Chapter Fifteen #2
Leander looked down at him. “You idiot. You should be in bed.”
Xi clasped both his hands. “Never say that you’re sorry that you loved any of us. When I was first taken, knowing that there were people who loved me was the only thing that helped me keep my sanity in that government school.”
“It was my fault,” Leander whispered. “They wouldn’t have caught you if it weren’t for me.”
Xi frowned. “That’s not true.”
Leander pulled his hands free and stared at them, the long fingers and calloused pads. These were the hands he’d used to touch those damn plants in biology class. “Freshman biology. I made the plants grow. They were looking for someone with talent.”
Xi rocked back on his heels. “Christ. You thought that all these years?”
Leander locked away every emotion except hatred and glared at Xi. “The damn government wanted weapons, and I put up a flag to show where they could find one. A nice, young, untrained, easily brainwashed weapon. Of course they were looking after that.”
“Leander.” Xi ran his fingers through his hair.
“Within a week, they knew I controlled shadows. I couldn’t have done anything to those plants, and they knew it.
If they had thought the plants were a clue, they would’ve kept looking until they found you.
I don’t know if the teacher even reported that. ”
“Of course she did. They all spied on us.”
“The group home spied on us,” Xi said. “I couldn’t sleep because of that damn light they left on in the hallway all the time, and I thought it was so late that no one would notice, so I wrapped shadows around it.
” He pressed his lips together for a second before continuing.
“I just wanted to sleep through the night for once, and we had a math test the next day. I didn’t think it was a big deal.
I still don’t know whether someone saw me or if they had hidden cameras, but they came and got me in the morning. ”
“What?” Leander’s world tilted, and suddenly all the pieces of his life didn’t fit together neatly. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, only he had pieces for two pictures, and he couldn’t get them to fit.
A dark laugh slipped out of Xi. “I was so worried about a 10th grade math test that I screwed the rest of my life.” A whine escaped. Leander didn’t know whether it was the memory or the physical pain, but he stood and got a hand under Xi’s elbow.
“Come on, you idiot, you shouldn’t be out of bed.” He pulled Xi to his feet and eased him back to the bed.
“Have I said ‘thank you’ for saving me from the poison? What you did was kind of awesome,” Xi said.
“You were bleeding out of every orifice, and blood oozed from your skin. I don’t think ‘awesome’ is the correct word.”
“You saved my life. That is awesome.”
Leander hesitated before answering. Another day, he might have dismissed the entire conversation, but he was emotionally raw, and Xi’s near death was only part of that. “We’re the only two left. How could I do anything else?”
Leander thought of happier days when they’d claimed the corner of the lunchroom closest to the line.
Other kids didn’t want to sit where the lunch ladies could watch, but the seven of them.
.. that had been their territory. Seven group home kids within a year or two of each other in age, all holding onto each other and believing they could survive the evils of the world if they just stayed together.
Creek’s capture had been the first crack in that idealism, but now he was the last shard of childhood Leander possessed.
He sat on the bed next to Xi and made him lie down, pulling the sheet up over him.
“Stay down before you get sick and die. I didn’t save you from poison just for you to kill yourself with stupidity,” he snapped.
Xi grinned at him. “Got it. No dropping dead from stupidity. I will put that on my to-do list.”
Leander huffed. Creek’s hand way lying on top of the sheet, his skin still waxy.
Before he could talk himself out of it, Leander grabbed that hand and held tight.
Maybe he was being an idiot, but he wanted to believe for just one second they had a chance.
He had learned over the years that it only took a drop of hope to get yourself out of bed even on the darkest of days, and today. .. Today was dark.
Chapter Sixteen
Leander wanted to close his eyes, but the motion sickness grew worse when he did.
He understood the streets were far too narrow for carts and horses, but the solution of a tiny carriage carried by men seemed.
.. silly. However, Xi was too weak to walk far, and the men carrying the two-person chair had argued that it was bad luck for Leander to get out.
They’d been almost panicked at the thought, so Leander had resolved himself to being jostled through narrow streets.
Luckily, most people stepped aside when their litter came around a bend.
