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“Oh, so you’ve visited the gallery then?” he said, grinning. “It’s our national pride.”
There was a slight tug on the back of Kyoshi’s dress. She ignored it. She was doing well right now and didn’t want to lose her momentum. “I did. Might I say, you resemble your departed father Lord Chaeryu a great deal. May your reign over the Fire Nation be as glorious as his.”
A sharp kick to the back of her calf nearly made her buckle.
“Kyoshi!” Rangi’s voice was a strangled squeak of mortification. “That’s not Fire Lord Zoryu!”
ANCIENT HISTORY
The crowd had frozen. The waiters had frozen. The sun in the sky halted its arc. The celestial bodies had never seen such a colossal blunder in their thousand lifetimes of watching the Avatar.
“I should introduce myself,” said the man whom Kyoshi had mistaken for the Fire Lord. “My name is Chaejin. Fire Lord Zoryu is my younger half brother.”
Kyoshi looked around frantically for the real Zoryu. She spotted him, hurriedly working his way through the crowd in her direction, outpacing his own guards. She confirmed it was him like she should have done the first time by checking his topknot from afar. There it was, the headpiece in the shape of a five-tongued flame. Decidedly not resting in the hair of the man standing before her.
Kyoshi grimaced. It was as if this double had selected his appearance to cause confusion. His robes were cut to resemble the silhouette of royal armor, and the gold brocade that hung from his shoulders was a shade that she thought was reserved for the Fire Lord and his immediate family. “Apologies for the error,” she muttered. She had never heard of Chaejin before and had no idea where he fell in the court hierarchy.
“It’s understandable; royal lineages can be confusing. My father was Fire Lord Chaeryu, but he never married my mother. We try very hard to hide our indiscretions here in the Fire Nation. Especially to outsiders.”
She was too far out on a limb. She didn’t know what to say when presented with delicate information like this. She glanced at Rangi for help. But judging from her panicked expression, Rangi didn’t have enough rank to speak here.
She’d spent all her capital already to warn Kyoshi of her mistake.
Kyoshi tried to read how delicate the situation was by glancing at the faces of nearby partygoers. The normally reserved Fire Nationals looked completely aghast. The tension grew thicker and heavier until finally their little bubble was pierced by the arrival of Zoryu.
“Avatar Kyoshi,” the Fire Lord said, leaning over slightly from exertion. The hem of his outrageously delicate robe was grass-stained, and his headpiece had tilted out of alignment in his haste to get here. Their meeting had been anything but a graceful drifting together like two leaves in a pond.
“Zoryu!” Chaejin said. He genially slapped his brother on the back. “I was wondering when you’d get here. I’d like you to meet the Avatar. She thought I was the Fire Lord. Can you imagine?”
Kyoshi heard Rangi suck in her breath sharply, and she understood why. Chaejin had stolen the right of introduction, neglected his brother’s title, and improperly touched the Fire Lord, all under the guise of a friendly gesture between family members. If court etiquette was a secret language, then it was finally opening to her, arranging concepts and syllables into sentences she could comprehend.
“How amusing,” Zoryu said. “I need to talk to my guest now, Chaejin.” The statement could have been a warning if delivered right, but the slight crack in the Fire Lord’s timbre turned it unsure and plaintive.
“Of course, of course!” Chaejin said. “You must have wanted to discuss the recent crop failures. Or the precipitous declines of the fisheries. If there’s anyone who could reverse our country’s recent fortunes, it’s the Avatar.”
The strain in Zoryu’s neck reached all the way to his temples. This must have been the problem of national importance he wanted to discuss with the Avatar, but not in such a public venue.
“A malaise has settled over the land since the death of our father and the natural bounties we used to enjoy during his reign have vanished,” Chaejin explained, even though no one had asked him to. “Some of the older Fire Sages believe the spirits of the islands themselves are unhappy and have turned their faces away from us.” He smiled at Zoryu. “I, of course, have argued otherwise. The strength of my brother’s rule is not to be questioned.”
The way Zoryu clenched his teeth and looked away told Kyoshi there was an element of truth to Chaejin’s claims. Likely not the part where he supported his sibling though.
She knew what she had to do. The favor of the Avatar was the prize here, was it not? Men like Shing traveled across seas for a taste of it. Chaejin’s little game of insubordination and disguise was obvious in hindsight. He wanted Kyoshi to shower respect upon him and criticize the Fire Lord.
She didn’t appreciate being manipulated, especially by someone she just met. She narrowed her eyes at Chaejin. “If there’s an issue with the spirits, I will resolve it on behalf of the Fire Lord.” Her ability to communicate beyond the physical realm was sorely lacking, but he didn’t need to know that right now. “He has my full support as the Avatar. Now, if you don’t mind, he and I will talk in private.”
Chaejin’s mouth fell open.
“I believe I asked you to leave,” Kyoshi said. Normally she’d wait longer before letting the cutting remarks fly, but this was a special case. She was on to Chaejin’s performance, and she wanted the bystanders to see his efforts fail to bear fruit.
But instead of suffering the rebuke like Shing, Chaejin glowed with happiness. “I believe you did.” He bowed and shuffled away, hurrying like he had to go share the news of their conversation with a friend.
That wasn’t the effect she’d wanted. Kyoshi turned back to Zoryu. He stared at her like a gutted fish, unable to speak.
“Kyoshi,” Rangi whispered, nearly catatonic, forgetting that the ruler of her country stood within arm’s reach of her. “Kyoshi . . . what did you . . . what did you just do?”
She didn’t know. It took the laborious, hurried arrival of Hei-Ran to provide an answer.
“What she’s done is follow disaster with catastrophe,” the headmistress growled once she’d limped her way over. “Everyone shut up and follow me, before you embarrass yourselves further.”
