Immortal at the Edge of the World (8 page)

“You could just say you like the wine.”

“It’s wine. I like it for being wine. I don’t expect that opinion to change.”

Hsu laughed and took a sip. I finished skinning the first rabbit, which is messy business. These days, when everyone washes their hands every time they touch a public surface, the idea of tearing the skin off an animal with a knife and your bare hands seems a lot nastier. Back then I wiped the blood off on a cloth, shoved the carcass on a stick, and moved on to the next rabbit, and thought back to a time when I would have just eaten the them raw, fur and all. It was not a fond recollection.

“So I have a lot of questions for you,” I said. “For starters, I wonder if you could tell me why I nearly lost my life back there. And maybe if there are any other towns around here that don’t take kindly to strangers?”

“To the last question, yes,” Hsu said. “There are several such places around here. You may wish to keep apace with the local realities. I can help.”

“Do you mean to ride into each town to talk the area priest into accepting a holy pig bone in exchange for my head?”

He grinned. “There is a merchant guild in this area that wards off competition by fueling local fears of devils and demons and such. The legend you just ran into was invented by a professional fabulist that rode through this valley a few months back. He dresses like a holy man and delivers inspired performances, convincing most who witness that God is speaking through him.”

“And you have to be in this guild to pass the non-devil test?”

“Yes, because only guild members know the answers to those questions you failed to answer correctly.”

“What are the correct answers?”

“Let me worry about that.”

I finished the other rabbit and put it on a second stick, extended both of them over the fire, and then set about cleaning the knife. It was Hsu’s knife, and it was a really excellent one. I was hoping he wasn’t planning to ask for it back.

“That’s the second time you’ve invited yourself along with me,” I said. “Perhaps I should be blushing.”

“As I said, I have been looking for you for some time.”

“Yes, that was another one of my questions. Who do you suppose I am?”

“I
suppose
you are Li-Yuan, the eldest of the eight.”

I stared at him for a good long time. “I think you need to hand me back that wine,” I said eventually. “Either you have had too much of it or I have had too little.”

*
 
*
 
*

There are a
lot
of immortals in mythology. Every god is a de facto immortal already, and I’ve been confused with several different gods over the course of my long history. I actually
was
one of them, in the sense that the name I went by became one of the names of one of the regional gods. And then the old stories became stories
about
me, and suddenly I was Dionysos, god of wine and theater and insanity. That was a little unusual, though. Most times what happens is I get directly associated with a regional immortality legend by virtue of being the only person who comes close to the correct description.

Li-Yuan is one of those names. I don’t even know how that one in particular got pinned to me, since the legend involves a Chinese immortal named “Iron Crutch Li” and I don’t walk with a crutch or anything. Likewise, I have nothing in common with this immortal’s life story. Frankly, it’s not the most flattering comparison in the world, but whatever.

It had been a while since anyone had called me by this name, though. I’d traveled the Silk Road a few times and ended up close enough to China to pick up the title, but while I’m not great at keeping track of time, I was very certain this had happened long before Hsu had been born. So either someone was keeping a description of the legendary Li-Yuan alive somewhere—and it was accurate enough that it was possible for Hsu to find me—or something else was going on. I was banking on it being something else.

*
 
*
 
*

“You are too young to associate that name with my face,” I said.

“And you look too young to be the owner of that name.”

“I am also not a Chinaman with a crutch, if you’ll notice.”

“I know. You are not truly the legendary Iron Crutch Li, but I know you to be an immortal man, and right now that is the kind of man I seek.”

I was possibly even less fond of revealing my age in Hsu’s day than I am now, but by the time he’d said this I didn’t see any point in disputing it. If things got out of hand there was a decent chance I could beat him in combat. Maybe fifty-fifty, depending on how many swords he had hidden on him.

“What could I do for you?” I asked. “And why would I?”

“These are both very good questions.”

“Thank you. I put a lot of thought into them.”

“I need you to help me find something I have lost. And in exchange for helping me, I will help you navigate your way through a world that is changing far more quickly than you are prepared for, as today proved. And your rabbits are burning.”

“So they are,” I said, pulling them quickly from the flames before they legitimately caught fire, which they were moments away from doing. I handed one rabbit to him. “But you’re going to have to make me a better offer than that.”

“Better than making sure your head isn’t removed by religious fanatics? And keeping you from burning dinner?”

“I’m a quick study,” I said. “These are strange times, but I’ve seen plenty stranger. I’d like to know what it is you’ve lost, and why I am the one who can help you find it.”

“I feel as if telling you now would be premature.”

“How am I to help you find something when I don’t know what it is I’m finding?”

“It is in the possession of a Jew merchant who does not know what he truly has. I need to find him and get it back before he figures this out.”

“Again, I ask why I am the one who is meant to help you do this?”

“I need a man who can work miracles.”

I laughed. “I may be old, but you are mistaken if you think I have miracles in me.”

“Ah! That’s where you are wrong, Li-Yuan. For I know you performed at least one.”

“You have me at a loss, Hsu,” I said. “What are you talking about?”

“Tell me, when did you last hear the name Li-Yuan?”

“In truth, I don’t know. I’m not very good with the passage of time. I would say nearly a century, perhaps a little longer.”

“Yes, that’s about right. And you were called Li-Yuan by an elder on the day you saved his village from an angry god.”

