a/n: For Optimoose, because she asked. Her plotbunny was mangled horribly somewhere between Lovecraft and Valhalla, but I wrote it anyway. Edit: Thanks to e-d for pointing out a few errors in the original.
Crossing the River
The inn was considerably rougher than their usual stopping places, but that hardly mattered. After six nights of camping in the rain, it was any dive in a storm. This place had more the look of a thieves' trading ground than an honest place of business. It was a goodly distance from the road, hidden in a forest of gnarled trees, dangling moss and overgrown shrubbery. The small path leading up to it twisted several times, and minimal scrutiny revealed deadfalls and chain gates, which could easily be put to use turning the place into a fortress. Nevertheless, upon reaching the building itself, the weary foursome were greeted by a battered sign announcing the Drunken Dragon Inn. Warm light highlighted windows in the shabby, black facade, and Hakkai reached for the iron door handle with only the slightest hesitation.
There should have been a loud creak or other eerie noise, but there wasn't. Instead, the dilapidated-looking portal swung inward with the silence of oil and well-balanced hinges. Music and conversation swelled to meet the travelers. The goodly-sized common room was paneled in some warm-colored wood, gone dark and laquered with years of smoke and sweat and the sweet miasma of cheap moonshine. A massive bar carved with all sorts of fanciful adornments lined the wall directly to their right, while to their left two large tables, one round and one rectangular, basked in the warmth of an enormous stone fireplace. In the far corner beyond the rectangular table, a dark-haired fiddler stropped his bow on willing strings, while perhaps a dozen patrons listened or talked or played at cards.
The woman behind the bar had the sort of fearsome figure that had given Valkyries their invulnerability. Greasy curls lined a florid face, all of which rose above an almost aggressively obvious bosom, but it was the shot-gun in her hands that caught their attention. The sudden, nigh imperceptible regard granted them from various other quarters of the room did not go unnoticed.
"How can I help you gents?" she asked, her finger on the trigger in a casually confident sort of way. Hakkai laughed his light lie and Gojyo watched closely for the kind of predatory glances perceived weakness might bring in a place like this. Sanzo answered.
"We need a room for the night." He was gruff as always, but the woman did not appear impressed.
"And dinner!" added Goku, with oblivious anticipation. Clearly his nose had been able to filter the scent of something edible from the odd mix of fragrances wafting through the room. Something in the woman's face softened at that, and she lowered the gun.
"Rooms are for them as can't walk home," she said.
"Well, it'd be a hell of a long walk for us," Gojyo smiled at her. He'd seen the type. She'd played a hand, cast the dice and drunk them all under the table in her day, he wagered. He could work with that. "But we'll drink our share and have a go with Lady Luck, if that's the price of admission."
She actually smiled then. "I like your style. Hey, Jack, what's the price of admission tonight?"
At the end of the bar, half hidden in the flickering shadows, a wiry man with a thatch of silver hair and a pair of clouded eyes stared at the new arrivals. "The green-eyed one has already paid," he said in astone-touched voice. "The child and his ward must eat and drink, and pay in simple coin." Goku looked confused and Sanzo, offended, but the man continued before they could speak. "The blood-haired boy is of our kind, and shall stay for the price of a story," his voice suddenly changed, becoming lighter and merrier, "and of course a hand of cards." Around the room, there were laughs and cheers.
"Oookay," said Gojyo, smiling like an unbeliever. "Well, I'm up for cards, and I know we're all hungry." Hakkai said nothing, but was watching the silver-eyed man. At length, he simply smiled.
"Yippee! Food!" yelled Goku.
"Whatever," said Sanzo. Then patrons shifted and chairs were rearranged. They sat together at one end of the rectangular table while the Valkyrie (she'd never offered a name) brought skewers of meat and bowls of broth and platters of buns and noodles. Sanzo ate with more appetite than usual, while Hakkai didn't eat at all, complaining of a slightly upset stomach. Goku more than made up for him. Gojyo had a little of everything, but his eyes strayed to the other table where cards were shuffled and coins clicked. The fiddler grinned at him.
At length, the foursome finished their meal. Goku was already falling asleep, and Hakkai took him by the shoulder to follow the bartender as she showed them the way. Sanzo lit a cigarette and moved over to the bar. Shrugging, the hanyou stood and approached the other table. An empty chair was pulled out for him, while a fox-faced woman dealt. Four players already sat in the game, and Gojyo joined them easily. He lost the first hand.
For a while, no one spoke as they played. Around them conversations rippled and fiddle music lilted, but at the table there was only wary concentration and the subtle, haunted worship of chance. The fox-faced woman held her breath when her cards were good. The dandy in the silk shirt whistled tunelessly. The skinny kid with the nervous laugh bet more than he could lose, and the old guy... The old guy stared at Sanzo more often than his cards.
"You interested? He's a hell of a lot meaner than he looks," commented Gojyo lightly. The skinny kid giggled and the dandy hid a smile behind his cards. The old guy simply shook his head, then gave his cards a glance and pitched a coin.
