Nothing happened. She gasped and relaxed, deep breaths wracking her body, but she reached inside just deep enough to produce a small velvet bag. Tycho glanced into the chest as well. "Your dao is here, too, Li!" He snatched out the weapon and clipped it awkwardly to his belt. "Bind me, there's a lot of other-"
"Don't take anything else, Tycho. We're not the thieves here."
The bard swore softly, but stepped away from the chest, prodding Staso's young woman ahead of him. He tugged open the bag and spilled a tiny handful of gems into his palm. His face lit up. "They're all here."
"Good." Li began to rise.
A sudden yell from the stairs below interrupted him. "Hooded! Hooded!" Footsteps started up.
CHAPTER 13
Li froze, sword still at Staso's neck. Tycho thought faster than he did. He spun the young woman around to face the stairs. "Stop him!" he hissed.
Startled, she spat out imperiously, "Don't come up!" Tycho prodded her and she added, "What is it?"
The unseen man on the stairs seemed taken aback by the orders from above. "I… I just came in with news and found the others trapped! It was Tycho-he must have escaped. Are you all right?"
Tycho's gaze darted to Li. The Shou grimaced. It had only been a matter of time! Tycho whispered hastily to Staso's interpreter. "I'm fine!" she called down. Her eyes were wide with shock and fear, and it seemed she relayed Tycho's words purely out of instinct. "Tycho must have gotten out!"
"Dilla says she didn't see him or his Shou friend come through the shop."
Tycho clenched his jaw. "Li?" he hissed.
"Li?" Staso's interpreter repeated out loud.
"Hooded?" asked the man on the stairs, Tycho winced and poked the young woman. She squeaked.
"Stall him!" Li said softly. He grabbed Staso's fallen hood with his free hand and tossed it to the scarred man. "Get that back on." At the stairs, Tycho whispered to the young woman-she called down to the man below to deliver his news.
The answer that came back wasn't good. "There's fire in dockside. A tavern called the Wench's Ease."
Tycho stiffened. Li's stomach tightened. An accident? It didn't seem likely. He hauled Staso to his feet, sword close to his neck. The long blade was awkward so close, and he would have dropped it for a dagger if he could have. "Tie her again," he told Tycho. "Fast." As the bard grabbed for the long piece of silk and looped it quickly around the interpreter's wrists, Li thrust Staso over to the head of the stairs. The man below-a guard even younger than the interpreter, it seemed-looked up and alarm spread across his face.
"Get off the stairs," Li ordered him. He said it slowly and clearly, making sure the young man understood every word-and that he ctrald see the sword at the Hooded's throat. "We're coming down. Keep all your men back!"
The man nodded. He stepped down the stairs backward and vanished. Li heard him yelling.
Staso snarled something out, a long threat. Li growled back at him, pulling the sword closer, but he just kept babbling harshly. Tycho gave the interpreter a shake. "What's he saying?"
The young woman swallowed. "Even if you get out, do you think I'm going to let this pass? You've threatened me. You've made me look weak in front of my men. You know my identity. You-"
"That's enough," said Li. He tightened his grip on Staso. "You listen to me," he said over the hooded man's unintelligible threats. "We're not going to tell anyone who you are. I gave you back your hood, didn't I? Keep peace with us and your identity stays a secret. Come after us or try to kill us, and his magic-" He nodded to Tycho. "-will whisper your secret and word of your hideout to every person in Spandeliyon. Including Brin. I'm sure he'd like to see you again."
That made Staso's voice stumble. "Good," Li said tightly. "You understand." He gave him a nudge onto the stairs. "Now move."
They went down slowly, Staso first. His interpreter they left bound in the upper room. As soon as they were on the stairs, she began screeching. Her shrieks followed them all the way down into the room at the foot of the stairs. The young guard was waiting below. "Out ahead of us," Li told him. He moved and they followed him out into the Hood-ed's hall. Two of the three guards Tycho had charmed into sleep were there, swords bared. Li made sure they saw his sword. "Keep back," he warned.
"Li," Tycho murmured, "the man with the crossbow isn't here."
"I know." He steered the Hooded to the door leading back down to the leatherworker's shop. Tycho darted ahead to pull the door open and moved back to keep an eye on the guards behind them. Li shoved Staso into the short hallway beyond, twisting him toward the murder slots in its wall. A shadow moved on the other side. "You'll kill him first," Li warned. The shadow shifted, though it didn't withdraw.
Tycho closed the door and drove his dagger into the floor to wedge it shut. Li nodded for him to pass the murder slots first and followed after, using Staso as hostage and shield.
The stairs down to the shop below were clear. The shopkeeper herself gave a sharp gasp at the sight of the Hooded held captive. "Open the door; then step away," said Li. She did and light flooded into the shop, throwing a sharp shadow behind her as she backed away into a corner. Tycho slipped cautiously through the door and peered up, checking for any new ambush and nodded. Safe.
Li took Staso right up to the doorstep and turned him around so they were both facing into the shop. "You should know," he said, "how close you came to dying when I thought you were Yu Mao. I may not be my brother, but you should be just as afraid of me."
He gave the hooded man a hard push that sent him stumbling away and jumped back through the door. He pulled it shutxm the sword blade, jamming the weapon between door and frame right at the level of the interior handle. The sharp metal would make it hard for anyone to pull the door open quickly from inside. Tycho was already up the stairs. Li leaped up after him and the bard handed him his dao. Crown Alley was quiet, the few people hastening along it and talking in sharp voices about the fire in dockside blissfully unaware of what had taken place above the leatherworker's shop. He and Tycho joined them in a slow, deliberate walk away from the Hooded's lair and back toward dockside. His heartbeat was thunder in his chest.
Tycho cursed with every breath. "How many balls are we juggling now, Li?"
"I don't know." He looked up and down toward the waterfront. Smoke stood stark against the late afternoon sky. They were a block beyond the Hooded's lair now. He glanced at Tycho. "When would be a good time to run?" "Now!" spat the bard. They ran.
Fire had claimed the Wench's Ease. Flames kissed every board and beam, turning gray wood to black char then to white-gray ash that glowed red underneath. The roof of the tavern had disappeared at one end, collapsed as the fire ate through the beams beneath. Smoke belched up through the ruin and into the sky, a thick cloud that cast a storm shadow over the yard-over the entire neighborhood. Cinders drifted back down like burning snow, sizzling as they hit the flowing muck melted by the fierce heat and churned up by the feet of a mob.
People were everywhere. Fisher folk. Merchants. Guards. Some had formed bucket gangs, scooping water from a nearby well or soft snow from fading drifts. Some were shouting over the fire's roar, screaming for a priest or a mage with the magic to quench the flames. Others had hooks on poles for pulling down burning walls or long brooms for beating out cinder fires.