Vows of Gold and Laughter (The Immortal Beings Book 1)

by Edith Pawlicki

  “And you, Xiao, why will you go with her?”

  Xiao blinked in surprise – wasn’t it obvious? “To protect her. I’m not going to let Jin undertake a quest alone!”

  Still true blue.

  Nanami looked at him a while, and Xiao thought she was going to ask another question. However, she finally blew out the candle without doing so.

  “I will come with you.”

  Jin scurried around the table and flung her arms around Nanami. “Thank you, thank you. What do I owe you in payment?”

  Nanami patted Jin’s back as if stunned. Xiao was hurt that Jin so readily embraced a woman who had locked him in a cage, but on reflection he realized he shouldn’t be surprised. Jin was anxious to please everyone else, but she often took Xiao for granted.

  After a moment, Nanami said, “If we manage to find the key and learn what happened to the Great Warrior, I will consider that payment enough. If we don’t, well, then I will have failed, and you owe me nothing.”

  Xiao frowned. “What if we find the key but don’t learn the fate of the Warrior?”

  Nanami’s lips twitched, and she glanced around the room. “Did you make those yourself?” she asked Jin, pointing to the silks hanging from the bed.

  “Yes,” said Jin.

  “Then I will ask for a scarf embroidered by the Goddess of Beauty herself,” Nanami decided.

  Jin smiled. “I will make you one either way.” She stood and rubbed her hands together. “We’ll leave tonight. Nanami, please, make a list of anything you require, and my handmaiden will fetch it for you. Xiao, you as well.”

  Xiao frowned. “Why don’t we sleep here and go in the morning, Jin?”

  Jin shook her head. “Time is short – why would we wait?”

  “We should prepare – see what the library has on the Underworld or...” He sought for a neutral term. “... your father’s ailment.”

  Jin frowned at him. “That sounds flat, Xiao.”

  When someone prevaricated, Jin claimed it sounded ugly to her, like an out of tune instrument. It was incredibly obnoxious. “Okay, fine. I want to rest so I can teleport again.”

  Jin put her hands on her hips. “Can you still only manage two teleports a day? I suppose you drained your power to bring both you and Nanami here? Never mind – I will bring you myself. It’ll be faster anyway.”

  Jin had recently bragged to him that her teleports took only five minutes; even dragging him and Nanami along she ought to be able to make it to their destination in less than half an hour.

  Xiao crossed his arms. “You’re being ridiculous, Jin. It’ll be dark wherever we go – why leave tonight just so we can camp? Or did you think there was a palace at the base of the White Mountain?”

  Jin’s jaw jutted stubbornly, then she sighed. “Fine. But in that case, we are going to prepare.”

  NANAMI sat on the ground, her legs straight out in front of her, her hands wrapped around her feet, stretching her hamstrings while Jin and Xiao debated their course of action.

  The three of them were in a valley at the base of the White Mountain, where a mountain stream entered. The morning air was sweet and warm and filled with the soft buzz of honeybees industriously gathering pollen from the spring flowers that grew on the streambank. The lovely scene faded to the background though, when Nanami focused on the two deities standing in it, dissecting old legends.

  Jin was now attired in the prettiest warrior’s clothes that Nanami had ever seen. A rich purple wrap-around shirt was tucked into her orange split-skirts, with pink peonies and wide green leaves embroidered over both. A red sash wrapped her waist and a golden tessen was tucked into it. Gold might seem like a poor choice for a weapon, but Nanami had seen the God of War’s seal impressed into its base and knew it must be both durable and deadly. Her hair fell like a waterfall from the back of her head in a thick, loose braid that reached Jin’s waist. Xiao was no longer the drunken partier of the Wood Pavilions. He wore tooled black leather mail and long and short swords on his back, but it was the determination on his face that made the biggest difference. Given her client’s assessment – no skills worth mentioning – Nanami wondered if he could really use those swords.

  They looked ideal together, appearing both attractive and competent, with the easy manner of long acquaintance. Nanami remembered her first glimpse of Jin in her suite, when she had suspected she was Xiao’s betrothed, but hadn’t known her identity. She had been overwhelmed by beauty and elegance and had despaired of ever competing with such a being. And then Nanami had immediately seen how kind, how genuine Jin was, and she hadn’t wanted to compete with her.