"You ever known a woman the gods would cry for, and instead cried on?" he flipped the question across the table, where Gojyo felt it like a glove to the face.
"I've known some pretty hot women in my day, pal." It was better to keep it simple when you didn't know how deep the waters ran.
"Not like this one." The fox-faced woman folded, and the dandy raised. Gojyo met the bid.
"You gonna tell the whole story tonight?" the skinny kid asked, dropping his hand to the wood. The old guy ignored him and called.
"I used to run with a pretty tough crowd," he said, gathering up his winnings. "We worked the ferry lanes all up and down Yangtze." The dandy smiled a secret smile and the kid's face lit up as the story began. The fox-faced woman's eyes narrowed slightly, but the old guy only spoke to Gojyo and the cards that he was shuffling. "It wasn't a bad life, really. Most folks would give you their stuff before it got messy, and when there were 'officials' a little grease to the palm or knife to the throat wassimple enough." He dealt the cards and the ante went around. "It was easy money and happy days until the night we met Xin."
Gojyo smirked, taking two. "She'd be the chick, I'm guessing?"
"The lady," the old guy corrected. He was looking across the room at Sanzo again, but he shifted his attention back to the table when he saw the hanyou notice. "He's really a monk, eh?"
"More or less. You were saying...?" The old guy looked momentarily nonplussed. "About the lady?" Gojyo clarified. The dandy's smile grew wider and the kid was practically dancing out of his seat with anticipation, but the old guy merely nodded.
"That night went pretty badly. It was really wet, and Zhu slipped while he was threatening one of the passengers. Wound up killing her. Then some folks decided to go all honorable and righteous on us. Lee got a little crazy, and next thing I know we're all practically up to our ankles in blood and worse. We were all starting to calm down when Zhu noticed the boss was missing. Turns out he was up in the pilot house, stunned like a clubbed rabbit, while this lady with a toddler in her skirts was threatening him with her hair pins."
"Tell about her hair, again!" The kid's eyes were wide as Christmas morning. The old guy smiled and passed him a card.
"Like a river at midnight..." whispered the fox-faced woman.
"Like a yard of black silk..." the dandy agreed.
"Her hair was something else, but I didn't get a really good look at it that night." The old guy sighed and dropped his cards. "That night she was all eyes and desperation with that baby on her mind. When we showed up I guess she figured it was hopeless, 'cause she lowered the pins and held her skirt, like maybe we wouldn't see him." He chuckled. "Hell, I think maybe the boss didn't. Only an idiot attacks a mama when she's looking out for her cub." He caught the hanyou's eyes and Gojyo nodded with a knowing smile that did not make it past his lips. True, he knew better than to hit on a single mom, but then he also wasn't the type to murder people on a ferry. The nostalgia in this strange man's recount of such violence was making his shoulders itch.
He searched and fished a pack of cigarettes from his pocket as the next two players tossed coins onto the tabletop. As he tapped a stick free, the skinny kid snagged his attention with a proffered lighter and the universal imprecation of the brotherhood of smokers. Gojyo made use of the flame, then handed the kid a smoke, returning the favor. Nicotine took the edge off the strange conversation. He savored a second lungful before adding his coins to the pile.
"So what'd she do?" Gojyo asked, not sure he wanted to know, but just as sure he couldn't leave without knowing. This wasn't a game for the half-way crowd. Over at the bar, Sanzo seemed to be having a good non-conversation with the silver-eyed man, and the redhead wished he knew the secret to shutting people up like that.
"She turned it on." His gravelly voice wastainted with a hint of remembered passion and a breath of air and darkness. In his mind, Gojyo could almost picture her, this desperate, river-haired woman, suddenly straightening her shoulders and snaring the 'Boss' with heated eyes. "She nailed the boss with those eyes of hers, and made him an offer he couldn't refuse." The old guy was reading his mind, or was it the other way around? "Lee didn't think he'd do it. Not with a human, I mean." The fox-faced woman won again, but no one really noticed. "Lee was always such a bigot. The boss was youkai, but he wasn't a eunuch. He'd have had to be dead not to agree. He took her right there on the deck, never mind the rest of us watching."
At the bar, there was a momentary disturbance as Sanzo fell (or perhaps was pushed) off his stool. Gojyo considered going to his aid, but found himself rooted to his chair. The cards landed in front of him, and in his head a memory snickered: for the price of a story... The Valkyrie hummed a little song. She picked up the monk with surprising care. At the table, the hanyou watched her as she disappeared through the door with his fallen companion. He returned his gaze to the other players, and the old guy continued his tale.
"She was sex incarnate, was Xin. I found out later her husband had been some kinda government official, so what he was doing with a woman like that I'll never know. She gave herself to the boss without a single scream. Maybe it was just to protect her kid, but the two of them on that deck were like the hottest fantasy a teenager ever had, all need and claws and moans like sirens." He gave a wry chuckle. "Stirs the old blood just thinking about it." He wasn't the only one. The kid was practically panting and the dandy's face shone with sweat. For just a moment, Gojyo found himself trapped in the fleeting image of two people wrapped in the passion of conquest and defense. He felt his heart skip. Then it was gone. Across the room, the fiddler smiled.
