Chapter Fourteen
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Ursa stalked through the gates of her home. She had no idea where Ozai was, but she'd already sent a message to bring Azula home from school. Zuko had gone to the Forum earlier to fetch her commissioned necklace. Once the children arrived, they could pack their essentials. There were fewer places to run to in the Earth Kingdom anymore, but they'd burn that bridge when they came to it.
"Lady Ying?" Biyu said tentatively, stepping into the garden from the kitchen doors. "Young Lord Lee is home."
"Good," she said. "Where is he?"
"In his room, lady. With the girl he brought home."
For a moment, the girl's words simply didn't register. Zuko brought a girl home. Well, she would have to leave- Zuko brought a girl home?
"A girl? Now?" Her fist clenched, nails digging into her palm. "His timing always was abysmal."
Biyu shrank back against the doorpost as Ursa swept past her. Ursa ignored her, though she made a mental note to see about letting her and Lin go gently. That could wait until she had a chance to speak to Ozai, though. Perhaps her husband had something up his sleeve or a brilliant idea to handle Iroh. He'd always been more clever than Azulon expected, and their life in Ba Sing Se hadn't dulled that.
She hoped Ozai would have some idea, if Zuko had brought a girl home. Her son seemed to have inherited his father's lack of natural ability with women. There should have been more girls before now, or at least hints of them. Especially for a Fire Nation boy.
-If this was the same girl, how serious was it if he was actually bringing her home? Had he lit a spark in her? Oh, Avatar, what if she had a little firebender, what would they do? They could never stay in Ba Sing Se then.
Ursa swept into her son's room. "Zuko-"
Lady Mai of Red Chrysanthemum Island sat across the tea-table from her son, teacup in hand, dressed fit for the Lower Ring. Surprise gave life to her face; Ursa had always remembered her as a curiously expressionless little girl.
She was here. In Ursa's home. With Ursa's son. Iroh had found them out of the tens of thousands in Ba Sing Se, and Lady Mai was here in this room with her son!
Flame ignited before she could consciously summon it.
"Mother!" Zuko yelled. "No!"
But what stopped her from blasting were the sudden shuriken Lady Mai threw. They caught the edge of Ursa's sleeve and dragged it back, pinning her wrist to the doorframe.
"Mother!" Zuko said again. "She's not with Uncle! She's here to help us."
Ursa stared at the young woman with the long knife in her hand. Was this the same little girl who walked in Azula and Ty Lee's shadow in the gardens? Zatoru's little girl who regarded Ursa and Ozai with the same dull, flat expression? How had that child grown up into this lady?
Then her eyes fell on Zuko. "You knew your uncle was in the city? For how long?"
Zuko winced. "Two weeks."
"And you didn't think your father or I needed to know that?" Ursa tugged her sleeve loose from the doorframe and plucked the shuriken out of the cloth. The sleeve looked repairable; she would have Biyu take it to her father.
"What would you do about it?" Lady Mai asked quietly before taking a sip of her tea. "The court always said no one could best Prince-General Iroh."
"The court," Ursa said in a hard voice, "has never seen some of the daimyos roused to anger, and they think noble blood is the only blood with firebending strength. Admiral Jeong Jeong would have destroyed Iroh."
Pale eyes looked down into her teacup. "Admiral Jeong Jeong would not have fought the Prince-General. He didn't when he deserted."
Ursa's mouth curved into an ugly smile. "Prince-General Iroh never fought me."
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Ursa ordered Zuko and Lady Mai to remain in the house and inform Azula of the situation when she arrived home. Then she set out to the address Lady Mai so helpfully provided. Iroh's apartment was in the Lower Ring and almost a quarter of the way around the city from her own house. Even taking an earth-train, it took her over an hour to reach the neighborhood Lady Mai had told her about.
She stalked into the apartment building, ignoring the looks her too-fine dress drew. They saw only the rich embroidery, not the way the loose sleeves did not lie quite right on her arms.
At the top of the narrow stairs, she drew the butterfly swords from their concealed sheaths. This pair wasn't the one her father gave her as his last gift, but the blades were good Fire Nation steel nonetheless. Ursa would not face the Dragon of the West with anything less.
She paused outside his door and took a moment to gather her breath. Sparks gathered inside her, then ignited in a rush of blue around her swords.
Using the knuckle-guard of one sword, she knocked on the door.
"I am sorry-" Iroh broke off as he opened the door. His eyes met hers, hard and terrible, and she snarled as blue crackled around the blades of her swords.
"Brother." She twisted the term of affection into the mockery it was, and rage flashed across his face.
"Lady Ty Lee," he said simply, "run."
The girl stared over Iroh's shoulder at her, then whirled and threw open the shutters. A moment's shock went through her as Ty Lee vaulted out the window, then Iroh spat flame at her. She swept an arm up to catch it on her own fire, blue consuming red, and slashed out with her other sword. He ducked back with the agility that had surprised so many and slammed the door as she pursued him. It caught her hard in the shoulder, drawing a hiss of pain.
"What have you done to my brother?" he demanded even as he punched fire at her.
Again, she swept it aside with the corona around her blades. "You always hated me and my daughter. I'm not surprised you came for my son, too."
"What did you do to Ozai?" he roared. "He ran from me!"
Ozai knew? Ozai knew his brother was in the city, and he didn't tell her! Shock froze her at a critical moment, and red flame burned away the lower skirts of her dress. She snapped up a wave of blue, which he caught and snuffed between his hands.