  That feeling had lasted for all of an hour. By the time Jin and Xiao had returned to her, she found that whatever strange pull she felt for Xiao was in force again. He was such a flawed being, and yet he was powerful and charming. She wanted to know how he became the way he was; she wanted to be there to comfort him, to keep him sober.

  Nanami rubbed her forehead. What a glutton for punishment she was. She was travelling with a newly betrothed couple, developing an infatuation for the man while his lady was literally the most beautiful being in existence. And she didn’t even want to help them!

  Although Nanami was disowned, twelve millennia of scorning the self-proclaimed Sun Emperor were hard to forget. So she didn’t want to save him, but she wanted to go to the Underworld. The idea scared her – she had had nightmares about being chased by Bulgae ever since she had met them in Bando – but she longed for and worried about the Koch-ssi, a creature she loved like family.

  Of course, this was probably all moot. Nanami had tried to find the key herself, about six millennia ago. Like others, she had done her best to find the First’s fabled home, but as far as she could tell, he wasn’t even on the White Mountain. Perhaps he had truly died and buried himself with the key, as Aka had claimed.

  She had no reason to think Jin and Xiao would have more success than the dozens who had gone before – they seemed even more ignorant than most – but there wasn’t anywhere else she needed to be, so why not torture herself with their company?

  “Nanami,” called Jin, “we’re going to follow the spring. Are you ready?”

  Nanami leapt quickly to her feet.

  There was the hint of a footpath along the stream, though if anyone had made it purposely, it had been a long time since they maintained it.

  The silence as they hiked felt awkward and heavy to Nanami, so after a moment she said to Jin, “I can’t imagine what it was like to grow up in the Sun Court.”

  Jin squeezed the base of her tessen. “I didn’t really. My mother died before my eight hundredth birthday. I don’t really remember that time much, just bits and pieces, usually when something sparks them. I grew up with my grandmother, NeeNee.”

  Nanami blinked, and then laughed. “The Wanderer? In that case, your upbringing must have been far freer than my own. What was that like?”

  “Wonderful,” said Xiao. “I travelled with them for twenty years, just after we turned two thousand. NeeNee let us go everywhere and get into everything. I don’t think she knows what a punishment is. Tell her about those monkeys we met in Bando.”

  “Have you seen Bandoan macaques?” Jin asked Nanami.

  Nanami nodded. “They’re cute, but they can be mean. I once saw them beat up a mortal selling bananas.”

  Jin winced. “I can imagine that, but fortunately, these macaques were quite kind to us.”

  “Perhaps even macaques know better than to harass deities,” suggested Nanami.

  Xiao grinned. “I’m not sure that they weren’t harassing us – they were grooming each other in a hot spring, and nothing would satisfy them but for us to join. Totally ruined our clothes, but NeeNee just laughed.”

  “Well, it’s easy for her to make new ones,” Jin reminded him. “I don’t think I had a single article of clothing that wasn’t blue until I returned to the Sun Court.”

  Xiao snorted. �
��Some people would get mad even if it is effortless to make clothes. When I–” He changed his mind abruptly, waving the story away with his hand. “NeeNee is the best.”

  “Of course, I love her very much,” Jin said stiffly.

  Nanami looked curiously back and forth between the two of them. She had thought there was nothing they couldn’t discuss easily with each other, but it seemed parents – or grandparents – was a difficult subject. Which made her want to know more.

  Before she came up with another question, Jin asked her, “How did you become the best thief? I can’t imagine that’s a skill the Sea Dragon has his children taught.”

  Nanami barely stopped from flinching. Hoping her tone was casual, she said, “I started stealing things just before my six thousandth birthday. Out of boredom, I suppose. I didn’t take things that people needed or were very valuable. Little things, like a hair tie or a pair of socks.”

  “You wanted to see if anyone would notice if they were missing,” accused Xiao.

