He breathed deep, checking in with himself and calming the gut-clenching anxiety that was starting to build. Even though he hadn’t been locked in this room since he was a child, he still remembered it well enough that being here made him nauseous. For the first time in nearly a month, he found himself thinking of the Infinite Jug, but he pushed that aside.
His power was trickling back, and he thought the physical weakness was merely a side effect. With great effort, he walked slowly but smoothly to a plush silk rug depicting irises in full bloom. He sat cross-legged and began to meditate the way Bai had shown him when they went to the White Mountain. His body began to relax, and what power he had flowed evenly within him, welcoming more.
Bai was right. I will recover much faster this way. And it was almost as good for his anxiety as a cup of wine.
Nanami had left, somehow. He touched his pinky with his thumb and found the ring of her hair. His parents hadn’t noticed it or maybe didn’t realize what it was. He stroked it now and reassured himself she was well. He could call her with it, summon her, but what good would that do either of them? His parents had made it impossible for him to teleport out of here and would Nanami even be able to teleport back? Not that he wanted her in danger but...
Now that his fear for her was less immediate, his fear for himself was growing. He had hoped earlier that she would abandon him and live well, but now he thought surely she wouldn’t have. He needed to believe that. Was she trying to gather an army to come save him? But he couldn’t imagine Nanami leading an army.
She’ll be plotting, he soothed himself. Even now, she’s developing a scheme to save me. She’ll get Bai and Jin, and they’ll bust me out of this jail.
I don’t need anything to survive, just to lie here and exist until I’m rescued. I can manage that – I have before.
“SO this is it?” Jin stood before the large red gate atop the Korikami’s Tomb, her right hand fisted about Kunjee. Bai wasn’t sure if she realized she was holding it or not. They had disembarked from a cloud just moments ago – this time, Jin had found it quite solid.
“This is it,” he agreed mildly. He hesitated a moment, then put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you ready? We can wait, maybe until Xiao and Nanami are able to come.”
Jin had tried to summon Xiao when they arrived at the gate, but he had not responded. Presumably he and Nanami were still at the Sea Palace.
Jin turned to Bai, shaking her head. “We’ve talked about this. It’s better to go now.” She collected his hand from her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll never be ready compared to you – at least, not within the timeline we have. We don’t really know what awaits us either way. I don’t want to study anymore.”
She shivered under Bai’s gaze – this island wasn’t called the Land of Winter for nothing. It was almost summer, but the mountain was covered in deep snow and the air was frigid.
“You’re cold?” Bai asked. He would make her a shawl from the snow.
“I’m fine. Maybe it will be warmer wherever we end up,” she said with a smile and tugged his hand. “Let’s go.”
Bai interlocked his fingers with hers, and they stepped through the gate together. Bai came out the other side, the blue sky of Earth above him and the snow-covered ground of the Korikami’s Tomb beneath him. Jin, however, was no longer holding his hand.
Bai blinked. “Jin?” He stepped back through the gate, as if that would undo whatever had happened. Had Kunjee unlocked the Underworld only for her? How did he follow?
He laid his hand against the bright vermillion wood of one column. The gate resisted him – he was firmly locked out. He pushed the gate further; his pool of power was as deep as Aka’s was when he made this gate.
The gate shook against his hand, and the soil shivered under his feet. Bai pulled his power back. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he realized how close he had come to destroying the gate – and blocking any movement between the Underworld and this one. With Aka unconscious and dying, who knew if anyone would be able to recreate it.
The shaking that had threatened the gate seemed to have transferred to Bai. Maybe Jin would walk back – surely once she realized he wasn’t with her, she would return for him, and they would figure out how to make Kunjee work for both of them. Maybe they should have hung the chain over both their necks...
Curse it, did he know the essence of things or not? He should have realized it wasn’t like teleporting!
He paced in circles around the gate, trying to think of something to do.
And then suddenly he was not alone.
