Read the First Chapter of Chloe Gong’s Epic Fantasy Immortal Longings

Just over a 12 months in the past, io9 broke the information that best-selling YA creator Chloe Gong (These Violent Delights, Our Violent Ends) can be making the leap to grownup fantasy fiction with 2023’s Immortal Longings, the primary in a brand new trilogy. Now, now we have the primary excerpt from the novel so that you can peruse.

Here’s a full description of the story, a riff on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, with a setting that Gong informed io9 was impressed by Hong Kong’s historic Kowloon Walled City (learn the remainder of our interview along with her from November 2021 right here).

Every 12 months, hundreds within the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, the place the palace hosts a set of video games. For these assured sufficient of their skill to leap between our bodies, rivals throughout San-Er struggle to the dying to win unimaginable riches.

Princess Calla Tuoleimi lurks in hiding. Five years in the past, a bloodbath killed her mother and father and left the palace of Er empty…and he or she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa’s forces in San can catch her, she plans to complete the job and produce down the monarchy. Her reclusive uncle at all times greets the victor of the video games, so if she wins, she will get her alternative finally to kill him.

Enter Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat. His childhood love has lain in a coma since they had been each ousted from the palace, and he’s deep in debt making an attempt to maintain her alive. Thankfully, he’s top-of-the-line jumpers within the kingdom, flitting from physique to physique at will. His final probability at saving her is getting into the video games and profitable.

Calla finds each an surprising alliance with Anton and assist from King Kasa’s adopted son, August, who desires to fix Talin’s ills. But the three of them have very completely different targets, at the same time as Calla and Anton’s partnership spirals into one thing all-consuming. Before the video games shut, Calla should resolve what she’s taking part in for—her lover or her kingdom.

You can learn all the first chapter under, however first, here’s a take a look at the novel’s elegant cowl, designed by Will Staehle:

And lastly, chapter considered one of Immortal Longings!

A residing factor, when confronted with a break or damage, is compelled to heal itself. A minimize will clot with blood, trapping in an individual’s qi. A bone will clean over, knitting new threads at each cut up. And San-Er’s buildings, when an inconvenience is recognized, will rush to fix the sore, pin-pointing each fracture and hurling cures with vigor. From the highest of the palace, all that may be seen are the stacked constructions composing the dual cities, interlocked and dependent upon each other, some hooked up to a neighbor from the bottom degree and others linked solely on the highest flooring. Everyone within the kingdom of Talin desires to be in its capital—in these two cities masquerading as one—and so San-Er should develop denser and better to accommodate, masking up its offenses and stenches with utter incoherence.

August Shenzhi tightens his grip on the balcony railing, tearing his gaze away from the horizon of rooftops. His consideration ought to be with {the marketplace} under, which bustles at excessive quantity contained in the coliseum partitions. Three generations in the past, the Palace of Union was constructed beside San’s huge coliseum—or maybe it’s extra apt to say it was constructed into the coliseum, the north aspect of the elevated palace enmeshed with the coliseum’s south wall, its turrets and balconies pulling aside stone and slotting itself proper in to shut the hole. Every window on the north aspect has an ideal view of the market, however none higher than this balcony. Back when he nonetheless made public appearances, King Kasa stood right here to make his speeches. The market can be cleared out, and his topics would come to assemble in the one plot of open house inside San-Er, cheering for his or her monarch. There’s nowhere fairly just like the coliseum. San-Er itself is simply a small protrusion of land on the fringe of the dominion, its border with rural Talin marked by a towering wall, the remainder of its perimeter hemmed in by sea. Yet regardless of its dimension, San-Er features as a world of its personal—half one million inhabitants crammed into every sq. mile, repeatedly. The needle-thin alleys between each constructing sag, the earthen floor at all times muddy as a result of it’s sweating with overexertion. Prostitutes and temple clergymen share the identical doorway; drug addicts and schoolteachers nap underneath the identical awning. It is smart that the one house protected against builders and squatters is the coliseum, underneath the vigilant eye of royalty and untouched by the determined enlargement urgent in on its partitions. They might raze the coliseum and construct ten—maybe twenty—new streets on the land cleared, squeeze in lots of extra residence complexes, however the palace received’t permit it, and what the palace says goes.

“Give me leave to strangle your uncle, August. I’m tired to death of him.” Galipei Weisanna strolls into the room, his voice echoing out onto the balcony. He speaks as he at all times does: clipped, terse, trustworthy. Galipei isn’t keen to inform a lie, but finds it of utmost precedence to be working his mouth too, even when silence is a greater choice. August ideas his head again to have a look at his bodyguard, and the crown in his hair shakes unfastened, hanging lopsidedly to the left. By the sunshine of the palace, the pink gems resemble fragments of blood encircling his bleached blond curls, its place so precarious that one wayward breeze would sweep the band of steel proper off.

