Leander sighed.“Yes.We should not talk here.Chinese magic users cultivate skills Westerners can’t, and one of their skills is enhancing their senses.But yes, I missed them.Badly.”
“Mother said you grew up together.She said that if something happened, I should find you or Creek.Is he the last of your friends now?”At least he had edited out his father.It was important everyone believe Leander filled that role.
Emotions surged until Leander had to catch his breath.“Yes.”
“Is he coming?Mother said you would both take care of me.”
Leander ran his fingers through his short black hair.“I invited him,” he admitted, even though it was a knife to his soul.He had a lot of practice ignoring facts, and he would like to pretend Creek never existed.Talking about or even thinking about him was painful.“He stayed behind because he’s afraid.”
Shanlin’s gaze darted away.“Because of the government,” he whispered.
“Yes,” Leander agreed.Creek had been fifteen or sixteen when the government took him, so the fear was reasonable, but Leander still thought he had the spine of a jellyfish .“If he gets caught running, the government will lock him in a cell or assign him the most miserable job and have him watched.It’ll be a miserable life.”
Shanlin looked at him.“Mother was talking to Creek about giving the government information.Is that what would’ve happened to her?”
Why didn’t the child ask simple questions, like why the sky was blue or where babies came from?Leander thought those were the questions that children used to plague parents.“The government would have to prove she had used her magic.If they did, yes, they could arrest her and sentence her to serve for life.”
“Momma was careful.So careful.All the time!”Shanlin was getting upset even though Tecca had moved beyond the concerns of this world.Despite their differences, Leander hoped she had found a better world.He couldn’t bring himself to hope she was with Finn, but if life were fair, she had found him again.Leander was just too selfish to wish for that.
“She could have made a deal with the government if they had no evidence.She would’ve agreed to work for them, the way Creek does.That would be volunteer service, and she would have rights, even though she would have to work somewhere approved by the government.”
“Did you have the same choice when you were young?To work for the government?”Shanlin studied Leander as if the secrets to the universe hid in his prematurely aged face.
Leander was developing a headache.“Tecca and I both believed the government was wrong.If people volunteered, they got some choices, but it still wasn’t the same sort of freedom that non-magic users got.We believed the man we worked for would help fix the system.He would fight back against the unfairness, and we would be part of his victory.”They were fools with the brain function of amoebas and the survival instincts of a fart.Leander was deeply ashamed of his stupidity.
“The way we are part of Uncle Heng’s success and that’s why they let us stay in the village?”
Leander opened his mouth without speaking.He had never thought of it that way, but it was similar.“Yes, sort of like that, but Heng doesn’t ask us to work for him.He claims us as a sort of family.The man your mother and I worked for was our boss.He told us what to do and gave us money for our work.”
“So, he was like Uncle Heng and the pill master wrapped up together?”
“Sort of,” Leander said, although he hoped the pill master did not turn out nearly as sadistic.Leander could handle arrogance, but he was finished with allowing the powerful to take advantage of him.Let other people play fools in motley, but he was done.D.O.N.E.
Shanlin seemed to think about that for a long time as he fingered the trim on his blue robes.“Are we safe from the man my mother worked for and from the government?Are we safe here?”He looked up at Leander, his eyes shining with unshed tears.Maybe a parent would be kind enough to lie.Maybe that would ease the nightmares that plagued Shanlin’s nights, but the world was full of dangers and Shanlin needed to understand them.
“We are as safe as I can make us.Over the next week or two, I’ll walk the perimeter of the town and identify some hiding places or mountain roads so we can run if we need to.But if the Chinese government arrests us for staying here without permission, we can’t fight them, not in their own country.”
“And they would send us back.”Shanlin shrank into his seat.
Leander silently cursed Tecca for getting herself killed, and then he cursed himself for getting involved.Letting a child die wasn’t okay, but he could have told Creek how he used leaves to spy to convince him to take Salem into custody.But if Creek’s bosses heard even a hint of Leander’s powers, they’d lock him in a tiny room for the rest of his life.
It wasn’t fair to assume Creek would betray him, but he might to get his bosses to take the threat against Salem seriously.Leander hadn’t been willing to take the risk.
“I will be in danger if the Chinese government deports us back to the United States, but that’s only because the authorities suspect I’ve broken the law already.You would be safe.”
“Not if I developed magic.”Shanlin’s gaze skittered across the room.
“Have you had magical outbursts or accidents?”Alarm made Leander’s voice sharp.He didn’t know how to handle nascent magical powers.
Shanlin shook his head.
“This is very important,” Leander said.“If you suspect you’ve unlocked magic, you need to tell me.We’ll deal with it together.I promise.”
“I haven’t,” Shanlin said, his voice sharp and his glare angry.But then he wilted.“Only in my dreams and nightmares.”
Leander winced.That wasn’t a problem he could solve, and he couldn’t take Shanlin to a therapist.He doubted there was one in town, even if he had been willing to tell their secrets to a stranger, and he wasn’t.“I’m sorry, Shanlin.”
He shrugged without answering.