Shaken, the hanyou took a deep drag. The room was feeling less real by the minute, but once again, the nicotine returned everything to focus. He twisted the spent butt in an ashtray, immediately reaching for another. "So what happened then?" His own lighter refused to work, but the kid gave him fire before he had to ask. "Did he kill her anyway?"
"Ante, please," the dandy prompted. He did as asked and the hand went around.
"That's the strange part,see. We all thought for sure he'd kill her soon as he was done, but he didn't. Instead, he took this bandana he always wore and tied it on the baby. He told Xin a deal was a deal, but she'd be his woman for a year and a day, and not just one night or he'd throw that kid in the river just the same." The old guy added his ante to the pile with a snort. "Never mind he already had a proper youkai wife."
Contemplative silence settled on the table. Cards whispered and coins sang in an ancient incantation. A breath of ice and water touched them once when the door opened to release the last of the other patrons. The silver-eyed man had disappeared into his shadows. The Valkyrie brought them glasses of something firey and sweet with a scent of honey and honor. Within the deepening contrast of fire and midnight, theornaments of the bar seemed to take on a life of their own. The atmosphere was growing.
Gojyo laughed, half in cynicism, half in acceptance. He wondered if his friends were all asleep. He wondered if they were simply his friends, or if they'd ever existed at all. He shuffled the deck. "Did she keep her word?" Even the skinnykid perked up at this. The dandy's gaze turned to the old guy and the fox-faced woman held her breath.
"Come on!" implored the kid. "You never finish the story." There was adark and threatening edge to his plea. The old guy breathed in deeply, then released it long and slow.
"I never knew how it ended." He fastened his eyes on Gojyo.
"But you do now, right?" There was a wicked gleam in the fox-faced woman's eyes.
"Oh yes. Now I know."
"So spill it, already," his only true audience muttered. Fatigue was catching up with the hanyou. Itstung his eyes and turned his stomach despite the warm, cloying sympathy of his drink.
"Xin kept her word for a little over eight months. The boss put her up in a shack on the river, and every time he visited, she was there with that kid of hers. Zhu teased him once about going soft, but he lost some teeth over it." Cards fell neglected to the table. Coins slept quietly before their owners. "Then one time she didn't meet him at the door when he came calling. He told me to wait while he went inside, and damned if I was dumb enough not to. I waited all night, straight into the morning. The noise... No Lorelei ever sang that song. When he finally came out, there was blood on his hands and his face and his coat. I almost didn't notice that some of that red was the baby's hair."
Gojyo felt the smoke in his lungs turn to ash. He froze, his heart clenched and he wished they'd never stopped here. He shouldn't care. He wouldn't care. But he did.
"He handed me that taboo pup, then took a rope and went back into the shack. The worst sight I ever saw in my life was the waythat toddler's violet eyes stared when Sha tied him to the board.Kid's hair looked like golden charity from heaven, but those eyes were a thousand years old. The boss tied him to that board and threw him in the river, and the kid never cried a tear." The old guy looked at Gojyou squarely. "I always thought the river took him, but I guess the kappa had a heart after all. He always did have an understanding with Yangtze."
"Tell him about the other two," the dandy almost laughed. "Tell him about Xin and the pup—he's far too shocked to ask."
"Not much to tell," the old guy sighed. "She died giving life to that luckless whelp. I'll never forget the sound of her screams or the way the kappa cried afterwards. Who'd have guessed the boss had a heart left in him after all those years. And as for the pup..." he leaned back in his chair and the room felt as though it were holding its breath. By some trick of the light the other players seemed to fade into mere shadows while the old guy's eyes glowed golden in the night. "Well, Sha Gojyo, why don't you tell me?"
The spell was broken. The hanyou stumbled from his chair. He didn't believe in fairytales or walking ghosts or odd coincidences, but here in this benighted room, he heard the horrible ring of truth.
"Good one, old man, you really had me going," he smirked, but he couldn't escape. His words hung pointless in the smoke above the table.
"I never bluff," the man replied, standing and stretching his back. "Believe what you like, but the truth has been told. Your price has been paid. You can go sleep it off." He yawned and he grinned. The fiddler closed his case. "If it matters at all, Xin would have been proud. Of both of you."
Then the Valkyrie had Gojyo's arm and she took him away to his room. Sanzo was in it, already sleeping. He paused by his bed once the bartender left. The window was small, but moonlight flowed through. It rippled across Sanzo like the currents of a long-forgotten river, and his angry face was innocent, almost childlike in the light's caress.
What a crock, thought Gojyo, but his eyes looked again as he pulled off his shirt. Just insane. He watched the thin chest rise and fall. He thought about the yells, the harisen, the gunshots. Not a chance in hell, he decided as he shrugged out of his pants and under the blankets of his own cold bed. And yet... and still...
It's good to have family. He heard the dandy's voice.
You love him anyway, teased the giggling kid.
Sha children always murder their mothers, came the fox-faced woman's whisper.
Is it really so hard to believe?