“That’s some serious fucking bondage,” Rondeau said.
“Hush,” Marla said. But he was right—it was bondage, and not of the consensual, recreational sort they’d seen at the party.
Ch’ang Hao shrank down to his old size, wincing. “If I were in possession of my full powers, I would destroy you,” he said solemnly.
“That’s quite a trick, changing size while retaining your original shape,” Marla said. “I’ve never known a sorcerer who could do that, not without getting cancer in the process. That kind of stuff plays hell with your cellular integrity.” She was on edge, prepared to reverse her cloak at the slightest renewed threat from this man, consequences to her humanity be damned. She didn’t understand what he was, and that made her nervous.
The man spat. “I am not a sorcerer. I am older than your kind. I lived with the serpents before man rose up on two legs.”
Marla squinted, looking beyond the obvious. She was starting to get a headache, peering into the magical realm so often tonight. She could see the tiny silver threads now, like puppet strings, attached to Ch’ang’s throat, shoulders, wrists, waist, and ankles. “But you got caught by a sorcerer,” Marla said. “There’s a serious thrall laid on you. And that harness keeps you from getting too big and dangerous, huh?”
“I am dangerous enough for most purposes at this size,” he said. “I did not expect you to be so formidable. I confess, I did not recognize your fighting style.”
“Jeet Kun Do, mostly,” she said. “The style Bruce Lee invented.”
“I do not know Mr. Lee,” he said, as if it saddened him.
“You’ve never heard of Bruce Lee?” Rondeau said. “You’re even more clueless about pop culture than Marla is.”
“I don’t imagine our friend in Chinatown lets Ch’ang out of his box very often,” Marla said. “How big can you get anyway?”
Ch’ang Hao almost smiled. “When I am unencumbered, I can grow just large enough to defeat whatever enemy I face. No more, no less.”
“And our friend in Chinatown is afraid of you getting big enough to defeat him, huh?”
“I see that you comprehend my situation fully.”
Marla nodded. “Are you going to try to kill me again?”
“If you choose to let me go free, I will report to my master that you defeated me. He will be displeased. Perhaps he will send me after you again.” Ch’ang Hao shrugged.
Marla nodded. “Look, if I could cut the ties that bind, set you loose from your master’s thrall…would you do me a favor?”
Ch’ang Hao tensed. “This is not possible,” he said at last.
“I’ve got a knife, nice and sharp, that cuts through the metaphysical as well as the actual. I used it to cut a ghost out of Rondeau once—he’d still be possessed if it weren’t for me.”
“It’s true,” Rondeau said. “She’s a dab hand with the blade.”
“I can cut the threads that tie you to your master,” Marla said.
Ch’ang Hao looked into the sky for a moment. “If you do this thing, my master will be your enemy forever. He…values my service.”
“He already tried to have me killed,” Marla said. “I’m not especially worried about pissing him off worse.”
“You will cut the harness away?”
“I didn’t say that. I don’t like the idea of you getting too big for me to fight, either. But I can sever the connection between you and your master, the thrall that keeps you from running away, the one that makes you keep going back to him, that makes you obey. I’ll cut the leash, but I’ll leave you muzzled.”
“I see,” Ch’ang Hao said, his face expressionless. “And what favor will you ask in return for this great service?”
She shrugged. “I like having ancient powerful beings owe me their freedom. I don’t know what I want from you, yet. I won’t ask for any service that would require your death, though. Maybe the risk of death, but not certain death.”
The veins in Ch’ang Hao’s arms began to bulge, and snakes came slithering out of his pores, tiny at first, but growing as they emerged, four long yellow-and-black serpents that fell from his arms to the ground and slithered around their feet. Something about Ch’ang Hao’s bearing let her know this wasn’t an attack. Each snake took the tail of another in its mouth, forming a circle with Marla and Ch’ang Hao inside. “Inside this circle, promises are binding,” Ch’ang Hao said.