Avatar: The Heir of Ban
Chapter 3: The Game
Part 3
"This don't look like a doctor's office," Aguta said as he and Lucky Cho entered a run-down row house with several separate living units above it. It had a hanging sign that said simply, "Acupuncture."
"Wait 'til you see the doctor," Wu grinned. He entered the place, knocking on the door frame. "Knock, knock, Dr. Teng," he called playfully.
Lucky Cho looked around the room, noticing several jars of acupunture needles and grim-looking surgical instruments. Soon a man emerged from the back room, toweling something off his hands. He looked to be in his fifties. He was bald on top, but had long gray hair on the back and sides. He wore glasses and a black bandana covering his nose and mouth, presumably for sanitary reasons. He was clothed in a white zhíshēn.
"It's your old chi blocking student," Wu said of himself, grinning at Dr. Teng. Teng remained motionless. His mouth was covered by the bandana and his eyes could not be discerned through the glare on his glasses. Wu's tone quickly became lighter. "Dr. Teng, I have a little job for you, if you're interested." Wu removed a sack from a pocket of his zhàoshān. "A hundred thousand gold pieces to find one kid. Sound good to you?"
Dr. Teng only crossed his arms.
"Okay," Wu admitted, "the catch is, the kid's the Avatar. But that's why I came to you. You're the best chi strike master in the city. He may be the Avatar, but all he has is bending. You can take it away. If anyone can get him, it's you."
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then Dr. Teng held out his hand.
"Oh, an advance?" Wu said. "You're a smart man. I like that. Be at the Ban compound at sunrise tomorrow and you'll get the money."
As they left, Cho, who was thoroughly creeped-out by the doctor, asked Wu, "Hey, why doesn't that guy talk?"
Wu grinned, laughing a bit. "Because he doesn't have a tongue anymore."
The next day passed in the same way: Su worked in the kitchen, Fung and Zhengyi went around collecting money under Guxi, and in the evening they hung out with Chu. He taught bing jiu to Fung and even Zhengyi, who was feeling a little better that day.
They did not see Tsi again.
The day after that, Zhengyi and Fung found themselves gathered around a doorway in the Lower Ring with eight other Tong members, watching as Guxi pounded on the door. Fung casually finished off some dumplings-on-a-stick she had bought, hearing the tunk, tunk, tunk of Guxi's fist on the wood. She was getting more and more uncomfortable working with criminals, but she was trying to be optimistic. Since they had only fought fellow criminals and other undesirable types, she had not had much of a problem. In fact, the debtors almost always paid up without the need for any violence.
"Open up!" Guxi called, loudly but flatly. "It's the Tong clan! We're here to collect!" He waited for a short moment. Then he bent a rock into the door.
His men immediately swarmed in. The house had two occupants, a preteen girl and a man in late middle-age. Another Tong restrained the old man. Fung noticed a girl almost run past her as she entered. "Grab her!" Guxi barked. Without thinking, Fung obeyed, holding the girl's arms fast behind her back.
Guxi marched up to the man, cracking his knuckles. "Do you have our money, Mr. Mu?"
"Please," Mu pleaded, "I'm just a carpenter. I don't have the money. I don't have any way to get it."
"Oh, you're breakin' my heart," Guxi mocked him. "If you can't pay," he said, punching Mu in the stomach, "don't gamble!" He punched him again.
"Daddy!" his daughter screamed, struggling to break out of Fung's grip.
"I'm sorry!" Mu rasped. "We're very poor. I just wanted to make some fast money. Please, leave us alone. Hurting me won't get you your money."
"I'm not hurting you because it'll get me my money," Guxi said. "I'm hurting you because I love my job," he said happily, socking Mu in the jaw. Then he grabbed Mu by it, forcing the man to look at him, his tone turning threatening. "And because you need to learn that no one holds out on the Tong clan."
Guxi threw Mu's head out of his hands like trash. "I realize you don't have the money," Guxi said. He turned and grinned wickedly at Mu's daughter. "…But you do have collateral." He placed his hand under her chin and lifted it up. "We're taking your daughter. She's going to work off your debts until they're paid."
"No! You can't!" Mu begged, almost crying. He struggled to break free from the big man who held him.
"Take her away," Guxi commanded, turning to leave.
"No," Fung breathed. Whether or not Jian Lao had chosen her to aid the Avatar, whether or not they needed that passport, she was sure Jian Lao did not want her to continue compromising her beliefs. She was absolutely not going to sit by and watch a criminal syndicate kidnap and exploit an innocent girl.
Guxi turned to her and paused. "What did you say?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I said 'no'," Fung replied. She stood her ground. "I can't do it. I won't do it!" She looked to the girl she held, and released her. "Get out of here! Run!
