Kyoshi

Chapter 1

From the depths of the golden land the forest beckoned her. It loomed in the distance, as it always did, calling to her, its whispers carried on a misty shroud. Its voices were many: now deep, now long, now hasty, now calm. They wanted her, and their will brought the forest's edge nearer regardless of which way she stepped.

Eyes poured over her as she journeyed, invisible and inescapable. She could feel them on her, soaking in her every feature, scrutinizing her every step; but none came forward. They simply watched, curious; anxious. Suddenly something slithered across her back. When she turned to sweep it away it disappeared, until it crawled again across her feet – a set of spiny, hairy legs brushing over her bare toes. It raised the hair on her back, but by the time she looked down there was only a shadow, fading away as quickly as it had emerged. She wanted to stop, to turn around, to run from this unseemly place, but the mist was pulling her forward, and she took another step.

The sun set and rose a dozen times in minutes as light and dark engaged in an eerie dance of dominance. There was no moon; the darkness was absolute, except for the forest. When the sun rose again she hurried forward before she could lose her way. But at long last she found her path barred.

A canyon appeared before her, its jaws yawning wide. A rusty bridge stretched across, broken and shattered at the center. No man could leap the chasm, but the forest ahead was calling her and she could not stop. Her heart pounded as she neared the abyss, willing her legs to halt but moving forward against her will. As the edge crept nearer the voices of the forest grew louder. One deep one boomed over the others, growing clearer with every cry. "Release..." it whispered, though the sound grew so loud her ears felt ready to burst. "Release..." it hissed again, now with more vigor. "RELEASE..."

The chasm was before her, only steps away. With all her will she defied the power that compelled her forward. At long last her feet stopped, and might, if properly coaxed, have turned around; but the earth began to quake, and the bridge, in its old age, older perhaps than anything in this world, shattered beneath her.

As she plunged into the emptiness below, the voice of the forest echoed one last time: "RELEASE...ME!"

"Kyoshi! What are you waiting for, girl? Get to it!"

Wordless, Kyoshi bent down upon her knees and pushed the bucket beneath the mistress' toes. The water splashed her clothes as Lady Sugata dipped her feet, but with a practiced aloofness Kyoshi ignored it and set to scrubbing. In the light of the mid-morning sun she chipped dirt from skin, cut callouses away and tamed her mistress' elegant toenails, washing away the taint of the earth and collecting it in a pile to be hauled out of the Lady's chambers.

"Be careful between the toes, girl," said Lady Sugata as another attendant tied knots in her hair. "If I am in a limp tonight, you will sorely regret it."

"Yes, Madam," she said flatly, pulling apart the Lady's toes to scrub them clean.

Lady Sugata turned to Ruko, who patiently awaited her turn. "You, too, must be at your best during these tenuous days, Ruko. Hun Sen is almost arrived in our lands, and when he does we must put on display the famed nobility of our people. He will expect no less."

"Yes, mother."

Kyoshi swept the last speck of dirt from Lady Sugata's feet and bowed deeply as her mistress inspected her work. "Better," she said with a disgruntled lip, pulling away from the bucket so that Kyoshi might begin to work on Ruko. As she slid the bucket over to her mistress' daughter, the Lady warned her, "Be careful with those monstrous hands. My feet can handle them, but Ruko's are more delicate. I will not have them soiled by your indolence."

"Yes, Madam," she answered, lifting Ruko's tiny foot and dipping it into the water. She pulled it back into the air and began to scrub, when suddenly Ruko squealed and pulled away. Kyoshi froze, betraying no emotion on her countenance as she awaited the mistress' retribution.
"I said be careful, girl!" Screamed Lady Sugata, who smacked her on the head. Kyoshi bent down and bowed before her, then bowed again before Ruko.

"Do you see, Ruko?" Asked Lady Sugata, leaning back in her seat and shaking her head. "Betray but one of your lessons and you may find yourself a poor and scatterbrained beggar like this one, and her mother before her. You wouldn't want that, would you, dear?"

"No, mother," breathed Ruko.

"Continue," said the Lady. Ruko slowly allowed her foot back into Kyoshi's hands as Lady Sugata returned to her lecturing. By the time Kyoshi was done, she had covered all topics from proper courtly manners to strategies for seducing well-cultured men. At last she released Kyoshi to attend to her other duties, retiring with Ruko to the gardens to imbibe the smell of a choice flower.