“Do be careful,” August replies evenly. “High treason in the throne room tends to be frowned upon.”

“So I suppose someone ought to be frowning at you as well.”

Galipei comes to affix him upon the balcony, then nudges August’s crown again into place with a practiced familiarity. His presence is domineering, shoulders broad and posture tall, in distinction to August’s lithe sharpness. Dressed in his normal darkish work garb, Galipei appears to be like part of the night time—if the night time had been adorned with buckles and straps holding varied weapons that wouldn’t in any other case maintain towards heavy leather-based. There’s a melodic clanking when his physique comes into contact with the gold-plated railing, his arms resting atop it to imitate August, however the sound is definitely misplaced to the clamor of the market under.

“Who would dare?” August asks matter-of-factly. It’s not a boast. It’s the profoundly assured method of somebody who is aware of precisely how excessive his pedestal is as a result of he hauled himself there.

Galipei makes a obscure noise. He turns away from the partitions of the coliseum, having looked for threats and discovering nothing out of the abnormal. His consideration shifts towards August’s line of sight as an alternative: a baby, kicking a ball beside the closest row of market stalls.

“I heard that you took over preliminary organization for the games.” The little one attracts nearer and nearer to the balcony. “What are you up to, August? Your uncle—”

August clears his throat. Though Galipei rolls his eyes, he takes the correction in stride.

“—your father, my apologies, is vexed enough with the whole palace these days. If you go pissing him off, he’ll disown you in an instant.”

A heat, southerly breeze blows up on the balcony, swallowing August’s skeptical huff of breath. He pulls at his collar, fingers sliding towards silk, the material skinny sufficient to deliver a chill to his pores and skin. Let King Kasa push his adoption papers by way of a shredder. It received’t matter quickly. Maneuvering the previous couple of years to get the paperwork to exist was solely the primary a part of the plan. It is nowhere close to crucial.

“Why are you here?” August asks in return, diverting the subject. “I thought Leida summoned your help for the night.”

“She sent me back. San’s border is fine.”

August doesn’t voice his rapid doubt, however he does frown. Other than the coliseum, the far fringe of San proper beside the wall is the one place inside San-Er the place civilians might need the house to assemble and make a fuss, crowding across the mounds of trash and discarded tech. It by no means lasts lengthy. The guards unfold out and break them up, after which civilians can both spend an indeterminate period of time within the palace cells or scatter again into the dense labyrinthine streets.

“Fascinating,” August says. “I don’t remember the last time there weren’t riots the day before the games.”

A number of extra steps, and the kid shall be immediately beneath them. She pays no consideration to her environment, weaving her ball out and in among the many customers and sellers, her skinny sneakers clomping down on the uneven floor.

“This year’s games should be quick work. There were hardly any applicants who volunteered for the draw.”

By hardly, Galipei means that there have been lots of versus hundreds. The video games was a far bigger occasion, again when there have been two kings funneling their coffers into the grand prize. Kasa’s father had began them in his earlier reign, and what started as a yearly one-on-one battle to the dying finally grew to a multicontestant affair, increasing previous the coliseum and utilizing all of San-Er because the taking part in subject. Once, watching expert fighters tear one another aside within the enviornment was mere leisure, one thing that was distant to the abnormal civilian. Now, the video games are a thrill that anybody can take part in, an answer to a kingdom simmering with complaints. Don’t fear in case your infants drop useless as a result of they’ve hollowed into starved husks, King Kasa declares. Don’t fear that your aged should sleep in cages as a result of there isn’t a extra residence house, nor that the neon gentle from the strip membership throughout the alleyway retains you awake night time after night time. Put your title within the lottery, slaughter solely eighty-seven of your fellow residents, and be awarded with riches past your wildest desires. 

“He drew his list, then?” August says. “All eighty-eight of our lucky par- ticipants?”

Eighty-eight, the variety of luck and prosperity! the commercial posters for the video games declare. You should register earlier than the deadline in your probability to be amongst our esteemed rivals! 

“His Majesty is very proud of himself. He got through the names in record time.”

August scoffs. It just isn’t effectivity that had Kasa going so quick. Since August instructed an entrance payment two years in the past, the random draw has shrunk considerably. One would assume that the worsening situations as of late imply extra are throwing of their tons for an opportunity to win, however the folks of San-Er are solely more and more terrified that the video games are a sham, that the victor shall be cheated out of the grand prize simply as the dual cities persistently cheat them out of rewards. They’re not mistaken. After all, August did fiddle with the draw this 12 months to get one title in.

