Chapter Ten
Katara sat in the dark, the rich smell of decay burning her sinuses. She thought she'd be used to it by now, but a cool breeze leaking into the hut via the hole in the roof teased her nose with fresh air, making the nauseating stench hit her again and again with the same force as when she'd first awoken. Apparently, it was that bad.
The young bender had managed to heal her bloodied nose and most of the bruises on her body. The effort had left her exhausted and her water skin now hung nearly empty at her side, but at least she wasn't bleeding all over her soreness now. Tired as she was, she was too apprehensive to sleep. Aang and Sokka were trapped on Zuko's ship, and for all she knew, they could be on their way to the Fire Nation right now. On top of that, Momo was still missing and Appa was probably wandering around, wondering about Aang. If she was going to rescue the Avatar and her brother and keep her little family together, she had to act soon.
Aching joints and muscles protested as she shifted her weight, pacing the small, dirty space to get the blood flowing in her legs again. Her whole body begged her to lie down, but Katara really didn't want to relax in this hovel. Her surroundings left much to be desired. She'd even prefer sleeping outside on the bare ground to curling up on the nasty pile of rags speckled with white droppings she had woken up on. Unfortunately, her bed roll had been strapped to her pack, which she must have lost when she fell…
She shook her foggy head. It was a miracle that she had survived that fall.
Eyeing the door surreptitiously, she didn't wonder about the sentries in the woods Witch had hinted at. When Katara had tested the unlocked door, the two crows in the rafters flapped down, shrieking, pecking at her with shiny beaks and giving her what she considered mere warning scratches. As they warded her away from the exit, she could hear the restless shuffle of wings and warning calls beyond, and she shuddered. Sure, there were only two birds in here, and she supposed that if she was really determined, she could use Waterbending against them—but there was no way she'd be able to defend herself against a forest full of angry birds. They'd probably kill her. So she was stuck.
Despite the damp night chill, Katara was overwarm. Shock and fear had drained from her ragged soul to be replaced by a strange mixture of anger and giddiness that made her pace restlessly. She had to get out. She had to get Appa. And somehow, she had to rescue Aang and Sokka. But she had no idea how she was going to do it.
The sentry birds watched her steadily from above, occasionally preening their glossy midnight bodies, shifting from one foot to the other. They seemed to whisper conspiratorially to each other, their beaks crossing and clashing like little black sabres, tiny pointed tongues flickering out as they gossiped.
"I don't suppose you could let me out and help me find Appa?" she asked aloud. The birds stared at her a moment and turned their beaks up at her.
"Yeah, I didn't think so."
"Keep talking like that and you'll be moving into my neighbourhood soon enough." Witch's sudden rasp made Katara jump. The woman and her familiar had soundlessly re-entered the hut and was hunched by the trivet, setting a pot on the hook.
Something about the woman's demeanour had changed. She seemed a little more relaxed, and her lips were twisted into a parody of a smile. She stirred the pot thoughtfully before speaking. "The little princeling came and left. It seems he was rather adamant about finding you, but he settled for your flying lemur instead." Grim amusement flickered over her features as Katara's shoulders slumped. Now he's got Momo, too…
"Tell me—" the woman looked directly at her, slit eyes shining with curiosity "—what is your relationship with the boy?"
Katara frowned and looked away, avoiding the hag's scrutiny. "We have no relationship. He's been chasing the Avatar since we met him. That's all."
Bai-Bai crowed laughingly from a perch above the door. Witch smirked. "That's only a half truth, little Waterbender. Even you don't believe that. Mark my words; you have a connection with the Prince of Fire."
"That's ridiculous." Katara's reply was too quick, too emphatic. "Zuko's only obsessed with getting Aang..." She paused, thinking about how to explain what the Avatar represented to the Fire prince. "He told me once that he had to restore his honour—I didn't really understand what he meant, but as far as I can tell, capturing Aang had something to do with it."
