His robes swished oddly against his legs, and getting on the donkey might be embarrassing, so Leander led the creature over the bridge and into the hills below the Flying Swords school before even trying to climb on.Either donkeys were horrible beasts, or someone had given him a disagreeable monster because he couldn’t get the donkey to hold still.Leander considered walking it back to Yang Xiangren’s house, but that felt like defeat.The beast was clearly their petty attempt to sabotage him, and Leander refused to reveal it was working.
“Stupid beast,” he muttered.At least he tied the basket to the saddle so he didn’t have to carry it.Then he tied the beast to a low branch and sat down to center himself in his magic.He let his magic unfurl and tangle with the grass under him before drifting out into a spiral, searching for anything interesting.He could identify footpaths through the woods by the pattern of plants.Well-trafficked areas were stripped of valuable plants.He didn’t know the Chinese names of all the plants on the list, but he knew most of them and marked them on a mental map he was forming of the area.
He found clusters of wolfberries and abrus and mugwort.He could harvest most of their vegetables out of the hills, meaning they would only have to purchase rice, which was cheap, and meat, which was not.Leander sank deeper into his magic as he searched for clusters of plants that would reveal caves or ideal hiding places.He found a grouping of old wild ginseng.Someone would have harvested it if they had known it existed.That hinted at a good hiding place.He also found streams, their banks defined by birch and salt cedars and a small berry bush he didn’t recognize, but he could feel the plant’s deep thirst.It grew near water.
Magic relaxed Leander the way few things did.He could escape thinking, which was the bane of his existence.But when he shared his awareness with plants, all the fears and regrets and guilt faded into a gray calm where life and growth existed without human emotion.Magical tangling worked best when he touched a plant, but he used his connection to all the plants across the mountain to find the oldest trees.They were steady and staid sentries.Leander set them the task of alerting him if unfamiliar humans walked through an area.He would touch the trees over the next few weeks to reinforce the tentative connection, but at least now he felt safer.Officials could still drive a car up the road without setting off Leander’s alarms, but if the people hunting them were officials, Leander had no illusions about escape.He feared assassins ghosting through the forest, and that would not happen without Leander knowing.
Leander sucked in a deep breath as he fought his way back to consciousness, but his eyes had barely fluttered open before he shot to his feet.His heart beat so fast that he thought it might fail, and it took a couple of seconds to realize Heng stood in front of him, resplendent in a white and gold robe with his hair pinned back by an elaborate hair crown that looked like a pair of wings.
“Heng!”
“Lian!”Heng returned in the same tone.
“How...The plants should have warned me.”Magic had never failed him in the past, and the idea it might inspired such terror that a band tightened around Leander’s chest.
Heng gave him a small smile.“If I were standing on the grass, it would have warned you, but I remember your great skill.I am standing above the grass.”
“You’re flying?”Leander knew Chinese could learn to fly—hypothetically—but he had thought it would take decades to learn the skill.When they’d been young men studying together in the city, Heng had talked about flying as something old men and heroes could do.
“Hovering,” Heng corrected him.“I will have to cultivate my magic much longer to fly properly.”Sinking an inch lower, he touched grass, which protested the weight as the blades redistributed power to preserve as much life force as possible.
“Impressive,” Leander said.He stood and brushed off the dirt and dried leaves that had stuck to his robe.“Thank you for the robes.”
“Of course.It is nice to see you looking like a proper magic user and not a homeless American who has wandered into the village.”He smiled and took a step closer.
Leander backed up a step.“I seem to remember a young man who liked blue jeans.”
Heng shrugged without denying it.He might resemble a historical painting of some mystical prince right now, but Leander remembered him as a scruffy teen in jeans.“Master Teacher Wang Bo felt a magic user extend his chi, so I volunteered to investigate.”
“Master teacher?”Leander’s stomach churned.If he had offended someone that powerful, their days in the village were numbered.“I apologize for...”Leander wasn’t sure how to phrase it.He couldn’t offer to forgo his magic.He wouldn’t.
“Master Wang took no offense; he is only curious,” Heng said.“As am I.Your magic is much stronger than it was when we studied together.”
“I’m older now.”
“Most do not cultivate stronger magic without having teachers who can guide one to meditate or unless they have a powerful pill master able to craft pills.”
“I certainly don’t have any pill masters who like me,” Leander said dryly.
Heng laughed.“You’ve met Yang Xiangren, a man who likes no one.”
“I work for him,” Leander said.
Heng’s mouth fell open.
“Auntie Daiyu arranged for the job,” Leander said.He walked over to the donkey, which had ripped its reins free of the tree and was munching on grass.
Heng looked thoughtful.“Either she hates you, or she hates Master Yang, and she knows you will make him miserable.”
“I’m too old to make people miserable.”
“You are still a child compared to most magic users,” Heng said.
“Maybe in China, where you cultivate magic and live longer, but I’ve outlived most of my friends.I feel perfectly ancient.”He shouldn’t feel old because he was only in his thirties, but life had chewed him like a dog toy.
Heng’s expression turned sympathetic, and anger rose like a dragon in Leander’s chest.He didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for him, not when he’d made his own choices, and so had all his friends.Except for Creek, whose teacher had taken that choice from him, but he had also chosen to cooperate, so he’d made a choice too.
“I need to get to work.I have a list of plants to find and strengthen with my chi before I harvest them.”
