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“How could that be?”
“Because the person who has the greatest responsibility to the world, after the Avatar, is the person who influences the way the Avatar thinks. I taught Kuruk earthbending, but I didn’t teach him wisdom. I believe the world is still paying for my mistake in that regard.”
Jianzhu paused by the door as he left. “Yun is down the hall. Kelsang across from him. You should rest more though. I would hate to see you not well.”
Kyoshi waited until he was gone, enough time for him to exit the infirmary completely. Then she burst out of bed. She pounded down the hallway, rattling the planked floor, and after a frantic moment of hesitation, entered the Avatar’s room first.
Yun sat in a chair next to a copper bathtub with his right sleeve rolled up to his shoulder. His arm rested in the steaming water. Rangi stood behind him, leaning on the windowsill, staring at the far corner.
“I keep telling the healers I don’t have frostbite,” Yun said. “This must have scared them.” He raised his dripping hand. It was still stained with black ink, giving it a pallid, necrotic look. Yun picked up a teapot of hot water from the floor and poured it carefully into the bath to maintain the temperature. He dunked his hand back under the surface and swirled it around.
Kyoshi’s first instinct was to run over to them and embrace them joyfully, to thank the spirits that they were alive. To see a bit of that happiness reflected back in their eyes. The three of them had made it home, safe, together.
But Yun and Rangi looked like their minds were still floating somewhere in the Southern Ocean. Vacant and distracted.
“What happened?” Kyoshi asked. “Is everyone okay? Is Kelsang hurt badly?”
Yun waved at her with his dry hand to be quiet. “Master Kelsang is sleeping, so we should keep it down.”
As if she were the biggest detriment to Kelsang’s health right now. “Fine,” she hissed. “Now will you tell me what happened?”
“We lost a lot of the guardsmen,” Yun said, his face shifting with pain. “Tagaka’s hidden Waterbenders dropped an avalanche on them. Rangi and Hei-Ran managed to save those they could by burning through the side of the iceberg after it thinned.”
Rangi didn’t budge at the mention of her name. She refused to lift her head, let alone speak.
“They freed me, and between us, we managed to knock Tagaka out,” Yun went on. “Losing their ships and seeing their leader defeated was too much for the rest of the Fifth Nation forces, and they fled. You should have seen it. Pirates clinging to wreckage while Waterbenders propelled them away. The loss of dignity probably hurt more than the falling rocks.”
“What happened to Tagaka?” Kyoshi asked.
“She’s in the brig of an Earth Kingdom caravan heading for the capital, where she’ll be taken to the prisons at Lake Laogai,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do about the lake part of it if she can waterbend like that, but I have to assume at least someone in the Earth King’s administration has a plan. In the meantime, the Fifth Nation is no more.”
At her look of confusion, Yun gave her the exact same wan, forced smile that his master did a few minutes ago. “Their ships have been damaged beyond repair,” he explained. “Tagaka said it herself—her power lies in her fleet. After what you did, it’ll be nearly impossible for her successors to rebuild. They won’t pose a threat to the Earth Kingdom anymore.”
Kyoshi supposed that was true. And that she should be happy to hear it. But the victory rang hollow. “What about the captives?”
“Jianzhu caught one of her lieutenants and interrogated their location out of him,” Yun said. “Hei-Ran pulled a few strings—well, maybe more like the whole rope—and now the Fire Navy is mounting a rescue operation in an act of goodwill. It’ll be the first time they’ve been allowed to fly military colors in the Eastern Sea since the reign of the twenty-second Earth King.”
He was giving her answers but nothing else. No emotion she could hook her fingers around. Hadn’t he wanted her there as a confidant? Someone who would be awed by his successes?
“Yun, you did it,” she said, hoping to remind him. “You saved them.”
In her desperation she borrowed a line from the imaginary voice that had spoken to her on the ice. “People will talk about this for ages to come!” she said. “Avatar Yun, who saved whole villages! Avatar Yun, who went toe to toe with the Pirate Queen of the Southern Ocean! Avatar Yun—”
“Kyoshi, stop it!” Rangi cried out. “Just stop!”
“Stop what?” Kyoshi yelled, feeling nearly sick with frustration.
“Stop pretending like everything’s the same as it was!” Rangi said. “We know what you and Kelsang were hiding from us!”
The floor spiraled away from Kyoshi’s feet. Her foundations turned to liquid. She was grateful when Rangi marched up to her and planted an accusing finger in her chest. It gave her a point to stabilize on.
“How could you keep that from us?” the Firebender shouted in her face. “W
as it funny to you? Making us look like fools? Knowing there’s a chance that all of our lives are a gigantic lie?”
Kyoshi couldn’t think. She was enfeebled. “I didn’t . . . It wasn’t . . .”
Rangi’s finger began to heat up and smoke. “What was your angle, huh? Were you trying to discredit Yun? Jianzhu, maybe? Do you have some kind of twisted secret desire to see the world fall apart at the seams?”
