Flying Swords 9 (Patreon)

You would think I would slow down, and I think I will soon, but this is… this is so nice. I don’t have to check backstory. I don’t have to struggle with plot. I sit down and just write. It’s been a while since I had a book like that.

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Leander stopped at the house to unload an ungodly number of baskets from the obstreperous donkey.  He found Auntie Daiyu squatting nearby, watching his house.

Leander bowed. “Auntie Daiyu, I hope you have not waited for me.”

“It is nothing. I am curious how Yang Xiangren, the old cheapskate, has treated you today.”

She had definitely gotten a report from someone in Yang’s household.  Leander untied the finest of the baskets he had woven in his little self-pity session. It was round and tall with straight sides and phoenixes woven into the pattern. He had made it near the end of his crafty freak-out when he’d been trying to convince himself that he was making better choices now.  “Thank you, Auntie Daiyu for helping me obtain a job.”  He held it out. “I hope you can accept my simple gift.”

She took the basket, running her fingers along the largest phoenix with reverence. “This is beautiful work.”

Leander didn’t want to admit that he had a mental breakdown, so he offered a better reason for sitting next to a river and playing with reeds.  “Master Yang feels my skills are not appropriate for the task he set me. My knowledge of the surrounding area and where to find important plants is severely lacking, so given my incompetence, I thought to find another way to earn money to support my son.”  It was bullshit. Pure bullshit. But Leander was rather skilled in lying.

“How could you produce such a fine weave? This would have taken a master weaver several days, and you have many baskets.” She studied him. The afternoon light struck the side of her face, leaving half in darkness so she looked like she wore a half-mask, but still he could see her confusion.

“None as detailed as that one,” Leander said, “but I asked the reeds to shape themselves while they were still rooted in the earth. Then I broke each reed from the root when it had incorporated itself into the basket.”

“But this has been dried and cured,” she cried, clearly startled far more than Leander had expected.

“No, those reeds were alive this morning, but I removed the chi and left only the dried basket.”

Auntie Daiyu blinked, studied the basket, studied him, and then finally closed her mouth.  “You did not tell me you had such skill.”

“I did not know, Auntie Daiyu. I have lived all my life in the city, but when I saw the reeds, I thought to attempt the craft. I have made others if you would like to see them.” Leander untied other baskets, laying them out in front of the house for her to inspect. Some had lids, others were open mouthed. Most were highly decorative, and all were watertight.

Auntie Daiyu inspected several, bringing the weave to her nose before slowly turning the pieces. “Remarkable. Truly remarkable.”

“If Auntie Daiyu knows of somewhere I can sell these, I would be grateful.”

She peered at him. “How many can you produce in a day?”

“I would not want to take all the reeds from the river, nor can I provide them enough magic to completely regrow while I work for Master Yang, so I could do four or five a day. I could not promise more than that.”  Leander had made over a dozen today, but panic and a need to get out of his own head had fueled that spurt.

Auntie Daiyu nodded. “I will find homes for such art. You still have Yang’s most disagreeable donkey, so I assume you have not yet completed your work.”

“I have not, Auntie,” Leander agreed. He took one of the simpler baskets, one he had filled with food he had foraged for the next couple of days and carried it into the house, setting it on the table.

“You show great trust, not locking the door,” she observed.

Leander walked back outside, touching the vines that grew along the sides of the door. “It is well protected,” he promised.  Her eyes grew wide.  Leander opened several other baskets, transferring plants from the individual baskets he’d used to protect the enriched stalks.  Then he started loading everything into the old basket he’d gotten and Master Yang’s house. He put the heavy roots in the bottom and then the various stalks and finally the most delicate leaves and flowers on the top.

“Shall I carry the baskets to your house, Auntie Daiyu?” Leander asked.

Auntie Daiyu had watched, her smile growing as Leander worked.  “I shall walk with you. I want to make sure you do not make another compromise with your pay.”

“I shall earn what is fair,” Leander said simply. He shifted his pile of now-empty baskets into the house and closed the door.

Her smile grew wider. She definitely hated Master Yang.  Leander put the one sagging basket on the donkey and started leading it toward Master Yang’s house beside the lake. A servant must have seen Leander coming because Yang stepped onto his front porch as Leander walked up.

“You took longer than I expected,” Master Yang said instead of offering a polite greeting.

