Flying Swords 21

I know I wrote this post yesterday. I did, I did, I did. I woke up this morning eager to see how ya’ll liked the chapter, and nothing. I had a moment of panic (OMG, I suck so bad they can’t tell me I suck), so I came to the site to see if I at least got likes. I mean, I had to work so hard on this chapter. It felt like a big chain of events with no relationship to each other, and I had to work to make them feel connected (this causes this instead of this and this). And that’s when I realized the website ate my post. Ya’ll didn’t see it at all. So whew. So here you go.

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Leander was exhausted by the time they dragged themselves and the surviving baskets back to the Ring City. They trudged through the wide lane that cut across all of the circular roads, people coming and going in a colorful mass of embroidered robes and chuihu sleeves and handcarts loaded with hand-woven baskets. Something about the pace, about the sheer alienness of it soothed Leander’s soul. This wasn’t America with the traffic and the horns and the criminal enterprise he’d sold himself to behind every corner.

Xi did not seem as sanguine. “I'm finding myself sympathizing with five-year-olds who insistently ask, ‘Are we there yet,’” Xi said.

Leander rolled his eyes. “I will tell you what any competent parent would say: Stop asking before I pull out your tongue and tie it in a knot.”

Xi barked a laugh. “I'm fairly sure parents are not supposed to resort to those sorts of threats.”

“How would you know?” Leander demanded before adding in a softer voice, “How would either of us know?”

“Point,” Xi admitted. “So, would you pull my tongue out if I asked how long it’s going to take to get home?”

“You walked out here the same as I did. You should be able to find the Nie house as well as I.” Leander detoured around a flower vendor with a cart filled with pink peonies and yellow, white, and orange chrysanthemums enormous lotus blossoms. The magic drifting from them was much more intense than in the outside world. The lotus filled the street with a calming balm that made Leander believe for just one moment that all would be fine.

Xi said, “Yes, but without my shadows, I’m struggling. I think I might be relying too much on having that magic live under my skin.”

Leander didn’t want to listen to Xi whine for the next fifteen minutes, so he said, “We have to pass two more circle roads to reach the one with red stone embedded in the paving. Then we  turn east.”

“You know, as deeply shadowed as this city is, it would be ridiculously easy for me to navigate if someone hadn't bruised my magical pathways.” Xi gave him an exaggerated look of disgust.

“Next time I shall remember that you prefer to be dead.” Leander tried to keep a straight face, but his lips twitched, and Xi grinned back at him.

By the time they reached the right road, Leander's shoulders were aching from carrying the phoenix basket. While he had faith in his own craftsmanship, he did not want to risk the sides collapsing if he held it too tightly, and that meant he had to hold his arms out in a way that was unnatural. It may not have been painful when he started, but at this point, his shoulders were screaming at him. Xi hugged a tall stack of baskets in his arms, and Leander wondered if he could ask to switch.

But the phoenix basket felt special to him. This was his masterpiece, and while he had learned to trust Xi with his own body, trusting him with something as valuable as the phoenix basket felt far more frightening. So he struggled through, the muscles starting to cramp before Xi said, “Is that the Nie house?”  The familiar gate and its guarding foo dogs came in sight at the far edge of the curved road.

“It is.”

Xi huffed loudly. “Oh thank God. I don't have to throw your basket down in the street.”

“Do it and I will murder you in your sleep tonight,” Leander said in a calm voice. 

Xi had the audacity to grin at him as they came up to carved doors with their colorful trim. Maybe the servants used magic because one appeared when Leander and Xi were a few steps away and pushed the double doors open and bowed.

“Craftsman Lian, qidi of craftsman Lian, welcome home.” 

“Will anyone ever use my name?” Xi whispered in a mournful voice, and Leander took a step to the side so that he could crush Xi’s foot under his boot. Xi danced to the side and the tower of baskets wobbled precariously before the servant darted forward to stabilize the pile.

“I thank you for saving the baskets from someone's ineptitude,” Leander said.

Xi snorted as the servant claimed the stack of baskets as though not trusting him to carry them across the courtyard without dropping them. Leander was both amused and a little envious because he was still carrying his phoenix basket and his shoulders hurt.

“Of course Master Craftsman Lian. Where should you like the baskets taken?” The servant asked.