Kyoshi followed them outside to dispose of the grimy water. She dumped the contents of the bucket in the grass beyond the Sugata household, washed her hands in a nearby brook, and set out for the village. In her pocket she felt around for the coins that Lord Sugata had handed her himself that very morning, shuffling them around nervously.

She followed the road along the coastal cliffs and downhill into the market on the waterfront, where seasonal merchants gathered to sell their wares. Most sold rice and vegetables which farmers from the surrounding lands had grown in excess of their taxes, but there were also peddlers of eastern spices, trinkets from the South Pole and the Patola Mountains, fruits grown by the monks at the Southern Air Temple and rare gems from the Fire Islands.

Yet today the mood was off. Kyoshi knew a teeming market, with vendors calling out their most favorable prices and wares. Instead there was a grim silence, as a trickle of villagers pushed through the muggy heat to quickly get what they had come for. She passed by one shopkeeper who besieged passersby with pleas to buy rice by the goblet-full. His face turned white as his offers fell on deaf ears, the market's patrons determined to move quickly and rush home.

On the docks she found the port magister, around whom there yet remained some semblance of activity. As she approached she heard him passing hurried orders to his longshoremen. At earshot she stood and waited, but it quickly became clear that the magister's business was unending. She mustered up strength to her lungs. "Magister," she declared, "I have come on behalf of Lord Sugata."

The magister turned to look over his shoulder and grimaced. With a sigh he waved off his present business and rounded his attention on her. "What does his Lordship require of his humble servant?" He asked.

Standing tall, Kyoshi recited the words Lord Sugata had instructed her to use: "His Lordship requires that you purchase on his behalf fresh fruits and foods from the merchants to be served tonight. He also desires honey, all which you have available."

The magister shook his head. "You will have no luck today. Tell his lordship that there are no vendors left; they have all set sail."

"Lord Sugata is your venerable protector," she reminded him. "If you have any goods which he desires, you are honor-bound to make good on his generous offer."

"Look for yourself, girl! Do you see a ship in port?" He gestured behind him. Kyoshi leaned aside to look and registered that there were, indeed, a scant few boats present. She bit her lip.

"What can you fulfill from your personal stocks?" She asked, as Lord Sugata had told her in the past.

"I have none," snapped the magister. "It is all sold. Are you dull? Hun Sen is on our doorstep. No good man of business is fool enough to hold his wares around hungry soldiers."

Kyoshi gulped. "Lord Sugata will hold you personally responsible for this failure," she said.

The magister scoffed. "Next time don his lordship's armor, if you would use his tongue."

Dismayed, Kyoshi took her leave of him and doubled back. In the heart of the village she noted the emptiness as vendors boarded up their shops. The street was empty but for her, and in the silence she allowed her mind to wander until a sound stole her attention away down the road, where a horseman approached, armed and armored. Kyoshi nearly dropped her basket when she saw him, but instead she bowed her head and stepped out of his path as he passed. To her surprise he slowed down to a trot.

"What land is this?" He demanded.

For a moment Kyoshi waited, as she was accustomed, for someone else to answer. When it occurred to her that no one else seemed present, she raised her head.

"This is the land of Ishima," she answered.

"And who rules here?"

"The Lord of Ishima has gone to war and not returned. Now a council of nobles rules, led by the Lord Sugata."

The ostrich horse squawked, the horseman nodded. "And to whom does Lord Sugata pay allegiance?"

Squirming where she stood, Kyoshi said, "Please, sir, I am only a servant girl in Lord Sugata's household. It is not my place to answer such questions."

The horseman cast his eyes about the empty square, then shrugged and dismounted. "No need to be so humble," he said, his tone no longer threatening. Kyoshi watched as he led his steed off the road and removed his helmet. "The forest beyond the village – what can you tell me about it?" He asked.

Kyoshi jolted forward. "The land belongs to the late Lord Ishima," she explained. "It is not safe. Few enter it but hunters, and even they do not roam deeply." For as long as Kyoshi could remember, she had been warned about the exotic animals that roamed the wilderness, but the wolf-bats and armadillo-bears were only the first of many reasons the villagers avoided the woods. Haunting stories returned with those who dared to enter, of the sort which spooked adults as much as children.

"If only you had told me so before," mused the soldier. "It has impeded the movement of our host through this land. What scouts we sent in to strike a path did not return. Neither did the rescue parties. The whole of our army has had to walk for days around it."

"Are you a soldier of Hun Sen?" Kyoshi asked.

The soldier tensed. His hand slipped to the hilt of his sword, eyes scanning for eavesdroppers. Then, just as suddenly, he released his breath and relaxed. "You would be wiser to call him Taizu in the presence of others," he said.