Witch made a hmming noise in her throat. "In the Fire Nation, honour is one of the most highly regarded virtues. To them, it is a worthy cause to fight and even die for…but it's not a cause without faults." She ladled some of the thin gruel from the pot into a wooden bowl and thrust it at Katara, who took it from her gingerly.
I guess I've been upgraded from prisoner to forced guest, she thought as she swirled the dubious-looking meal around the dirty, lop-sided bowl.
Witch continued. "Times have changed since the glory days—the days of chivalry and real honour, before the war began. A hundred years of bloodshed will make a man forget his humanity, not to mention his manners." She slurped her gruel noisily and went on. "Your prince—" she eyed Katara "—probably isn't obsessed so much with the Avatar as he is with the romantic idea of regaining his honour, if he has indeed lost it. If capturing the Avatar seems to be his only way of restoring it, then it's not difficult to understand why he is so obsessed with your friend." Witch peered at her over the bowl with a toothy leer. "Of course, a teenage boy can have…other obsessions."
Impatience gnawed at the frayed ends of Katara's wits. She didn't know why this woman was holding her, didn't know how she was going to escape, and had no idea how she was going to rescue Aang and Sokka. And now, the crone was implying something the Water girl wasn't too keen on exploring about her relationship with Zuko. Obviously, this deranged woman wasn't simply going to let her go free. And yet, she didn't seem to be threatening her with bodily harm anymore. So why was she being kept here?
"Please," Katara began testily, "I have to go rescue my brother and the Avatar. I can't stay here much longer."
Witch raised an eyebrow. "What? Don't like the company?" Bai-Bai snickered along with the hag.
"Zuko's ship could be leaving for the Fire Nation any minute. If he gets out of sight, I'll have no way of tracking them!"
"He's not leaving." Witch waved her off dismissively. "Not yet."
"How can you be so sure?" Katara exclaimed, her voice bordering on hysteria.
The hag fixed her with a stern look. "Some answers are best left to the birds, my dear." Her lips twisted quirkily. "Now, it's late. If you really want to help your friends, the best thing to do is get some sleep and build up some strength for tomorrow."
Hope surged within her. "You mean…you'll help me?"
Witch sniffed. "I haven't decided that yet. But it'll do you no good to try to do otherwise. Besides, Bai-Bai here likes you," she groused a little jealously
Katara looked up at the huge black bird. He stared back and she felt herself warming under that hard, beady-eyed stare. The longer she gazed at the ebony-winged creature, the more her eyes drooped.
"Sleep, little Waterbender." Witch's gritty voice smoothed over like syrup. The cloying warmth of the hut flooded her senses and Katara sat down heavily on the pile of soiled rags, suddenly too tired to consider how filthy they were. She curled up on her side and laid her head in the crook of her elbow, eyes closed. As she drifted off, she faintly heard Witch cooing, "We have a big day ahead of us..."
"What do you mean the engine needs repairs?" Zuko gritted his teeth, staring at the mess in front of him the next morning.
He could tell by the building pressure in his head that it was going to be one of those days. He wearily surveyed the brass, lead and steel bits neatly arranged on the deck on a giant piece of canvas. It looked as though the ship had disgorged all its innards, spilling them all over its own belly. The grease-covered engineer, along with several other cohorts, whistled tunelessly as they methodically cleaned and polished each nut, bolt, coupling, hose and ball bearing, scrupulously inspecting the pieces before laying them back down to bask in the wan sunlight.
"Not repairs. Maintenance," Iroh corrected as he sipped his morning ginseng blend. "The engineer said that our main boiler has been in dire need of a check-up. I figured, since we're in no rush now that we have the Avatar, we could spend a little extra time making sure the ship is in top condition for the voyage home."
Zuko drummed his fingers against his thigh, struggling with impatience, fury, and an odd sense of relief. This delay was completely unnecessary, but it would give him extra time to find Katara. "Very well," he conceded lowly. "But make sure he doesn't dally too much. I don't want to risk anyone else finding out we have the Avatar on board."