“You are not paying by the hour, so I explored the countryside so I could be more efficient in the future. It will take me a long time to learn where to find all the plants that would be of use to such an esteemed pill master,” Leander said with a bow.

Auntie Daiyu didn’t even pretend to show Yang any respect as she grinned like a maniac and watched the exchange.  Yang came down and yanked the cover off the basket.  For a second, he stared inside, his mouth open.  It took several seconds for him to recover his voice.

“What is this?” he demanded.  “One small branch of fleeceflower? One single moonflower bud?” He dug deeper and brought out a knobby root. “One root of ginseng? One?”

Leander bowed. “You provided only a small basket and I carried as much as I could without risking damaging the basket which I had promised to return with no additional wear,” he said in his most apologetic voice.  “I only found sixteen of the plants you requested, and I apologize for my incompetence, but I enriched each with chi to make your pills the most effective.” Leander had made sure the plants were all enriched to the point that Master Yang would be desperate to get more of Leander’s products. 

Funny, this is how Druwolf got addicts hooked on Leander’s products back home. He offered small samples at such discounted rates that everyone wanted to buy, and then slowly the price went up. But by then they wanted Leander’s shit so much they didn’t care how much more it cost than other street drugs. How ironic that Leander was using Druwolf’s sales strategies now.

Master Yang started to turn red.

“Sixteen plants harvested would be one hundred and sixty yuan, would it not?” Auntie Daiyu asked, delight in her voice. Maybe Leander was getting some revenge, but Master Yang had still won this round by paying so little. Leander had only earned a bit over sixteen dollars. Maybe between sixteen and twenty four. If he had his phone and internet access, he could look up the exchange rate, but there was no way he would risk having one. 

“Auntie Daiyu knows her numbers,” Leander agreed.  Seeing how red Master Yang had turned, Leander suspected he would have tried to cheat Leander if not for Auntie Daiyu’s presence. Leander owed her.

“Manager!” Yang shouted, and a man with a thin crown of gray hair around his bald head came out a side door. 

“Master Yang called?” he asked.

“Pay him one hundred and sixty yuan,” he ordered before he lifted the basket off the donkey and marched into the house.  The manager quickly counted out the money and handed it over to Leander before leaving with a small bow. Leander bowed back and turned his attention to Auntie Daiyu.

“I must wash the vegetables I gathered before Shanlin is released from school.”

“From learning,” she said.

“I am sorry. I do not understand.”

She patted Leander's arm as if he were a stray dog. “School is a term reserved for those who study magic in Flying Swords. The children are learning, so Shanlin will be released from learning when Teacher Zheng is finished with them. But before you go home to wash vegetables and I retrieve baskets, you must come with me.”

“For what purpose, Auntie Daiyu?” As much as Leander knew he was safe here, the idea of going somewhere unfamiliar with someone he didn’t know well still made him think about secondary crime scenes and kidnapping and revenge. His chest even felt tight.

“Follow me,” she said before walking away.

Leander followed, the unease still souring his stomach.  “Auntie Daiyu, I had hoped to ask you where I could wash my clothes.”

“Separating dirt from fabric is such a simple task that even those who are still refining chi can manage it.”

“Everyone magically cleans their clothes?” Leander hadn’t seen a laundromat in town, but still, the answer surprised him.  

Auntie Daiyu stopped and studied him. “How did you think we washed clothes?”

“I was divided between you using the river or people having washing machines.” The answer probably made him look like a fool, but trying to hide his ignorance wasn’t likely to work.

Auntie Daiyu blinked at him before muttering something under her breath.  “There is a young woman. She is simple and she will never cultivate enough chi to even begin the body foundation stage, but she can clean your clothes. Watch her magic while she does so, and you can quickly learn for yourself.”

“Thank you.”

“Pay her with meals, and remember your gratitude toward me when you see who I have brought you to see,” she said.  Leander had three seconds to feel alarm before Creek stepped out of a small house with flower boxes on the windows. 

Leander stepped back. If Creek was allowing himself to be seen, the trap had already closed and police would be in the village, but Leander’s instinct to fight made him call up the plants he could find. Vines burst from the houses and darted across the ground. The flowers in the boxes threw clouds of pollen into the air, and the tree on the corner swayed ominously.