"Please accept my apologies," she said with a deep bow. She dared not look up until he spoke.

"You don't need to do that," he said with a blithe wave, returning to his steed. "I don't care what you call him, if it's just you and me. But the trees have eyes and ears."

Kyoshi straightened up. Her mouth opened to speak, but it took her time to find her tongue. "Do you hear the voices too?" She asked.

As he dug through his bags, the soldier looked up at her, his eyebrow raised. "What voices?"

"N-Nothing," she stammered. "Just a local legend."

He pulled an apple from his bag and said, "Tell me."

Kyoshi shifted uncomfortably where she stood, wishing that she could go home. But she dared not refuse him. "Long ago, they say, this peninsula was an island that drifted across the world's oceans. Like a shooting star, men would sit upon the coasts hoping for a glimpse as it passed. Some even said that the island would pass through the world of the spirits on its journeys. One day, when the world was in famine, the Avatar came upon the cliffs and called forth the island with its bountiful fruits; and when it came, he planted a tree whose roots stretched across the waters and dug into the island, forever binding it to the mainland. This forest grew from the seeds of that tree."

The soldier listened intently as she spoke. When she was done, Kyoshi waited for him to respond, but he only looked past her, appearing as though in a trance. Then suddenly his face twitched, and he took another bite of his apple. "So it's the spirits of the island that you hear?"

"I don't..." she began, but she did not know what to say.

"You don't hear them?" He teased, leaning back against a wall. "Well, that's a shame. I wish that I could meet a spirit. Why is it that they never show themselves to humans? They always do in the stories."

"They show themselves to the Avatar," Kyoshi suggested.

The soldier pursed his lips. "Just one man. What makes him so special? I'm a great conversationalist, if I do say so myself."

Kyoshi was silent, her mouth still hanging open. The soldier watched her now, too.

"Please, sir..." she said, wishing that she had never spoken to him. "I just like the story."

He sighed. "I suppose I do too." The soldier lifted himself from the ground and reigned his ostrich horse back onto the road. "Which way to your Lord Sugata?"

She bowed, and led the way in silence.

The first to arrive for the meeting was the Lord Hajina, who ruled upriver in the west. Lord Sotsuwa of the valley came next, and Lord Kowaro of the fishing village after him, followed by the Lord Yasarai, whose domain was the north shore. Kyoshi saw to it that each was seated comfortably upon a pillow and filled with snacks as they awaited their host, the Lord Sugata, whose fief was the largest of them all.

At last he arrived and seated himself upon his knees at the head of the table. His guests bowed their heads, and he bowed in return, though not so low as they. Kyoshi hung back to the corner, invisible until such time as she was needed.

"I welcome you, my friends and courtiers," said Lord Sugata, "but this is to be an inauspicious meeting. The first of Hun Sen's riders came into the village today seeking my audience. It appears, without a doubt, that his host has crossed into our land."

"It is sooner than expected," commented Lord Hajina.

"He is in a rush," suggested Lord Yasarai. "Impatience is a mark of the desperate."

"He is not to be underestimated," warned Lord Sotsuwa. "Hun Sen now holds all the lands from Omashu to Chamelion Bay."

"Empty deserts and impassable mountains," jeered Yasarai. "He will never take Ba Sing Se. Li Huang will cast him into the waters at the Serpent's Pass."

"You are not mistaken, my Lord," replied Lord Kowaro. "Hun Sen would be a fool to move on Ba Sing Se now. But I tell you, Hun Sen is no fool – I say he will march northwest to take the marshlands first. From there he may march on Ba Sing Se unimpeded."

"Forgive me, my Lord," said Hajina in his high-pitched voice, "but if I were of a lesser mind I might mistake myself that you mean to declare yourself for that barbarian."

Lord Kowaro eyed him warily. Then, with a sigh, he relented. "It is the wisest course we may take," he said.

Kyoshi watched the exchange with her stomach in knots. Mere weeks had passed since word first came that Hun Sen had passed through Gaoling on a westerly route. Even the wisest could not fathom his intentions in the Land of Ishima. She shuddered, wondering what the future held for her people.

"Where is your foresight, my Lord?" Said Yasarai. "What shall become of us if we put ourselves in Hun Sen's graces and he is cast down? We will join in his punishment."

"Or perhaps this is an opportunity," replied Lord Kowaro. "The mandarins of Ba Sing Se have always looked upon our people with derision – here is our chance to install a friend in their place. Let us enter into Hun Sen's confidence, be of service to him, and he will reward us when he rules over the Earth Kingdoms."