About a hundred women surrounded him, all dressed in white saris edged with blood-red silk.
One woman stood slightly ahead of the others. She was tall, maybe taller than Bai, and her reddish hair was bound by silver to form a tower. With her rich ochre skin and rust-colored eyes, she ought to have been beautiful, but her face was cold and haughty.
She looked very like Karana, if with much less make-up.
“You must be the First,” she said, and her voice chilled him more than the wind. “Karana thought you intended to go through the gate with Jin. No matter.”
And lightning shot from her fingertips, arcing toward the gate.
It was foolish of her to use lightning – that white light bent to Bai’s will and bounced back, melting the snow at her feet.
“And you must be Salaana. If you are intending on destroying the gate, I’m afraid you’re about to be disappointed.”
She smiled – at least, her mouth curved upward.
“I only see one army here,” she said, “and it’s mine.” She waved her hand, and her disciples drew their swords.
Bai wasn’t sure if they intended to use them on him or the gate, but he found both options equally unacceptable. “I’ll kill anyone who comes within six feet of this gate.”
Two women charged together. Bai molded the snow in front of them into pikes and pierced both women’s hearts.
And then the fight really began.
JIN emerged in darkness, and she immediately noticed that her hand was empty.
“Bai?” she said softly. There was no response. She spread her arms in front of her and turned slowly. She touched nothing, but by the time she finished her rotation, at least her eyes had adjusted.
There was no obvious source of light, but it was about as bright as being outside when the moon was not quite full. Unfortunately, she didn’t see Bai anywhere, just rough stone all around, as if she were in an underground cavern. There was a path forward that faded into gloom as well as a path behind.
“Bai?” she called, more loudly this time. His name echoed back to her, but there was no sign of the man himself.
Perhaps he didn’t make it through the gate. She stepped back the way she had come, but there was no sudden change in her surroundings, nothing to indicate there was a gate here at all. Jin swallowed.
Of course! She shouldn’t have spun in a circle. She probably was walking the wrong direction. She tried the other way, and then she tested the walls. Impulsively, she leapt for the ceiling, but all she got for her trouble was slight scrape on her palm.
A whimper escaped Jin, and she forced herself to slow her breathing. Apparently stepping through the gate on Earth didn’t bring one to the gate in the Underworld. Or maybe there was a different key to open it from this side. She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything about this place at all! She had been relying on Bai to be her guide – foolish, foolish.
“I might not even be in the Underworld!”
Once again, her cry echoed around her, and Jin hugged her arms. Don’t cry. Just pick a direction and start exploring. Maybe Bai is nearby, he just can’t hear you or you can’t hear him.
“Oh, you are definitely in the Underworld,” came a voice at Jin’s back. She whirled and pulled her tessen from her belt.
There was a giggle at Jin’s side. “And we’re so glad you are.”
Jin could make out at least five pa
le blurs around face height around her, and bodies as well, darker than the walls.
“You smell lovely,” she was told, and Jin clutched the heavy metal base of her tessen tighter.
“Who are you? What do you want?” Jin asked.
“You,” followed by more giggling. It was nearly impossible to distinguish the speakers, though she thought there was more than one. Jin felt a rush of air at her back, and she whirled just in time to strike another of them with her tessen.
“Ow! She hurt me!” complained her would-be attacker.
Jin did not like these odds. There were at least six of them, if not more, given the way they appeared out of the shadows. They must surely be immortal creatures, and even if she was able to identify them, she knew so little that it probably wouldn’t help her. Why couldn’t she have run into benevolent ones like Bai had described?
“It’s probably been a while since you’ve seen any immortals,” Jin threw out, wondering if it was possible to delay the confrontation and somehow gain an advantage.
“We don’t mind not seeing you,” came the disembodied response, “we mind not eating you.”
“What did you do to your hand?” asked another. “We don’t want to waste any of that lovely blood.”
