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The Impenetrable City watched them pass like a silent sentry, the monolithic brown walls a blank face devoid of features.
Kyoshi watched the capital sail by. Somewhere in the center of those titanic fortifications was the Earth King, nominally the most powerful person on the continent, with armies to command and the wealth of the world at his disposal. Though she’d never dug deep into history lessons, she knew that the records were full of instances where Avatars and Earth Kings came to each other’s aid.
And yet she couldn’t go ask him for help. There were no means for a peasant to approach the Earth King that wouldn’t result in immediate refusal, or capture, or death. Moreover, courts and cities were Jianzhu’s realm. He’d spent decades cultivating influence among the bureaucrats of Ba Sing Se. Barging in there would be no better than surrendering to Governor Deng back in Chameleon Bay.
She looked at her parents’ gang. These were the only people she could trust, as sad as that was. Out there was a city that essentially belonged to her enemy. Her allies could fit on the back of a single bison.
And they weren’t happy with her right now.
“All right, spill it,” Kirima snapped. “Who is this man you’re feuding with? You said he was a rich and powerful sage. Which one, exactly? Tell us the truth!”
Kyoshi stared at the saddle floor. Before, she’d felt within her rights, keeping his name a secret. But the decision seemed completely foolish in retrospect.
“. . . Jianzhu,” Kyoshi said weakly. “Jianzhu, the companion of Kuruk.”
“The Architect?” Lao Ge said, rubbing his chin. “You aim high, my dear. I’m impressed.”
The rest of them were not as amused. Their jaws dropped in chorus. “Jianzhu the Gravedigger!?” Lek yelled. “You picked a fight with the Gravedigger!?”
“I didn’t pick the fight!” Kyoshi protested. “I wasn’t lying when I said he killed two people I loved!”
“Oh no, we believe that!” Kirima shouted. “We can believe that plenty! That man has a higher body count than septapox!”
“And you ticked him off so badly that he sent a beast out of myth to track you all the way into the Taihua Mountains,” Wong said with a sigh. “We might as well jump off Pengpeng right now and save ourselves the trouble.”
“Thanks a lot, you numbskull!” Lek said. “We had a chance of surviving Mok, but if the Butcher of Zhulu Pass wants you feeding the worms, then it’s only a matter of time before he puts you and us belowground!”
So Kyoshi wasn’t the only one terrified of him. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless, that made her feel like she was standing on firmer footing. Outlaws were perhaps the one group who would understand how brutal and dangerous Jianzhu really was.
She closed her eyes. She hadn’t known these people for very long. But to her own surprise more than anyone’s, she would have felt intolerably guilty if Jianzhu’s efforts to capture her caused them any grievous harm. They deserved . . . not to be swindled, was the way she’d put it. They were owed the full story.
“He’s not trying to kill me,” Kyoshi said. “He doesn’t want me dead.”
“Well, that would be new for him!” Kirima said. “How are you so privy to his inner thoughts and goals?”
“Because.” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “I’m the Avatar.”
It was the first time she’d ever knowingly said the truth out loud. Somehow she’d managed to avoid speaking those three specific words in that specific order to Rangi the night they fled Yokoya in the drenching rain. Rangi had already known the Avatar was either her or Yun, so context had sufficed.
Kyoshi’s confession hung in the air, as visible as smoke. She waited for the rest of them to recover from the blow that had staggered Rangi, Kelsang, and everyone else who belonged to the small circle of knowledge at one point in time or another. They might have needed a moment to recalibrate their view of the world . . .
“Ha!” Lek said. “Ha!”
. . . Or maybe they’d just laugh in her face?
Lek rolled back on the floor of the saddle, finding her moment of ultimate honesty a good joke, a relief from his jangled nerves. “You, the Avatar? Man, I have heard some whoppers, but that might be the best yet!”
“I know I let you gloss over a bunch of the oaths,” Kirima said to her. “But at least five of them are about never lying to your sworn family.”
“She is the Avatar!” Rangi said. “Why do you think she has a Fire Nation bodyguard?”
“Dunno,” Wong said with a shrug. He pointed his thumb at Kirima. “Why do you think we’ve got her?”
The Waterbender gave him a dirty look before continuing. “Look, you can believe in your weird little two-person cult all you want,” she said to Kyoshi. “Just tell us what you stole from the Gravedigger. You wouldn’t be the first servant who bungled a theft and had to flee from their angry boss.”
Kyoshi couldn’t believe it. She’d had it all wrong. She’d thought that her Avatarhood was the final secret, a gilded treasure that needed to be kept in a series of locked chests until the exact right moment. It turned out that without proof, the information was worth less than the paper it was written on. She squeezed one of the fans in her belt out of frustration.
“Do you even bend all four elements?” Wong said. “Do you?”
