The Conclave of Shadow (22 page)

“Yes. And he took a rather good swipe at my shoulder, so if you wouldn't mind…?”

“Everyone's a critic,” Tom grumbled goodnaturedly. He shifted his grip to lessen the strain on my shoulder. “Now, let's see about getting you to a hospital.”

“No.” I would have loved nothing better, but… “This isn't done yet. I need you to take me to Land's End.”

D
avid Tsung wasn't waiting
for me when Tom landed at the edge of Land's End. Sadly for me, Lao Hu was.

“Go.” I pushed Tom behind me as though that would make him leave. As though anything could turn him from doing what he thought was right, even if it was suicidal.

“But–”

“You need to go back for La Reina. I have this.” It was a lie, but if Tom had a weakness, it was believing everyone else was as honest as he was. I wondered if that was a flaw in his programming or intended design. “Go on.”

“I better see you at HQ tomorrow, Old Man. I got a prisoner with your name on him and a passel of questions.” With a final, stern look at Lao Hu, Skyrocket launched into the air.

“Your friend has no scent,” Lao Hu said softly. He lounged in the middle of the rock labyrinth. He must have been lying right on top of the bloody node, which meant it was almost certainly already attuned to Alam al-Jinn. All I had to do was attune it to Shadow.

“Yes, he takes clean-cut, all-American very seriously. How did you know we were headed here? How did you get here before us?” I kept my distance, assessing. The flat shelf of Land's End dropped off about ten feet beyond Lao Hu, a precipice much steeper than the slope we'd tumbled down at Mount Davidson. At the bottom would be rocks, if I was lucky and the tide was out. Rocks and the churning Pacific Ocean if the tide was in. Either way, I didn't want to test my luck by getting into a tussle up here.

Nor did I dare try my luck across the veil. Fog drifted past us like an army of ghost brides. We'd crossed over the fluctuating border of the Voidlands. I didn't know how well Lao Hu functioned there, but I knew I would collapse into helpless terror if I tried crossing over into that place.

Lao Hu lapped at his side. He'd cleaned away most of the dirt from our fall and the blood that had matted the fur at his shoulder. His eye was still swollen shut. “I have known where you would be at every step. Or did you think the djinni did not share your entire plan with me? I had hoped that your master would come to your aid somewhere along the way, but I did not credit how great a coward he would be.” Lao Hu's tail lashed. Idly. He was done with our cat-and-mouse. “It was a good chase. I think Lung Di does not deserve a champion such as you.”

“You and me both,” I muttered. And here I thought I'd been playing Lao Hu all along. This is what I got for thinking I was smarter than a god. “So you always meant to attune the nodes? You were just toying with me with all that nonsense about letting the Voidlands expand?”

He shifted, and I caught a glimpse of the last node, burning with orange fire but not yet dampened by shadow. There was nothing for it. I'd have to go in. “Of course. I am a Guardian, after all.”

Right. “What happened to David Tsung? Was he here when you arrived?”

“Lung Di's toady? He was. He fled. I let him.”

I let out a shaky breath and hoped that Lao Hu would attribute any change in my scent or heart rate to fear. Well, he should. I was still very afraid. I searched the ankle-high rocks of the labyrinth, looking for something out of place. I spied it at the mouth of the labyrinth, a rock that was too small, too round, too pale to match the others.

Hesitantly, I approached the labyrinth. My hands hung loose at my sides. I did my best to keep my attention focused on Lao Hu and not my true target, lest I give it away. The curling tail tip proved to be a useful early warning system. It twitched. Lao Hu sprang. I snatched for the irregular stone and yanked it out of the ground.

An unholy crash sounded above me, followed by a deafening yowl and the screech of claws scraping metal. I scuttled back on my ass. Lao Hu remained within the confines of the labyrinth. A shining, translucent dome had risen around him on all sides. Sparks rose from his claws as he raked them down the inside curve of the dome over and over like a cat trapped on the wrong side of a door.

Which was, in effect, exactly what he was.

“What did you do? What is in your hand?” he snarled.

Slowly, I rose to my feet and held it up for him to see. “It's an egg. Goose, I think. Looks too large to be chicken. It also happens to be the key to your cage.”