“Leander. It’s just me. I’m alone. I didn’t bring anyone. You’re safe!” Creek rushed forward only to be tripped by a vine that curled around his leg.  Creek’s shadows raced along the ground and caught at Leander’s clothing, pulling him to the ground.

Leander cursed the ridiculous robes and kicked against the foreign magic that clung to him, cold and sharp and unfamiliar.

“Both of you stop!” Auntie Daiyu shouted. Lightning cracked in the sky, white across the blue field, and a clap of thunder crashed into the village so violently that it knocked down everyone except Auntie Daiyu. That was the first time Leander had realized they were not alone. In fact, a dozen people had been watching from behind corners, only to fall to the ground at the force of the sky magic that blasted the area.

All Creek’s shadows dissipated, and Leander’s vines collapsed to the ground, cut off from his magic.

“You children are lucky that I am old enough to have learned patience for disagreeable younglings,” she said.

Leander flinched as he climbed to his feet.

“Both of you, inside. I swear. Humans lack any sense at this age. Inside. Both of you.” She shook her finger, and Leander had the feeling she was seconds away from slapping both of them upside the head. It turned out he was more afraid of Auntie Daiyu and her impressive magic than the authorities, so Leander bit down on his protests and headed to the house. Creek was still cutting vines away from his feet when Leander passed without looking at him.

“Ass,” Creek whispered.

When Leander walked into Auntie Daiyu’s house, he forgot to breathe. Of course he’d heard of storage rings that could hold entire farms in their magical space and paintings that people could step into, but those were myths. Stories. The idea of a space being infinitely larger on the inside was the realm of science fiction.

Only it wasn’t.

Inside, Auntie Daiyu’s small cottage had a huge reception hall with double doors open to an outdoor courtyard that was not part of the village. She had outdoor space that did not exist in the literal outdoors.

“Hey,” Creek said. Leander whirled around, horrified that he had lost focus on the current problem. Creek lifted his hands in the universal gesture of surrender. “I come in peace. I told you. I’m alone.”

“You are both ill behaved,” Auntie Daiyu said.

Leander bowed to her. “I apologize for my poor judgment and for using dangerous magics around you.”

She snorted. “You are lucky that I enjoy having an excuse to remind others that I have cultivated so much magic. Sit,” she ordered in English. One side of the large room had long couches around a huge, low table, and Leander sat. Creek was slower to obey, but he eventually did.  She pointed to Creek. “Talk,” she said.

Creek rubbed his ankle. “You didn’t have to try to break my ankle,” he said. “I told you I was alone.”

“You’re the police. Excuse me if seeing you chase me to the literal far side of the planet concerned me,” Leander said.

“Fuck,” Creek whispered. “I never wanted to scare you.”

“Fuck.” Auntie Daiyu repeated the word slowly and with a thick accent. “I have not heard this word before.”

Creek turned brilliant red and Daiyu cackled like a mad woman.

“Why are you here? How are you here? And could anyone have followed you?” Leander asked.

“I’m here to warn you or because I was in deep shit. Take your pick. And I always knew where you were going to run. I’ve known since you were eighteen that this was your backup plan, and no one followed me because I didn’t use any smugglers to get here. I hope you covered your tracks half as well.”

Leander sat forward. “What do you mean, you’ve always known this was my escape plan?” Leander hadn’t known this was his escape plan until he’d learned that Druwolf planned to kill a literal child just for being born to the wrong parents. That was the only reason he looked for any escape at all.

“I can use shadows in ways the government doesn’t know about.”

Leander gestured for him to go on.

Now Creek looked guilty. “I was worried about you, being in another country, especially after Finn told me how much you hated it here and how this Nie Heng was the only reason you weren’t calling it quits.”

“You talked to Finn? Back then?”

“As much as I could,” Creek said softly. “Until he was gone.” Leander looked away, desperate to get control of his emotions. Maybe Creek felt the same because his voice was rough as he continued. “Anyway, I can make shadows look like printing on a page or on a computer screen. After all, words are just dark lines on the white background. So I asked Finn to give me as much information on your friend as possible, and then I made a tech think he had an order for a background check on a Chinese national with magical powers. The American government tracks as many magical places as they can, even in other countries, and this place turned up as his birthplace.”