Leander considered his answer. He had no use for so many baskets, but he also didn't know where to sell them. Auntie Daiyu did, but she lived in the outer village. “Could you take them to Mother Huiling? Maybe she can help me decide what is to be done with them. I intend this basket to be a present for Father Xiaobo and Mother Huiling, so please let me know when they are available.” Leander expected to go back to their very tiny bedroom, which he feared would feel even smaller and more awkward now that he was having sex with the very attractive man he shared a bed with. The same man he’d been trying to avoid touching for days now.

The servant's eyes widened as he looked at the phoenix basket in Leander's arms. “Please, follow me,” he said.  Leander opened his mouth to protest. His cuffs were muddy. His skin had traces of his… seed.  Worse, it had traces of Xi’s. However, the servant was already moving with quick steps.  Leander risked offending the Nies by showing up looking like a cat toy that’d been dragged through the mud, but he also risked offending them if he refused to show up when expected.

He looked at Xi who only shrugged.  He was no help. With a sigh, Leander followed the servant and who led them through both the outer and the inner courtyard with its pair of trees. Leander allowed his magic to dance with the leaves for a moment. There'd been a stranger in the courtyard and low angry voices, but Leander didn't have the skill to determine more than that from the awareness of the plants, not even one with as good a memory as a tree.

The servant led them up the wide stairs and into the main reception room where Leander had served the Nies tea and where just this morning Mother Huiling had chastised him for drinking, ironic given that it was Father Xiaobo who insisted on Leander accepting every toast made in his name. The entire town had been invested in getting Leander dangerously drunk. Perhaps even fatally so. That was an uncharitable thought, but the sheer volume of alcohol had been distressing.

The servant put the baskets down on a low table before bowing to them. “I will get the master and mistress.” He disappeared through an ornate door.

“Do we sit or stand?” Xi asked.

“Why are you asking me?” Leander put the phoenix basket next to the others and rolled his neck.  Blessed relief.  Just letting his arms fall to his sides was near orgasmic after holding them stiffly for so long.

“Because you seem to know the rules better than I do? That seems like a good reason to ask you.”

Leander scoffed. “The rules for being an American guest who gets occasional dinner invitations do not seem applicable to a situation where I have been adopted into a powerful and wealthy family.”

“Got it. So you are completely and entirely lost.”

Leander glared at Xi, his gaze threatening murder, but in the end, he had to admit, “Yes.”

For some reason that made Xi smile, and Leander rolled his eyes.

They didn't wait long, however. Mother Huiling came with a smile, and Father Xiaobo followed with bloodshot and watery eyes. Leander wondered whether he had refused the sobering potion or if Mother Huiling had refused to make it for him. Either seemed possible. Leander bowed deeply and Father Xiaobo waved a dismissive hand. “Enough of that. You’re family. Bow when you return from some great voyage, not when you come to tea. Sit. Sit.” Father Xiaobo sat on one of the low couches and gestured to the other.

“You appear to have been productive today.” Mother Huiling eyed the pile of baskets. “I assume all went well?” Her gaze lingered on Leander's mud-stained embroidery and Xi’s messy hair.

“A bird of some sort knocked us off the top of the slope and sent us tumbling into a muddy part of the river. That was the climax of our adventure,” Leander said, and he forced his mind away from the other activities that had left them in disarray.

“A bird?” Father Xiaobo’s expression grew sharper.

“A very large bird,” Xi added.

“We have not heard of any bird attacks.” Father Xiaobo looked far too concerned for a bird. It wasn’t as though they had found a dragon.

“I sincerely hope the bird will not attack anyone else,” Leander said. “However, we were only startled enough to fall down the hill and one basket was destroyed.” Leander stood and picked up the phoenix basket. “Luckily it was not this basket. I created this for you and I would have mourned its loss.” He walked to the Nies and put the phoenix basket on the low table in front of them.

Father Xiaobo touched the figure woven into the basket. “The work is exquisite.”

“Thank you. I am sure many craftsmen could produce equally magnificent pieces, but I am very blessed that my magic allows me to do this with speed.” Leander distracted from the compliment, not only because Chinese manners demanded it but also because he hated hearing people compliment him to his face. It never felt genuine and he was always looking for the hidden insult or the concealed condescension.

“You overestimate the skill of others,” Father Xiaobo said. “You must have great control over your qi for such works.”