That got me more incoherent snarling. I waited it out. “I was wrong. You are exactly the filth Lung Di deserves as his champion. Let me out.”

“So you can kill me? Explain to me the benefit of that?”

Lao Hu stopped clawing at the translucent shell and sat back on his haunches, tail lashing. “You will never attune the node if you do not. If I cannot leave, you cannot enter.”

“If you cannot leave, I don't need to attune anything. With you as anchor for the other nodes, the Voidlands should be well contained.” I was very aware of the irony of the current situation. I'd been infuriated by Lung Di's imprisonment of the other Guardians. I'd been horrified by what I'd helped do to Asha. I'd been disgusted by what the Conclave had done to Skyrocket. And yet here I was, considering doing the same thing to Lao Hu. I rolled the egg from one hand to the other, studying it instead of my prisoner, searching for some other way. “I am sorry,” I said. “This wasn't how it was supposed to go.”

“You mean you hadn't planned to trap me as your master did? And yet that key and these wards belie your claim.”

“I mean I expected to arrive ahead of you and trap myself. Then, if you wanted me, you'd have to agree to attune the node to get to me. I didn't intend to leave things out of balance.”

Lao Hu remained silent for several moments, his claws flexing into the ground. “So set me free and attune the node. I promise not to end you until you have done so.”

“Yeah, that's not going to happen.” I lowered the egg. “Back in Shanghai, I freed you from a trap you allowed yourself to be lured into. The other Guardians gave me a pass for releasing them, but you threatened me and my friends. This time, I'm going to free you. And you are going to abandon this vendetta against myself and Lung Di.”

“If you think I will–”

“I think you will, and I think you'll be grateful I'm not demanding that you put yourself further in my debt,” I said over whatever pointless threat he'd been about to make. I had a cat in a closed box. We both knew there was only one way this would end.

“Very well,” he whispered, so low that I barely heard it over the crash of the ocean below.

“Your word.” I said.

“You have my word,
Lung Bao Hu Zhe
. My vendetta against you – and Lung Di – is ended. Nor will I seek retribution against those who aided you this day.”

“Good.” I slammed the egg against the translucent dome. They both smashed and dripped to the ground in a slightly goopy mess. I watched, entire body tensed and ready to flee, as Lao Hu stood and gracefully padded out of the circle. His shoulder bumped my arm as he passed, which was threat enough to make my heart beat double time, but he didn't attack.

Right then. Egg dripping from my fingers, I strode up to the node and scraped my nails across one of my many wounds to bring up fresh blood. Holding the dripping gash over the titanium orb, I looked into across the veil into the Voidlands. I wanted to see this.

It started as a flicker of flame and smoke, meeting at the center of the node and collapsing in on itself. The orange flame grew brighter and brighter, the smoke darkness devoured that brightness, becoming so black it was impossible to focus on, even for me. The miniature star collapsed into a pinprick, throbbed, and then burst out beyond the confines of the node. The orange and black mottled sphere expanded to encompass me, Lao Hu, the shelf we stood on, and further and further out. Everywhere it touched, the Voidlands cringed and retreated. Across the bay, on the landside horizon, the leading edges of other novas expanded out to overlap with the one centered on Land's End. And then the furthest edge met the Land's End edge, crossing at the Golden Gate.

I tore my gaze from the Shadow Realms, raised my arms to shield my face from the wash of summer heat as the Golden Gate blazed with light on both sides of the veil. The heavy fog burned away under the onslaught, echoing the searing back of the Voidlands. By the time I dared to lower my arms, the lightshow was over, the sky was clear. The sun balanced on the horizon like a ball on a stick. The sky around it burned gold, the sea beneath black in comparison.

I took a step back from the node, glowing with a yin-yang swirl of darkness and light, and felt a little twinge of separation tingle down my spine. I concentrated on that frisson and realized I could feel other tingles, as though someone had implanted magnets beneath my skin. Nine connections snapped under my skin, through my blood. I didn't have much experience with this sort of thing, but I was going to take a wild guess and say that our ritual had worked.

“That's done, then,” I murmured, swaying just a bit as all the aches and cuts and bruises of my cross-city race caught up with me. I turned to face Lao Hu, sitting on the edge of the labyrinth circle with his tail curled primly around his feet as though he wasn't the cause of most of my injuries. “Now get the hell out of my city.”

