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She heard her friends tense up beside her. Xu preemptively waved off the daofei who were ready to hack her to bits.
“Kyoshi, was it?” he said. “Kyoshi, I’m eternally grateful to you and your compatriots for rescuing me. But you’re young, and that’s why you don’t understand. Eight years of my life were stolen from me. Thousands of my followers. At your tender age, what would you know about that kind of injustice?”
They’re all the same, Kyoshi thought. Every single one. Whether they clothe themselves in business or brotherhood or a higher calling only they can
see, it doesn’t matter. They’re one and the same.
“A lesser man might quit in the face of a setback that large,” Xu said. “But not me. I relish the work, not the reward. I will get what I am owed.”
They look at themselves like forces of nature, as inevitable ends, but they’re not. Their depth is as false as the shoals at low tide. They twist the meaning of justice to absolve themselves of conscience.
Xu smiled benevolently and tried to find his spot in the book again. “The world is on the verge of forgetting my name. Which means I didn’t carve the scars deep enough last time. I’ll do better with the second chance you’ve given me, Kyoshi.”
He motioned at Wai, who still hovered over the mother and son. Wai shoved the woman onto her hands and knees and yanked her head back by her hair, exposing her throat. She screamed.
They’re humans like us, made of skin and guts and pain. They need to be reminded of that fact.
“I SAID STOP!” Kyoshi shouted. There was a backing to her voice that punched through the air. Wai hesitated, remembering the last time he’d drawn his knife in her presence.
Kyoshi pointed at Xu. “Xu Ping An! I challenge you to face me on the lei tai, immediately!”
It was the one idea that could have forestalled both him and his army from exploding into a frenzy of violence. Maybe Xu didn’t think much of Kyoshi, but he had to respect the challenge. The Code that empowered him in the eyes of his followers demanded it.
There was silence from the crowd as her words sunk in, but Xu responded as if it were the most normal request in the world. “Challenges are meant to settle grievances,” he said, dabbing the pad of his forefinger with his tongue again. “What insult have I given you?”
“Your existence,” Kyoshi spat.
She didn’t know it was possible for a group of hardened killers to gasp collectively. Now Xu paid her mind. He put the book down and stood up. His men parted to form an aisle between him and the barn door. Only Kyoshi and the Flying Opera Company stood in the middle, barring the way.
“Bending or without?” Xu asked, perfectly at ease.
“Bending,” Kyoshi said. It was the only way she’d stand a chance. She remembered her fans in her belt. “Weapons. Anything goes.” She felt the flare and turmoil of Rangi’s emotions beside her but heard no protest.
“Very well, then.” The prospect of a duel registered on Xu about as much as a fly landing on his nose. Perhaps he’d already assessed her abilities and that was the amount of threat she represented. “Let’s get this over with.”
It was a lopsided arrangement. Six on one side of the rice field, hundreds on the other. In the middle, a team of Yellow Necks used shovels from the barn to pile dirt into a raised platform. With an earthbending lei tai, the fighting surface had to be shaped from the element, not made of wood like the one in Hujiang.
Kyoshi had declined to assist with construction in the hope that stalling would create more time for a governor’s militia, an Earth Kingdom army, for any help at all to arrive. At this point, she’d take Te and a couple of angry servants armed with brooms.
“This was your plan?” Kirima said as they watched the dirt flinging into the air.
“It wasn’t a plan so much as a thing that could have happened and did,” she said. “I noticed none of you tried to stop me.”
“There’s little else you can do,” Wong said. “Especially if you want to stop him from razing Zigan to the ground. It’s right next door, and the nearest Earth Kingdom army outpost is a five days’ march away.”
Kyoshi stepped behind Rangi and embraced her, feeling her warmth. None of the others commented on their closeness. “I’m sorry I keep doing this to you,” she muttered, her lips close to the Firebender’s ear.
Rangi leaned back into her. “Today you get a pass. As the Avatar you would have tangled with horrors like Xu on a regular basis. This might be the first time you’ve done your duty since we left Yokoya.”
It felt good to get a decision right, though it was uncertain how long she’d live to enjoy it.
“Kyoshi, can I speak to you for a moment?” Lao Ge said. “In private?”
The others frowned, slightly confused. As far as they knew, there was no particular relationship between Kyoshi and the old man that warranted a conversation prior to her imminent death. Lao Ge was more likely to give her a few shots of wine for courage than a pep talk.
Kyoshi followed him behind a curtain of rice stalks. “What do you think you’re doing?” he snapped once they were alone. He’d never taken such a tone with her, not even after she’d saved Te’s life.
“You think it’s wrong to fight Xu?” she said. If Lao Ge was going to argue that the Yellow Necks were good for the health of the Earth Kingdom, then he truly was as loopy as his outward persona.
