Chapter Three
"It was a wonderful party, Master Aruk. I only wish my suitors had been more fitting."
The event planner bowed, smiling at her praise. "It would have sweetened the event that much more, to be sure," he said. "but I'm glad you enjoyed the festivities."
"As for the next group of suitors," her father said, coming up behind her. "I shall have my scribe send a bird tonight. The closest one is already in northern waters; he may arrive before the moon begins to wane."
That's only about ten days from now, she thought, calculating. One of the nice things about being a waterbender was that she never needed anyone to tell her the date. The moon was her calendar, and she could sense which phase it was in, what time it rose, and where in the sky it sat at any given moment.
"Aren't you excited?" the chief asked, when she didn't respond.
"Of course," she lied.
Meira spent the next few minutes with her father and sister, saying farewell to the guests that had remained until the end of the party. It was nearing midnight now, and most of the ice candleholders had melted and refrozen as puddles on the tables. The torches on the wall, made of sturdier stuff, continued to burn even as she slipped through the silk curtain marking the exit.
Zelda skipped up to her side, a bone in her hand. Meat still clung to the middle, dripping down in tattered strands.
"What's that for?" Meira asked.
"I'm going to see if I can lure the turtle seals out."
She shook her head. "I will never understand your obsession with ugly animals."
"They aren't ugly! And anyway, I like them for their singing, not their beauty."
"No more arguing, you two," their father said, clapping a hand on each of their shoulders. "We're in public. We have an image to uphold."
Meira looked away from her sister and started toward their igloo. The icy tower rose above the rest of the city, casting a shadow through the snow-crusted walls. Smoke billowed out the smokestack, funneled through ducts made of bricks imported from the Earth Kingdom. The main level of the tower spread out in a circle, giving her family more floor space than a dozen normal-sized buildings. As Meira walked through the arch leading to the entryway, she paused to bow to her father, then walked to her bedroom.
As her silken sheets swallowed her body whole, she allowed herself to cry. Stupid marriage contracts. Stupid suitors. Stupid customs. I'd be better off as a peasant. She rolled over, burying her face in the feather pillow from the Earth Kingdom. It was imported, just like everything else in this city not made of ice and snow. The soft material and unfamiliar designs made her wish she'd been born in the Earth Kingdom. They manufactured everything there.
Outside, beyond the curtain over her door, her sister's light steps danced down the corridor, turning into the room adjacent to Meira's. A moment later, after some shuffling around and the poking at the fire, her father headed over to the chief's suite, where their mother slept, weary from the party.
Meira waited until the house had been silent for almost an hour. When she was sure no one was awake to hear, she crawled out of bed and emptied her school bag of all except for a few notebooks and some ink. When that was done, she skated over to her closet and shoved several outfits into her bag. The sound of fabric hissing against itself made her wince, but there was no way to quiet the rustling.
What else? she thought, making a mental checklist. Food, some extra winter supplies, maybe a couple personal belongings. Money. I'll need money. She slipped out of her room, peeking her head through the curtain to make sure no one in the house had woken up from the noise. The igloo remained quiet.
Their household received more gifts of propriety than any other household in the north. It seemed natural that some of those gifts included rare delicacies, imported sweets, and various cooking utensils. Meira raided the cupboards for pots and pans, relieved that, though her mother was a noble from the Fire Nation, she'd enjoyed cooking enough to bring several full sets of cookware to the North Pole with her. Clanging sounds echoed around the room as she stacked the pots, loud enough to wake half the city. If her father discovered her now, guards would be posted outside her doors and windows within the hour.
Three pots and a pan. That should be plenty. She slipped them into her bag, distress bubbling up in her as she saw how much space those simple supplies took up. She added a few eating utensils to the pile, setting them down carefully so they didn't make too much noise. She left the bag there, sliding it up against the cupboards, then hurried to the storage area.
Ice clung to the walls in thick sheets, opaque after being refrozen so many times. Crusted in ice were stacks of filleted fish, of varying species and sizes. Most of these were gifts from waterbenders trying to earn her father's favor. In her childhood, when such feats had still amused her, she'd watched skilled waterbenders lift dozens of fish out of the ocean in mere minutes, sometimes freezing them on the spot for easy transport. There were enough fish here to feed her family for three winters. The chief would never miss it.