D
oris Han opened
the banquet room of the Dragon's Pearl.

This was big. Huge. She only opened the banquet room for birthdays and New Year's. And, apparently, State visits from my son, but I wasn't going to let a little detail like that ruin my “you're awesome!” puppy glow. If I let piddly details muck up my glow, I'd be dim for eternity.

Details like the Lady's camp, which I'd found empty and abandoned when I went up to Muir Woods to see if I could find her. I couldn't call her army. I couldn't call my own. Not even Templeton.

My “you're awesome!” smile dimmed, and I had to struggle to stoke it back to brightness. Banquet room, dammit!

We'd gathered an eclectic group to celebrate: Doris and her extended family took up almost half of the five tables, with Johnny and his students filling another sizeable chunk. Shimizu and Jack sat together near Johnny – for mutual defense, I suspected. Abby had shown up, looking as subdued as I was trying not to look. No La Reina, Sadakat, or Skyrocket, of course. There was no way to explain why we were celebrating without revealing to them who I was.

Mian Zi sat on one side of the seat of honor with a passel of People's Heroes in suits matching his. Mei Shen and David Tsung counterbalanced him on the other side. And Jian Huo sat in the middle, patiently allowing Doris to ply him with all her best dishes. Every so often between all the toasting, I managed to catch his gaze from my place two tables away. Doris had put me in the cheap seats with Johnny's other students, which I suppose was what I got for not telling her who I was after my meeting with Mian Zi. As far as most of the guests at the celebration were concerned, the heroes of the day were the three dragons and Johnny. I was a guest at my own celebration, which was perfectly fine by me. Sitting with Johnny's students was a step up from the Han kids' table where Doris usually put me.

We'd eaten and toasted until we could
gan bei
no more and moved on to the musical chairs point of the meal. Mian Zi's people watched with blank faces – hiding horror, I was fairly certain – at all the American-born Chinese mixing and moving about. Mian Zi and Mei Shen eyed each other warily. Not talking, not with their father between them and David Tsung glued to Mei Shen's side, but at least they weren't fighting. Whatever had prompted them to bridge their differences at Twin Peaks, it seemed to be having a lasting effect.

I snuck another glance at Jian Huo, as I'd been doing throughout the eight-course meal. He'd ditched his usual hanfu in favor of a suit – I suspected Mian Zi had helped him there, since I'd never seen him in one. He was watching the twins as I had been, brow furrowed in a mix of concern and guarded hope. He caught me staring and gave me a nod and a slight smile that on anyone else would have been a wide grin and a thumbs up. Fuck etiquette. Doris could yell at me later. I shoved my chair back and headed his way.

“Masters. I need a moment,” Abby said, catching my arm when I would have squeezed past her. I cast a helpless look at Jian Huo, hoping for a rescue, but Johnny had cornered him.

Awesome puppy, I reminded myself, and pasted a smile on my face to hide my disappointment. “Yes?” I perched in the empty chair next to hers. “I'm glad you came, by the way.”

Abby's shoulders were hunched, her arms not quite crossed, but hugged close to her body. I might be glad for her presence. She didn't look glad to be there. She shrugged and answered with a closed-lip smile. “Yeah. Well. You know me and free food.”

“I thought it was booze,” I said, though there had also been plenty of that.

“That too. Hey,” Abby straightened, some of her moxy returning, “we found the leak. You know Fuller and Byrd?”

“The security heads I met at the Academy?” Shit. That was quite the leak.

Abby grimaced. “Also the missing Anglin brothers. We caught them when they tried to spring Morris. They've been slowly infiltrating Argent for years. Chillybritches is going to have them all moved to our own island facility.”

“She must be furious.”

Abby chuckled, the laugh of someone who hadn't been caught in the crossfire of Sylvia Dunbarton's fury, I suspected. “And not terribly quiet about it. Open office plans aren't known for being soundproof. Lots of people taking personal days this week.”

