Don Bassingthwaite - The Yellow silk

He wrenched his arms free desperately. Cupping his hands, he clapped them against Yu Mao's ears. The big man gasped and his arms loosened. Li thrust against his shoulders, drawing his body up and out of the deadly embrace, and threw himself backward in a long flip. The heel of his boot caught Yu Mao's chin with a snap and sent him staggering back. Li landed in a crouch beside his fallen dao, swept it up, and rose into a position of balance. "Hrah!"

Blood was trickling out of Yu Mao's mouth as he stood up straight. He wiped it away with the back of his hand. "You've gotten good," he said.

Li didn't move. "And you've gotten foul. You're more pig than man." His eyes narrowed sharply as Staso's tale came back to him-along with Tycho's caution of curses as fickle things. "It's the captain's curse," he breathed. Yu Mao's eyes narrowed as well.

"So you know about that." He sneered. "By my blood, you shall not live to forget Sow. Well, I haven't forgotten her or her bitch mistress-every night when the moon rises I send a prayer to whatever hell she burns in and I thank her for her curse because it's a greater blessing than Kuang ever gave me!"

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 man's 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 against his. Before his brother could force the sword down, Li clenched his teeth and punched sideways into his face, hard and precise. Bone cracked. Yu Mao's head snapped around. Li wrenched himself and his dao away and jumped back.

His right foot came down on a pig and the animal writhed away with a squeal of pain. Li flailed his arms, just barely regaining his balance as Yu Mao turned back to him. His cheek was deformed, broken bone pushing it out of shape. He bared his teeth and growled, eyes narrowing for a moment in concentration.

Boar's bristles sprouted and faded in a ripple across his face. For a moment, his entire head changed shape, turning long and heavy, a pig's head on a man's body. The change vanished and Yu Mao was entirely human again. And entirely healed.

"Mother of dogs," choked Li. He brought his dao up again.

Awareness came back to Lander amid frantic slapping and a rain of curses from Brin. "Wake up! Wake up, damn you!" Lander reached over and punched at the halfling. Brin just slid back and kicked at his injured hip. Lander howled and sat up.

His head smacked into a beam and he dropped back down. He stared around through a haze of pain. They were trapped beneath a tangle of wood in a space so low Brin could barely stand up. "We're under the shelter in the sty," the halfling snarled. "Li Chien brought it down on top of us. I don't have the leverage to move anything." He kicked at Lander's hip again. "You have to lift the roof up! I need to get out there!"

Lander shifted himself away from Brin's foot. The noises coming from outside didn't sound promising: shouts, screams, and a lot of squealing pigs. There were tiny holes in the thick thatch that covered the roof of the shelter, presumably torn open by Brin. Through one, Lander could see Mosi Anu and Hanibaz Nassor. Tycho was writhing on the ground before them. Through another, he could see Li Chien as he struggled in the midst of a seething herd of pigs. Facing him was the biggest, hairiest, dirtiest Shou he had ever seen. "Who is that? " he yelped.

"Kuang Yu Mao," spat Brin. "Lift, damn-"

Kuang Yu Mao's head flowed, shifted, and for less than a heartbeat became a boar's. Black Scratch! "Bind me!" howled Lander, shoving himself as far back into thetr little space as he could go. Brin reached out and slapped him again.

"We need to get out there!"

Lander slapped him right back. This time he caught him, and the force of the blow spun him around. "Bind and tar you, Brin!" Lander cursed. "I'm staying right here!"

The halfling glared at him and opened his mouth. Anything he might have said, however, was lost in a sudden, sharp yell from outside, a bellow so loud it shook straw from the broken thatch above them. Lander cursed again and covered his head.