“You assumed I would move to the hometown of someone I knew a decade ago?” Creek was ridiculous. The fact he’d been right was beside the point.

“Finn was horrifically jealous, so I assumed there was something between you and this Nie Heng.”

“So you assume I would fuck for a safe bolt hole?” Leander didn’t know what was more humiliating–that someone he’d known for twenty fucking years thought that way or that Auntie Daiyu was here to hear the humiliation.

“No!” Creek ran his fingers through his hair. “Jesus, can you cut me some slack here? I know you embrace the whole asshole persona, but take it down a notch. You’ve never travelled anywhere else and I know you wouldn’t have given Finn details that made him jealous unless you cared for this Chinese guy.”

“Crap. I need to leave. If you can follow that logic, others can, too.” Leander went to stand, but Creek shot to his feet and took a step closer. It startled Leander into keeping his seat.

“Several detectives have reported hearing you talk about moving to the midwest and working as a travelling preacher. You wouldn’t be the first magic user to sell minor miracles. The police will look there first, and since Finn burned every letter right after getting it, no one else will get clues from what you wrote back then.”

“He burned them?” Honestly, Leander didn’t remember what he’d written back then, but the idea of Finn burning his letters hurt.

Creek sank back down onto the couch. “Sometimes I think he knew what was coming. Maybe when he touched Druwolf’s magic, he realized the truth before the rest of us figured it out, but he said he had to keep you safe, and the letters weren’t safe. He made me promise that if something happened I would protect Salem. But then something happened, and I couldn’t protect anyone because I couldn’t get permission from my bosses.”

“Your owners,” Leander said with disgust.

Creek sighed.  “I spent a lot of time listening to my… superiors. After Salem disappeared, they thought I was compromised. They were debating whether to transfer me or charge me with dereliction. They were going to move me to the involuntary employment division under the theory that I might have helped you.” He gave a distressed laugh. “I actually had helped you, but they didn’t have one shred of evidence. Still, they were certain that they could have me charged and moved to involuntary within a month. It takes longer than that to get paperwork for a new pair of glasses, and they were going to take away the few rights I had left.” He fell back against the pillows and stared at the ceiling.

Guilt rolled through Leander. He had done that. He had put Creek in a terrible situation with the authorities. Again. It was just like school all over again, only this time it hadn’t been plants he had accidentally made grow. He had chosen to take Salem out of that house when Creek had been on guard duty. “Shit. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Finn warned me. Tecca warned me. You warned me. I thought because I made the better choice that I had made the right one. It turned out we were all fucked and lying to ourselves about it.”

“None of us were given any good choices,” Leander said. Their whole society was set up like a giant trap for magic users, which is why so many people listened to Druwolf when he promised to make things better for his people. “You can stay with us.”

Auntie Daiyu cleared her throat. “I have welcomed Boon Lian because he is the qidi of Lei Heng. Our community is open to any who are family to those with roots in Orange Flower Hills. Boon Lian has roots here with Nei Heng. What roots do you have here?” She looked at Leander even though she was talking to Creek.

“He is my qidi,” Leander immediately said. Maybe they hadn’t had an adoption ceremony, but they were the last two standing. Everyone else was dead or missing or horribly dismembered in a supposed accident on a construction site. Leander and Creek had never been the two closest, but they were family–family that had been torn apart by their terrible government.

“And do you agree to be his qixiong and provide for him, ensuring that he has a place in your home?”

“Yes,” Leander said. He frowned. “Or I would let him live with us in Heng’s house, but since it’s not my house…” he trailed off. Technically he couldn’t give away what he didn’t have, and he had no home or security in this village.

Auntie Daiyu grinned, her old skin wrinkling. “Heng honors you as his qidi, and he would not forget his little brother. If you claim this outsider as your qidi, then what Heng gives you can be shared.”

“Will it reflect badly on Heng?” Leander asked. As much as his heart told him to protect Creek who had never lived on his own, who had been controlled and manipulated since he’d been a sophomore in high school and the government had taken him, he couldn’t make Heng’s life difficult. This was his home.

“Heng is a good boy. He knows that a man who takes a qidi is often required by circumstances to accept that other relationships are necessary. He accepted your child, did he not?”

“He did,” Leander said, and the knot of distress in his chest eased.

“So, qidi of Boon Lian, what name will you choose for the paperwork we must file?” she asked.