, eldest son of the eldest son of the most respected family in Keelung. His name was Yu Mao."
Tycho swallowed before replying. "Yu Mao? You said that last night while you were raving."
Blood flushed Li's face. "I did?"
"Well, maybe not so much 'said' as 'screamed.' What happened to him?"
"What do you mean what happened?" Li asked hotly. Tycho gave him a suffering look.
"Something must have happened to Yu Mao or you wouldn't be looking for him. It doesn't take much to see that."
Li hesitated and nodded again. "You're right." He took a breath, calming himself. "The expedition left Keelung under good omens on a fine day in early spring three years ago, traveling west through Shou Lung to the province of Ch'ing Tung, where the Silver Road becomes the Golden Way leading to Faerun. The elders of Keelung received a letter from the expedition just before it passed beyond the borders of Shou Lung. It was the last word from the expedition until early last summer, when a message arrived for my father. It bore the signature of Tieh Fa Pan, an old friend, and related grave news, of how the expedition had reached Thesk and the city of Telflamm, of how there was great interest in the silks of Keelung." Li's jaw tightened. "And of how Yu Mao decided that the expedition should extend its reach and travel just a bit farther west before the winter-a late autumn voyage across the Sea of Fallen Stars to the markets of Sembia.
"En route to Sembia, the ship on which the expedition sailed was attacked by pirates. Of the members of the expedition, only Fa Pan escaped-he was one of what we call spirit folk and blessed with the ability to breathe water. He found refuge in the sea."
Tycho found himself leaning forward. "The pirates- Brin's old ship?" Li nodded once more. "What happened to the other members of the expedition?"
Li drew a deep breath. "They died," he said. "Put to the sword. All except Yu Mao." Li looked down for a moment then up again. "Fa Pan saw Yu Mao taken aboard the pirates' ship as a hostage."
"Ah." Tycho sat back. "And Fa Pan?"
"He was wounded," Li said harshly. "What could he do? He swam for shore. Through the fall and winter he stayed with fishing folk who found him. In the spring, he made his way back to Thesk. Weakened by his ordeal and unable to travel farther, he sent the letter to my father." He closed his eyes for a moment then opened them again. "It took a year to reach Keelung. By the time my father presented it to the elders of Keelung, the members of the expedition had been dead for almost two years."