Jin fisted her scraped hand – it was indeed bleeding a little.
She had set out to distract them, but she was the one distracted. Something bit into her cheek, and she felt the most horrendous tugging sensation. It was sucking her blood.
Jin sliced at the creature with her tessen, and she heard something fall to the ground – an arm, perhaps. The creature released her with a scream that echoed painfully.
Blood-drinkers – could these be the Xuezei that Nanami told us about?
Jin shuddered at the idea. Nanami had described mortal corpses covered in wounds and bled dry when Jin had pushed her for details about the Xuezei.
“The Xuezei were totally merciless creatures that live only to satiate their endless hunger,” Nanami had said. “They lived in packs of a dozen or more and would slaughter whole villages in a single night.”
They could be beheaded, but the better weapon against them was fire. The pack Nanami had seen in action had eventually been lured into a village to feed, then trapped and burned to death. The people inside had known that would be their fate as well, but they had accepted it to save their families.
Fire. I can make fire.
Jin didn’t know what to set on fire, but as she felt another Xuezei land her, she settled for herself.
An inferno engulfed her, burning away her clothes and the Xuezei. It screamed as it died. Through her blaze, Jin could now see its companions clearly.
Their faces, pale as ivory, were surrounded by thick black manes that extended down their bodies. Needle-like teeth filled their mouths, clearly visible as the Xuezei hissed at her.
Two more ran at her, either not believing she could sustain the fire or perhaps their greed for her blood overwhelmed their need for self-preservation. Jin burned both to ash.
The others then ran from her, and Jin let the inferno shrink to a small blaze, wearing it around her body like the clothes it had destroyed.
So I don’t know where I am, where I am going, or where Bai is. I’m surrounded by unfamiliar creatures of power, many of whom will want to kill me because it’s in their nature. I better not mention that I’m trying to save Aka, the man who locked all of them here.
And then Sunlight Turns Petals Gold, the most powerful being to ever exist, walked into the darkness.
Glossary
Aarti – the third justice disciple.
Aashchary – Born to Neela 82,000 years after creation, Aashchary became the Goddess of Thought through her own efforts. She was noticed by Aka, who wished to marry her. She took him as a lover but only accepted his proposal when she discovered she was pregnant. During her marriage, she held the title Sun Empress. She was murdered under mysterious circumstances while pregnant, leaving behind one living daughter, Jin. A White and Orange immortal.
Ah – a large island south of the Crescent Moon.
Aka – Once a drop of blood, Aka became the first Red immortal 26,000 years after creation. Aka became the first God shortly after mortals appeared in the world, and eventually the Sun Emperor, ruler of all, after he confined the immortal creatures to the Underworld. He has been married three times (see Goddess of Lightning, Aashchary, and Goddess of Flight) and has had six acknowledged children (see Gang, Salaana, Karana, God of Belief, Jin, and Guleum). His first lover (though they never married) was Noran, and she is the mother of his eldest son.
Ao – Once part of the midnight ocean, Ao became the first Indigo immortal 31,000 years after creation. Ao is famous for turning into a dragon and is called the Sea Dragon. He is worshipped by mortal sailors though he denies being a god. He is married to Miko and has thirteen children and more than twenty grandchildren. He disowned Nanami 86,000 years after creation.
Atsuko – daughter of the Moon Deer, sister of Miko, lady Atsuko has run her father’s household since her mother’s death. A White immortal.
Bai – Once a piece of white quartz, Bai became the first White immortal 25,000 years after creation. He is known as the First because he was the first being to appear in the world. He invented writing, art, music, and mathematics and is so known as the Scholar. He became obsessed with martial arts after the death of his love, Noran, and was also called the Great Warrior. After he retreated from the world, many immortals believed he had died. Bai has pure white hair and gray eyes; he is slightly above average height and is extremely fit.
