Chapter 36 – The Prison

The sensation of falling, the feel of weightlessness, overwhelmed Hikoshu at first, and his eyes remained firmly shut. Natquik was shouting something near his ear, but even if he could pay attention, he couldn't hear over the wind. Belatedly, he managed to hook his feet around the tail, and that gave him a little extra security. But it was easily engulfed in the awe-inspiring panic that had petrified every muscle in his body.

Natquik was still shouting – he caught the word "fly" – and with the swift realization that they were about to die, Hikoshu forced his eyes open. The roof of the prison was hurtling toward them, or they toward it, rapidly.

And somehow, the airbending he thought he couldn't master – the techniques that never came naturally to him – was at his fingertips. Everything he learned returned to him in a flash, almost as if his life in the last four years was sweeping before his eyes. Gasping, he forced the wind horizontal to the sails, then at an angle. The sails flattened at first, and then caught, and they were ripped upwards with a force that nearly dislodged them both from the glider.

They twisted in the air, soaring sideways as they grazed the wall of the large, round tower. Natquik was shouting in his ear again, though now it almost sounded triumphant. Hikoshu blocked him out in an attempt to cling to that instinct that had just saved their lives. The instinct that now pushed him to bend one direction or another. Somewhere in his stomach, the knot still writhed, but he purposefully ignored it.

He just needed to get into the tower.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a darkened window, large enough that they could fly in, and close enough that even with his rudimentary air-glider skills, he could probably reach it. Directing the wind upward, Hikoshu rode the current to it, anticipating how exactly he would have to fly through the window in order to get inside. He just didn't anticipate the speed they'd need, and as they entered the opening, too fast to land, they both hit the stone edge hard and tumbled into the room.

Natquik knocked the air out of Hikoshu by landing on him, and somewhere to their right, Miyo's glider skittered away. A moment later, they were both lying in darkness, the night silent except for his pounding heart. And as he drew ragged breaths, all Hikoshu felt strong enough to do was thank the spirits for letting him make it through that alive.

Soon, he realized Natquik was laughing. The waterbender had pushed himself up and was untying the rope around his waist, his face invisible. But Hikoshu could hear pure relief in his voice.

"That was amazing! And we survived it, too!"

The immediate threat now gone, Hikoshu fought back nausea. "Yeah. Just barely." He swallowed and forced himself off the ground, ignoring a twinge in his shoulder.

"So where are we now?" Natquik slowly came down from the rush of excitement, shrugging as he twisted to take in the room. For both their benefit, Hikoshu lit a small fire and held it up.

It wasn't a room at all, actually. It was a cell. His light caught the metal bars that surrounded them on all sides, even just above their heads. The only side that wasn't caged in was the window they flew through, which Hikoshu suddenly realized wasn't a window, either. There was no protective ledge, such that the entire wall was one large hole, from the stone floor to the bars of the ceiling. Nothing to block the occupants of the cell from the steep drop just outside.

But what was 'just outside' caught his attention, and without thinking, he stepped closer to that dizzying edge.

"This is home," he murmured, letting his flame die out, and gradually the dark world beyond came into view.

In the distance, the bay shimmered under an indistinct light, occasionally catching the glow of fishing boats and large ships. As his gaze traveled further inward, he saw a black field of trees which seemed to envelope the sprawling city under their canopies. Toward the center of the bay, forming a straight line from the water directly to the Fire Palace, was a thoroughfare that even at this time of night was flooded with light. It cast odd shadows along the Palace's immense walls, whose darkened towers dominated the horizon.

But they were not as large as the massive cinder cone volcano that loomed behind everything, its slope barely visible around the wall of the prison cell. He knew there were cities on the other side of the mountain, as well as the Fire Temple. All hidden under lush, green trees and split by silty rivers.

Four years since he'd last seen this landscape. Yet for just a moment, he felt seventeen again, watching it all fade away from the stern of a Fire Navy ship.

"You lived in a jail cell?" Natquik hadn't bothered to admire the scenery. Instead, he tugged on the metal bars as if to test their strength. "So what's the plan now?"

Shaken from his reverie, Hikoshu retreated from the edge, his head spinning at the black abyss just past his feet. "Plan?" Relighting his fire, he examined the bars and ceiling.

There were stars beyond their cell. In fact, there was no true 'ceiling' at all, the entire top floor of the prison open to the night. He saw, also, several other cells just like theirs, all placed intermittently along the circular wall. In the center of the floor, well beyond their reach, was the slat of a sunken door.

