Chapter Fourteen

"I guess that's something we have in common."

It has to be a trick, Katara thought, fingernails biting into the meat of her hands. He can't really mean that. He must be lying to manipulate me somehow. She sucked in a breath through her teeth, wishing she could make her eyes stop watering, wishing she could ignore that part of her heart that was still torn from grief. "You're lying."

"I wish I were," Zuko said, looking out at the water. "She disappeared on the night of Fire Lord Azulon's death. No one's seen her since. It's not hard to figure out what happened to her." He sighed softly, wrapping his arms around his knees. With anyone else, the posture would have looked timid, depressed, but he made it look dignified. And the shadow of pain in his eyes was very, very real.

He's telling the truth, Katara realized, feeling a sharp stab of guilt for not believing him. "Zuko, I . . ."

"It's almost morning," he said, getting to his feet. "If you have anything you need to finish before we set out, I suggest you do it now." Without another word, he walked away, his stride purposeful. She watched him go, struggling to reconcile the hotheaded prince who'd tracked them all around the world with the vulnerable boy she'd glimpsed moments ago. It was as if, for a moment, they hadn't been enemies, just two people from vastly different lands who shared the same terrible loss.

Iroh heard his nephew's quiet footfalls coming up from the river. It looks like it's going to be another early day, he thought, eyelids sliding open. He stretched, joints popping, and yawned loudly. "Good morning, Nephew."

"Good morning, Uncle."

Iroh blinked; it had been days since he'd received such a cordial greeting from his nephew, weeks since he'd heard Zuko say anything without at least a touch of irritation or impatience in his voice. It made him seem cautiously optimistic.

Iroh sat up, stretched some more, then walked over to their extinguished fire pit and started some hot water boiling for tea. "Our guest must already be awake," he remarked, nodding toward the tarp, wrinkled and unoccupied.

"She's down by the river. She'll be back soon."

He nodded, adding a bit of kindling to the fire, then coaxing the coals from last night back to life. "You seem to be growing accustomed to the freedom she requests from us," he said to his nephew, infusing his voice with as much approval as he could manage without sounding insincere. Zuko had little taste for subtlety. "It is almost as if you no longer consider her a prisoner."

"She's more manageable if she thinks she has the freedom to walk away," Zuko said, nose wrinkling. "But we all know that her best chance of meeting up with the Avatar is to travel with us. She can't leave and she knows it. There's no point in keeping a close watch on her."

Iroh raised an eyebrow. This is most unusual, he thought. Zuko tended to micromanage. Back when they'd still had a ship, a crew, the only time Zuko had gone more than an hour without ordering someone around had been at night, when he slept. He had even ordered Iroh around, though considering they were both part of the royal family, Iroh had chosen to take many of Zuko's orders as suggestions, rather than commands. His nephew was still young and occasionally unreasonable, after all.

"She told me her mother was killed by the Fire Nation," Zuko said suddenly. Iroh's eyes widened. "So I told her that my mother disappeared without a trace years ago."

Most unusual, Iroh thought again. "I had not thought you were ready to talk about that day."

Zuko started to speak, then closed his eyes. "Is the tea finished yet?"

Iroh glanced at the teapot. The water was boiling, so he lowered the flames and allowed the water to settle to a more reasonable temperature before dropping in a handful of pine needles. "I must say, Nephew, you are acting very strange this morning."

Zuko didn't respond, only stared at the campfire as the flames were reflected in his eyes. "You used to go into battle all the time. Did you ever feel sympathy for the people you were fighting?"

The question brought his mind to the siege of Ba Sing Se. Hollow-eyed refugees fleeing toward the wall only to be cut down before they could reach it. Noble earthbenders screaming as they burned. Prisoners of war locked away in metal cells and tortured for information. He had wondered, later, if the spirits had killed Lu Ten to punish Iroh for not putting a stop to it all. The spirits themselves hadn't killed him, of course, but there was a terrible sort of symmetry in the idea that his son had paid for his father's foolishness. If he'd listened to his conscience, pulled out of Ba Sing Se when he'd seen its people suffering and starving inside the walls, his son might still be alive.

"You should never blind yourself to the suffering of your enemies," Iroh said at last, pouring the tea into cups. "More importantly, you should never deafen yourself to the words of your own conscience. Doing so leads only to pain and misery."

Zuko nodded. "Thank you, Uncle. I'll try to remember that." He picked up his cup of tea and drank deeply, downing it all without even seeming to taste it. Iroh suppressed a grimace. He had managed to instill some life lessons in the boy, but he had yet to teach him a proper appreciation for tea.

