NOTES:
Hi patient readers! Just to let you guys know, I've started a side story spin-off of "With Or Without You", starring Tam and Piandao. It's called "Got a Bad Desire", and it runs alongside the events of "With Or Without You", but told from their perspective. I really wanted to explore their romance but I didn't want to switch focus in the main story to side characters, so I spun them off into their own thing.
If you have no interest in reading about Tam and Piandao's romantic adventures, that's okay. Any important plot points covered in their story will be mentioned with enough context in "With Or Without You" that you won't be missing anything crucial. Mostly the story is just to indulge my shippy tendencies without cluttering the main storyline with it. haha
Just be aware that there is a large age gap between Tam and Piandao. He's 52, she's 25. If that's something that squicks or triggers you, read with caution.
Anyway, Chapter One of "Got a Bad Desire" is already up and ready to read. The events of chapter one take place right before the events of this chapter (34) of WOWY. You can choose to read it before you read this, or after. Up to you.
You can find "Got a Bad Desire" on my author page. Enjoy! And thank you so much for reading!
Part II: Thirty-Four
"He's not awake yet," Nam-Kyu said, the moment Suki walked into the healing ward, followed closely by Ty Lee, right on her heels. "And before you ask, neither is our one-footed assassin. You really did a number on her."
"Well, she had it coming," Suki snapped. Nam-Kyu's lips twitched and Suki thought she might be fighting a smile. "How is Guo?"
Nam-Kyu sighed and then gestured to a woman standing in the corner of the healing ward's waiting room. The room was empty, save the six Royal guardsmen positioned at both entrances to the waiting room, and the entrance to the hallway that led to the patient's rooms. They had nodded Suki and Ty Lee into the room from the outside entrance, but only after she'd declared who she was, which was part of the lockdown security protocols she'd put into place after the attack.
No one was going to get into the healing ward to finish off Councilman Guo if she could help it.
The woman came over and nodded grimly at her. She was passing familiar to Suki, as one of the healers who had worked on Guo. She had a soft, pretty face, and a motherly air to her that was soothing where Nam-Kyu was abrasive and hard. Suki couldn't help thinking that most patients probably preferred her to Nam-Kyu on any given day.
"Healer Satori is in charge of the Councilman's care. She did an excellent job on him," Nam-Kyu said with pride in her voice. Suki smiled a little and bowed to Satori, who bowed back.
"Thank you for saving his life, Satori."
Satori blushed and pushed a strand of her brown hair back behind her ear. "Thank you, Seneschal. It wasn't easy."
"But he'll recover?"
"Yes, I believe so. The dagger pierced his right lung and caused a pneumothorax—a collapsed lung. The wound was sucking when we removed the dagger, so we inserted a tube to drain the excess air and blood from his chest cavity and then stitched up the wound to prevent further bleeding and any more air getting in. We have him on the bellows machine to make sure his breathing remains stable. He was looking a little blue there for a while, but his color has come back. It looks like his lung has re-expanded and is functioning normally, but we'll be monitoring him until we're sure he's out of the woods. He lost quite a lot of blood. You saved his life, Seneschal."
"You saved his life. I just got him to you in time," Suki said, feeling her stomach flip over, and not from morning sickness this time. "Has his daughter seen him yet?"
Satori nodded. "She's with him now."
"And the assassin?" Ty Lee asked.
"Healer Pikon is in charge of her care. He's with her now. She's still sedated as well, but she pulled through surgery," Nam-Kyu said. "If she wakes up she won't like what you did to her foot."
"She's lucky I didn't put that qiang in her head instead," Suki said sourly. "I wanted answers more than I wanted her blood on my hands."
"I hope you get them."
"Me too. I know he's not awake, but may I see Councilman Guo?" Suki asked.
"I don't see any harm in that. Lady Cara might need some company too," Satori nodded and then gestured to the door to the ward. "She's been inconsolable."
"Oh, Cara," Ty Lee said, one hand straying to her throat. Suki glanced at her and then put her hand on Ty Lee's back.
"She'll be okay," Suki said. "Come on."
She started to follow Satori but felt Nam-Kyu's bony hand on her wrist.
"How are you, Seneschal? I know you've had a few large shocks in the past couple of days." Nam-Kyu's gravely voice was pointed and her eyes flicked down to Suki's stomach. Suki's hand strayed to the flat muscle there.
"I'm fine," she said in an undertone.
"No more fainting?"
"No," she said, glancing at Satori, who was watching with her head cocked. She didn't want to say too much in front of Satori, who didn't know about the pregnancy. She knew that Ty Lee and Tam wouldn't say anything to anyone, and she trusted Nam-Kyu to keep the secret as well, but she didn't want it to spread any further than that. Until she could tell Zuko, she wanted to keep the circle as small as possible. "We're fine."