"You mean this place doesn't have a roof, and you still somehow got us caught in here?" Natquik brushed past him to return to the window. "Even when your airbending's amazing, it's still pretty lousy."

"Then next time, I'll let you fly us." Miyo's glider had been tossed through the bars. He could see it lying short of the door, its black sails showing smudges of orange. So they weren't going to be flying out, anyway.

Not that he really wanted to try again.

"If there's a next time." Natquik was leaning out of the hole, examining the stone which framed it. The wall surrounding the floor connected all the cages together, though each cell had a gaping hole in it, just like theirs. The wall also extended above the top bars, and Hikoshu imagined Natquik wanted to know if they could simply climb up, outside the window, and then over into the open floor.

But that wall looked too high and the stone looked too smooth. Besides, Hikoshu wasn't about to willingly step out of that window.

"What is this place?" Giving up, Natquik moved again to the front of the cell and searched for a lock in Hikoshu's light. "Why doesn't it have a roof? And why is the floor sloped?"

He realized then that Natquik was right; the floor was sloped, quite subtly, toward the missing wall. Now that he'd noticed it, though, the sensation of slowly slipping toward the void nagged at his mind. And suddenly, Hikoshu thought he knew exactly why they'd designed it that way.

"It's mental torture," he said, grasping one of the bars unconsciously. "It makes the prisoner over-vigilant – makes him think that if he stops paying attention, he'll fall out of the window."

Hikoshu didn't need a fire to see Natquik's disgusted look. "Then how do they sleep?"

"I suppose they don't." He also supposed the roof, or lack thereof, was to wear at the captives with the elements. In monsoon season, when the rain pelted down, it would be hard to hold onto the bars. Even harder to keep their feet on the slippery floor, sloped as it was. Horrible. "Doesn't look like anyone else is here, though."

"Savages," Natquik muttered darkly, then took a step back as he pulled the water skin from his bulky robe. "Watch out."

Hikoshu moved out of the way, and in the dim firelight, Natquik's water rippled under his fingers, its surface tensing as he drew his arm back. Then, sharply, he slashed at the lock with the side of his hand. There was a high-pitched screech.

Natquik resealed his water skin as the door slowly swung open on its hinges, the lock sliced in half. "For the sake of their captors, I hope my people aren't up here." His voice, for once, lacked all humor, and with a grim look, he strode toward the center of the room. A bit startled, Hikoshu followed.

He wanted to take Miyo's glider with them, but the bamboo spines had been snapped again, so badly that the airbending mechanism wouldn't even work. And carrying around an orange-spotted glider wasn't going to help them look any less conspicuous. So Hikoshu hid it in one of the cells, vowing to come back for it if he had the chance. He didn't think he would.

Under the – rather squeaky – metal-plated door was a stairwell, which they climbed down. There was no way they could be very stealthy while sneaking into the lower levels, but Hikoshu had Natquik follow him anyway, airbending at their feet to deaden the sound of their steps.

The stairs actually formed a wide spiral that likely would lead to the bottom level. The edge of his firelight caught a pipe running just above their heads, which Hikoshu supposed was designed to collect any excess rain run-off from the roof and channel it to the prison. When they came to a new floor, though, the pipe continued downward, plunging into darkness.

Breaking away from the stairs, they took the narrow door to their right. It led them into a squat hall that circled out of view to either direction, running parallel to the exterior of the round prison. In the wall across from them were four bronze-plated doors, the metal gleaming in the flame.

"Where are the cells?" Natquik asked, not bothering to lower his voice, and Hikoshu winced at the way it reverberated. Still, if there was anyone on the floor, they surely would have seen his fire by then. So he shrugged and approached the nearest door.

It was rather non-descript, only notable for its lack of a handle. What appeared to be a closed slot sat near eye level, and he used a finger to push it open. Beyond, the room was dark – invisible to him. With a frown, he stepped back and scanned the wall to either side of the door.

There. Two small holes in the stone, barely the size of a gold piece. Though they weren't very well hidden, they looked a lot like Fire-Locks. Holding his flame in one hand, he used the other to firebend into the topmost hole.

Light streamed out of the slot in the door, and he glanced inside to see the room now lit with lanterns somewhere out of view. Across from the door was a cell, closely resembling those on the top floor, save for solid stone instead of a drop-off as its back wall.

The cell was empty.

