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Hei-Ran tucked herself into the corner of the carriage, her bunched-up gown turning her into a shapeless mass. “I wish I could say the same about you these days.”
To get the last word in, she aggressively went to sleep. Jianzhu noticed that people who were former military could doze off anywhere, anytime at the drop of a hat. After an hour of silence, he began to drift in and out of consciousness himself, shaken awake by the occasional road bump, his thoughts forming loose connections and ideas that he made no attempt to preserve.
It wouldn’t do to plot too far out. Sometimes the best option was to sit quietly until the next step arrived in turn, like an Earthbender should. Neutral jing.
When they arrived home in Yokoya, there was a very validating delivery waiting for them. Jianzhu didn’t bother waking up Hei-Ran and hopped out of the coach, invigorated by the sight.
In the distance, by the stables, were two extremely large wooden boxes, each the size of a small hut, peppered with little holes. The sides of the crates had Danger! and Give Wide Berth painted on them in a slapdash manner. Surrounding them was a crew of underpaid university students warily brandishing long forked prods. They pointed their weapons inward at the boxes. Theft of the contents was not the primary concern.
At the head of the group was a portly older gentleman in fine robes, wearing a helmet made of cork. He was geared for adventure in the habit of academics who had no idea how dirty and bloody true adventure could get.
“Professor Shaw!” Jianzhu called out.
The man waved back. Behind him, the boxes suddenly started rattling and jumping, scaring the handlers. A long, whiplike strand shot out of a hole punched in the side and lashed two of the nearest students across the face and neck before they could react. They screamed and collapsed to the ground in a heap like rag dolls.
Professor Shaw looked at his downed interns and then gave Jianzhu a big grin and a thumbs-up.
That must have meant the shirshus were in good health after their journey. Excellent. Jianzhu needed them in peak condition. The beasts’ impeccable sense of smell would let them track a target across a continent. Oceans, if the rumors were to be believed.
He’d sent word out to his subordinates across the kingdom, the magistrates and prefects he’d spent years buying off, telling them to be on the lookout for two girls who’d escaped his estate. But it never hurt to have a backup plan that didn’t rely on the shifting loyalty and ballooning greed of men.
One way or another, he was going to fulfill his promise to the Avatar. There would be no hiding for Kyoshi. Not in this world.
THE TOWN
The Taihua Mountains south of Ba Sing Se were treacherous beyond measure. They were said to have swallowed armies in the days of the city’s founding. Howling blizzards could freeze a traveler’s feet to the ground, snapping them off at the ankles. Once every decade or so, the winds would shift, carrying red dust from Si Wong to the peaks of Taihua, polluting the snow a fearsome bloody color, turning the mountains into daggers plunged through the heart of the world.
Pengpeng sailed over the dangerous terrain, unbothered. From their vantage point Kyoshi and the others could see any weather sneaking up on them, and right now it was clear in every direction.
“This is the life,” Lek said. He rolled over onto his side, reaching over the saddle, and patted her fur. “That’s a good girl. Who’s a good girl?”
He’d been trying to get the bison to like him more than Kyoshi and Rangi at every available op
portunity. Kyoshi didn’t mind so much. It meant Lek took care of foraging and watering for Pengpeng. Like she had her own stablehand.
“Oof, I’m glad you remembered to come back for me,” Lao Ge said. “There’s no way I could have made it here on my own.” The old man yawned and stretched, catching as much of the breeze between his arms as he could. “I have to remember not to wander off by myself for too long.”
His comment made Kyoshi’s stomach constrict. The journal said that Lao Ge came back from his jaunts with blood on his hands. She wondered if her mother had sat this close to him as they traveled, afraid that she might be one of his victims in the future.
“We’re way past the last charted outposts,” Rangi said from the driver’s seat. “Beyond that, the mountains haven’t been mapped.”
“Yeah, an outlaw town isn’t going to be on a map,” Kirima said. “This is the exact flight path we used to take with Jesa. Keep going.”
As they flew toward a line of jutting gray peaks, the mountains separated, gaining depth. The formation was less a ridge and more of a ring that obscured a crater from all sides. The depression held a small, shallow lake that Kyoshi thought was brown and polluted at first. But as they flew closer, she saw the water was as clear and pure as could be. She’d been looking straight through the lake to the dirt bottom.
Next to the lake, built into the slope like a rice terrace, was an encampment slightly more handsome than the slums of Chameleon Bay. Longhouses had been constructed out of mountain lumber hauled from the forests down below. Several of them sat on makeshift piles, fighting a losing battle against erosion. Glinting with openly carried weapons, people filed in between the gaps and along the streets.
“Welcome to Hujiang,” Kirima said. “One of the few remaining places in the world where Followers of the Code gather freely.”
“Is everyone down there a daofei?” Kyoshi said.
“Yes,” Wong said. He frowned at the crowds below. “Though it seems more busy than usual.”
They’d approached with the sun behind them out of caution. Lek pointed Rangi toward a cave farther away where Kyoshi’s mother used to hide Longyan. They landed Pengpeng there, camouflaged her with fallen branches and shrubs, and suffered the lengthy hike to town.
The longtime members of the Flying Opera Company were prepared for the fine silt that rose from the winding, narrow path, stirred by their footsteps. They pulled close-woven neckerchiefs over their noses and mouths and smirked underneath when Kyoshi and Rangi looked askance at them with reddened eyes. The group was still figuring out what courtesies to share. Apparently spare dust masks fell by the wayside.
Rounding the mountain, they entered Hujiang from above, carefully picking their way down crudely carved steps that were oversized to cut down on the number needed. Kyoshi wondered why they weren’t earthbent into shape.
