In the end, he had ended up taller, though not so broad, and the dao of his Blessing Ceremony had been lost and replaced twice over. His father wouldn't have recognized his current dao if it had been placed before him.
But the Hooded was tall and broad and when he drew the dao out of its scabbard, the gesture was so familiar that Li had caught his breath. And when the Hooded gasped at the mention of Sow and a murdered Shou
Scimitar drawn, he moved closer.
His foot pressed down on a loose floorboard. A sudden squeal broke the silence of the room. Heads snapped up. The Hooded drew a sharp breath.
Li lunged.
Veseene had said that the spell would end of its own accord. She had also said it would end if he attacked anyone. Li saw his own arms, hand, the scimitar flash into being. No need for silence now-he screamed as he slashed out at the Hooded, channeling all of his rage into the blow!
Suddenly it seemed like everyone was screaming except the Hooded-he was throwing himself back desperately. The edge of the scimitar bit deep into the surface of the table where, a heartbeat before, the Hooded had been sitting. Li wrenched the blade free and whirled around. The Hooded was backing up, dao held warily, defensively. Tycho was shouting his name. The tall guard was shouting for help-"Ambush! Ambush!"
The Hooded's young interpreter was shrieking in her own voice. She had a dagger clutched in her hand. Wild-eyed, she leaped for him. Li twisted the scimitar around No, she was a child! His argument wasn't with her. He twisted again, thrusting at her instead with his free hand and knocking her back. The Hooded seized the opening, though. He ducked in with a fast cut, as unfamiliar with the dao as Li was with the butterfly swords. The heavy weapon dragged his blow down. Li slapped it aside, spun the scimitar around, and raised it for a killing blow.
"Li!" Tycho's voice, terrified, cut through his concentration. He glanped back over his shoulder.
The tall guard had Tycho pinned on the ground, a sword at his throat. The man was breathing heavily. "Drop your sword," he gasped, "or your friend dies!"
Li hesitated. In that moment, the Hooded sprang back out of reach and the pounding of footsteps announced the arrival of more guards. One of them had a crossbow, cocked and aimed right at him.
They were caught.
With a shudder, Li let the scimitar fall from his fingers. He glared at the Hooded. "You…" he hissed in Shou.
The Hooded ignored him, scrambling to the side of his fallen interpreter. Guards surged in, grabbing Li roughly and twisting his arms up behind him. More guards dragged Tycho to his feet. The Hooded glared at both of them and snarled to his interpreter. "He says get them below and tie them down!" she relayed, the cool detachment she had shown before completely gone. Anger and fear mingled in her eyes. What the Hooded was feeling was impossible to tell. Rage welled up inside Li and he tried to throw himself at the robed man.
All it earned him were hard punches around his head and torso. The guards seized the chance to give Tycho a few blows as well. The bard tucked his head down against his chest, trying to protect himself at least a little bit. Li stood tall and straight, taking the blows and staring at the Hooded until a jab to his kidneys from the tall guard finally made him twist in pain. "Get them out of here, Cado!" spat the Hooded's interpreter.
The guards dragged them through yet another door and down a flight of stairs, though not the ones that led to the leatherworker's shop. These stairs were dank and slippery and the stink that rose up from below was foul. When they finally reached a level floor, Li could hear water. In feeble torchlight, he caught glimpses of shadowed vaults piled with crates and barrels. He and Tycho were likewise piled into a vault, one with rusty bars across its mouth. Someone produced rope, swiftly tied them hand and foot, and kicked them to the floor. Cold, damp stone slammed into his chest and chin. He tried to twist onto his back. A kick caught him high in the belly, knocking the air out of him.
For a long moment, all he could do was gasp for breath as the Hooded's guards, laughing and growling, filed out of the vault and slammed the barred door behind them. A lock clicked shut. Their voices moved away and everything was silent except for the sound of water-and Tycho's breathing. Li twisted around and sat up. A torch outside threw dancing light into the cell.
"Tycho?" he said.
The bard was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, his face flaming red. "What in the name," he slurred softly, "of all that is good and glorious and wise and intelligent were… you… doing? " He sat up and glared at him. "We were going to take the Hooded hostage so we could get the beljurils. We weren't going to try to kill him!"
Li glared right back at him. "The Hooded is Yu Mao," he spat.
Tycho's jaw dropped in disbelief. "What?"
"The Hooded is Yu Mao."
Li blew out his breath and hung his head against his chest. When the anger that had gripped him in the room above ebbed a bit, he looked up again and forced the words out. "He's my brother, Tycho. When you and Jacerryl described the Hooded last night, I started to wonder. The Hooded came to Spandeliyon only a bit before Brin and just after the Sow vanished. He covered himself entirely and spoke only to an interpreter. He sold Yu Mao's swords to Jacerryl. When I saw him upstairs and from the way he froze when you mentioned the Sow, I knew-"
"Wait." Tycho shook his head as if trying to clear it and looked at Li again. "Even if you're right, even if the Hooded is Yu Mao, you just tried to kill him! I thought you only wanted to find him!"
"I do. I did." Li clenched his jaw and heat sprang into his face. "I lied to you, Tycho," he said through his teeth. "I didn't tell you the whole truth. When I saw Veseene, she guessed that, but I couldn't tell her either. I swear I didn't think it would go this far. I thought I would learn what I needed to know from Brin and that I would leave Spandeliyon to find Yu Mao somewhere else."
In the shadows, Tycho's eyes were narrow. "So," he said coldly, "what is the whole truth? Why did you just try to kill your brother? "
"Because Tieh Fa Pan didn't see Yu Mao taken hostage by the pirates of the Sow." Li swallowed. "He saw him join them. Yu Mao betrayed the expedition's ship to the pirates. Fa Pan thought that he even organized the expedition's journey to Sembia just so the pirates would have a chance to take the ship. When the pirates attacked, all the members of the expedition except Fa Pan were sent below deck for their safety. Yu Mao murdered them."
The confession burned in his gut. Tycho's eyes had gone wide and he looked like he had something to say, but Li didn't let him speak; he plunged on. "When Fa Pan went to warn them that the ship had been boarded, Yu Mao attacked him, too. He was the one who wounded Fa Pan. He pushed him overboard to drown. He didn't know that he was spirit folk, though. From the water, Fa Pan watched Yu Mao celebrating with the pirates, laughing with Brin and embracing the pirates' sorceress-captain like a lover."
His voice failed him. Silence fell. After a time, Tycho asked softly, "Why?"
Li shook his head. "I don't know. Nobody knows. Fa Pan wrote that he asked Yu Mao the same thing and all Yu Mao said was 'You wouldn't understand.' Fa Pan suspected that he murdered the rest of the expedition-and tried to kill him, too-so that word of what he had done would never get back to Keelung." He closed his eyes for a moment. "If my father hadn't received Fa Pan's letter, the silk families of Keelung would just have assumed the expedition was lost and mourned them accordingly. They might have asked questions, but not many."
"But because Fa Pan lived long enough to send that letter," Tycho said, "they sent you."