"The top hole lights the lanterns," he said, stepping back for Natquik to look, "the bottom one must open the door." While the waterbender examined the room, Hikoshu searched for more such locks. He didn't find any, excepting a rectangular hole just above the door. He didn't know what that was for.

When Natquik was satisfied the room was empty, Hikoshu stuck his fingers through the slot and bended the lanterns out. Which was, actually, an impressive firebending trick, with such little room to maneuver and the lanterns somewhere out of sight. But there was no one around to impress with it, and so he just slid the slot closed before they moved on to the next door.

They searched every other cell on the floor just like that – all sixteen of them. Given how long they worked on checking each door, Hikoshu was surprised that no guard stumbled on them. He supposed it could have been a turn of good fortune, but something in him whispered that it really wasn't. And as he let Natquik study the rooms, Hikoshu kept a wary eye on the hall to either side, at each moment expecting a surprise attack.

A bit of bad luck, though, was that all the cells were empty. Meaning they had to search a whole new floor, and with fading optimism, they took the stairs to the next level, which was identical to the one above.

However, this floor did have prisoners. Just not the ones they were looking for. The men inside those cells were unwashed and unkempt, blinking weary eyes as Hikoshu's lanterns woke them. Most of the men were asleep on the cold stone, their chests bare and their drab brown pants dirty. Many of them sat propped against the bars. And something in him felt pity for their condition. As this was a political prison, these men were probably not hardened criminals who'd committed atrocities. Probably.

But he didn't really know what they'd done. And saving them now might jeopardize Natquik's chances of finding his family. So Hikoshu quelled the whisperings of his conscience, and ignored the guilt that surged in him each time he saw another prisoner gaze at them between the bars.

Not right now, he told himself. As Yojing would've said, if he fought every battle, he could lose the war. And Hikoshu feared that whatever this 'war' was, it wasn't something he could afford to lose.

The third floor was where their luck ran out, just as their optimism was hitting its lowest. While Natquik checked, unenthusiastically, the thirty-sixth cell that night, Hikoshu heard a noise echoing from the stairwell, so faint that only his raw nerves had managed to catch it. He motioned for the waterbender to be quiet as he put out his flame, and they listened, with held breath, to the nearing sounds of distant footsteps.

Hikoshu had hoped the individual would continue up the stairs, but his heart sunk when the sound paused at their floor, and firelight glowed around the curve of the hallway. The person waited there for a long moment, his light wavering against the stone, and then the echo of the footsteps changed as he entered the hall.

Thinking quickly, Hikoshu tugged on Natquik's sleeve, urging him away from the firelight. They could just follow the circle around – hopefully steal by the guard while he searched one side.

"You got it?" a voice rang out along the corridor, and Hikoshu came to such an abrupt stop that Natquik smacked into him.

"Yeah, I'm checking," a second voice answered, just out of sight, as the faint glow of another fire snuck around the corner in front of them.

Which meant they couldn't slip past. And he wasn't ready to fight guards when they hadn't even found the tribesmen yet. With a glance behind them, Hikoshu signaled Natquik to the nearest door and firebended into the second lock.

The door clicked audibly. Though it was such a small sound, Hikoshu cringed as if it had shattered the air. Fortunately, the bronze-plated wood jerked open an inch or two, which he pushed wider to usher Natquik through. Once in the room, he used airbending to shut the door, this time quite loudly. Rattled, he shoved Natquik against the wall next to the entrance and hid beside him.

It took several moments for Hikoshu to realize that the lanterns in this room were already lit, and that they were not alone. Two figures watched them from the square cage across the room, their faces showing the same astonishment that his likely had. One was a man in his early thirties, kneeling behind the bars of the cell. His robes were wrinkled and his hat was missing, but he was quite obviously a Fire Sage, his clothing recognizable despite the grime. His loose black hair framed a gaunt face that stared at them with distinct dread. As if they had come there to hurt him.

In front of him, kneeling just outside the cell, was a cloaked girl in her mid-teens. Her neck was bent so she could study them, her eyes catching the light such that they burned yellow. And in her hair flashed a gold flame tiara.

He knew that tiara. He knew that girl. But he didn't know if she knew him.

Next to them, the slot in the door slid open, the grating noise jarring Hikoshu. Past it, he heard the voice of the second guard. "Is everything alright in here?"

The girl's eyes jumped from them to the soldier, who was invisible behind the door. And Hikoshu regarded her with desperation, trying to silently communicate. Praying she wouldn't give them over to the guard and force him to fight.

