Nights in Egypt
Chapter Twelve: Pools of Blue
This woman would be giving him many headaches.
It was not that Zuko absolutely loathed having the personable lead dancer of the elite Midnight Dancers staying with them –especially since his uncle had to leave the estate for a few days in order to contact someone who could teach Katara how to use her bending at will– but according to what his uncle had said on 'properly handling a lady' he'd better act like he damn well couldn't be happier to have her. Then she'd made the move of attempting to run away, and he'd woken the next day only to be told by his uncle that she had agreed to their terms.
Zuko knew he'd be doing a lot of meditating over the next few days.
And during which time, while the myriad of his servants flocked to the wounded girl, Zuko began to estimate exactly how much time it usually took for Ozai's infatuation with one woman to escalate. The last girl –a mousy brown-haired, green-eyed girl– wore full length silk dresses called kimonos of various bright colors and floral patterns with tall complicated flower hairpieces and jewels of jade–he had to admit his father had some exotic tastes– it had taken him exactly two days to woo her into bed. One day to collect her for a 'private' party and then that night he'd had her.
The Pharaoh had never sought out someone quite like Katara –fiery, spirited, wild– it seemed as though he much preferred the quiet seductive girls. There was no way Katara could emulate that. She was everything Ming, whom he had the unfortunate opportunity on meeting on various occasions, was. She was commanding she was regal and she was everything an aristocrat lord feared in his daughter: independent. Perhaps, the king didn't see the odd flames in her soul? Katara had looked plenty terrified the night he'd met her.
Zuko chewed the inside of his cheek and finally gave up.
It's been three days. He knew it wouldn't be long now before he was looking into Ming's house only to find that she was no longer in the House –the guards paid off Ming and warned her of telling anyone that Katara was a Waterbender. And Zuko had paid off the guards and warned them about telling anyone that Katara was a Waterbender.
It was all a constellated circle of events.
They would have to take Katara to court soon, once her bruises healed, and it was game on.
And he hadn't expected the dancer to take advantage of every luxury available to her at the mansion during her time of healing. In the morning, specific breakfast foods had been brought to her rooms, and then she'd had a bath, a massage, had her nails cleaned, her hair cut and styled and new make-up brought to her.
One would think she was the Queen of Sheba.
His uncle had already taken the liberty of having new clothes for the palace made for her and she'd spent two hours in her room getting measurements and having various fabrics –linen, silk, gossamer, crimson red, flame orange, sun yellow, gold– thrown over her body and turned into expensive new dresses.
He couldn't take it anymore!
But that was sadly not the final bravo of her second day at the mansion.
Now, he found her lounging in one of his uncle's lava baths. Warmed by the sun and a Firebender's chi the crystal waters boiled at temperatures that were therapeutic for the elderly and luxurious for the young and rich. And here he was, long day of stress had and towel in arm only to find her swimming in it.
"What do you think you are doing?" He asked as her head bobbed above the water, steaming emanating around her and hiding her from his view.
"Alright, alright, I'll get out." She stood, the bindings of her torso starkly contrasting the dark chocolate tone of her skin that had been slightly pinkened by the heated water. Zuko took a full step back. Her lips parted with the chill of the air, dark too, but pink.
She had features he'd never seen before.
He couldn't help but ask.
"What did you mean back then? By you aren't native?" He watched, entranced as Katara rose from the pool collecting her hair onto one shoulder and ringing it out. Now damp the thin material of her undergarments the maids had given her clung to her body, like almost desperately trying to hold on to her. The linen towel she wrapped around her body cut off his gaze. Zuko swallowed. "You really shouldn't swim in those."
She shot him a look and continued to twist her hair up and back with her fingers, then let the damp ringlets fall down on her shoulders and down the smooth expanse of her back, partly hidden by the towel.
"As you put it, your highness, the king would 'like' me for my: exotic eyes and dark skin." She patted down a stray curl and shot him a look. "Don't be daft, even a blind man could tell I'm foreign. I told you, I come from the south. The Lands of Water and Ice."
"How long have you been here?" He asked, skeptic still.
"Since I was a child." She gathered her towel around her body and nodded to the maids who hurried off back into the mansion and up the stairs. "Do you want my life story, your highness?"
"No," he said curtly. "I wouldn't like to be bantered by your childhood and past struggles, thanks." Katara made a noise akin to a snort. "What?"
"Nothing, nothing. It was a cough . . . excuse me." She gave an overzealous parody of a curtsey and then made her way back into the bathhouse on the lower level of the house, where the maids were waiting for her with a bath. As if to prove she didn't care he was watching, Katara proceeded to unknot the towel and tossed into onto a marble table, then moved further into the room. But before that, Zuko spotted something rippled and marred the flesh of her back.
He'd seen them in the palace before. On ripped strips on the slave's backs.
Marks from a whip.