"Where are you going?" Iroh asked as the prince turned on his heel.
"To check on the prisoners."
Sokka stretched out on his back, sore from his night sleeping on the thin pallet in his cell. He blearily looked over at Aang, still lying on the cold steel floor. The monk hadn't stirred, it seemed.
A fresh guard had been placed in the brig; Sokka could tell because this soldier's right boot wasn't scuffed on the top the way last night's soldier's boot had been.
"Hello," he greeted flatly.
The guard turned his head slightly. "Hmph. So you're awake," he remarked idly. "Did you want breakfast?"
Sokka wasn't certain, but he had a feeling this was the first guard from the previous day—the same one who had untied him and let him use the facilities. "Well, I am in the mood for barbecue pork buns and fruit. Think you can convince the cook to send those my way?" the Water boy asked wryly.
The guard snorted. "You get to eat the same jook the rest of us do." As he said it, a second guard came in carrying two medium-size bowls of steaming rice porridge that had bits of fish in it. The guard slipped one past the bars and placed it onto the floor of Aang's cell and handed the other to Sokka through the bars. He looked down into his bowl, then over at Aang.
"I think my friend needs to see a doctor. He hasn't moved at all," Sokka said.
"The doctor came in last night to check on him. He's fine," the second guard who had given him his breakfast said. "He's alive, anyhow."
The Water boy scowled. "Well, couldn't you guys turn him over or give him a blanket or something? Look at him!"
"We don't have the key to his cell," the first guard explained patiently. "Only Prince Zuko and the doctor have access."
The door to the brig creaked open and heavy footfalls came ringing down the corridor. Speak of the devil…Sokka stood and prepared to meet his captor.
Zuko didn't even acknowledge the Water Tribe boy. He went straight to the Avatar's cell and peered down at the gagged and bound sleeping monk, eyes shining as though he was looking at some kind of legendary cursed jewel—yearning to touch it, but just a little afraid to. His hands flexed around the bars, knuckles turning white as he stood there, silently gazing down, applying a death grip to the steel lengths.
"What are you? Some kind of pervert who likes to ogle people while they sleep?" He sneered.
Zuko snapped his head up. His glare slowly morphed into a look of triumph. "Say all you want, peasant. I'm not the one behind bars." He tilted his chin up. "Besides, I'm sure your sister doesn't mind being ogled."
Sokka refused to rise to the bait. Katara wouldn't have allowed Zuko to catch her. She was smarter than that. She would have found a way to escape, would have fought him tooth and nail… He looked the prince up and down. Not a sign of injury. She would have gone for the eyes first, just as he'd taught her, and even if she'd missed, there would be marks from her tough little fingernails. No, the prince didn't have her, Sokka reassured himself, ignoring the niggling doubt and tamping down his seething rage. He balled his fists and clamped his mouth tightly shut.
Zuko smiled snidely back. Something about the hard glint in his eye belied the Firebender's claim… But still…
If he touches her…
Without another word to Sokka, Zuko left firm instructions to the two guards to make sure no one came to see the Avatar unless they had his explicit permission. The guards acknowledged the haughty royal and he tromped out, slamming the outer brig door behind him.
"What a jerk!" the Water Tribe warrior burst out indignantly. There were about a thousand worse things he would have preferred to call the Fire prince, but he didn't want his black anger surfacing. Not now. At the moment, he needed comic Sokka to come back to him, to temper his mood, to keep him sane. To the guards he exclaimed, "A platypus bear has more manners!"
The soldiers said nothing, but he noticed how they both turned their heads ever so slightly, exchanging looks through their face plates.
"Heck, I've met hog-monkeys with more tact and less attitude...though I bet they both fling their fair share of feces," Sokka went on.
The guards trembled and they cleared their throats. Sokka could almost hear them grinning behind those implacable masks.
"I mean, that guy must have some major issues. What, did his father never hug him?"