"Yes, it's fine," she said after a moment. The surprise was now gone from her face, and her voice was smooth, unhesitant. "Could you give me just a little longer, Eishi? Please?"

"Just until the Gopher-Cat Hour. If I hold off the patrols beyond that, the men might start talking."

"Thank you," she said with a smile charming enough to disarm any man. The slot slid shut, and then they were all four left in silence.

But Hikoshu still waited for her to speak first. Beside him, he felt Natquik shift – probably to get better access to his water skin – and her eyes darted to him. Then, summoning all of the commanding presence that her father had ever had, Tala rose to her feet.

"I demand to know who you are and what you're doing here."

Hikoshu stuck an arm in front of Natquik, preventing him from whatever he was planning to do, and took a step forward. "Your Highness, I'm not sure-"

Even before he finished, her eyes went wide, and with a gasp, she dove at him, her cloak flying behind her. "Hikoshu!" A breath later, she'd flung her arms around him, her hug encompassing his shoulders.

The fact she was hugging him was almost as surprising as the fact she could hug him. The last time Hikoshu had seen Tala, she was ten-years-old, about to leave for the Fire Academy. Yet here she was, tall enough to reach his shoulders, and where she'd been a scrawny kid in his memory, she was now on the brink of adulthood, almost a woman.

"Good spirits, look at you!" She drew back at arm's length to scan him with some shock, but her reaction only made him grin.

"Look at me? How about you?" Tala had changed a lot in six years. Though she'd always resembled her father a little, she now looked very much like her brother. She still had her father's prominent brow and thick eyebrows, but that thin nose and high-set cheeks were definitely from another bloodline. And her robes, which used to be short and made for movement, were now regal, draped elegantly from a red sash tied just below her breasts. The latter, of course, also being a new development in the last few years, obscured below a double-layered mantle.

All of it hidden under a cloak, which did nothing to diminish the aura of nobility Tala emanated.

"Don't mean to interrupt," Natquik said sharply, bringing him back from the brief, if happy, reminiscence, "but could we catch up later?"

That also jerked Tala back to the present, and her face filled with horror. "Hikoshu, you have to get out of here."

"Well, we're working on that."

"No, I mean it!" Her voice turned earnest as she seized his arm. "Someone in the Fire Nation wants to capture you."

"We're working on that, too," Natquik said from his shoulder, having wrestled out the waterbending skin. Tala's bright yellow eyes never left him, though.

"So you know about Yojing's murder?"

The words shot through him like lightning. "He was murdered?"

"My father, too."

Since leaving the Air Temple, he'd suspected it, but this was the first time it'd been confirmed. And the sadness in her eyes closely mirrored the sadness that he knew was in his.

"I'm sorry, Tala."

"It doesn't matter now." She shook her head, as if to chase away the momentary rush of emotion. "But they were killed while trying to protect you. So you have to get out of here!"

Hikoshu didn't have the time, or the energy, to explain why he couldn't. "What do you know about the men trying to capture me?" he asked instead, gently pulling her hand from his arm.

Tala must have not been used to others ignoring her pleas; her mouth twisted into an insulted frown, but fortunately, she didn't protest. "The Great Sage Himizu wants to control the Avatar. He wants to keep you in the Fire Nation."

"His Eminence?" Hikoshu was stunned. Beyond stunned. Though he'd never known exactly who was behind the plot, the possibility of it being the most venerable of all Fire Sages was so far from his suspicions – so far from anything that made sense…

A soft thump drew him from his daze, and he glanced past Tala's shoulder to the cage on the other side of the room. The bedraggled Fire Sage had dropped to the floor, his forehead pressed to the stone in reverence.

Which reminded him. "What are you doing here?" Hikoshu directed the question to Tala, though he pushed past her to approach the cage.

"This is the Fire Sage Yin Ke," she said just behind him. "He's being held prisoner for speaking out of turn against my brother."

"You can get up, Sage Yin Ke," he murmured as he touched the bars, and the man lifted his head just enough to stare at him, dull ochre eyes filled with the same despair he'd seen in the faces of other prisoners.

"He knew something about my father's murder, as well as my brother's implication in it," Tala continued as the Sage got to his feet. "Nizan had him arrested several weeks ago, and I've been visiting him ever since."

"Wait, Nizan?" Natquik said, surprised. "As in Fire Lord Nizan? That's your brother?" There was a momentary hesitation. "Hikoshu, why aren't we just taking her hostage?