With a wince, he takes a step again from the balcony rail, releasing the stress in his neck. For solely two distinct days of the 12 months, the coliseum earlier than him is cleared out and used as the world it was initially constructed for. Today, it stays but a market. A compact, concentrated world of meals hawkers splashed with oil and metalworkers clanging on blades and technicians fixing up unwieldy computer systems to resell. San-Er spends every second functioning off the fumes of its final. There isn’t any different method to survive.

“August.” A contact on his elbow. August spares a look to his aspect, assembly Galipei’s steel-silver eyes. There’s a warning in the best way he flings his prince’s title round, title and rank discarded. August doesn’t take warning; he solely smiles. That small quirk at his mouth, barely a change in his expression in any respect, and Galipei falters, greatly surprised by the uncommon expression.

August is aware of precisely what he’s doing. Offer that temporary distraction, and when Galipei’s consideration is turned elsewhere, he decides on his subsequent transfer.

“Take my body inside.”

Galipei’s lips half in protest. He recovers shortly from his temporary enthrallment. “Would you quit jumping like—”

But August has already left, fixing his sight onto the kid and slamming proper in, opening his new eyes with a fast snap. He has to regulate to the peak change, off-balance for a second because the folks close by jolt in shock. They know what has occurred: the flash of sunshine between jumps is unmistakable, marking the arc from outdated physique to new. Though the palace has lengthy made leaping unlawful, it’s nonetheless as widespread as a beggar swiping a rice cake from an unwatched stall. Civilians have discovered to look away, particularly when the sunshine is flashing so intently to the palace.

They simply don’t anticipate their crown prince to be the one leaping.

August appears to be like up on the palace. His physique has dropped like a stone, collapsed in Galipei’s arms to enter stasis. Without an individual’s qi, the physique is simply a vessel. But a vessel that belongs to the inheritor of the throne is an extremely worthwhile possession, and when Galipei’s gaze meets August’s pitch-black eyes within the lady’s physique, he mouths what seems to be a menace to strangle him too.

August, nonetheless, is already strolling within the different course, giving Galipei no alternative however to protect his start physique ferociously, lest somebody come inside ten ft and try and invade it. In any case, it wouldn’t be exhausting for him besides an intruder out. August’s qi is powerful—if his physique had been doubled, he might wrestle again management from the opposite particular person simply, both forcing them to search out one other host or topic them to being misplaced. When it involves doubling different our bodies, there isn’t a vessel within the twin cities that he can’t invade as lengthy they’ve come of age: twelve, possibly 13, when the gene for leaping manifests.

The drawback isn’t a lot the matter of somebody utilizing his physique for pleasure or energy. It’s troublemakers who may invade with the aim of destroying his physique out of protest, making one fast throw off the sting of a constructing earlier than their prince can leap again.

August practically collides with somebody and flinches, ducking to discover a much less crowded path by way of the market. The sudden assault on his senses at all times takes some getting used to: the louder noises, the brighter colours. Perhaps he has dulled the senses of his start physique an excessive amount of, and that is true normalcy. When a shoe-shiner barks at him from behind a stall and holds out a couple of cash, August merely reaches his small arms out and receives them, unsure why. The little one have to be some kind of errand runner. All the higher. Very few civilians are highly effective sufficient to leap into youngsters, which makes them probably the most trusted, darting between buildings and into each nook of San-Er with out discover.

August makes fast time exiting the coliseum, rising onto the one primary road that acts as a thoroughfare from north to south of San. He is well- acquainted with the lefts and the rights of his byzantine metropolis too, so he steps off the principle road for the much less populated routes, hurrying underneath drooping electrical wires and barely wincing when the damp pipes overhead drip water down his neck. But the chilly moisture irritates his pores and skin after some time, and with a sigh, Au- gust enters a constructing, deciding to journey by staircase and wayward constructing pas- sages as an alternative. There isn’t sufficient on this physique to attract any conclusions about its identification, although that’s a solution in and of itself. No markings or tattoos, so no allegiance to the Crescent Societies.

“Hey! Hey, stop there.”

August—ever accommodating—stops. An aged girl has referred to as out to him, the image of concern as she hovers in entrance of her residence door, a water bucket clutched to her hip.

“Where are your parents?” she asks. “This area is no good. The Crescent Societies have their eye on it. You’ll get yourself invaded.”