“I have a Westerner's control over magic,” Leander said. “I have traded a breadth of skill for deep control over a very narrow aspect of it.”

Mother Huiling lifted the woven lid and then gasped, her hand fluttering around her neck.

Leander leapt to his feet. “Is something wrong?” He cursed himself for not carefully checking the baskets before bringing them home. He and Xi had been rolling around in the grass like delinquent teenagers for long enough that something dangerous might have climbed inside.

Father Xiaobo reached into the basket and pulled out a feather that was black at its base before transitioning to gold near the tip.

“It must've come from the bird that attacked us,” Xi said. “I caught a flash of gold before I went tumbling down the hillside.”

Father Xiaobo and Mother Huiling looked at them both with incredulous expressions. Father Xiaobo held up the feather and asked slowly, carefully articulating each word, “The bird that knocked you over possessed feathers like these?”

They looked to Leander first. “I did not see the bird, only felt it.” He reached up and touched his shoulder where the talons had raked him.

“I saw a flash of gold,” Xi said. “It did scratch Lian badly. Do you have some medicine that could take the sting out. I know Lian will not ask, but I also know it must hurt. The bird marked him badly.”.

“Scratches? The bird scratched you?” Father Xiaobo leapt off the couch. That startled Leander enough that he jumped to his own feet, and then Xi followed, leaving only Mother Huiling seated, her delicate fingers clutching her own neck.

“It’s just a scratch,” Leander said when Father Xiaobo rushed to him, pulling on his shoulder to turn him around. Leander touched his right shoulder by instinct, and Father Xiaobo tugged on that sleeve. While Leander understood that the Nies saw themselves as his parents, he was no child to be fussed over.  He tried to retreat from Father Xiaobo’s grasp.

“Let me see,” Father Xiaobo demanded.

“It’s not painful at all.” That was a slight exaggeration given the sting, but Leander was focused on keeping his robe on and his dignity in tact.  Father Xiaobo was threatening both, and Leander could not back up without physically wrenching himself free of the fingers Father Xiaobo had tangled with his long sleeve.

“You don't know if it's going to get infected,” Xi said in a tone that suggested he knew best. Leander glared at him, and Xi glared right back.

“Enough, all of you!” Mother Huiling ended the debate by walking over and untying Leander’s belt without so much as an ‘excuse me.’ Leander was shocked into immobility. He could not push her hands away, but without doing so, he found it very difficult to defend his outer robe. She had pulled it off before he could come up with a good argument for why she should leave him alone. That left him in a wide-necked shirt that functioned as an undershirt.

“Look!” Mother Huiling pointed to the scratches.

Father Xiaobo laughed loudly. “Our son is Phoenix marked!” He said it again louder. “Our son is Phoenix marked.”

“What?” Leander’s voice cracked like a teenage boy going through puberty.

Mother Huiling called to the servants. “Prepare a feast! Summon all the great families. Buy the finest ling food. Our son is Phoenix marked. Proclaim it in the square.” She laughed and Father Xiaobo slapped Leander on the back, and Xi stared at him as if Leander had any answers for what was going on. He did not. He most assuredly did not.

“We must prepare gifts for all of our guests,” Mother Huiling said with excitement.

Leander did not want the Nie family going into debt to celebrate him. While it was clear they could afford it, he was not comfortable with anyone paying his way. He refused to even spend the 88,000 yuan they gave him because he didn’t like gifts. He didn’t want them to buy gifts in his name. He didn’t want to receive gifts. The very word ‘gift’ made him uncomfortable. 

“If you need gifts, you’re welcome to choose any of my baskets if they would be appropriate. I would not wish to offend anyone,” he said.

“Were the baskets present when the Phoenix appeared?” Father Xiaobo’s eyes were bright with excitement. Leander stared at him, his brain slowing like a computer trying to run too many programs at once.

“They were,” Xi said. “We were lucky the baskets stayed at the top  when we slipped or we would have lost more than one.”

Father Xiaobo clapped his hands. “Wonderful! Wonderful!”

Mother Huiling smiled until her wrinkles deepened into valleys. “I shall wait for responses to the invitations and determine which guests will receive which baskets. We shall make sure it is an intimate affair for only the greatest families.”

Leander desperately hoped that meant a dinner party for five, but he had a feeling it was not going to be that simple. Servants were rushing past open doors and he could hear voices calling, which was unusual in a household where the servants spoke in low, soothing voices.