Hikoshu spun at those threatening words, in time to see Tala shift into a defensive stance, one fist at her hip and another near her face. "I don't know you, but I'd like to see you try."

"Oh, gladly." And Natquik flipped the lid off his water skin with a thumb.

"Stop!" Hikoshu hissed loudly, holding up his hands as he stepped between them. "Natquik, we're not kidnapping anyone." As neither seemed interested in going through him, they slowly relaxed their guard. Though they continued to glare at each other past his head. "Tala, this is Natquik. His family's been taken captive by someone in the Fire Nation, and we need to find them."

"They don't hold peasants in this prison." Her father's infamous temper had surfaced, and she didn't remove her heated stare from Natquik as she spoke.

Natquik was unfazed. "If this 'prison' is how you treat the people you dignify, I can't imagine what happens to those you don't."

"He's Water Tribe," Hikoshu explained, nearly speaking over his friend. "The woman he's engaged to, and her uncle, were taken in a plan to-"

"-to teach you to waterbend." The response came from Yin Ke, and each head swiveled toward him. He was holding the bars now, his face pressed against them, hair falling across one eye. "There were rumors, but…no one knew for sure."

"Where are they, firebender?" Suddenly, Natquik was advancing on the cage, water writhing over his hands, and Hikoshu had to catch him by the arm to stop him. It didn't stop his glower, though.

Yin Ke took a step back. "I don't know! They were just rumors." Now he spoke to Hikoshu, his voice trembling with either anxiety or fatigue. "It was part of the isolationists' plan to control you. To keep you from being influenced by other nations. But the plan was so ridiculous…so unlikely…that we thought the rumors had to be untrue. Even if His Eminence were an isolationist, he would have never approved of the kidnapping of foreign royalty."

And yet, before this night, Hikoshu would have never suspected Himizu might be behind the murder of his former master.

"He's right." Tala still sounded angry. And now offended. "Even if Himizu would approve of something like that, Nizan wouldn't. It's an invitation to war."

Natquik's tone was scathing as he bended the water back into its skin. "Never stopped the Fire Nation before."

The quip was too much. Tala's temper again flared, and hot air blasted at them, forcing Hikoshu to once more hold up his hands.

"Stop it! Fighting's not helping anyone right now." Eventually, her anger subsided, but she still gritted her teeth. "Just tell me, are there any foreigners in this prison right now?"

"No. Not a one."

"She's lying," Natquik said flatly. Again, the temperature rose with her ire.

"How dare you-?"

"Enough!" Hikoshu's impatience got a little out of control, and flames burst from his fists, clenched at his sides. "Both of you! We don't have time for this!" Taking a breath to calm himself, he addressed Tala. "Are you sure there isn't?"

She seemed even unhappier that he was now questioning her word. "Yes. I've been through this prison nearly every day for the last two weeks. I'm friends with the captain, half the staff – and I'm the Fire Princess. I think it would have been mentioned if there were waterbenders here."

"There can't be, anyway." Again, Yin Ke spoke up, though he'd withdrawn to the back of the cage as if to avoid the inevitable bending fight between Tala and Natquik. Now he gestured with a shaking hand to the right, toward one of two thin windows set high in the wall outside the cage. "It rained for days not too long ago. There were puddles all over this room." A visible shudder ran through his shoulders, his eyes falling closed at some unknown horror. "The stone's still weeping from it."

"A room like that wouldn't hold a waterbender," Hikoshu finished for him. Natquik still seemed distrustful, but he couldn't argue that logic, and Tala stared him down with haughty satisfaction.

"Is there anywhere else they might be?" Hikoshu pressed, though with little hope. Tala couldn't even believe there were Water Tribe prisoners. And, just as he guessed, she was still dubious. "Anywhere. Some place that might hold an old man and a young girl about your age."

She opened her mouth to staunchly deny the possibility once more, but then she hesitated, a thought flitting past her eyes as her gaze unfocused. "Wait…there is something." And her attention quickly latched onto Natquik as he came to a stand by Hikoshu, her eyes communicating a silent threat for him to stay right there. "The Ambassadors' Wing currently holds a girl my age. I don't know anything about her; just that she's a guest of Nizan."

"Could it be Sahani?" Hikoshu now looked to Natquik, whose eyebrows were drawn in concern and doubt. "Without her uncle?"