“I have it handled.” From the lady’s physique, his voice comes out excessive and gentle and candy. Only August’s tone is simply too assured. Too regal. The girl can inform, and her expression shifts into suspicion, however August is already strolling once more. He follows the spray-painted instructions on the partitions, shifting by way of one other hall to enter a neighboring constructing. Low moans filter by way of the skinny plaster. Privately run hospitals are aplenty on this space, amenities crammed with unhygienic practices and soiled instruments, although they nonetheless obtain a relentless stream of sufferers as a result of they cost far lower than the right locations in Er. Half of those non-public amenities are absolutely body-trafficking schemes. Still . . . if a physique goes lacking right here and there, nobody cares sufficient to search out out why. Certainly not the palace, it doesn’t matter what August does.

He turns the nook. The ambiance shifts instantly, cigarette smoke permeating the low ceilings in such thickness that the dim bulbs can hardly minimize by way of. San is a metropolis of darkness. It is nighttime now, however even when the solar rises, the buildings are so densely packed that the streets stay shrouded in shadow. He counts the doorways as he passes: One, two, three . . . 

He knocks on the third, his small fist simply becoming between the steel bars of the outside door. When the second wood door opens inward, there’s a man who towers above him twice over, trying down his nostril with a huff of air.

“We don’t have scraps—”

August jumps once more. It is instantaneous from the surface, he is aware of, as quick as that clap of sunshine, but it surely at all times feels sluggish, like wading by way of a brick wall. The nearer the leap, the thinner the wall; from the farthest away, on the absolute ten-foot restrict, it at all times appears like forging by way of a mile of strong stone. Those who’ve gotten themselves misplaced between our bodies are snagged right here, condemned to wander about this incorporeal house endlessly.

When he opens his eyes, he’s staring on the little lady once more, her bright-orange eyes broad and confused. Not everybody in Talin can leap, and even amongst these with the gene for it, many have such weak talents that they don’t threat it, in case they try and invade a physique and lose the struggle for management. But at any level, gene or no gene, a physique holding a single particular person’s qi might be invaded, particularly by somebody like August. The lady figures out shortly what should have occurred.

“Move along,” August instructs, closing the inside door to the playing den. The folks inside noticed the flash of sunshine, conscious that their bouncer is now occupied. Thankfully, August is predicted.

“Your Highness!”

Though the den-keeper who runs as much as him has a unique face from the final time August was right here, he is aware of it’s the identical particular person. Bodies might be switched, however the man’s pale purple eyes stay the identical.

“Have you found her?” August asks.

“Right in time, you’re right in time,” the person gushes, ignoring his query. “Come with me, please, Prince August.”

August follows, cautious together with his steps. This physique is giant, muscular. He doesn’t wish to go too quick, or he may tip himself off-kilter and stumble. He closes his fists collectively and frowns, circling across the card dealings and mahjong tables with barely sufficient room to maneuver between them. His shoe crunches down on what may very well be a needle crammed with heroin. A lady at one of many tables reaches out to the touch his jacket, with no intention besides to stroke its fantastic leather-based exterior.

“Right through here. The pictures should have finished developing by now.”

The man holds open the door, and August walks by way of, trying round within the pink gentle. Thin drying traces crisscross at his eye degree, crammed with dangling images in varied shades. The man reaches as much as unclip one. His fingers tremble as he lets the road spring again, cupping the {photograph} in his palms. Before he can prolong the providing to August, nonetheless, he hesitates, eyes pinned on the image.

“Something wrong?”

“No. No, nothing at all.” The man shakes his head, erasing any look of doubt. “We scoured the records to their very roots. Not one database was left unturned. This is her, Your Highness. I promise. Your trust and sponsorship are appreciated.”

August lifts an eyebrow. It is tough to do on this physique. He gestures for the {photograph} as an alternative, and the person hurries to go it over. The whole darkroom appears to carry its breath. The vents stutter to a halt.

“Well,” August says, “good job.”

Though the sunshine overhead runs solely in a single shade, coloring the photo- graph the mistaken hue and washing out the topic’s eyes, there isn’t a doubt. The girl within the {photograph} is stepping off the stoop of a constructing—her nostril and mouth lined with a masks, her arms gloved in leather-based, her physique angled away in motion—however August would acknowledge her anyplace. She just isn’t the type to desert her physique, even underneath such circumstances. She would as an alternative flaunt what she managed to maintain, residing on this metropolis for 5 lengthy years proper underneath his nostril.

“Oh, cousin,” August says to the {photograph}. “You can hide no longer.” Princess Calla Tuoleimi, discovered finally.

Copyright © 2023 by Chloe Gong. From the upcoming guide IMMORTAL LONGINGS, revealed by Saga Press/Gallery Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong shall be launched on July 25, 2023; you possibly can pre-order a replica here.

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