"Stop her!" Guxi ordered the rest of his men. The Tong were crowded so thick between the daughter and the doorway that running was just a futile gesture on her part. She was soon grabbed and restrained again.
"No! Xiang!" Mu cried.
But Guxi turned to Fung, not Xiang. "What's wrong with you, girl?" he barked. "Do you not remember the oath you swore to obey your Mountain Master? I have orders from him to kidnap this girl if her father is unable to pay." Guxi got right in Fung's face. "If you disobey, that makes you an oath-breaker. And didn't you swear 'if I should dishonor my Mountain Master, I shall be killed by ten thousand knives'?" Indeed, that was how the Hei Chaoliu initiation oath ran, and Fung had said those words. "You do realize that's not in there just to make the oath sound more poetic, don't you?"
Guxi pulled away from Fung, turning his back to her but continuing to talk. "I'll give you one last chance to prove your loyalty." He turned to another subordinate. "Block the door," he ordered. The subordinate complied and Guxi grabbed Xiang by the arm, yanking her out of the other Tong's grasp. He thrust her toward Fung. "Hold her," he growled.
Stupid girl, Zhengyi thought. Why's she risking our escape on someone she doesn't even know? Just do what he says, Fung. Zhengyi had to get out of the city and start training after all, didn't he? He had already decided: if she started trouble, he was going to stick by the Tongs.
Fung hesitated, but finally obeyed.
"You will escort her like this all the way back to headquarters," Guxi ordered gravely, "or this clan will consider you an oath-breaker and your life will be forfeit."
Again, Fung hesitated as though in thought. Then she began walking toward the door with the Xiang in her grasp. Guxi smiled.
But as Fung passed the large fighter blocking the door, she placed her foot behind his ankle. Instantaneously, in one motion, Fung shoved the girl out of her grasp and into the street, reached around the fighter's shoulder, and flipped him. "Run!" she called to Xiang. Xiang took off even as the other Tongs rushed Fung.
"Get her! Get them both!" Guxi cried. Fung tried to bottleneck the fighters in the doorway, tripping one on the left, flipping one coming from the right. But they were too many, and they distracted her as Guxi bent the earth around her, trapping her from the neck down in a conical formation of rock before she scarcely realized it.
At that moment, Zhengyi blew past her out of the doorway, in pursuit of Xiang. Several other Tongs followed, but he bent earth around his feet and went gliding after Xiang as though he were ice-skating. He soon caught up to the girl and encased her in a rock formation identical to the one that held Fung.
Zhengyi walked her back down to Mu's house, floating the slab with his bending. "Nice work," Guxi congratulated him.
"Zhengyi, you have to let her go!" Fung pleaded. "How can you do this? Don't you realize what they're doing?"
Zhengyi was silent, but he didn't look particularly sympathetic. Guxi turned to Fung. "Your brother knows where his loyalties are." Fung spat at him, but Guxi dodged it. "Let's go," he ordered the men. They returned to the compound, escorting both girls inside their stone cages.
As soon as Guxi dismissed him, Zhengyi ran to the kitchen to find Ying Su. "Su! Su!" he panted, "We gotta get outta here. They captured Fung! We have to get outta here before she rats us out!" Fu Shan leapt off of his shoulders and on to the counter.
"What do you mean, 'they captured her'?" Su asked, dropping her knife on the cutting board. "Who captured her?"
"The Tongs," Zhengyi explained, his tone urgent. "We had to take this girl 'cause her dad owed them money, but Fung disobeyed. She tried to help the girl escape. They're keeping her locked up in the abandoned apartment next door. We gotta get outta here before she sells us out, or they'll find out we're Ban clan and kill us too!"
"We need to get that passport, and save Fung!" Su said.
"We can get the passport somewhere else. And it's Fung's own fault she got captured. We don't have time for this! Let's go!"
Zhengyi had to escape the city, train, and come back to kill Wu. Nothing else mattered to him, particularly not a goody-two-shoes nun who would rather get killed than keep her pet morality to herself.
"No," Su said. "We have to save her. Fung has done nothing but help you since you met her, and she gave up a lot to travel with us."
"I thought you said we couldn't be prevented from killing Wu!"
"Fung is the daughter of your father's best friend—his real best friend," Su scolded. "Think about what your father would want. Do you really think letting her die is the proper way to honor him?"
Zhengyi tried to sputter a protest, but he realized Su was right.
"Fung saved us at the abbey, she helped us escape Wu, she joined a Black Current clan that forced her to do things she clearly didn't agree with just so she could have a chance of helping you get out of the city…"
Zhengyi paused. Images came flooding back to him. He remembered the nuns fighting armed gangsters so that he could escape. He remembered how Fung had come to his room in the abbey. He was injured, as vulnerable as he had ever been in his life, and she helped him. He remembered her leading him away from the fighting, and how much he wanted to run into the fray, charge back to the compound and kill Wu. But Fung had persuaded him against it. He had since realized that he would have been killed if he tried to take on the whole Ban clan in that condition. Fung had really saved his life, hadn't she… And then he remembered more: the lumps Fung took during the Tong initiation ceremony, how she fought beside him against the Lui clan.