Bando – the peninsula separated from the Zhongtu region by the Byeong Mountains. Bando is a mortal nation as well as an immortal region and claims an unbroken line of rulers for 40,000 years.
between – how immortals refer to the time lost during teleportation; between is remembered only by the sense of time passing.
Black – the ninth color, black magic changes the essence of things. See Hei.
Blue – the sixth color, blue magic reads thoughts. See Neela.
Bulgae - immortal creatures that resemble dogs made of fire.
Byeong Mountains – mountain range that forms the border between Zhongtu and Bando.
Cheng – Once magma, Cheng became the first Orange immortal 27,000 years after creation. He has not been seen since 83,000 years after creation and is called the Sleeper.
Cheolmun Pass – a narrow pass in the Byeong Mountains, which form the border between Zhongtu and Bando; Bai famously killed 300 mortal soldiers here.
Cold Peaks – a mountain range forming the border between Zhongtu and Ehkoron.
Colors – how the first nine immortals are known collectively. Also, the way the essential natures of immortals are categorized. All immortals can identify their natures by a set Color, though it is only obvious in the appearances of the Nine Colors and their offspring.
Crescent Moon – a long island east of Bando; the Moon Deer lives here.
deity – an immortal who has mortal worshippers. The beliefs of those worshippers amplify the power of the deity but can also limit their abilities if the mortals specifically believe a deity cannot do something. Disciples of a deity thus spend much time ensuring the worshippers’ beliefs align with their deity’s goals. Deities are properly addressed as “divinity.”
disciple – immortals who follow and learn from another immortal are called disciples; most deities have disciples.
diviner – a mortal who can read other beings; they can see a being’s essence, thoughts, feelings, and sometimes future.
Earth – one of the three realms in the world, the others being the Heavens and the Underworld.
Ehkoron – the northernmost region of Earth, north of the Cold Peaks.
Eun-ji – the 48th justice disciple. Color unknown.
Forever Child – a mortal whose cognitive ability does not surpass that of a child around age five or six; they usua
lly are quite short with facial features that remain childlike as well.
Gang – Full name Sunlight Glints on Steel, Gang is the son of Noran and Aka and the first born-immortal. He was declared God of War at his birth 57,000 years after creation. He was trained in martial arts by Bai between 4,000 and 15,000 years of age. A Red and Yellow immortal.
Gate to the Underworld – a red gate made by Aka to control passage between the Underworld and Earth; to open it, one must have the key Kunjee.
god/goddess – see deity.
God of Belief – the son of Aashchary and Aka born 92,000 years after creation, he died as an infant; his full name was Mind Brighter than Sunlight. A Red, Orange, and Blue immortal.
God of Destruction – see Karana.
God of Pleasure – see Xiao.
God of War – see Gang.
God of Wind – see Guleum.
Goddess of Beauty – see Jin.
Goddess of Flight – mother of Guleum, she is the current wife of Aka and the current Sun Empress; she is an Orange immortal who was once a bird.
Goddess of Justice – see Salaana.
Goddess of Lightning – the first wife of Aka, and the first Sun Empress, she was a White immortal who was once lightning. She committed suicide. Her children are Salaana and Karana.
Goddess of Thought – see Aashchary.
godsbane – an herb that grows in the valley where Noran was killed that can poison immortals in five ways.
Godsmarket – a marketplace in the Sun Palace where immortals sell and trade goods.
Golden Phoenix – an immortal creature that was once the patron of a Bando.
golem – a magical construct that has a singular purpose.
Gomi – the fifth child of Ao and Miko, she is married with children. A mostly Indigo immortal with a little White.
Great Ladies – a mountain range that forms the border between Zhongtu and Jeevanti.
Great Willow – A magical willow made by Bai 29,000 years after creation. It amplifies power. and is worshipped by mortals in Liushi. Tea made from its leaves grants clarity and insight; it is particularly popular with scholars and magistrates.
Vows of Gold and Laughter (The Immortal Beings Book 1) Page 36