This was only a little bit correct. The angry god was a dragon, and while that may still sound pretty impressive, that’s only because humankind never really got dragons right. They weren’t all that much of a big deal back when they actually existed, although it helped to know this in advance of encountering one.

The village Hsu was talking about had a problem with its livestock getting picked off by a particularly annoying water dragon, and I happened to be around, so I took a big stick and hit the dragon on the nose with it until he went away. Then I told the elder not to let the animals go near the water at night anymore, and that was that.

It wasn’t really a thing, to be entirely honest, and I wouldn’t have even remembered it had it not come with a godhood. Granted, you have to know that water dragons—these are more serpentine than the land-based ones, and smaller—don’t like to be hit on the nose, but most creatures already don’t like to be hit on the nose, so it’s not like it’s a big secret.

“Honestly, Hsu, I couldn’t find that little village again if I wanted to. I haven’t set foot in China since, and I was only there in the first place because that elder owed me money. Are you telling me this story is still known a century later?”

“It may be. I don’t know. I did not receive this information secondhand, though. I was a young boy in that village.”

The oldest goblin I ever met was eighty-two, and he didn’t look nearly as healthy as Hsu. Some species have longer-than-normal lifespans, like imps and succubi. Some have shorter-than-normal, like pixies. One or two—vampires, for instance, and some species of moss—could in theory live forever. But goblins and elves have very human life spans.

“I don’t believe you,” I said.

“Said the immortal man to the goblin.”

“You make a fair point. But you are a goblin in your twenties.”

“I am indeed.”

“Possibly math is something you have not excelled at?”

“You asked why you are the man I need to help me with this quest. The answer is, you knew how to defeat a dragon, and that is the kind of knowledge I can’t find elsewhere.”

“You’re expecting dragons?”

“No, but the man I seek is surpassing clever, and there are rumors he employs monsters. I need a clever merchant and a monster expert.”

“What sort of monsters?”

“I do not know. The stories may be exaggerations to make this man sound more impressive, and the truth is I believe that to be the case. However, I would rather be over-prepared for an imaginary monster than underprepared for a real one.”

“That depends. If I’m what you consider preparation you should expect to be disappointed. I’ve found the best recourse when facing something monstrous is to run faster than it can. And I still haven’t heard a good reason to agree to any of this.”

“Hmm. Can I appeal to your sense of adventure?”

He could, because I actually was intrigued. Hsu was turning out to be the most interesting person I had met in a very long time. But he wasn’t telling me anything close to the entire story yet. “I have no sense of adventure,” I lied. “That sort of thing can get a man killed, and you may have noticed I excel at not getting killed.”

He sighed, although it felt like he was expecting to reach this point in our conversation anyway.

“Very well, but I warn you now that you will likely not believe me. You may even send me on my way for fear that I’m mad, and the only way I can prove to you that I am
not
mad is by catching up with the Jew.”

“I can believe a wider range of things than most men.”

“I hope so. Because the reason I am in my twenties while a century has passed since my childhood is that I didn’t spend all of my life in this world.”

I blinked. About five or six times, I think. “Are there other options I’m unaware of?”

“I walked the shadow world for a time.”

“I’m afraid I still don’t follow. Do you mean death?”

“No. No, no. Not the land of the dead. I met a man when I was younger. A special man, who was in truth no man at all, much as I am in truth no man.”

“Another goblin?”

“Something different. He had many names for himself and his people, but the one used most often was faery. The realm I speak of is the faery kingdom. And the thing I need your help to reacquire is a way to return to that kingdom and to the faery that first brought me to that place.”

“Well,” I said. “You’re correct. I don’t believe you.”

“You understand my reluctance, then.”

“But it’s a good story, and I have chased plenty of imaginary objects based on far worse stories. So why not?”

Chapter Five

I was with Hsu one time when I saw her. We were in a busy marketplace near Angora and having a heated discussion regarding the value of a number of furs we wished to obtain to keep us from freezing to death while en route to India and China.

The merchant was a gifted haggler, and we were impatient, which was a terrible combination. With patience we could have reached a number we were all happy with after an hour. Our impatience would get us a number that was more beneficial to the seller, but take less time.

I saw her red hair from half a market away, and only because the road was uneven and we were standing on a slight rise. I couldn’t tell what she was shopping for, but she was standing still and I was seeing the back of her head. This was a fortuitous thing, because most other times when I saw her, she also saw me, and when that happened she tended to disappear on me. I didn’t know why.

Hsu was a little shocked when I shoved the fur I was holding into his hands and ran off, unkindly forcing my way through an already tight knot of people. I soon lost sight of the red hair, but since the market was essentially one long corridor I felt confident that so long as she didn’t move I would catch up to her.

I was wrong, as always. I managed to reach the space where I swore she’d last stood, and then past it and around it and behind it, looking quite mad to a large number of people. She was gone.

Hsu found me after a while, sitting at the edge of the market and no doubt looking forlorn.

“I have our furs,” he said. “It became easier to negotiate once it was clear I was partnered with a madman. Do you wish to tell me why you went mad, or was that merely a show to get us a better price?”

“We all have our own faeries to chase,” I said. “I spotted mine.”
 

*
 
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*

The events taking place on the television screen were as follows: a man stood near the edge of a fence next to a redheaded woman and a blond woman. The blonde—Clara, although the name is not apparent from the video—wore army fatigues, while the redhead and the man both had on the sort of one-piece jumpsuits issued to prisoners.