If Azula had also known her uncle was here in the city without telling her, Ursa was going to have a very long discussion with her family.
"Maybe he finally learned not to trust you," she hissed, darting forward with her blades. The left sword slashed through his robes, cutting a long line across his chest, then he punched out-
The explosion of flame sent her crashing through the thin wooden wall. Ursa rolled to her feet as quickly as she could and knocked aside an incoming volley of fire. Her shoulders and back ached abysmally, and she knew she'd be black and blue in the morning.
Little bits of the apartment burned merrily, some fires strengthening with her ragged breaths, some with Iroh's measured pants.
Her eyes narrowed. He threw around more power than anyone she had ever fought before, but Iroh should be comparable to her husband in skill and power.
Ozai would not be panting after that display of firebending.
Blood oozed from the cut across his chest. As a firebender, she didn't stand a chance of hurting Iroh. He had outright snuffed her flames! But her swords had bit him once and could again.
He surged forward suddenly, and a sheet of red flame raced towards her. Kicking her heel against the floor in pure instinct, Ursa burned the wooden floor and dropped through into the apartment below. She extinguished her swords and darted away from the hole as quickly as possible.
She couldn't hurt him as a firebender, but she'd marked him with her swords. This was no duel, and there were no rules.
Behind her, she heard a heavy thump as he lowered himself into the apartment with her. Ursa kicked the door open into the hall with deliberate noise, then slipped behind the paper screen filling one corner of the room. Through subtle slits, she saw Iroh enter and look around. His hand went briefly to his chest, and she smelled burnt flesh. When he lowered his hand, the gash was cauterized shut.
"Hang the woman," he muttered then stalked towards the open door.
Ursa slipped quietly from behind the screen. She hardly breathed as she padded up behind him, raising one arm to deliver a killing stroke to the back of his neck. Her sword came down-
Iroh whirled, his arm coming up to catch her sword in his sleeve. "Fool-"
His nose made a gratifying crunch as she punched him with the knuckle-guard of her other butterfly sword. "Two swords," she chastised as he reeled back. "Butterflies come in pairs."
She slashed for his throat as his arm came up-
Red flame roared in a tidal wave, and she screamed. Blue fire ignited in an aura around her, and she only barely raised her arms to protect her eyes when the wave struck her. The ends of her hair vanished to ash, her dress melted and burned. Only her own firebending prevented her from burning to cinders. The sheer force of his fire threw her through the wall and into the street.
She lay there for a long moment, blue fire burning down her spine, her cheek against the dust. Exhaustion and pain weighed her body down, but she couldn't stop. She had to get up, get hidden before he had a chance to catch up with her. All she had to do was hit him hard once.
He'd hit her hard twice now, and she was still alive.
With a grunt of effort, Ursa forced herself to her feet. People stared, and she became aware of how she must look - a woman in nothing more than a shift of burned silk, swords clenched in her fists, fire burning on her skin.
She bared her teeth, and people hastily looked away.
Her eyes went to the hole she had made in the wall. Flames licked hungrily at its edges, and-
Iroh stared at her with the most peculiar expression on his bloody face. In another man, she might have mistaken it for mingled respect and awe.
The very idea of running hurt too much. Ursa slid into a fighting stance and hoped Ozai could take care of the children. "Come on, then, if you think you're hard enough."
"Enough of this foolishness," Iroh said in a hard voice.
"I agree," a man with a Ba Sing Se accent said, then two men in Dai Li robes leaped down beside her. Ursa froze for a brief moment then swung her swords as hard as she could at the one to the left.
He caught them in stone-gloved hands, while the other lunged forward in an earthbending stance. Slabs of rock erupted from the street, overlapping in a cage that pinned Iroh's arms to his sides. His eyes narrowed, and Ursa knew he took a breath even as she wrenched her swords back from the Dai Li-
A muzzle of rock wrapped around Iroh's mouth, and rock-gloved hands grabbed her bare blades.
"Lady Ursa," the Dai Li agent said, "your lord husband requests your presence."
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Hyo set his paperwork down abruptly and stalked towards the door of his office. For the last two hours, a growing unease had filled him, and all he could think about was Mi-Cha at home with the trainees. His home, the official house of the Commander of the Dai Li. It was a matter of public record where he lived.
Qin would kill Prince Ozai soon. There was nothing to worry about. Checking on his daughter would just make him feel better about everything.
His steps quickened. Mi-Cha hadn't seen his friend Chul in some months. She would enjoy spending a few nights with him, maybe play with his nieces and nephews. It would take him less than two hours to nip down to the Middle Ring with her and back.
There was nothing to worry about, but a Dai Li didn't live long by ignoring his instincts.
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"If you ask for more tea, I'm going to pin you to the wall," Mai snapped, eyes on the edge of one of her knives.
Zuko sighed. All right, they probably didn't need a fourth round of tea. But holding a teacup was better than him holding a sword or her holding a knife and drinking tea meant he didn't have to talk to her. Everything he'd said for the past hour seemed to be the wrong thing; she was still giving him the same flat look she'd given him since she accused him of extinguishing.
The door to his room slammed open. "Lee, what is going-" Azula glared at Mai, "-on? Why does Mother want me home?"
"She knows Uncle is here," he said quietly. "She's gone to fight him."
Azula blinked. Blinked again. "... I need to talk to Katara."
Mai's head snapped up.