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“We’ll, uh, be careful,” Kyoshi said.
Rangi and the others had to go back to the palace for a few more things. Hei-Ran cornered Kyoshi while she was straightening Yingyong’s saddle blanket. The two of them were alone in the pen.
“It’s not enough, and you know it,” the older woman said quietly.
Kyoshi kept her eyes on her work. “What isn’t?”
“My hair, my honor, they’re not enough to balance the scale.” Hei-Ran busied her hands along the saddle so it would look like they were talking about something else, something trivial. “There is no escaping the past. Yun is the sins of my generation, come back to haunt us. One way or another, he will catch up to me.”
She cinched one of the buckles tighter. “Rangi may view this trip as traveling for my protection. You see it as a search for clues. But from my perspective, we’re luring Yun away from the palace, out in the open. I am coming with you to act as bait.”
Kyoshi started to protest, but Hei-Ran would brook no argument. “You will use me to draw Yun in. You will let him kill me if you have to. I don’t think you have a good chance of capturing him without a sacrifice.”
“Rangi would never allow—”
“Which is why I am talking to you right now, and not her. The stability of the Fire Nation is more important than my life.” She gestured at her shortened hair. “The other reason I cut my topknot is so that there will be no further disgrace to the country if he kills me. An honorless person does not need to be avenged. I can bear any insult, because there’s no more person to insult.”
Hei-Ran was as even and steady as the earth they stood on. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t deserve to escape Yun’s wrath any more than Jianzhu deserved to escape yours. My death might actually close the books on this nightmare. An upside I’d accept without hesitation.”
The fake work reached its limits, and they turned to face each other. “My daughter would never listen to me on such matters,” Hei-Ran said. “But I can trust you to do what needs to be done. Right, Kyoshi?”
Caught between two family members, Kyoshi didn’t know what to say. For the sake of Rangi she should have refused Hei-Ran immediately. But the headmistress’s chilling logic was brutal and elegant at the same time. It boggled Kyoshi how easily Hei-Ran came up with the trade.
Hei-Ran took her silence for an answer and patted her on the shoulder. “Good girl.”
THE FIRE SAGE
Traveling over the Earth Kingdom meant crossing vast mountain ranges, lakes the size of oceans, deserts that threatened to swallow their surrounding features. Kyoshi was used to idling large swathes of time away on a bison’s back, watching the landscape grow and shrink as she flew from one city to another.
Traveling through the Fire Nation was a quick jaunt in comparison. Reaching their destination on Shuhon Island, the next landmass over from the capital, felt like flipping a piece of double-sided embroidery around to see what was on the back. North Chung-Ling lay nestled inside enveloping arms of volcanic rock, a small gap in the formation granting it access to the sea.
They found an outcropping on the forested slope where Yingyong could stay, rather than be forced into pens that weren’t built to fit him. Despite the short journey, Rangi spilled out of the saddle, a ragged mess.
“Your landing zone selection needs work,” Hei-Ran said, pursuing her mercilessly.
“It doesn’t need work,” Rangi muttered.
“Young lady, I have been traveling with the Avatar on bison-back since before you were born! I count two approaches from the downwind side and insufficient forage. Do you want poor Yingyong to get surprised by rustlers? Or starve to death?”
“We’re not going to be here that long!”
“You don’t know that! Does preparedness not carry the day anymore? Do we need to take down the door sign at the academy?”
It had been like this the whole flight. Kyoshi took Rangi by the hand before she burst into flames. “Why don’t we, uh, scout ahead?” She dragged her away from the group, down the trail leading to the settlement. Jinpa and Atuat stayed behind, walking at Hei-Ran’s pace. They’d been mostly quiet throughout the trip, not daring to get between any family arguments.
“Traveling with my mother is the worst,” Rangi fumed once they had some distance. “It’s like being twelve all over again.”
“How did you manage going to the North Pole together?”
“She was comatose!” Rangi said, startling Kyoshi with her flippancy. “Having her constantly in my ear, on a mission with the Avatar no less, is a completely different story!”
It wasn’t the reaction Rangi was looking for, but Kyoshi swelled with a sudden happiness. She couldn’t help it. Rangi acting so completely, utterly normal tugged on a rope connected directly to her heart. It always would.
On a whim, she picked Rangi up by the waist and whirled her around. No one was there to scold them for inappropriate touching. Rangi laughed despite herself and tried to swat at her but couldn’t reach as far. “Stop it! You’re embarrassing me!”
“That’s the point!”
Most Earth Kingdom cities of good repair and repute were square, created to be plain and rigidly four-sided in the unimaginative but sufficient Earth Kingdom way. When settlements were forced into circular plots of land though, Kyoshi was accustomed to seeing towns arranging themselves in rings, mimicking Ba Sing Se. The layout deliberately made it easy to see who was rich and who wasn’t.