  Yes, Nanami admitted silently, I wanted to see if anyone would notice me. Nanami was one of thirteen, none more than two thousand years apart. Her parents had first had five daughters, then a longed-for son, then Nanami, then another son. Sometimes she had hated her brothers for making her invisible. Aloud she said, “One day I stole a hair stick from a guest. It was very plain, made of wood, but it had a magical property – it cast an illusion over the wearer. I was caught almost immediately because I put it in my own hair. My father disowned me, and I left the Sea Palace.” Jin and Xiao had become very quiet, and Nanami was a little annoyed with herself for speaking so openly. And yet, she kept going.

  “I am not the best thief,” she told them, “I just have a reputation. The best thief, I believe, is He Who Walks in Shadow. He does not steal for anyone but himself.”

  “But you don’t steal for yourself at all,” interjected Jin.

  “That’s right.”

  “Why?” asked Xiao. Nanami glanced at him, surprised by the genuine curiosity in his voice, but he avoided her eyes.

  She caressed her belt, feeling beneath the cloth her pouch of nishikai powder, four throwing stars, and the spelled bag with which she had trapped Xiao. She remembered the Light Hands hunting her through the deep forest in Zhongtu and she clasped her hands, reassuring herself that they were both still there. “I like the act of stealing, the thrill,” she said lightly. “The first time I stole, I expected to get caught immediately, but I didn’t. It was thrilling and so I did it again. The thrill would wear off sooner and sooner, and instead I would feel this pressure building until I couldn’t think about anything but taking something and getting away with it.

  “When I first entered the world, I still felt compelled to steal constantly, and that scared me. I wanted – needed – to regain control over that impulse. So I made a rule to never steal unless it was for a job.”

  “You are an addict,” Xiao said shortly, angrily.

  Nanami nodded.

  “That’s not fair,” argued Jin. “Stealing isn’t a drug. It’s not like Xiao’s drinking.”

  Nanami shook her head slightly, but she didn’t argue the point. Instead, she turned her attention to a rock wall ahead, where the stream they followed transformed into a waterfall.

  “That’ll be a difficult climb.”

  “At least an hour. Perhaps we should teleport past it,” said Xiao.

  And just because she felt a little bad for them, for they truly didn’t seem to know how many had sought the First before them, she said, “I know legend says the Great Warrior died along this stream, but we aren’t the first to make this climb. Do you really think it matters if we scour each inch or if we teleport around?”

  Jin, who seemed to have been entertaining Xiao’s suggestion, straightened. “It matters. My father made the key, so I should have an affinity for it. We must move carefully so that I can feel it.”

  “What will you do if we reach the top without feeling it?”

  “We’ll consult a seer.”

  Nanami grimaced. Seers were crazy mortals who reeked of chicken blood and spoke in a nonsensical language largely of their own invention. Oh, yes, they had some sort of insight into fate, but what was the point when they couldn’t share it?

  And so they climbed laboriously along the waterfall.

  They were perhaps a third of the way up the mountain when they established their camp for the night. Jin had chafed at the need to stop, but Xiao had reminded her that as a quarter flower she needed nourishment. Nanami’s own grandfather was once a deer, so she also needed to eat and rest as much as any mortal.

  Xiao had impressed them by catching two fish from the stream while Nanami made a fire and Jin scavenged for edible plants. They had a warm dinner with a small salad of wild greens and fell asleep to the soft gurgle of water.

  When Nanami woke in the morning, she smiled at the sight of a sleeping Jin and Xiao and reflected how nice it was to be travelling with companions. As soon as she finished processing the thought though, she lost her smile. She had worked alone since fighting with He Who Walks in Shadow six millennia ago. Being alone meant she was free, and she wouldn’t be disappointed by others. This was just temporary, to satisfy her curiosity as she had too much time on her hands.

  Nanami went to the stream to wash up. She shivered at the bite of the water. It was rather cold this morning, and she knew it would get colder yet. The White Mountain wore a snow cap even through the hottest summers. She quickly made herself a thick cloak from the stream, and after a moment, made one for each of her companions. It would be rude not to, she rationalized.

  Jin was particularly thrilled with the thick, dark blue cloak and made Nanami blush with her praises.