"She's brave and self-sacrificing. Those are good qualities for an ally," Su continued. "Avatar or not, you need people to help you. Two heads are always better than one, and Fung has knowledge and skills that you don't have. You're much more likely to be successful if we take her with us."
But Zhegyi was still remembering. He remembered the hand on his arm, as he was about to hurl a slab of earth onto the Lui fighters that day. Fung was always trying to change him, but… Tsi, he thought. And his brother. He couldn't shake them from his mind, no matter how much he told himself he wanted to. Would it have been the same with the Lui members?
Zhengyi was silent that whole time as he thought. "All right," he said finally. "Let's go bust her out."
"Bust who out?" came a voice. Zhengyi and Fung turned to see Heung Chu. "That girl Fung? Did she get captured?" The concern rose in his voice. Zhengyi and Su hesitated. They didn't know whether they could trust him, since his father worked for the Tong clan. But Chu realized what they were thinking. "Don't worry," he said, "just between us, I hate this clan."
He could be lying, Su thought, but he already knows what we're planning anyway… "Chu, we're your friends, right? If I tell you our plan, will you come with us and help us?"
Chu was, in fact, telling the truth. Even though he'd only known them a few days, Chu was much more inclined to help them than the clan. He was beaten up by the aggressive other retainers almost everyday, and his father was too busy gambling and sucking up to Tong Suei Sing to notice. But helping traitors would mean his life, and probably his father's too. Even if Heung Sai was neglectful, he didn't deserve to die, and Chu wasn't the type to be brave in these situations anyway.
"Uh, well," Chu mumbled, "I don't think that's a good idea really. I mean, I can't do anything to help. I can't fight. Like, not at all."
"That's okay," Su said. She didn't actually care what Chu did, she just needed to keep him close until they got Fung out, so she could make sure he didn't run off and warn the guards or bring reinforcements. "You can still help us," she lied. "Just stay behind us and stay hidden. Please, Chu. We need all the help we can get."
Chu murmured uncomfortably, flicking his fingers in indecision. He did want to help them…Well, he assumed they'd be trying to sneak into the place. Maybe he could stay hidden, and no Tong people would see him. "Ahhhhh…okay," he agreed finally.
"Thank you, Chu," Su said. She turned to Zhengyi. "Now, Zhengyi, you saw where they took her?" He nodded. "Take us there."
Zhengyi led them out the back of the gambling house to an apartment building next door. The clan used it as a makeshift boarding house and prison. One-Eyed Wu had kept a few buildings elsewhere in the city for the same purpose. It was a dark night, but Ba Sing Se was a densely populated, very built-up city, and as always, several lanterns and torches scattered around the street were throwing light.
As they approached the building, Zhengyi saw two guards at the entrance. He stopped to let Fu Shan off of his shoulders, then bent a rock several yards down the street, hoping to distract them with the noise. It leapt into the air and thudded loudly to the ground. The guards stepped over to investigate and Zhengyi, Su, Fu Shan, and Chu quickly stole into the building.
"What are we going to do now?" Zhengyi asked. "Check every room?"
"If I remember, they use the top floor to hold prisoners. The rest of the building is a boarding house for clan members," Chu informed them. "I don't think they mix prisoners and regular members on the same floor. But…but there might be more guards."
"We can handle it. Let's try there first," Su said, already climbing the stairs. Fu Shan chased after her. They all ran to the top floor, only to round a corner and come face to face with another guard. Chu, the last in line, stayed on the landing below that floor. He saw Su and Zhengyi enter the corridor, but was unwilling to risk being seen by a guard.
Indeed there were an additional two guards for the prison level. "Stop!" one of them barked. "This floor is off-limits. What are you doing here?"
"I'm, uh, delivering a prisoner," Su said, grabbing Zhengyi by the shoulders.
"He's a prisoner?" the guard said skeptically. "Isn't he the new earthbending prodigy who joined the clan a few days ago? Zhengyi, right?" He turned to Su. "And you're the new cook, aren't you? You're not qualified to transport captives."
"Oh, but he just disobeyed an order today," Su lied.
"Ha," the guard laughed. "I doubt it. There are only six people in the clan who can designate a prisoner, and I don't admit anyone to prison unless I'm personally informed by one of them." Both guards drew their goloks. "But you're both prisoners now," the one said.