Zuko could just barely remember bringing the girl home that night. His head was clouded with fury and sleep and he'd simply left her in the care of his uncle, only to wake up the next morning to find she had agreed to their terms and wanted her bending back even if it was to kill the king.
"It makes no sense, uncle." Zuko had argued before Iroh could leave to fetch an old acquaintance of his. "First she does and then she doesn't."
"Perhaps it was your little speech that convinced her?" Iroh asked. "She was attacked, Prince Zuko. When instances like that happen they tend to change a person. She probably felt vulnerable. And trust me, a woman like Mistress Katara would not like that at all."
Zuko remembered the bruises on her wrists and arms he'd seen that morning at breakfast.
"But what does she want?" Zuko asked quickly. "What can she gain from this?"
Iroh frowned. "Zuko, Zuko . . . you hired her for this purpose then you must trust her. If you do not than how can you hope for her to respect you?"
"I do not need that peasant's respect!"
"But you do. If she does not respect you, then how do you know she won't just tell Ozai about your motives?" Zuko stared shellshocked in realization. "You do not give a beast her claws without a price."
"And her price. . .?" Zuko whispered.
Iroh smiled at this. "She wants to go home. Back the southern Lands of Water and Ice, where she grew up."
"That's it?" Zuko sneered. "How petty."
"Petty . . . but Ozai could offer her the same thing and more if she turns on us." Iroh brushed past him slightly and sighed. "Collect your trust. Be more pleasant. I do not wish to hear of any threats made on your behalf when I return."
"So, you wished to speak with me?" the dancer fixed her blue eyes on Zuko questionably.
Over the past few days the pair had eaten their meals in completely separate parts of the house, but, at his request, Katara had joined him at the formal table for lunch and was now currently staring at him like he had three eyes.
"Yes . . . I thought, well," Zuko coughed and glanced over at the servant's door wondering where the hell his food was. "Since we will be working together for some time I think it will be best if we knew . . . any abnormalities about each other."
"Abnormalities?"
"Yes, fears, concerns, any such?"
"Um. I fear for my life and I'm concerned for your sanity."
That's it!
"I am being serious, Katara."
First time he'd said her name it was like adic on his tongue.
The girl quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Really? Give me an example."
Zuko's face flamed. She was just teasing him.
"I fear nothing and I'm concerned for nothing."
The girl rolled her eyes and leaned forward against the table. "Nice try, but I think you supposed to say: I fear you because I don't trust you and I'm concerned that you'll tell Ozai about my plan and get me killed." Zuko stared. "You're not that quiet when you're displeased about something."
"You . . ." Zuko bit his tongue hard.
The girl glared at him with a schooled expression. "You're qualm is insulting. How did you think this was going to work if you can't even stand to trust me?"
"You're the one who ran away." he snapped back.
"Yes, but that was before," she crossed her arms. "This is now. We need to work together."
She was right.
For the love of Agni she was right, but . . .
"How do I know you won't betray me?" Zuko hissed.
"Simple, you know I'm a Waterbender. If I tell Ozai you're going to kill him, you tell him I'm a Waterbender. It's collateral. You're a prince; you should get a trail before they sentence you to death."
Point again, but . . .
"What if I'm assassinated?"
"Then how will I get home?" she asks. "All I want is to go home and there is no way Ozai will allow me to live if you die too."
As a consolation prize he will. Zuko mused.
Though she'd managed to quell most of his fears. There was still that nagging in the back of his mind that didn't allow him to trust her completely.
"Now let's try again, your highness: what are your fears and concerns?"
Her eyes pierced right through him, holding him in place and dragging his darkness into the light.
What's the harm? He wondered. Make up a fear.
"I fear . . . for my mother's life."
Zuko's eyes widened when the words slipped past his lips.
A true fear.
Zuko watched the girl's face soften from his words and quickly stood, leaving as the servant brought in food.
Those words were a milestone in their plan.
The prince could not remember a time he'd been happier to see his uncle –or a time he'd had the sudden urge to run up and hug him once he passed over the threshold of the mansion like a child. Since the slip up at lunch three days ago the girl had been trying to talk to him and Zuko had been trying to avoid her –the house was certainly large enough– and having more people around should put a bigger gap between them for time to oddly chat.
Zuko calmly welcomed his uncle back to the game and studied the new pawn he'd brought.
The man was old with long silver hair and a formidably earnest face with matching silver eyes that darted every which way as if looking for someone. He was a member of peace keepers called the White Lotus, same as his uncle. Of course, the group hadn't done anything to interfere with the problems of the world as of late and had resulted to keeping tabs on the nations and their royal families; doing what they could. From what Iroh told Zuko he was a Waterbender and the best to be found.
"Prince Zuko this is Master Pakku, a colleague and friend of mine."
The man nodded coolly to Zuko and Zuko returned the gesture.