The girl returned to camp a few minutes later, carrying a block of ice with three fish trapped inside. Despite her success, her expression was troubled, her lips pulled down at the corners. She said nothing as she unfroze the block of ice and speared the fish trapped inside with one of the sharp sticks they'd picked up on their first day walking.

"I see you had a successful fishing trip," Iroh said, hoping the comment would prompt some sort of response. She glanced up, looking distracted, then quickly speared the other two fish and rested them over the fire. Zuko, as was his habit, knelt in front of each fish and seared them with a controlled stream of fire, cooking each in a quarter of the time it would have taken them to cook over the fire.

Once they'd finished eating, they packed up camp and started walking. Zuko took the lead, the waterbender close behind him. Iroh studied them from behind, curious to see what had prompted them to talk to one another about their pasts. Zuko always grew pensive this time of year—today was the anniversary of his banishment, and that would have dredged up a lot of painful memories, not all of them related to what had been done to him that day. Perhaps that, combined with whatever the girl had let slip about her own mother, had prompted him to be more forthcoming than usual. It would change the dynamic of their little group, Iroh knew, though whether the uneasy truce would grow more strained or more relaxed as a result, he couldn't be certain.

By midday, the village was visible through the trees. "I'm going to scout ahead and see whether it's a Fire Nation colony or an Earth Kingdom village," Zuko said, holding up his hand to bring them to a halt.

"Maybe I should go," the waterbender said. "If it turns out to be an Earth Kingdom village and they spot you, they won't show any mercy."

"And if it's one of our colonies and you go, they'll kill you."

"Perhaps we should all go," Iroh suggested, grinning with more gusto than he actually felt. "That way, it won't matter which kind of village it is; we'll be attacked no matter what."

Zuko and the girl both gave him flat looks. "I'm going," Zuko said at last. "I won't be spotted." He didn't give them a chance to object, stepping off the path and moving through the tightly-packed trees that ringed the village. Iroh clasped his hands together inside his sleeves, waiting.

"Is he always this bossy?" the girl asked, resting her hands on her hips.

"My nephew is accustomed to living on a ship with crew-members who obey him, however grudgingly. Considering that he has no one else to order around, I would say he is adjusting remarkably well." But is he adjusting well enough to fit in with whoever we may encounter in the Earth Kingdom? Iroh wondered, his forced cheer evaporating. With no ship and no crew to back them up if things grew dangerous, it could be wise to disguise themselves until they could have another vessel sent to pick them up. Of course, for that, they'd need new clothes, which would require them to visit the village Zuko was currently examining. Hopefully they could stay out of danger long enough to resupply.

Zuko returned a few minutes later, sliding out of the undergrowth so smoothly that if Iroh had not been looking in his direction, he wouldn't have sensed him there until he spoke. "It doesn't look like there's anything dangerous there. It's one of our colonies."

Iroh nodded. "How shall we approach?"

Zuko considered that for a moment, eyes sliding to the waterbender. "Since it's a Fire Nation colony, it's possible we'll be recognized. We won't announce ourselves, but if someone asks who we are, we'll tell them. You," he went on, addressing the waterbender, "will play the part of our prisoner."

"Play the part? I thought I was your prisoner."

"That's . . ." A hint of pink touched Zuko's unscarred cheek. "You are. But if anyone's going to believe it, you'll need to be properly restrained, not wandering through town with your hands unbound when you could kill anyone there with a puddle."

Several emotions flickered across the girl's face. Defiance at being reminded of her status among them. Resentment as she realized Zuko was right, that the path of least resistance would be for her to accept having her hands tied with grace. And—last of all—pride as Zuko indirectly complimented her resourcefulness and skill in waterbending. Her face is too expressive, Iroh thought, frowning. She'll never be able to mingle among the Fire Nation nobility if she continues to expose her emotions so easily.

He shook off the thought. Even Iroh could admit that the idea of the waterbender entering any Fire Nation political circle was so absurd that there was no point in planning for it, as much as he liked to plan for any eventuality. It made him wonder why the thought had occurred to him at all.

"Fine," the girl said at last, holding her arms out in front of her. "But I want to be untied once we're somewhere I won't be seen."

Zuko nodded, seeming to consider her request something of a given. Wordlessly, he bound her hands—out in front of her, though Iroh hoped he knew she'd still be able to bend fairly easily with her arms in that arrangement.

"I'm doing the shopping this time," Zuko said, looking at him. "We don't have enough money to shop around like you always do."

Iroh smiled. "Well, if you have enough, be sure to buy some better herbs for tea. Ginseng, if you can find it."

Zuko groaned and started down the path. "Let's just go. I'm not wasting another day in the woods."