Guard Number One laughed out loud, but quickly stifled his outburst, muttering a short apology.
Chalk one up for Sokka charm: the Water boy had just won his first point in his play for freedom.
When the dream manifested, Katara couldn't help but sigh to herself. They had all been strange lately, but this one seemed to be of the particularly freaky-weird variety.
She stood in a swamp—she thought it was a swamp, anyhow, but in addition to being boggy, the land was steep and rocky so that she floated (yes, floated) on ground that was both marshy and mountainous at the same time.
At the top of a hill before her stood a man, or what she thought was a man. The being towered above her, looming like a seven-foot-tall scarecrow, his broad shoulders slightly hunched. He was draped in a shining white cape that pooled on the ground. On his head he wore a white, oblong mask with an elongated downward-pointing muzzle. The eye holes were almond-shaped and empty. The being tipped its head to one side and peered at her questioningly.
"Um…hello?" she called, not sure what this dreamscape was supposed to represent or who this oddly-dressed person was.
The white being beckoned her forth with a twitch of its oddly-shaped muzzle-chin, and she drifted to him automatically. He stepped aside and revealed a huge gilded mirror, a beautifully ornate affair that was entirely out of place in this boggy setting. Katara stared at her reflection. It was just her, plain old Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. Her hair was a little mussed, but her face was squeaky clean, her complexion blemish-free. She smiled and her reflection smiled back. She stuck out her tongue and her doppelganger returned the sentiment.
Then Katara bent a water snake up from the ground—she'd never seen herself bend, and it would have helped with her form a lot, she knew, if she could just see herself. Looking up, she gasped, the streamlet splashing back to the ground. In the mirror, her form seemed to glow, age, transform. The sweet 14-year-old was replaced with a woman with long, flowing hair whipping about in an unseen wind. Her eyes glowed a menacing lightning-blue, her features twisted in pure hatred and fury. The water snake Katara had brought up became a glowing blue pike in her hands as she raised her arm—
The water girl couldn't move as she helplessly watched the slashing descent of the weapon, shattering through the mirror and ripping into her chest—
Katara sat up, crying out. The sound of dozens of wings taking off made her remember where she was, how she had gotten there… She touched her sweating brow, shuddering as the last vestiges of the nightmare slipped away.
Bai-Bai perched on the back of a rickety chair and called once at her, softly, dipping his head inquisitively. Witch was nowhere to be seen.
Katara looked up out the hole in the thatched roof and saw the blue-grey veil of dawn. She rubbed the sleep out of her puffy eye, trying to remember the details of the fading dream.
"At least it wasn't about Zuko," she muttered to herself. The huge crow made throaty, staccato guttural noises, as though it were chuckling.
"Well, they can't all be about boys." Witch's voice startled Katara once again. The woman had appeared out of nowhere.
"How did you… Where were you…?" she spluttered.
"Eat." She shoved another bowl of gruel into Katara's hands. The Water girl hadn't eaten any of the food last night, and now she was famished. She tried not to look or taste the stuff Witch had handed her as she gingerly sipped and swallowed. It was lukewarm and a little salty, but she didn't want to analyze the flavour or texture of the meal any further than that.
Bai-Bai flapped his wings and soared down to land on Witch's shoulder. He whispered daintily in her hair.
"Hmm," the hag grunted, smirking. "It seems the princeling is still anchored in the cove. Apparently, they're doing some repair work on their engines."
Katara released a sharp breath. "Okay then. First things first. I need to find Appa—"
Witch cut her off. "You're not doing anything," she said. "As far as I'm concerned, you're not ready to face a whole ship of Firebenders, much less one."
The comment rankled. "I've faced Firebenders! And I've dealt with Zuko before, too."
Witch gave her that look again—that are-you-sure-you're-telling-me-everything look that, strangely, made Katara a little nervous. "You had the support of your friends and family before. Now you have no one," Witch pointed out, and the bender sagged a little. "Have you ever even fought the boy on your own?"