Zuko thought he looked weird dressed in the diplomatic robes of red and gold, the man was so obviously Russian he was surprised that the guards had allowed him into the country without think he was a slave taken from his homeland.
"Where is this Lady Katara you've spoken of, Iroh?" Pakku asked his voice seemed to dispute over her name. Zuko's eyes narrowed questionably.
"Oh, yes she's upstairs?" Zuko nodded and Iroh took a step towards the staircase. "Follow me, friend."
Zuko followed the pair quietly, eyes flickering between Iroh and Pakku how quickly they walked up the stairs and the how anxious the two seemed to be.
Iroh rapped softly at Katara's door and Katara gave permission to enter.
Zuko stood in the hallway for a moment, watching the two men in front of him pause in the doorway before Pakku walked further into the room.
Katara was sitting at her window, a gold gown of loose gossamer and silk hung around her body as if she were a goddess from Roman mythology.
The man bowed to Katara smoothly and addressed her in a voice so soft; Zuko had to lean forward to hear it.
"Well, we will leave you two to your work then." Iroh said loudly and took Zuko's arm as they exited the room. "You've been working on trust while I was gone haven't you Prince Zuko?"
"Yes, uncle."
"Good." The older man smiled. "Now, that that's solved, I think it's time you understand the tensions between the Lands of Fire and the Lands of Water and Ice." Iroh said and tugged him along to his room and sat him at large desk in the corner of the room. "First off, the Lands of Water and Ice dominate more than half our world, only because it is broken in two and led by two completely different royal families that are in direct progeny of the first Waterbenders, as our family is of the first Firebenders."
"Fascinating."
Iroh gave him a look.
"The Northern Tribe, the richest of the two, have a elderly king on the throne, his wife is dead and they have one heir: Princess Yue. Now, Yue is foretold not to be a bender, but she has abilities beyond that. It is said that she was blessed by the god La, or the Moon Spirit and it turned her dark hair white."
"Why are they blessed with such propionate gods?" Zuko asked, fingers tracing over a sketch of La that had been laid out in front of him.
"It is because they remain true to their faiths."
". . . Katara does not." Zuko muttered.
"Leave her out of the lesson, Zuko," Iroh sighed, closing his eyes and wrinkling his forehead. "You do not know what she has dealt with in her life."
"Alright."
"Now . . . The Southern Tribe, though not rich or all around friendly, have the fiercest warriors both bender and not. Their population is mainly woman dominated so they have a strong network of healers, again both bender and not. Their King is still in his prime, a warrior, it is rumored that his wife was murdered by rouge Firebenders in our men's armor. His heirs include a son named Sokka. Now he is not a bender but he is a known warrior, hunter and leader. He was crowned prince on his sixteenth birthday . . ."
Zuko snorted. "He was just crowned?"
Iroh's eyes narrowed. "Yes, they have to earn their privileges there. And according to our records he had a daughter . . . she was just showing signs of bending before she disappeared."
"What? Did she get eaten by a tiger seal or something?"
"No . . . their King reported that she was taken. Actually all the tension from the northern and southern boarders started after her disappearance . . ." Iroh whispered softly. "From what they tell us, foreign ships attacked at early morning, our nation's ships. They went onto their land, slaughtered many civilians and took their children. They king reported that his wife and daughter had fallen victim to them."
Zuko stared. "They blame us?"
"No . . . all of us. Their king took Firebender's prisoner, Zuko. They tortured them, they dismembered them and then they let their remains wash up on our shores. They are angry, Zuko. Whether we like it or not, they want war."
"After all these years?"
"A year for every life those benders took. Your father refuses to acknowledge it, but the day Princess Ekatarian was taken there has been war on our doorsteps."
"Ekatarian . . ."
Yes, I'm doing it! I'm going with the classic hidden princess!
Personally I like the name Ekatarian! Tell me if you like it too, okay? The rest will be explained in upcoming chapters so review so I can update faster!
Anyway, yes Zuko's a paranoid, untrusting, war-raging prince, but we all love our disfunctional little characters, non? And Iroh just seems to string him along, as i was writing this I was thinking: wtf . . .? He's sounding so grave and un-cool . . . like M. Night made him during the live-action movie. Dude, people were pissed about that. Buuuut, in his own twisted way Iroh is helping Zuko to get closer to Katara and let's face it with this couple anything is possible.
Quick History Lesson!: The Lands of Water and Ice consist of the north pole and the south pole and Russia and any other colder country around the three listed. Basically all the 'Lands of' are made up of countries. For example, Egypt is the capitol of the Lands of Fire, which dominates much of the souhtern hemosphere. Russia is the capitol of the northern watertribe, Antartica is the capitol of the southern watertibe.
Blah! I haven't gone outside all day. This is becoming a problem.
Review me, tell me if you have a question! Reviews make me update faster! I must have ten!
~QueenVamp
