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He and Hei-Ran were in the main library, surrounded by the map collection. The best and comically worst representations of the known world were posted on the walls behind panes of flawless crystal. Ragged, heavily used pages from nautical chartbooks hung next to cloth maps stained the color of smoked tea. Jianzhu liked this room. It portrayed the advancement of human understanding.
Hei-Ran had insisted they meet twice a day since the incident, regardless of whether there had been any updates. This afternoon, there had been an update.
She finished reading the invitation stamped with the insignia of the flying boar and tossed it on the desk. “‘The Beifong family wishes to hold a celebration for the Avatar, commemorating his victory over the pirates of the Eastern Sea in front of the gathered sages of the Earth Kingdom.’ Jianzhu, this is a bigger disaster than that ‘victory.’ I thought Lu Beifong agreed to be hands-off when it came to the Avatar.”
“He did. It’s Hui who’s behind this.” Jianzhu rolled the letter opener between his fingers, longing for a sharper implement and something to stick it in. “He’s been at this game for the past year or so, whispering in Lu’s ear that training the Avatar shouldn’t be left to a man of such humble origins.”
He put the blunt metal knife down. “Hui may have a point. Look how Kuruk turned out.”
“We were kids back then, and so was Kuruk,” Hei-Ran said. “It wasn’t our responsibility to raise him.”
“Hui still presents it as a strike against us,” Jianzhu said. “Did Shaw respond about the shirshus?”
“No. And even if he did, there wouldn’t be enough time before this party.” One thing Hei-Ran shared with Jianzhu was a disdain for frivolities. She cracked her knuckles. “We could say the Avatar is sick.”
“We could, but then I look like a bad guardian who can’t keep the most important child in the world healthy. Hui will send doctors, herbalists, and spiritual healers, all insisting they see the Avatar in person for treatment. Every time we turn his agents away, it’ll sow more suspicion amongst the other sages.
“No, the truth will get out,” Jianzhu said, leaning back in his chair. “It’s simply a matter of how long we can delay it.”
Hei-Ran’s military mind was already adapting. “Then we need to consolidate your allies. Find out which sages will stick by you after this debacle comes to light. It’s going to end up with your faction against his, and right now we don’t have a count of those numbers.”
Jianzhu smiled as a possibility dangled in his head, waiting to be tugged. He could always count on his friend to seed him with ideas. These forced meetings had paid off.
“We need to do something like that,” he said. He drummed the tips of his fingers together. “What’s your wardrobe looking like these days?”
Hei-Ran gave him a stare that said he should be glad she didn’t have the letter opener in her hands.
“I just wanted to make sure you have a nice gown ready,” he said innocently. “We have a fancy party to attend.”
Without Pengpeng, they made the trip to Gaoling the old-fashioned way. Slowly. In a big caravan. With lots of gifts in tow.
By the time they arrived at the estate, Jianzhu had come up with a new policy he would have to enact. Earthbenders, the most elite in the kingdom, needed to flatten out every single inch of the roads. No cost would be too great if it meant never having to suffer another skull-bouncing, teeth-clacking journey over bumpy paths.
He stepped out of his moving prison cell and squinted into the shining glory of Beifong manor. If there was anything he’d learned when he was building his own estate in Yokoya, it was that rich people’s houses were all essentially the same. Walls to keep the townsfolk out. A garden as big as possible to display humility before nature. A residential quarter where that humility was tossed on its ear, preferably with as much gold and silver inlay as possible.
Chamberlain Hui greeted them at the head of a column of footmen. The short, stocky bureaucrat shielded himself from the sun with a parasol.
“Master Jianzhu,” he said, raising the shade to reveal a grizzled, brick-like face. It always surprised Jianzhu how the man looked as if he spent his days breaking rocks with a pickaxe when the heaviest object he lifted was his master’s ivory seal. “How was your journey?”
Unnecessary and grating, like you. “Most pleasant, Chamberlain Hui, most pleasant indeed. It’s always the utmost delight to survey our magnificent nation up close.”
The next carriage in the train pulled up, ostrich horses stamping their feet until the weight behind them came to a halt. Hui opened the door himself, probably so that he could be the first to take the hand of the occupant.
“Headmistress,” he said, providing Hei-Ran unnecessary help out. “You look radiant. I’d swear you’ve stepped out of the pages of Yuan Zhen’s finest love poetry.”
He angled his parasol as if the sun would be deadly on her skin. It wasn’t like heat and light from the sky were the source of her incredible powers, no.
Hei-Ran barely disguised her shudder at Hui being her first sight out of the carriage. “Former headmistress,” she corrected.
“Ah, but educators deserve the utmost respect, for life.” Hui said, his words and smile coated in oil. “Or so I’ve always believed.”
Jianzhu felt terrible for his friend in these situations. Being a rich, beautiful, well-connected widow drew a certain breed of suitor out of the woodwork. Men like Hui could interpret the most hostile snubs as part of an ongoing courtsh
ip dance, refusing to consider the possibility that Hei-Ran wanted nothing to do with them.
“And when will Master Kelsang be joining us?” Hui said, his fingers lingering on Hei-Ran’s until she yanked them away. “I noticed Avatar Yun is not with you. I assume they’ll be arriving together shortly?”
The chamberlain’s eyes darted around their faces, checking the corners of their lips, the dilation of their irises for involuntary twitches. Jianzhu knew that Hui played a game of details. Induction. He turned slight hints into broad generalizations that he poured into the ears of Lu Beifong and the other sages. Right now, the Avatar choosing to travel with Kelsang was obviously the sign of a slight crack, a burgeoning rift between Yun and Jianzhu. Wasn’t it?