The lull in our laughter carried on just a bit too long. Abby sighed and scraped her fingers through her hair. “About Asha…”

My own smile dimmed. I wasn't sure whether to congratulate her on her victory over her nemesis or comfort her on the loss of her sister. “Abby–”

“I got a delivery yesterday. My office. A carpet.
The
carpet. And I was just wondering if maybe she might have…”

“I don't know,” I said, tugging her forearm before she ripped out any hair. “I went to the Lady's camp. The one in Muir Woods. It was abandoned. Everything left behind. I can't call on her allies.” Or mine. I'd spent hours trying to summon Templeton, to summon… Anne… and only gotten a migraine for my troubles. “I don't know what happened to either of them.”

“Then who–?”

“Lao Hu pays his debts. And I suspect he'd see you as Asha's next of kin.”

“Yeah. Right.” She toyed with the ends of her chopsticks. She'd hardly touched her food. “I guess it's true that you can forgive anyone, even your own relations.” She stood abruptly. “I need to go. Have a good party.”

I watched her slip out the banquet room doors, taking the last vestiges of my urge to smile with her. I'd been trying not to think too deeply about what had happened to Asha or the Lady. Asha, because even though she'd sold me out, I still felt guilty for putting her in the position where she felt she had to. And the Lady because…

Because Abby had been right about family.

Mian Zi and Mei Shen had drifted close enough to each other that I was able to grab each of them before either one could raise a stink. I dragged them behind the rickety bamboo screen that Doris used to hide the folding chairs and tables when the banquet room wasn't in use.

“Shut up. Don't say anything,” I told them and pulled them into a three-way hug. After a few moments of stiffness, they both relented. Mian Zi even hugged back.

“I'm sorry,” I whispered into their hair, a blending of long and short. Mei Shen's sharp, lemongrass scent mixed with rich clove from Mian Zi. I breathed deeply, the way I used to when they were mooplings. It was the scent of contentment. Of home. “I'm so sorry I left. That I didn't say goodbye.”

They didn't respond beyond squeezing harder. I didn't expect them to. Forgiveness wasn't the necessary response to an apology. It had to be earned. As did reconciliation. I released them and nudged them back.

“You.” I poked Mian Zi in the chest. “David Tsung isn't so bad. And if it turns out I'm wrong on that, then wouldn't it be better if you were at your sister's side rather than standing in judgment? And you,” Mei Shen got a similar poke. She rubbed her sternum, frowning. “You're the one making this a competition with your brother. You aren't loved less. You aren't trusted less. You aren't viewed as less than him. Not by me or your father or Mian Zi. So who are you trying to prove yourself to, other than yourself?”

I gave them both individual hugs and turned my back on their jaw-dropped shock. “I love you both. Work your shit out.”

I left them behind the screen. Jian Huo wasn't in his seat of honor anymore. I slipped around the edge of the room, looking for where he'd run off to.

“He's outside,” Johnny said, rocking onto his chair's back two legs so he could block my path. Despite stuffing himself through eight courses, Johnny had a plate of phoenix claws in front of him. He gnawed on a chicken foot and continued to block my path.

I sat. “That obvious I've been stalking him?”

Johnny shrugged and spat a nail into his palm. “I could say I've known you for a long time, but the real answer is yes.”

I chuckled. “In that case, get out of my way before I kick those chair legs out from under you.”

“Hold up a second. That lawyer friend of yours.”

“Jack?” I scanned the room. He and Shimizu had latched on to Andrew Han, Doris' eldest, who seemed to be translating between them and one of the People's Heroes. “What about him?”

“How weirded out would you be if I asked him out?”

It was a good thing I wasn't balancing my chair on two legs, or I would have toppled over. How weirded out? Very. On every possible level. I couldn't think of a greater mismatch. Except possibly Jian Huo and myself. I smiled. “Go for it. I'll stock up on popcorn.”

Johnny cleaned his hands on a napkin, strangling it as I suspected he wanted to strangle me. “The more you make fun now, the more teaching moments I'll be inclined to have during our next session.”

“Mmhmm. Worth it. I'm gonna…” I gestured to the door. I had my own mismatch to pursue.

The front two legs of Johnny's chair hit the floor. He stood and twisted a few of his purple-red spikes. I don't think I'd ever seen him nervous. “Shit. I hate this part.”

“Go get him, tig–” I broke off. I was never using that phrase again. “Er… you're a Giants fan, right?”