"Maybe." He didn't sound very sure. "Maybe, as a waterbender, he's been put somewhere else. Or maybe…" Natquik trailed off with a dark, furtive glance at Tala. But out of respect for Hikoshu, he said no more.

The frustration made him scrub at his eyes with the heel of his palm. "We don't have time to search both here and at the Palace, so we need to make a decision." They wouldn't finish exploring all the cells before morning, and even with Tala's help, they would still have to contend with the guards. But the Palace…if Tala were with them, the Palace guards would probably let them by. And the Ambassadors' Wing was so much smaller than the prison…

And maybe if it was Sahani, she could tell them where her uncle was. It'd be so much simpler than searching blindly through all of Mazo Prison.

"Your Highness, I know it's a lot to ask," he said, dropping his hand away from his face, "but you're our only hope of getting into the Palace. Is there any chance you would help us?"

Tala's eyes jumped to the cage just behind him. "On one condition. You help me free Sage Yin Ke."

"Your Highness," Yin Ke protested, having approached the front of the cell once more, "please don't. If he found out, your brother-"

"-will have me to deal with." She swept past Hikoshu to stand before Yin Ke. "This is our only opportunity. If Hikoshu can melt these bars…"

Perhaps he could, but it'd probably destroy his hands or half the people in the room. Fortunately, Natquik read his mind and bended some water free. Without warning anyone first, he sliced through the padlock, just as he'd done earlier, and Tala jumped back from the squeaking grate. Surprised, her gaze swung toward him, but the look he returned was severe.

"If this is a mistake, firebender, I won't regret it alone."

There wasn't any time to waste. As Tala helped Yin Ke out of the cell, Hikoshu returned to the main door to search out a Fire Lock. The stone, though, was smooth, which left him fumbling at the grout.

"You can only open it from the outside," Tala said behind him, and he sighed. So much for simple. Instead, he pressed his hand against the bronze, intending to firebend their way out. "Wait!" It was Tala again. "You can't burn the door. There's a heat-sensitive lock outside, just above it. If the door catches on fire, it'll seal off the stairwell."

Exasperated, he glanced back to her. She stood just in front of Natquik, the hood of her cloak over her head, Yin Ke's arm wrapped around her neck. The Sage, in turn, looked weak, half of his weight resting on the smaller girl. How he was going to get four of them out of there without anyone seeing, he didn't know. And he wasn't even entirely sure if being quiet would save them any trouble at this point.

Fine. Hikoshu motioned them back as he stepped away from the door. Then, getting some force behind him, he airbended at it, his palms splayed toward the bronze. It held at first, so that a gale swirled around the room, beating at them. Both lanterns immediately went out, and they were cast into darkness.

After a moment, though, the door groaned, then creaked. Then, with a loud crack, the whole thing broke apart, slamming into the hallway. Hikoshu quickly lit a flame, which revealed the door, wood splintered and metal bent, lying on the floor.

"You might want to try harder next time," Natquik noted dryly, somewhere behind him. "Because I don't think the guards heard that."

Sparing him a brief, annoyed frown, Hikoshu crawled out into the corridor.

Of course, the guards had heard it – or possibly even felt it – and as their small group moved quickly down the stairs, Hikoshu now supporting Yin Ke, agitated voices floated toward them from below.

Natquik elbowed past them before the guards' firelight appeared around the curve of the stairwell, his water skin out, and bended ice across the steps. While he did that, Hikoshu craned his head back to find Tala, keeping his voice low. "Your Highness, you have to hide."

"You need help-"

"If they see you with us, it's going to cause a lot more trouble. For everyone."

Tala looked upset, but at least she didn't argue. "Don't hurt Captain Eishi. He's a good man." Hikoshu had no idea how he'd identify the captain. He nodded, anyway, though, to get her out of there faster. And obediently, she slipped higher up the stairs, out of sight.

Just in time. Two guards had rounded the corner, the flames in their hands highlighting the heavy metal helmets that rested around their heads. They hesitated, then dashed up the stairs with shouts of "Prisoners!" and "Hurry!" In four steps, though, they hit the ice. And suddenly, they were tumbling out of view.

"Will they be alright?" Hikoshu asked as Natquik bended his water back.

"I just hope they took out some other guards on their way down." And then he was moving again. Hikoshu paused to call for Tala, who followed after them.

At the next landing, they found the two guards slumped against the wall and floor, both men groaning in obvious pain, one's helmet missing and his head bleeding. There was no time to help them, though, and the guards didn't try to stop the group. So they hurried by, leaving the men in their wake.

