Chapter Two: The Royal Children

A wall of earth rose sharply in front of Yuzhen mid-stride, forcing a split-second tactical decision: bank to avoid it, or use it to her advantage? Choosing the latter, she ducked around to the other side and let the stone absorb Lily's blows. She popped out the blades embedded in her vambraces, used them to grip the rock as she scaled the wall, and from atop it, flung fire down at Lily.

Lily deftly dodged the assault and, pushing off from a stone spike erupting from the arena's floor, leapt onto the wall across from Yuzhen. Legs and arms arranged in a perfect dueling posture, a close-lipped grin on her face, she advanced on her elder sister.

As suddenly as it had appeared, the wall slammed back into the floor, leaving both opponents dazed and scrambling to regain their bearings. Yuzhen took off first, weaving through the litter of earthen obstacles in the arena, buying time while her mind worked furiously to come up with a strategy. Before it was fully formulated, the ground was rumbling beneath her, her surroundings falling away as she soared toward the ceiling on a column of rock.

An army of similar columns sprang up all around Yuzhen, Lily perched on one. The match became dancelike, plumes of red-gold fire flying like silken scarves. The opponents bounded between stone towers, some crumbling behind them, others materializing before them. Locks of hair escaped from topknots; licks of flame issued from mouths and nostrils.

Standing still for a moment atop a column, Yuzhen caught her breath and scanned the others for her sister. The back of her neck prickled with alarm when she realized Lily was nowhere to be seen. Just then, a sweeping kick from behind knocked her off her feet and off of the column; she hit the ground so hard she blacked out. Her vision returned a few seconds later to the sight of Lily straddling her, brandishing her fire-daggers, waiting for Lanfen to call the match.

Yuzhen gritted her teeth and summoned a final surge of energy. Rearing up just enough to grab Lily around the waist, she hooked her right-side limbs through her sister's, thrusted her hips forward and rolled Lily over onto her back, pinning her with a fire-dagger of her own at her throat. Three breathless seconds passed.

"Match!" shouted Lanfen from the spectators' balcony. "Princess Yuzhen is the victor."

Yuzhen's dagger snapped into smoke. From the balcony, she heard Zhian and Anzu cheering and whooping, and tried not to grin too broadly as she let Lily up. "That was close," she said, dusting off her practice armor.

Lily sniffed. "Indeed."

As Lily stalked off toward the steps to the balcony, the obstacles in the arena collapsed and disappeared into the stone floor, even the rubble clearing with a gesture from Jiyi. She was an earthbender in the employ of the king and queen, her main duty to assist in the prince and princesses' training – to keep things in the arena 'interesting', so they would learn to strategize on their feet instead of memorizing a course.

Yuzhen climbed the steps behind Lily and wrote her name on Lanfen's record scroll, accepting the firebending instructor's congratulations with a smile and nod. Once she'd shed the bulkiest components of her practice armor, she headed through the archway into the corridor, motioning for her brother and youngest sister to follow.

"Come on," she said, "I'm starving."

"Shouldn't we change for dinner?" Zhian asked as he and Anzu hurried to Yuzhen's side.

"I don't think the roast turtleduck will mind."

The hallways of the palace were high-ceilinged, their walls adorned by stern-looking sconces and portraits of equally stern-looking family members, populated by servants in cloaks and veils that blended in with the décor. That night, they rang with the sounds of the royal children's laughter as they raced each other to the dining room. When at last they tumbled through the entryway, Yuzhen persuaded the serving staff to bring out the soup early, though Mother usually had them under strict orders not to serve anything until everyone was seated.

Yuzhen, Zhian and Anzu had nearly polished off their soup when Lily appeared in the entryway, bathed, groomed and dressed to the specifications Mother laid out when they dined with her. She cast a disapproving gaze over her siblings as she took her seat.

"You three are as civilized as hogmonkeys," she said. "Mother would have you eating plain jook for a week for such disrespect."

"Mother's not here, Lily," Yuzhen said.

"She will be to-mor-row," Lily singsonged smugly as she brought her soup spoon to her lips. "And so will Father."

The atmosphere in the room seemed to contract, to tighten at the mention of Father, at the reminder that the next night was the night he'd be joining them for dinner. Mother dined with the children just about every night when she was home, but Father attended only once each month, and his presence made the meal even more a ceremony – even more a test – than it ordinarily was.

Anzu turned to look at Yuzhen, her golden eyes wide. "Are we going to get in trouble with Father?" she asked anxiously.

Yuzhen glared at Lily. "No, Anzu. Lily was just teasing."

Two servants came in to collect the soup dishes and begin serving the roast, but Lily snapped, "Since you're apparently unable to conduct yourselves properly without direction, I'll spell it out: you do not clear a course until everyone has finished with it. I am still eating my soup. The others can wait."

The rest of dinner was spent in silence, save the formal goodnights said before leaving the dining room. Once Lily was gone, the risk of her scorn past, Yuzhen lifted Anzu onto her hip and carried her youngest sister with her to the baths.

Though Anzu couldn't spar, since her firebending hadn't come in yet and her siblings were all much too old to make it any semblance of a fair fight, Anzu still wore her own set of miniature practice armor. Yuzhen helped her unlace and remove it while the golden dragons' heads mounted on the walls disgorged hot water into the bath, with a roar that made it sound as if they were real dragons.

Shooing the servant hovering solicitiously by the doors, Yuzhen stepped into the bath with Anzu, and filled a bucket with water from one of the dragon fountains. "Ready?" she said, then dumped the bucket over Anzu's head, slicking her long dark hair so that it clung to her head and shoulders.

"Now," Yuzhen continued as she massaged shampoo into Anzu's hair, "at dinner tomorrow, if Father asks you what you're learning from Liling in History, what do you say?"

"The Great March of Civilization," Anzu answered promptly.

"Which Firelord?"

"Azulon."

"Good. And in Literature?"

"The Ballad of the Noble Solider–-no–-Warrior."

"Good." Yuzhen filled the bucket again and rinsed the shampoo out of Anzu's hair. "Geography?"

"The Great Cities of the East."

Yuzhen began combing Anzu's hair, working jade teeth gently through its tangles. "And what do you say if Father asks how your training with Lanfen is going?"

This time, Anzu hesitated before responding. "I've memorized six drill forms," she said, "and I can lap the arena in a minute."

"Excellent." Looking over her sister's shoulder, Yuzhen saw her face reflected in the water – her brow bunched, her mouth downturned. "Give it time, Anzu," she said softly. "You're only five."

"Lily says she could firebend before she could walk."

"Don't worry about what Lily says." Yuzhen bent to kiss Anzu on the wet crown of her head. "You'll do beautifully tomorrow. Mother and Father will be pleased."

Not that Mother and Father ever seemed pleased with much of anything, except themselves and perhaps Lily. Not that Yuzhen didn't worry herself, thinking back to her own earliest awareness of the fire inside. It had come far sooner than five, for her and for Lily and Zhian, too–-but what use was fretting? Anzu was a late bloomer, Yuzhen told herself time and again, for she was loath to consider what Mother and Father might do if she never bloomed at all.

After bathing, Yuzhen let Anzu come to bed with her, knowing this was the last night such a thing would be possible; Lily and Mother both scorned Yuzhen's indulgence of her youngest sister, but of the two of them only Mother could forbid it. A servant glided through the corridor extinguishing the sconces and together the princesses lay in velvet darkness, their lengthening breaths lulling one another to sleep.