The Yellow Silk - Don Bassingthwaite [108]
Li stiffened. "You like it?" He hissed. "You were the pig that enabled Brin to escape his part of the curse!"
Yu Mao laughed. "Black Scratch was more than anybody guessed. I was the one who recognized your dao-" Li's eyes widened and his grip on the weapon tightened.
"You couldn't have. You've never seen this dao!"
Yu Mao touched his nose. "More than anybody guessed," he growled. "I could smell you on it. I was the one who decided we should find you first. I was the one who realized you were carrying the Yellow Silk and told Brin that we should sell it."
Li could feel the heat of rage rising in his face. "The greatest treasure of our family. You betrayed-"
"I betrayed Kuang?" Yu Mao's lips drew back from his teeth. "Yes. I did. I betrayed Kuang. I betrayed the trading expedition. I betrayed Sow. I betrayed you to Brin!" He tossed his head at the collapsed shelter, still shaking with the hin's efforts to free himself. "I'd even betray him if it helped me!"
Li's jaw clenched. "You disgust me."
"No," snarled Yu Mao, "you disgust me! All the way from Keelung to Spandeliyon-why? To satisfy an old maris honor?"
"The honor of Kuang." Li was trembling. "My honor. Your honor!"
Yu Mao snorted. "No," he said, "not mine. I left all that behind in Shou Lung-and I wish upon that yellow rag you brought with you that it had stayed there!"
Spit flew from his mouth with the vehemence of his denial. Li's eyes went wide and the day of Yu Mao's Blessing Ceremony flared in his memory once more. It was almost beyond belief that this brute could be the same Yu Mao who had learned his etiquette and practiced his rituals with such flawless precision. Yu Mao, heir to the workshops and fortune of Kuang. Stern Yu Mao. Dignified Yu Mao. Perfect Yu Mao. Breath caught in his throat.
"Why? "he gasped.
Yu Mao's expression twisted. "You," he said, "wouldn't understand."
Behind Li, Tycho screamed suddenly. He looked over his shoulder. The bard was on the ground, his face tight with pain. Li looked back to Yu Mao-just in time to see his brother throw back his head and give a boarlike bellow.
All around the sty, in the corners and holes where they had jammed themselves, Brin's scattered pigs pricked up their ears. With angry squeals, they came charging out at Li. The Shou yelped and spun around, besieged. Yu Mao sprinted past him, surging through the crowded pigs and headed for the trough on the other side of the sty. He flipped it over with one hand. From underneath, he snatched out his butterfly swords. He sneered at Li again. "I don't know how you found these," he said, "but they're the only piece of Shou Lung I've missed." He grinned at them and looked up.
"Ayeh!" he spat and clashed the blades together as he brought them over his head. He lowered his arms and pushed them out slowly with a long intense breath. "Ayeh!" The weapons crossed over his chest for a heartbeat before thrusting out, then up high, then out again, then down. With each thrust Yu Mao took a stomping step forward, ending with his massive legs braced like pillars as he breathed in slow and deep. "Aayye-hhhh." The muscles of his chest expanded and flexed, and Yu Mao raised his butterfly swords up until their sharp edges pointed straight at Li.
"You shouldn't have come, brother," he rasped-and charged.
Li tried to spin out of his way, tried to dodge back, tried to do anything, but pigs battered at his legs with every step that he attempted. It was all he could do to stay on his feet among the angry, swarming animals! They darted aside for Yu Mao, though. "Ayeh /"the big man roared. Butterfly swords swept in, one following the other. Li planted his feet and whirled his dao desperately, blocking one sword, then another, and then the first again. He struck back, or tried to; Yu Mao caught the dao on the back of a sword. Li's blade grated along Yu Mao's-
–right into the hook over the butterfly sword's hilt. Yu Mao twisted, locking the dao. His other sword chopped down from above.
Li brought his arm up and Yu Mao's forearm cracked