  The day passed much like the previous, telling stories of their lives to each other. When they stopped for the night though, they had reached the snow. Jin and Nanami were both vulnerable to the cold, so Nanami made blankets from the stream while Xiao built a fire.

  “Hey, Jin,” he said as he worked. “You know what’d make us feel warmer? Some spicy chicken skewers from Maoyi. What do you say?”

  “Uh–”

  “Come on, Miss-Five-Minute-Teleport. You could get a flagon of Dragon’s Flame to go with it.”

  “Hard liquor on a frozen mountain in the middle of a dangerous quest,” Jin said dryly, “You always have the best ideas, Xiao.” She bit her lip, then added, “But the skewers – sure. And some fruit. Any requests, Nanami?”

  Nanami shook her head. “I’ll eat anything.”

  The moment Jin disappeared, Xiao turned and grinned at her. “Alone at last,” he said.

  Nanami felt a flush creep up her neck, but she ignored it. “Is there something you want to say to me?”

  “You now concede that the man who hired you wasn’t Jin’s father?”

  Nanami hesitated. “It wasn’t the Sun Emperor who hired me.”

  Xiao’s brows snapped together, and he frowned. “What are you suggesting? That the emperor isn’t her father?”

  Nanami shrugged one shoulder. “The only person I know of who can flummox the Wanderer’s truth detectors is Cheng the Sleeper, and I don’t see why he’d wake up for you.”

  “I don’t know who that is, but don’t change the subject. I want to know who hired you and why!”

  “And I have already told you everything I know,” she snapped back. “Look, I crossed a line kidnapping you, I know that, and I’m sorry. I just wanted to help–”

  Nanami cut herself off and stared at her hands. She thought she could feel Xiao’s gaze on her.

  “You just wanted to help me overcome my addiction because you fell in lur-ve with me. Is that really what you were going to say?” His voice was weird – like he was trying to sound scornful but couldn’t quite summon the proper feeling. Nanami looked up at him.

  “Awfully vain, aren’t you? Look, I said it yesterday. I know what it's like to be controlled by an addictio
n. And you kind of remind me of myself, before my family cut me off. I do want to help you, believe it or not.”

  “Okay,” he finally said. “I’ll believe you – that doesn’t make me any less pissed. You have no right to interfere in my life.” Nanami was seeing another side of him again. The inner him maybe, the vulnerable part that he hid beneath charm and partying. “If you want to do shit like that, you have to earn a right to do it. You have to be my friend.”

  Nanami rubbed her lips against each other. “I’d like to be your friend.”

  He crossed his arms. “And that doesn't mean lover. I’m betrothed now, and I intend to be faithful.”

  Nanami glared at him. “Who asked to be your lover?”

  Xiao snorted knowingly and she wanted to – fate should curse her, but she found his awareness of her attraction strangely appealing.

  Jin reappeared, accompanied by the smell of chili and mango.

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Xiao cheered, as if their conversation had never happened. He snatched two bamboo skewers from Jin’s hand. “Still warm,” he acknowledged. “I guess all that time you spent practicing might have been worthwhile.”

  Jin handed Nanami two skewers of her own before slicing up the ripe ochre mangos she had wrapped in a scarf. Their conversation stayed light and focused on food.

  That night, the three of them slept close, sharing the blankets and their body heat. Nanami could not stop thinking about the orgies she had witnessed, and almost against her will she briefly imagined what it would be like if these two beautiful beings were both making love to her. She was forced to feign sleep for several hours before she finally attained it.

  AS Jin entered her room, she saw a lump under her covers. She pulled the blankets back and found a small baby there. Only after she picked it up did she realize it was dead. She tried to scream for help, but she couldn’t make any noise. The baby said, “But I died a long time ago. Why are you trying to help now?”

  Her eyes flew open, and Jin gasped for breath. Gradually she became aware of the two warm bodies pressed to either side of her, though her nose and ears were cold. She looked to her left and saw Xiao; suddenly she remembered where she was. And she knew the baby of her dreams was her brother, the one Gang claimed had been murdered. She blinked rapidly to stay imminent tears.