She wrapped the frozen fish in paper, so they wouldn't drip all over her things if they started to melt, then hurried back to her bedroom, this time looking for her jewelry. Dozens of gems mined from other nations overflowed from the ivory box, clattering onto her desk. Meira went still for a moment, waiting to see if the noise had woken anyone, then started putting on layers of jewelry. On her ears, she hung a pair of diamonds the size of her smallest fingernail. Around her neck, she wore three necklaces, each heavy with the weight of precious and semiprecious stones. Bracelets came next, several for each arm, then rings, one or two on each finger. The weight of the charms, and the constant jingle as they brushed against each other, made her worry about the trip south. Ounces turned into pounds, and pounds made the body ache with exertion.
That's it. I can sell these at the next port, and I'll have enough money to go anywhere. She slipped out into the hallway, bypassing Zelda's room, then taking a sharp left toward the main door. As soon as the freezing air bit her tongue, a smile dawned on her face. The hardest is over. All you have to do is get down to the docks.
With the tribe silent and the sky dark, making her way through the desolate streets was no difficult task. Her feet were nimble and stealthy from years of waterbending practice, and once she put her coat on over her jewelry, the jingling ceased. She made it to the docks faster than would've been possible in the busy streets of the day.
The docks were little more than chunks of ice sculpted into rectangles for easy access. The first thing visitors saw, they hardly hinted at the city's grandeur. Meira hoped the lackluster structures would deter any prying eyes still awake at this hour.
Boats of varying sizes and purposes lined up along the side of the docks, but Meira didn't want to take any of them, especially since stealing the wrong one could mean the lost livelihood of some poor family within the walls. So instead, she set her bag at the edge of the dock, and froze the seawater in front of her so she had a nice disc to stand on. The chunk of ice bobbed up and down amidst the waves. She threw her bag over the top and crawled from the edge of the dock to the block of ice, her fingers numbing even through her mittens.
"Going somewhere?"
Meira whipped around, startled into speechlessness by the voice. The speaker crossed her arms, the movement illuminated by the half-moon. "Zelda," she breathed. "What are you doing here? What will Dad think, if he catches you out here at this hour?"
The sixteen-year-old arched one trimmed eyebrow. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe he'll think I'm trying to stop you from getting yourself killed out in the wilderness."
"I'm not going to get killed. Get out of here, Zelda. I've made my choice."
The firebender set a small roll of fabric down on the ice. It landed with a thud. "You forgot your sleeping gear."
Meira stared at the roll, a heavy-duty sleeping bag made of a polar leopard's fur. It sat on the ice, an accusation.
Zelda dropped a second bundle on the dock, this one larger. "I'm bringing mine, too, so you'd better make that chunk of ice a little bigger."
"Bringing your . . . Zelda, you're not coming with me."
"I am, and you can't stop me."
"I can too. Go home, before Dad wakes up and kills us both."
"No."
"Don't you realize how much it's going to hurt him and Mom if we both disappear? I'm not taking you away from them, too."
Zelda threw her hands up into the air. "Just what do you think is going to happen if you abandon the tribe? I'm the next in line, and as soon as they give up on finding you, they'll start looking for suitors for me. Are you so selfish to leave me here for an arranged marriage, just so you can go run around the other nations?" Fire overflowed between her fingers, singeing her mittens. Tears started to wash down her pale cheeks. "If I stay here and get married, I won't be able to find a firebending master. I've lived my whole life in your shadow, Meira, and I'm sick of being an afterthought."
"Well." She snatched her polar leopard sleeping roll off the dock and set it down beside her bag, then reached for Zelda's bag. "Fine."
The firebender's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. "Really? You really mean it? I can come?"
"Yes. Now get on the boat before someone sees us."
A smile dawned on her sister's face, and the little firebender picked up her bag, leaping onto the ice chunk. As soon as she was onboard, Meira brought a wall of water up between their makeshift boat and the dock and pushed them out to sea. Yue, please grant us safe travels. If Zelda dies on this journey, I'll never be able to face my father again.
