"No." Li sighed. "My father sent me, Tycho. Rather than face the shame of explaining what his eldest son had done, he told Keelung the same lie I told you. Then he sent me west to find Yu Mao and, if he wasn't already dead, to kill him."
Tycho gasped. "Sweet chum, Li!"
"It had to be done, TVcho."
"You're talking about murdering your brother!"
"Better me than a stranger! Better me than no one at all." He twisted so Tycho could see his left arm. "That's why my father sent the Yellow Silk with me, TVcho. It's the honor of my family; it's the tradition that binds us together. I carry the greatest treasure of the Kuang with me. That's how important this is."
"Aren't there courts in Shou Lung? Doesn't your emperor dispense justice?"
"There are courts. There is justice. There's tradition, too. All three agree. What Yu Mao did must be punished."
Tycho pressed his lips together. "Punished in secret?" Li looked away.
"If I do what I have to do," he said quietly, "I will return to Keelung and I will tell my father the truth. To everyone else, I will tell a lie. When I die, I will stand before the Lords of Karma and pray to Fa Kuan, the Immortal of justice, and Chih Shih, the Immortal of lore and tradition, to intercede on my behalf because what I did was necessary."
This time Tycho didn't answer. Silence stretched out thin.
Finally, Tycho asked, "Are you certain the Hooded is really Yu Mao?"
Li nodded.
"Did he recognize your saber the way you recognized his butterfly swords? "
"It's called a dao, Tycho, not a saber," said Li. "Sabers are what the Tuigan barbarians use. And no, he couldn't have. He's never seen that particular dao before."
"Did he recognize you?"
Li hesitated. Had Yu Mao recognized him? With the hood obscuring his face, it was hard to tell anything. The moment had been so chaotic that any subtle signs would have been lost. Yu Mao certainly hadn't called out to him during their fight or after.
But I'm not some dao, new forged and plucked at random from a rack, Li thought. I'm his brother. "How could he not have recognized me?" he demanded.
"What if he's not Yu Mao? "
"But all of the signs…"
"I know," Tycho said quickly. "I know." He sighed and tilted his head back. "But if the Hooded is Yu Mao and he was friends once with Brin, they aren't friends anymore. Brin and the Hooded despise each other."
"Maybe they've had a falling out. If Brin knows the Hooded is Yu Mao, that would explain why he's after me-his rival's brother in his hands," Li said and added in Shou, "Honest folk aren't a bandit's only prey."
"There's no honor among thieves," Tycho replied in Common. "Li, do me a favor? Before you kill the Hooded, make sure you know who he is?"
"Kill the Hooded?" grunted a voice from outside their cell. Li twisted around sharply. The tall guard who had met Tycho in the leatherworker's shop-Cado, the Hood-ed's interpreter had called him-was standing on the other side of the bars. Two other guards were with him. All three had nasty looks on their face. "You go fishing with an unbaited hook, don't you?" asked Cado.
Li shot a glance at Tycho. The bard swallowed and managed a crooked grin. "Bind me," he said, "I don't even use a hook!" He squirmed up to his knees as the tall guard unlocked the cell and swung the barred door open. "Come to let us go?"
Cado answered by pulling out two smallish canvas bags. Tycho's eyes went wide. "Listen, I think there's been a misunderstanding-"
"You thought you could take the Hooded." The tall guard jerked a thumb toward Tycho then toward Li. The men with him moved forward, one grabbing Tycho and holding him still, the other pulling Li to his knees as well. Li tried to pull away, but the guard held him tight.
"Tycho!" Li said in Shou. "What's going on?"
"The Hooded isn't just called that because he wears a hood," gulped Tycho in the same language. "They call him that because his victims are usually wearing them when they're-"
Cado swatted him. "Quiet, you." He pulled a bag over his head and tugged it tight with a drawstring. Tycho gasped and struggled, but the guard just turned to Li.
"Wait!" Li said desperately. "The Hooded doesn't want us dead!"
"He does," said Cado. "He doesn't like being attacked. Wants you made an example of." He yanked the bag over Li's head.
The fabric was rank and stifling. Through it, Li could see the spot of light that was the torch, but everything else was just a series of vague, dark shapes. "Then take a message to the Hooded!" he told the tall guard.
"Hooded doesn't want to hear messages."
"He'll want to hear this one," Li insisted. "Just two words. Yu Mao. He'll know what it means."
"There's a silver raven in it for you," Tycho added. "In my coat pocket. Come on-two words?"
The tall guard paused and grunted. "All right." Li heard Tycho hiss-Cado probably wasn't any too gentle in obtaining his payment. "Watch them close," he told the other two guards. Footsteps receded. Li closed his eyes and prayed to all nine Immortals that Tycho was wrong and he was right, that it was Yu Mao under that leather hood-and that even if he was going to have to kill his brother, that Yu Mao might want some kind of last word with them first.
It seemed like forever before Cado's footsteps returned. "Well?" asked Li. "Did he understand?"
"Yes," said the guard. "He said to get rid of you faster."
CHAPTER 11
On the ratty, threadbare couch, Veseene sputtered and coughed suddenly. Laera jumped up from her seat beside the fireplace and went to her.
"Veseene?"
The old woman drew a dry, rasping breath. Ty-cho had left a cup of water beside the couch. Laera propped Veseene up a little bit and held the cup to her lips. Veseene sipped at it and nodded. Laera took the cup away and slid a folded blanket under Veseene's head to help her stay upright.
"Are you feeling better? "
Veseene gave a shuddering sigh. "Blessed Lliira, yes." She wheezed out another cough, but shook her head when Laera reached for the water again. "I have to be feeling better," she said with a thin smile. "I couldn't feel much worse than I did before."
"Tycho said to fetch an herbalist named Sephera if you needed her."
"Don't bother Sephera." Veseene's shaking hand slipped out from under the blanket that covered her and folded around Laera's. "She'd just lecture me. I'll be fine. How long have I been asleep? What time is it?"
"It's mid-afternoon." Laera squeezed Veseene's hand. The effort it had taken the old women to cast the spell of invisibility on Li had left her incredibly weak, but somehow she had managed to hide the worst of the strong tea's effects until Tycho had left. Laera had almost run shrieking after him when Veseene had begun to moan and writhe.
Veseene hadn't let her. "It will pass," she had gasped. "It will pass!"
And it had. Tortured twitching had faded to occasional shudders and Veseene had fallen into a restless sleep. Laera had curled up beside the small fire, staring into its luminous depths as if she could divine the future from them.
Veseene must have seen the questions she had silently asked the fire reflected in her eyes. Her grip tightened. "You're not so certain are you, Laera?"
Laera tried to find words and failed. She looked down at the worn floor and shook her head. Veseene released her hand, reaching up to bump her chin and nudge it back up. "Never look away, Laera. You have beautiful eyes. Looking away hides them when you should be using them to your advantage." Her hand fell back to the blankets, but her faded blue eyes remained on Laera's. "Why do you want to leave Spandeliyon, Laera? Why do you want to leave an easy life to become a wanderer?"