Zhengyi punched one guard in the face as Su kicked the other in the knee. She quickly twisted his arm, forcing him to drop his weapon, and put him in a hold. The other guard swung at Zhengyi, but he dodged and kicked him in the ribs, then delivered a sharp uppercut. As that guard went down, Su swung the one she held into the wall.
"We would get the one guard who's actually intelligent and good at his job," Zhengyi said, looking at the unconscious bodies.
"Not that good," Su quipped. "We'd better hurry. Someone downstairs must have heard that."
They heard banging coming from two of the doors. Fung and that girl Xiang had heard the fight, and were letting the others know where they were. Zhengyi picked up the guard's keys and flung open a door. Fung was right there. "Let's go," Zhengyi said. "We're getting out of here."
Fung ran into the hall, overjoyed at the fact that Zhengyi had chosen to save someone, not to mention the fact that she was no longer going to be killed. But that feeling soon left. "Quick, let Xiang out and we'll go!" Fung said.
Zhengyi was still going for the door. "No time," he said, not looking back.
Fung stopped in her tracks. "What?" she cried.
Zhengyi turned to her. "That guy's daughter isn't my problem! There's an army of vicious criminals on their way up here right now!" he yelled. "We just threw the whole plan away for you! We gotta find another passport, and now we have two clans who wanna kill us!"
"How can you leave her? Just unlock the door!" Fung screamed.
The banging on the other door continued. "I can't be looking after her while we try to escape! I don't owe her anything!" Zhengyi snapped. "I—"
"Stop arguing!" Su cried. "That's what's going to delay us!"
On the landing, Chu could hear the argument going on in the corridor above, but he also heard many people below him. Reinforcements were coming. He wondered if he should go stand with his new friends, but…he couldn't. He sprinted down to the fourth floor and hid in an empty room, hearing the Tongs rush up the stairs.
It was too late for Zhengyi and the others to get out now. Tong fighters flooded the corridor. Fu Shan hissed at them. The ground was several yards below Zhengyi and he couldn't easily fight in this confined corridor. He hesitated to use any other sort of bending, since revealing that he was the Avatar was bound to complicate the situation even further. By the time he decided he might really need to use firebending it was too late. There were just too many Tongs. They swarmed over him, Fung, and Su, restraining them all. One of them grabbed Fu Shan by the scruff of the neck and shoved him in a sack. The Tongs tied them up, along with Xiang, and brought them before Tong Suei Sing.
"This is your fault," Zhengyi said to Fung, just before they were all thrown in front of the big boss.
"So," Sing said, setting down a bottle of huángjiǔ on a tray held by a servant, "I heard you guys got a problem takin' orders." Sing motioned away two scantily-clad young women hanging about his shoulders, rose from his chair, and strode toward Zhengyi. He grabbed the boy by the lapel of his yi, yanking him close. Sing drew his golok and raised it high.
He slashed open Zhengyi's yi, revealing the pygmy puma tattoo on his chest. "I shoulda known!" Sing cried. "There ain't no benders as good as you in this whole town who ain't hooked up with a clan before they're thirteen! So what are you, spies?" he asked, pressing his golok to Zhengyi's neck.
Tsi stood in the middle among the clan members who had assembled when they heard some traitors were going to be executed. Most of the dozens of Tong retainers who had captured the three blended into them. Tsi watched the whole thing as Sing exposed Zhengyi's Ban tattoo, and when he saw that ink it was like throwing blasting jelly on a campfire. This boy, like a younger version of himself, whom he had taken under his wing, had been deceiving him the whole time. For all he knew Zhengyi might have been the one who killed his brother! He just about shoved the people in front of him out of his way as he advanced to the front of the crowd.
"Boss! Boss!" he cried "Lemme kill 'im!" Tsi bowed on one knee before Sing. "Please, give me the honor of killin' 'im."
"Yes…" Sing said pensively. "It was your brother, wasn't it? All right. I'll deal with the other three."
Zhengyi struggled to escape his bonds. He couldn't bend without the use of his arms, and without bending he couldn't hope to fight so many people. Tsi drew his cleaver. Sing did the same. He grabbed Fung by the hair. "All of you assembled now," he announced, "bear witness to the fate of those who break the oaths of brotherhood!" He raised his golok, and Tsi pressed his against the edge of Zhengyi's tattoo.
"Wait!" someone in the crowd cried. Once again, the interrupting voice was Heung Chu's.
"Chu, what are you doing?" his father, standing near to Sing's large chair, asked angrily.
"Master Tong, you say no one can beat you at bing jiu in your own house. I…" Chu was shaking. He didn't know whether he was being brave or stupid, but those people Sing was about to kill had shown him more kindness than anyone he could remember, certainly more than his own father. They were the first friends he had had. Something inside him told him to keep talking. "…I challenge you to a game of bing jiu. The stakes will be the lives of the people before you…as…as well as my own."