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“You are responsible for the Avatar in every regard, not just physical safety!” The daughter might have been good at scolding, but the mother was the founder of the entire school. “Her reputation reflects on yours, and tonight I overheard an Earth Kingdom man call her a daofei to her face!”
Kyoshi and Rangi glanced at each other with eyes as wide as plates. They’d kept more than a few details of their journey to themselves. That the rumors were technically true and Kyoshi really was a daofei by oath was one secret they’d have to work together to keep from the headmistress, for fear of Capital Island setting ablaze.
“I’m also to blame,” Hei-Ran muttered. “I shouldn’t have left your side, but I was distracted.” She glared at Atuat, who had just finished a skewer of meat she’d taken along from the party.
“What?” the Water Tribe doctor said, picking her teeth with the sharp sliver of bamboo. “I haven’t offended anyone tonight. Frankly I found everyone else’s behavior imprudent and shocking.”
Jinpa, ever the peacemaker, raised his hands. “I am extremely confused. I understand court manners are important, but why is everyone acting like the nearest volcano is about to erupt?”
“It’s because the very problem I requested the Avatar’s assistance with has now become much worse,” Zoryu said. He turned to Kyoshi. “I was going to explain everything under more private circumstances.”
“Now’s as good a time as any,” Kyoshi said. “I trust everyone here.” She was willing to take a gamble on Atuat’s discretion.
Zoryu rearranged his robes so they wouldn’t wrinkle, conscious of them for the first time this evening. “My father, the late Lord Chaeryu, was renowned for his exceptional strength, and . . . prodigious appetites. Chaejin is probably not my only half sibling born out of wedlock. But he is the one my father couldn’t ignore completely. His mother is Lady Huazo, of the Saowon house.”
“The Saowon are a powerful clan that controls Ma’inka Island, in the eastern part of the country,” Rangi explained. “It’s both one of the most prosperous and heavily fortified territories in the nation outside of the capital. Lady Huazo wasn’t here tonight but many of her relatives were. They were the ones wearing stone camellia patterns, the Saowon family crest.”
Based on the insignias Kyoshi had seen, the Saowon outnumbered the next two largest factions combined. “What about your mother?” she asked Zoryu. “Where is she?”
“My mother was Lady Sulan of the Keohso clan,” Zoryu said, his lips twisting into a sad smile. “And I never knew her. She died giving birth to me. I’m told she was a lovely and wonderful person by all accounts.”
Kyoshi’s throat tightened in sympathy. If royal blood couldn’t shield a child from being orphaned, then what chances did the castoffs of the world ever have?
“To avoid dishonoring Lady Huazo and the Saowon clan, my father officially recognized Chaejin as his child,” Zoryu went on. “But somehow also managed to exclude him from being an official member of the royal family. It placed my elder half brother in an unclear position when it came to the line of succession, so he was removed from the palace. Sending him away to the Fire Sages was a convenient method to get rid of an embarrassment to the Fire Lord, and my father forbade the matter to be talked about at court while he was alive.”
He caught Kyoshi’s scowl of disapproval before she could mask it. “Fire Lords and Earth Kings did worse to their siblings in ancient times. And I’ve attended performances of Water Tribe sagas with similar themes. In hindsight, I’d have gladly taken Chaejin’s end of the deal and traded ruling for solitude and study.”
“Stop saying things like that!” Hei-Ran snapped. “Weakness is practiced and learned as much as strength is! What if one of the Saowon were to hear you?”
Zoryu shrugged, a gesture that looked strange when performed by the leading figure of an entire country. His sturdy shoulder pads weren’t designed for ambivalence and almost swallowed his head as they rose upward. “It’s too late to be worried. I set the wrong tone with Chaejin long ago. After my father’s death, when I first heard the Saowon clan were sending Chaejin back to court as a High Temple liaison, I was delighted. I thought the playmate of my youth was returning. My only living blood relative.
“But being sent away by our father embittered him.” Zoryu tapped the side of his hair, causing his headpiece to wiggle. “He came at me wanting ‘his’ crown. Chaejin exploited my initial lenience to show the clans how much kinglier he is than me and has continued to do so ever since. Tonight was merely one example in a long list of petty jabs and undermining.”
“The Saowon have always been skilled at subtly shaping public opinion,” Rangi said. She spoke with the weariness of a veteran more befitting of someone her mother’s age. Kyoshi had never seen her act this way. “Chaejin has plausible deniability. He could say that he merely acted with the impertinence of family and wore the wrong clothes. Punishing him for it could look like an overreaction and the Fire Lord would fall even further in esteem.”
“This is what Chaejin does,” Zoryu said. “He is simply better at this game than I am. And day by day he comes ever closer to fully winning it.”
“I don’t understand,” Kyoshi said. “So he wishes he was Fire Lord instead of you. Insults and opinions can’t change the laws of succession.”
“They can when they’re backed by enough troops,” Zoryu said wryly. “Chaejin was telling the truth—the Fire Nation struggles, Avatar. The harvests have been borderline failures for two years in a row. Fishermen pull up empty nets from the shores of First Lord’s Harbor to Hanno’wu. We had to cull half of the pig chickens in the country due to sickness a few months ago. To most of the commonfolk, it appears as if my entire reign has been cursed by the spirits of the islands themselves.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, another fidget made ridiculous by his outfit. “Now, the noble clans might not believe in curses, but they do need revenues from their fiefdoms to pay their household warriors. If they can’t, then I have a bunch of very angry, unemployed, highly trained fighters on my hands, suddenly willing to entertain the concept of ‘Fire Lord Chaejin.’”
“If I may,” Jinpa said. “Respect for the will of the spirits is one thing, but the misfortunes you’re describing seem beyond anyone’s control. How can the people of the Fire Nation lay these troubles at your feet?”
Zoryu snorted. “With great ease. My father was an unintelligent boor, but during his rule the rains fell, the fields were green, and the fish were so plentiful you could pluck them from the seas by hand. In contrast, I’ve had to empty the royal treasury to keep some of the poorer islands from going hungry. The Saowon homeland of Ma’inka is faring relatively well these days, which gives my brother even more credibility and influence. He appears to be the son of Chaeryu better favored by the spirits.”
Kyoshi was beginning to understand. “You invited me here to bolster your reputation within your own country.”
“You are correct, Avatar. Granted, I don’t expect you to snap your fingers and have spirits fill the barns with grain. But I thought if you stood by me in solidarity during the holiday, it might help settle some of the unrest in the palace.”
He made a face of longing for something going right for once. “Chaejin hijacked my plan and outmaneuvered me yet again. You . . . pretty much blessed his future reign, Avatar. In front of the whole court, no less.”
“I see,” Atuat interjected, tapping her chin thoughtfully as if she were the intended audience of the explanation. “But you’re talking about conflict like an inevitability.”
“Welcome to the Fire Nation, everyone!” Zoryu said with a grin that was equal parts cheekiness and deep, regretful sorrow.
Hei-Ran shot him a look that could punch its way through a stack of shields. Zoryu coughed. “What I mean to say is the history of this crown tends to repeat itself. Fire Lord Yosor nearly lost the country to civil war and was only saved by Fire Avatar Szeto.”