Unfortunately, the next pair of soldiers sprang on them too quickly for Natquik to use his ice trick again. Before the men could fire on them, though, Hikoshu just leveled them with air, and their bodies ricocheted off the wall before rolling away.

"How much further?" Hikoshu asked as Tala once more caught up to them.

"Three levels to the ground floor, and then out through the foyer." Well, that sounded easy enough.

But, of course, it wasn't nearly that easy. No guards assaulted them for the last three floors, instead making the intelligent decision to wait for them at the bottom. There was no other exit, so they would be forced to come out that way. Right into an ambush.

Before they reached the bottom, Hikoshu paused to pull Yin Ke from his shoulder. "Can you fight?"

Yin Ke was white, profusely sweating, and didn't look in any condition to firebend. But he nodded, anyway. "Yeah. Yeah, I can."

"Good. You need to protect Tala."

"I don't need a guardian, Hikoshu," she said from behind the Sage. He glanced up at her, ignoring her objection.

"Cover yourself with that cloak. I don't want them to see you."

She certainly wasn't used to someone so calmly brushing her off, but Hikoshu didn't have time for any other arguments. Instead, he looked to Natquik, who faced forward, his water forming a globe over his hand. "Count of three. I'll airbend a shield, you take out any guards that get around it. Alright?"

"I'm waiting for you." Natquik's face was hard with determination, still set in that severe frown that he'd worn for most of the night. So much unlike the Natquik he'd known for over a month. But, Hikoshu supposed, being in the nation of one's enemy left little room for humor. Especially when the people he loved were in danger. Roughly, though, he pushed the thought away and focused on the task at hand, counting aloud to three. They then jumped out into the foyer.

He'd expected guards to surround him on both sides. What he didn't expect was a completely empty room. Just outside of the stairwell was a narrow corridor, which eventually opened onto a much wider space, lit with torches. Beyond that, Hikoshu could see a door. But still, no men. No one, from all appearances, ready to attack. And hesitantly, his instincts screaming that something was wrong, he took a step into the corridor.

Fire blinded him, so close that it may have singed his eyebrows, and he dropped below the bout of flame, twisting underneath it. But as he came up, another blast shot from his right, which he blocked with his arm.

The attacks were fast enough that it took him a moment to find their source. In the walls on either side were long slots like those in the prison doors, but these were open, spurts of flames issuing from them. The guards had hidden behind the barriers to protect themselves, leaving the four exposed.

"Get back!" he shouted, but it was too late; they'd already followed him into the gauntlet of fire. Dodging another blast, he jammed his hand against one slot and airbended through the hole. On the other side, something thumped loudly, and the fire stopped.

Natquik had sealed off one slot with ice, which resulted in a scream from behind the wall, and now he was shooting darts of ice through the other holes. Yin Ke and Tala, though, were invisible, hidden in heat and fire. At that moment, another blast caught Hikoshu by the shoulder, and he abandoned his attempt to find them, instead focusing on the immediate threat. Pivoting on his heel, he drew the fire into a sphere of wind, then hurled it out toward the foyer, away from their party.

"Hurry, get to the door!" He broke apart a blast, and blocked a second. But there were simply too many attacks, each bout of flame quickly replaced by another one before he'd even stopped the first. "Walk below the-"

In his distraction, one nearly caught him in the face. But it was intercepted, quite skillfully, by Tala's tiny form, her cloak obscuring her features as her thin wrists took the brunt of the attack. Startled, Hikoshu stepped back, only to encounter more flame, and silently, he decided to thank her when the timing was more appropriate.

Natquik was the first to make it to the other side, though he was pretty much defenseless, his water having evaporated in the fight. Instead, he was bent over, Yin Ke under his arm, as he used his surprising agility to avoid most of the flames. Without waiting for Hikoshu, he dropped Yin Ke and darted across the room, toward the entrance.

Hikoshu's attention, however, was still on the firebenders, as well as Tala, who lingered behind in an attempt to help. Brushing off the scorching heat of a well-placed blow, he spun about and threw her out into the foyer with an air blast.

She yelped as she flew forward, but he was already behind her, forcing her to keep running out of the corridor and into the larger section of the room. From the walls, he heard men shouting, and knew that they'd emerged from their protective barrier to follow.