Mother Huiling was unpacking the nested baskets and checking the quality of each when Eldest Brother Zhiyuan marched in with the grace of an angry bull. “Father, Mother,” he greeted them with a quick bow and completely ignored Leander and Xi. “Why do I hear of feasting tonight?”

His father laughed. “If you have heard of feasting then you have heard that your new brother has been Phoenix marked.”

Eldest Brother Zhiyuan’s eyes narrowed, and Leander drew on everything he knew of Chinese etiquette. He bowed deeply. “Eldest brother, I hope your morning is full of fortune and success.”

Leander had hoped that would soothe any ruffled ego, but Brother Zhiyuan’s expression grew even darker. “Am I to feast the qidi of my second brother even while my second brother is missing? Does his life have no value now that he has provided a grandson?”

Father Xiaobo and Mother Huiling froze, their expressions dark with distress and Mother Huiling’s eyes shining with unshed tears. 

“What? What has happened to Heng?” Leander asked, and his tone came closer to demanding than politeness allowed.  None of the members of the Nie family would meet his eyes, not until Brother Zhiyuan squared his shoulders. “Second Brother Heng was following the outsiders in Yaan, but now he does not answer his phone and Auntie Daiyu says that she cannot find him.”

“Oh God.” Leander dropped onto the couch, his legs losing all strength.

“Second son will return. He is a capable and strong son,” Father Xiaobo said.

“And if he does not?” Brother Zhiyuan demanded. “Shall we allow the outsiders to live in his house forever? Shall we feast an outsider while our blood is missing? Will we stop speaking the name of Heng and speak only of Lian and his child?”

“We have to go to the city,” Xi whispered in horror.

“No,” Mother Huiling said, but Leander understood Xi. If Heng was in some danger, it was their fault. But they didn’t have the skills to challenge someone with enough skill to target Heng. Fear gnawed at Leander’s gut. If the government had sent in a spy, that spy would kill Heng and Xi and Leander because getting any of them out of China would be too difficult, and Leander was terrified of dying, and only slightly less terrified of having Xi die.  He would rather let the whole Ring City die first. “We have no power to help him,” Leander said.

Xi looked at him with an expression of pure misery. “Tecca was right. I know dangerous people, but they are more interested in my skill than they are in a Chinese magic practitioner. If they took Heng, they will release him in return for me.”

“What if it’s the American government?  They will release Heng rather than start an international incident, but if they think they can use him as bait for you… if you show up in town…” Leander couldn’t give up on Heng, but he couldn’t surrender Xi either. Leander was a selfish, selfish man. He could not be alone again, not after having a taste of companionship.

Xi stood. “I'm going to Yaan.”

“Xi,” Leander said. He wanted to demand that Xi stay here. He wanted to beg Xi to stay safely within Ring. But he was surrounded by the Nie family who may have just lost their son because of the monsters Leander had brought into their lives. He selfishly could not make himself look so small and petty in front of people who'd offered him such charity. 

“I'll go with you,” he said. He turned to mother Huiling. “I ask that you keep Shanlin safe. We will return if and when we can.”

“You should stay here,” Xi said. “If it’s the government, we shouldn’t both be so easy to find. If it’s my people, they won’t hurt me, but they would hurt you.  Either way, you should stay here. They won’t find you inside the Flying Swords school.”

“I am too selfish and obsessive to let go of you. Isn't that what you always admired about me?” Leander demanded. He didn’t want to say the words. He wanted to run into the forest and hide and lose himself to the calm of trees and the joy of flowers. He wanted to stop being human, but he forced the words out into the world, and once he’d said them, he had to follow through.

“No,” Xi said, but all three members of the Nie family only looked on.  They expected Leander to go–he could see that. If he didn’t, he would lose any respect in their eyes, and with their respect gone, their protection would follow. Leander told his fearful heart that searching for Heng was the safest path. Not a safe one. Not by any reckoning. But in the long run, it was the safest. And as a coward, he should take that surest, safest road to safety.

“We’ll go together,” Leander said firmly. “And if necessary, we’ll kill whoever has come after us.” His throat burned as stomach acid made a valiant effort to escape, but he had cast his die, and now his only choice was to follow through.  Maybe he was terrified, but this was China. Family mattered. Honor mattered. And the countryside was full of deliciously poisonous flora.