Lord Sugata lifted a cup of tea to his lips. The lords below watched in silence as he drank, awaiting his judgment. At last he set his drink down. "Of Hun Sen's grand designs we may only guess. But one thing is certain: he has entered our lands with a full host. He means not to be refused."

"He who spurns the ox does not do so blithely," said Sotsuwa.

"No," agreed Lord Sugata, "but he must be convinced of our value. If he desires men, we have few to offer. If it is funds, they will be short in coming when the merchants flee to open sea, if they have not already. And food, though we now have plenty, will be quickly drained by war."

"But," he said, "we do have the Avatar." The Lords below him nodded. "There is no greater symbol of authority. With the Avatar at last revealed to the world, and standing at his side, Hun Sen will have legitimacy as do none of his competitors. Armies will rally to him. People will sing his praises. This shall be our noble gift to him."

Kyoshi shivered. The Lords pondered his solution, and each in turn they signaled their approval.

Lord Sugata nodded and gestured to Kyoshi. She disappeared behind a flap and promptly returned, a young man by her side. He was tall, his jaw square and chiseled, and with every step toward the Lords' table he commanded respect.

He stopped before Lord Sugata, who rose. "The Land of Ishima, to which you were born, has need of your courage. The Avatar is sworn to serve the world, but today your first duty is to your people. Yumo – will you lead us from this darkness?"

"I will, my Lord," said Yumo, kneeling down. "I am ready."

Lord Sugata nodded.

"Then it is decided," he said. "Now, we await the conqueror."

The evening's sounds were flattened by Hun Sen's army. The soldiers rolled in, unit by unit, all throughout the afternoon and into the night. Running messages between Lord Sugata and his peers, Kyoshi caught glimpses of them pitching their tents on the grassy plain beyond the village. By sunset their fires lit the whole of the land so that it was almost as though it were day once more. By sight and sound, Hun Sen had transformed the landscape of Ishima already.

The General himself came with his rearguard. He arrived first to his personal tent, which his soldiers had prepared for him, but Lord Sugata organized a welcome party to meet him as well. Though she feared to enter the army's midst, Kyoshi came along as an attendant in case his Lordship required her. They waded through the camp, Lords Sugata, Yasarai, Sotsuwa, Kowaro, and Hajina, each decked out in the robe and armor of his forefathers, with a coterie of servants and retainers following in their wake. Avatar Yumo stayed to the back of the procession, cloaked in a plain robe devoid of his family's seals.

At the General's tent they halted. Lord Sugata had donned his ancestral dress, a foresty tunic with a dark green robe and pointed boots that matched the sword at his hip. His face was painted a ghostly white, with sharp red outlines to his eyes, and over his head he bore the gold fan coronet which had once belonged to the founder of his house. Yet not a man in this camp seemed awed by the display, and Kyoshi shuffled in her place, consumed by nausea. At last the tent flapped open and three soldiers emerged, menacingly armored in colors dulled by wear, their hair tied in tight buns and unburdened by helmets. The last of them stood aside and held open the flap.

The first that Kyoshi glimpsed of the conqueror was a hefty gauntlet made of leather and rusted iron. Patches of dark skin shone where the fabric was torn, and there was no discontinuity to the scarred skin of the arm that followed. In a swift motion Hun Sen swooped out from his tent. His long dark braids fell to wide shoulders, and a wiry mustache swung beside his chin of frizzled hair. Wrinkly muscles peeked from beneath his boiled leather armor, and two dagger hilts protruded from the back. At the sight of his supplicants his eyes narrowed.

Kyoshi looked to Lord Sugata, who for a moment soaked in the sight of the man to whom his fate was tied. Then, slowly, he shrunk down upon his knees and bowed. The representatives of Ishima followed his example.

"We welcome you, General Hun Sen," said Lord Sugata, "warrior of fortune, protector of honor, last noble defender of the House of Tang, to which great dynasty we are all eternally sworn. As is tradition among the people of Ishima, let us confer upon you a gift: a fruit of our land, which all the world covets."

Still prostrate, Lord Sugata presented a small, ornate chest. Hun Sen fetched it from his hands and opened it. His lip curled. Kyoshi wished that she could tear her eyes away, but they were glued to the man, and she prayed that he would never look her way.

Hun Sen passed the chest to an attendant, as one of the deputies stepped forward. "Henceforth," the deputy announced, "you shall address the General as Taizu – Grand Progenitor of the Dynasty of Yun, which he has founded to reclaim the Earth King's throne from its usurpers."