“Yes. Because I have a soul.”

I patted him on the shoulder and used it to push him in Jack's direction. “Then you'll do fine. Good luck.”

“You too.”

As much as I wanted to watch, I slipped out of the banquet room and through the busy restaurant. I tracked Jian Huo through the kitchens to the alley behind the Pearl. It reeked of the usual trash and piss. It was the wrong place for him, for the conversation I wanted to have. Seemed I didn't have much of a choice, though.

“I was afraid you'd left,” I said softly.

He turned, took a step toward me. His hair was looped over his arm so that it wouldn't drag in the alley muck. “I was making ready to. I have made my farewells to our hostess and the other guests. I only waited to say the same to you.”

I touched the loop of hair hanging over his arm, letting my fingers trail through it. Little sparks of lightning kissed my fingers. Shit, I'd missed this. Missed him. “Will you come by the house later?” I asked, wishing my pickup line didn't sound quite so much like a pickup line.

He lifted my hand, kissed my fingers, and then very deliberately pushed it away. “Missy, you know I cannot. It is as I said before. I cannot stay, or I will be tempted to meddle as my brother does. You must live your life.”

Yeah. Right. Apparently I must live my life alone. I searched for some argument I hadn't already made when a voice from down the alley interrupted us.

“I can come by your house if my brother will not.”

For fuck's sake. I glared at Lung Di, standing only a few feet away.

“Get out,” Jian Huo told him, saving me the trouble.

Lung Di spread his hands, one gloved, I noticed. He wore his usual suit and an overcoat of black wool. He and Jian Huo looked like the brothers they were. Only Jian Huo's hair differentiated them. “But I must congratulate and reward my champion. It is only proper.”

I placed a hand on Jian Huo's arm – the one not supporting his hair – to stop him from lunging at Lung Di. Not because I was Lung Di's champion. Because if anyone was going to kick his ass, it would be me. “It's fine. I'll handle him. Johnny won't thank you guys for leveling Chinatown, and if he kills me… well, that'll solve a lot of our problems.”

Jian Huo's face showed nothing, but his arm flexed under my hand for several tense moments before he turned his back on Lung Di. “I will wait inside until I am sure you are safe,” he said, and strode back into the Pearl.

I studied Lung Di, wondering if it really was possible to beat the smirk off someone's face.

He tugged on his glove, paying my scrutiny no heed. “Once again, you neglect to invite me to your parties. Recall what happened the last time you failed to do so?”

“You kidnapped my kids. And I gave you that.” I nodded at the glove pulled over his withered hand.

The gloved hand flexed into a fist. I'd been joking about the killing of me, but maybe I shouldn't be pressing my luck. He could still backhand me. Again. “So. Reward?” I said, hoping I could get rid of him quickly and painlessly. Like lancing a blister. “Oh, and I have your book.”

Lung Di took a step closer. “Keep it. With these new wards of yours, it is safer here than anywhere else.”

I sidestepped to maintain our distance. I wasn't letting him within backhanding range. “I don't want–”

“Keep it safe,” he said, ominous as Gandalf pawning off the One Ring on a clueless hobbit.

Fuck. “Thanks,” I muttered. “Always wanted my very own monkey's paw.”

“Oh, I'm certain you're smart enough not to make any wishes in its presence.” Lung Di held up his hands. “I am kidding, of course.”

Right. Still, I was definitely going to be careful about anything I said in the vicinity of that book. “So, you've thanked me. You've rewarded me. You can mosey on now.”

“Oh, the book wasn't your reward. Just another duty for my champion.”

I was fairly certain I didn't want anything that Lung Di wanted to give me. “And duty is its own reward. So really, there's no need to–”

“Are you sure?” He reached inside his overcoat and pulled out a familiar-looking gauntlet with four stones embedded in it. Coral. Glass. Opal. And a blood-dark shimmer that flitted up and landed on my shoulder, wings snapping shut with a soft click.

I took the gauntlet. The leather creaked from the strength of my grip. “Where…?”

“Brought to me by those still loyal to me. I searched where they discovered it, but found no other traces of your rat or… anything else.”

So it didn't mean anything. It didn't mean Templeton was gone. It didn't mean Anne was gone.