He saw now why Natquik had gone ahead. Behind the open door was another narrow passageway, partly blocked by a groaning portcullis. It hung mid-air, shaking, as a column of ice held it aloft. Natquik was on the other side with Yin Ke, both looking a bit scorched but still alive.

The moment that Tala and Hikoshu slipped under that grate, Natquik bended the ice away, letting the portcullis fall into place with a loud clang. The guards, their bodies merely silhouettes against the red light of the room, smashed into the bars, which dragged cries of frustration from them. But before they could find the raising mechanism to open the door, Natquik flushed water over the entrance, sealing the entire thing in ice.

Panting, Hikoshu took a moment to collect his bearings. It was then he realized that the prison was surrounded by a shallow moat, which was the source of Natquik's water. Across the bridge, the outer wall of the prison loomed before them, and from a tiny corridor in its base, two men came running.

He had to suppress a weary groan. "Natquik…"

"On it." Just as the two new assailants approached, Natquik drew up an arc of water, the cloudy, black liquid twisting wide around him. If, perhaps, they had suspected a waterbender, they could have destroyed the attack. But these men were caught by surprise, and as Natquik slammed it into the ground, it shot back up in a wave to engulf their waists. Immediately it froze, holding them in place.

When the group had crossed the prison yard and escaped the still-open gate, Natquik turned back to bend the men loose. Calling the water to him, he also sealed the second gate in ice, and then breathlessly faced Hikoshu. "Not going to hold firebenders for very long."

"If they didn't recognize Princess Tala, they may not have any clue where we're going." Knowing their luck, the guards probably had. "We need to hurry."

Tala was holding Yin Ke by the arm, who looked to have taken the flight harder than the rest of them. He held his side, his face waxy in Hikoshu's flame. "I can't go with you. I'm only going to slow you down."

"Sage Yin Ke," Tala began, but he shook his head, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.

"Your Highness, you rescued me. And I'll always be in your debt. But I can't put you at any more risk." Gently, he pulled himself from her grip to stand on his own. "I'll go to the Fire Temple. Perhaps, there, my fellow Sages might offer me sanctuary."

Hikoshu had to wonder why they hadn't offered him any in the first place, when by all rights, Nizan should've never even arrested a Fire Sage. Still, a lot of things in the last two months had surprised him about his own home country. A Fire Sage in a political prison seemed the least surprising of them all.

Tala, though, was as unsatisfied with this arrangement as she had been with everything else that evening. "Here, take this." And she pulled from her hair the flame tiara, offering it, along with its gold pin, to him.

"Your Highness-"

"Use it to persuade others to help you, or use it to buy a boat – I don't care. But please use it." She pressed it into his hands when he refused to take it from her, her voice earnest. "You stood up for my father's memory, Honorable Sage. And my father's spirit now insists that I honor you."

They shared a moment, older Sage and young girl exchanging silent emotions that Hikoshu only barely comprehended. But those firebenders would get through that door soon, and they didn't have time for 'moments.' So when Yin Ke finally nodded, he couldn't suppress a sigh of relief.

"Of course, Your Highness. Thank you."

Tala smiled sadly. "Be careful, Yin Ke."

"You, too, Your Highness." Then he was gone, swallowed by the jungle.

It took two attempts to get Tala's attention, so engrossed was she in watching Yin Ke's retreat. Finally, though, she shook herself out of her dark thoughts, and looked to Hikoshu with a frown.

"You have to get us to the Palace. Now."

"Of course." With a final glance at the spot where Yin Ke had disappeared, she turned to a large, cleared path and directed them to follow.

"I hope Sahani isn't in that prison," Natquik murmured, sparing one last, sad look to the walled structure.

"I hope so, too." Because if she was, then it would be all his fault for putting their faith in Tala.

Hikoshu truly hoped the princess would not let them down.

A/N: The concept of the prison - ie, the top floor - was probably borrowed from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I haven't read the book in five years or so, but I'm 80-percent sure that's what 'inspired' me, so to speak. Since I can't remember the scene very well, I also don't know how similar it is. Just that it involved sloped floors and an open wall in a prison cell (I think his also involved honey-combs? ...maybe?). However, I can certainly guarantee his was better written and better described.

I also recommend anyone reading this to read that. If you like Medieval fantasy, then you'll love his books. Heck, you'd probably love them even if you hate Medieval fantasy. But the books are rather adult in nature, so some may not like it for that. Anyway, credit where credit's due - the idea was awesome and I wish I could claim I invented it myself. If only I were so creative...