Leander glanced out the back window, lifting a curtain. Shanlin was still there, following the litter with half a dozen young men and women. One girl kept leaning over and pointing to things before talking to Shanlin. His head swiveled from side to side like a seesaw.
At least one of them was enjoying this ridiculous trip to the Nie house in the Ring City.
It was just as crowded as it had appeared when Leander flew over.
Two- and three-story walls lined either side of the stone road.
Every block or so, the wall ended, and there was a three- or four-inch gap before a wall with a different decorative edge began.
No windows. No signs. Just gray and beige and white walls topped by tiled roofs with elaborate trim, and every once in a while, a door.
“See anything yet?” Xi asked.
“Walls,” Leander said before he settled back into his seat.
“I feel like a rat in a maze,” Xi whispered.
Leander would have warned him to avoid offending anyone who was listening, but he didn’t want to nag Xi when he was still recovering.
The litter stopped in front of a deep red door.
A pair of white stone fu lions stood on either side, guarding the stone steps, and green pillars stood on either side.
Above the door was elaborate scrollwork and bands of blue and red and teal, all carved from wood.
It was one of the more elaborate doors they’d passed.
Two middle-aged women put out a red carpet trimmed in gold, and Leander realized they had reached their destination.
He stared at the carpet in horror. Why would servants put out a carpet for them... and on the street? It was an excessive gesture, and it made Leander deeply uncomfortable. He focused on Xi and took a deep breath to center himself. “We’re here,” he said.
Xi’s eyes opened, and he seemed more alert than Leander expected. “Okay. Let’s get the show on the road,” he said, clapping his hands.
Leander glared at him before stepping out of the carriage.
He tried to use Shanlin as an excuse to leave the stupid carpet, but a servant blocked his way.
The last thing Leander wanted was to get in a pushing match with the Nie servants on their front door, so he smiled and moved back to the center of the ridiculous thing before turning to help Xi off.
“Oh no. Not proper. We help. You go. You go,” the older woman said, shooing Leander toward the door.
Leander looked up into the litter, and Xi shrugged.
He was following Leander’s lead. Since Leander didn’t have any choices that didn’t make him rude, he smiled at the servant and walked up the carpet toward the double doors.
Two more servants pulled them open, showing a wide courtyard with a pair of trees flanking an inner gate.
Given how crowded the street was, this outer courtyard was spacious and peaceful.
A round woman with salt and pepper hair and deep lines around her eyes greeted him.
“Welcome!” she said warmly before shouting, “Xiaobo, you are late again!” Shanlin darted in and joined Leander, his arm going around Leander’s waist, no doubt seeking comfort.
Leander glanced back to make sure Xi was still upright, and he found him watching with amusement as the servants rolled the carpet, not allowing Xi to step on it.
“I am coming.” A tall man with gray at his temples and wire-rim glasses hurried across the courtyard. “Welcome, qidi of my second son. I am Nie Xiaobo, father of your qixiong.”
Putting aside the carpet, which might be either a compliment to Leander or an insult to Xi, he bowed deeply. “I am Boon Lian. I greet the father of my qixiong and introduce Boon Shanlin, my son.” Leander put a hand on Shanlin’s shoulder. The boy became shy, pressing himself to Leander’s side.
“Welcome, young Shanlin. This house has lacked a little cicada for many years. This is Nie Huiling, mother to your qixiong,” Nie Xiaobo said as he gestured to his wife. She smiled so brightly that wrinkles enveloped her eyes.
Leander bowed.
“Welcome to the qidi of my second son and his son. We have prepared your rooms. Come. Come.” Nie Huiling ushered them inside, and as soon as Leander stepped over the threshold, the servants removed the red carpeting behind him, and the men who had carried the litter from the school marched away, the army of children who had been part of the train following.
“Thank you, mother of my qidi. I introduce Hu Xi, my qidi, who stands with me against significant enemies.” Leander did not know what led him to add the last part, but these people deserved to know the truth.
They might be safe inside this magical space, but Leander could bring danger to their door if they ever visited the outer village.
With an amused smile for the servants who rushed the carpet away as if Xi might contaminate it, Xi stepped into the outer courtyard and stood next to Leander.