Lord Sugata bowed his head deeper, wordless.

The deputy continued. "Your land is his land. Your bounty his bounty. Your swords are his swords. What fealty you bore previously is annulled, and henceforth you shall swear to serve him and his descendents to the end of his line, for he is mandated by heaven and spirit to rule upon all the Earth Kingdoms. Now stand, and name thyself."

Lord Sugata rose and bravely met Hun Sen's eyes. "I, the Lord Sugata, Steward of the Land of Ishima in the absence of its rightful master, pledge myself, and my people by proxy, to the service of Yun Taizu, who has restored order to the land."

Kyoshi caught the faintest smile cross the General's lips. His shoulders lowered, his chin crinkled. Again the deputy spoke for him: "In these times of chaos and war, a ruler's duty is to his kingdom in whole. Rest assured that when peace is restored all your sacrifices will be rewarded and your debts duly settled. Now, show us, what have you to offer as addition to our strength?"

Lord Sugata bowed once more. "Your excellency, there is none among us who doubts your worthiness. Yet there are those throughout the Earth Kingdoms who would challenge it. Let them now be silenced, and humbled, for as your servants we dutifully place in your hands a weapon of the mind. I present to you – Avatar Yumo, in the flesh."

The Ishima crowd parted, and at its tail end Yumo removed his dark cloak. Beneath it he wore a vibrant white robe with a necklace of gold. His feet bare, he launched upon a forward step and with a thrust of his arms raised the earth before him. He rolled the debris into a smooth sphere, then cut it down the middle at one angle, two angles, three. With careful precision he carved out a crown which he lowered into his hands, and he fell before Hun Sen in a bow upon one knee. Kyoshi marveled at the crown's polished curves, the mark of an earthbender too talented, she thought, to be several years her junior.

Hun Sen lifted the crown from Yumo's hands and inspected it.

"Though he is yet young, Yumo has shown all the signs," explained Lord Sugata. "His mastery of earthbending, his penchant for games long known to be the favorites of past Avatars –"

A resounding crack halted his speech. All eyes turned upon the conqueror. Hun Sen turned over his hand, dropping crumbs of earth from his palm. He shoved Yumo aside and walked straight past Lord Sugata, who stood frozen in his spot, eyes cast down. But the people of Ishima lacked his tact, and they shuffled backward into one another as Hun Sen prowled into their midst.

"Have you no honor?" Hissed the conqueror, twisting quickly from one face to another like a tiger ready to pounce. "Have you no shame? When my herald came upon your land, he entrusted you with a task: to raise an army with which I can bring the Earth Kingdoms to peace. Where are your soldiers? Where are your weapons? Do you mean to mock me?"

Lord Sugata turned to face the conqueror. "The Avatar –"

Hun Sen spat at Sugata's feet. "I have seen the Avatar. Long ago. A magician and a clown who made sport of combat. In my boyhood I recognized his worthlessness! Where was the Avatar when rebels overran the west? Where was he when Zhu Wen deposed the Earth King and murdered his heirs? Speak no more of the Avatar to me! Only a fool would bow before that charlatan."

Kyoshi backed away with the crowd, but stopped when she bumped into a body behind her. She looked up and saw a helmeted soldier, felt his sword slide out of its hilt. He pushed her back into the circle, and she meekly obliged.

Hun Sen looked as a rabid beast. "Soldiers win wars!" He snarled. "And you offer me a boy who talks to spirits? Let this be a lesson to your arrogance!" In a flash he brought down his foot and shook the ground beneath them. A shaft of earth encircled Yumo and pressed inward against him. Kyoshi glanced at Lord Sugata, who reached for his weapon, but Hun Sen's deputies restrained him.

Yumo, in his trap, levitated into the air. Hun Sen's arms guided him forward and up, until he was well above the heads of his brethren. The conqueror danced in the cavity between them, arms flailing as up above Yumo screamed. And then, as Hun Sen leaped forward with a forceful kick, Yumo's earthly tomb split in two and his screaming ceased.

Like the crown before him, the Avatar crumbled in pieces onto the grass. Kyoshi felt a hand shove her down as the soldiers shot forth to restrain the Lords of Ishima and their retainers. And when she raised her head, for a brief instant, a path appeared through the throngs that ended at the treeline. She dared one look back – at the soldiers cheering, her people wailing, Lord Sugata howling at the grinning General from behind his deputies' arms – and she ran.