Katara chose not to answer. "I'll find Appa. He's a ten-tonne flying bison and can take the ship's crew out with one swipe of his tail—"
"Before the Fire Nation soldiers singe his fur off?" the hag interjected sceptically.
"Well if I can't help them, who will? You?" Katara shouted, fed up and cranky and angry at her own helplessness.
The woman's mouth formed a thin line. She looked thoughtful. "I haven't decided that yet." She tossed her head imperiously, as if she were a queen rather than a hermit.
"Well, make a decision already! Why are you even keeping me here? What do you want from me?" Katara shouted.
Bai-Bai cawed triumphantly.
"So NOW you ask that question?" Witch hooted cruelly. "It took you long enough. Really, girl, you have to be more direct about these things!" She chuckled as though this were some grand joke to her. "I was beginning to think you were completely blind to your situation. Do you never think about yourself?"
"I have more important things to worry about," Katara stiffened, anger and indignity coiling tightly in her gut.
The hag pounced on her, a wild look in her eyes. "Yes, I can see that you care very much for your companions. Family is very important, after all." Witch circled her with deliberate slowness. "But I wonder if you don't think about yourself often enough. Have you even stopped to consider your situation? What you might be doing for yourself?" She poked her hard in the ribs with one long, gnarled finger.
The Waterbender snapped back, "Aang and Sokka are trapped on Zuko's ship! The fate of the world is in the clutches of the enemy! There are more important things in the world than what I want," she said emphatically.
"Martyrdom isn't the solution to everything." Witch sneered. She rocked back on her heels and let out a sigh, as though she were suddenly very tired. Her voice dropped an octave. "There are times, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, when we must do things for ourselves and only ourselves. To sacrifice your life and devote your existence to the wishes and goals of others may be considered noble and selfless…but it is also foolish. You might as well be a slave."
"I don't have time for lectures." Katara was fed up. She slammed her empty bowl down on the ground. "I have to save Aang and my brother." She got shakily to her feet.
Witch darted forward in a blur of movement, blocking her path. "I am trying to teach you a very important lesson, little Waterbender." She fended the girl away from the exit. "I am trying to tell you how to save your friends."
"What?" Katara stopped and backed up a step. "How?"
"There is a hole in your mind," Witch hissed rapping Katara's head sharply with dirty, knobbly knuckles. "Aren't you even curious about what it might be? Why the memories you are trying to recall have vanished?"
The night on the cursed island. The dreams. The sideways glances, the veil of lies…yes, Katara did want to know. But… "How is that supposed to help me save Aang and Sokka?"
"If you are willing and strong, if you think you have the gall to face the truth about what might have happened, then I can help you. More specifically, Bai-Bai can help you." She gestured at the huge, uncanny crow. "He has glimpsed what may have been, and can help you fill the gap."
"H-he can do that?" Katara asked sceptically.
"As I've said before, Bai-Bai is special." Witch glanced away evasively.
The Waterbender ran through her options. Go along with the crazy woman's insistence that she play her game, or go running half-cocked into a battle she knew she could not win without support?
"I don't have much time. Zuko's ship could leave at any moment—"
"Bah, that's taken care of." Witch waved dismissively. "I can guarantee you that he won't be able to leave for a while yet." She peered at the Waterbender closely. "Aren't you even the least bit curious about what you could find out about yourself?" She peered over her shoulder, as if sighting along some unseen path. Her eyes blinked rapidly and Katara wondered about just how crazy the hermit was. "I know I am."
So was that what this was all about? The old woman was simply curious about some crazy missing memories from a stranger's head?
Or maybe she was just lonely for company, Katara thought with pity. Either way, the Water girl didn't see any real alternative. If she acquiesced, she might win herself an ally, and a real shot at saving Aang and Sokka. If she didn't…well…
"Alright," Katara said finally. "I'll let the bird into my head."