"You'll tell me if that changes?"
"Of course," she said, as Nam-Kyu dropped her hand and nodded.
Suki smiled at her and then followed Satori and Ty Lee into the healing ward's long corridor. The rooms were empty on either side, but there were four guardsmen standing at attention before two sets of doors near the end of the sterile white hallway, holding long spears across the doorways.
They saw Satori coming and then eyed Suki and Ty Lee behind her.
"Seneschal," one of them bowed and pulled his spear back to allow them into the room Satori gestured to.
"Try to keep it brief, if you can. I'll leave you to it," Satori said, and bowed to her again, and then walked down the hallway. Suki hesitated at the door and then knocked softly, feeling her stomach folding over yet again.
After a moment, the door cracked open and a pair of puffy, reddened citrine eyes caught hers.
"Suki! I mean...Seneschal! I'm so glad to see you!" Lady Cara said, opening the door wide and swiftly embracing her. Suki stiffened, but then returned the hug. The taller girl held on tightly to her and Suki awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. Cara was trembling a little and when she pulled back, Suki could see that she'd been crying recently.
"Cara, are you okay?" Suki asked, and then flinched. It was clear that Cara was not okay. Why would she be, after what had happened to her father?
"I'm...I'm holding up. I'm glad you came. I didn't get a chance to thank you for saving his life the other evening. You could have been killed going after that woman."
"I'm just glad I caught her before she got away with it," Suki said grimly. "How is he?"
Cara stepped back from the doorway and when she did, Suki saw Guo for the first time. She hitched in a breath at the sight of him lying there with a mask over his mouth and nose.
He'd looked very old and very frail all of a sudden, with his skin waxen pale and his mouth slack beneath the mask strapped to his face. It was hard to believe, in that moment, that he was anything but a harmless old man. Suki felt guilty standing there in his room, watching the bellows pump, thinking of all times she'd secretly wished harm on the man who had set out to make her life in the palace a living hell.
Whatever his faults, and whatever issues she had with him, he hadn't deserved a dagger in the chest.
"I'm so sorry, Cara," Ty Lee said softly, as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind them. Cara looked at her and then her chin wobbled. Ty Lee saw it and put her arms around her just as Cara's strength gave out on her and she collapsed onto Ty Lee's shoulder, sobbing for all that she was worth. "It's okay, I'm here..."
"Oh, Ty Lee..." Cara sobbed and clutched at Ty Lee's uniform. Ty Lee steered her over to a padded bench against the wall, and Cara all but collapsed onto it, pulling Ty Lee down with her. Ty Lee patted her back and stroked her gloved hand through her hair.
Suki shifted in place, unsure what to do now that the floodgates had opened. She decided that Ty Lee had it under control and went over to Guo's bedside.
He was draped in a white sheet, with bandages over the wound the dagger had made in his chest. Just looking at the wound made Suki's shoulder ache. She'd taken a similar wound from an assassin's attack the year before, but she'd gotten luckier than Guo had. The dagger had missed her lungs and done only minor damage to the muscles in her shoulders. She still had an ugly scar from it, and it ached when the weather turned damp, but it hadn't slowed her down any.
But if that assassin had aimed just a few inches to the left...
Suki touched Guo's limp hand for a brief moment, willing him to wake up, as much for Cara's sake as her own. She wanted to know why someone had gone to such lengths to try and kill him, and why they had been ordered not to tangle with her if they could help it. There was something off about the whole thing.
And the dagger... Something about that dagger still bothered her. Tam had been right when she'd said that it wasn't an assassin's weapon. So why would an assassin have used it to try and kill Guo? Piandao had taken it with him, to examine it further, although she didn't know what he might find. The dagger looked familiar to her, but it was a common design that tended to look the same from one blacksmith to another. Even her own mother had made ones like it.
Still... Something was up with that dagger. She just couldn't think of what.
"He's always so strong, you know?" Cara was sobbing into Ty Lee's shoulder. "He can be very strict but he's...he's always wanted what was best for me. That's why he took the position on the Council. He wanted me to marry well. And he wanted to be a part of the new Fire Nation. He...he just always seemed so indestructible. Even after mother died, I... I knew I could count on him. He's always been so proud of me. He was so disappointed that he wasn't a Firebender, and neither was my brother, so when I was a Firebender like Mother, it was the happiest day of his life! He sent me to the best schools. He worked so hard to send me. When I was born we had nothing, and now look at us..."
Cara was babbling, sniffing and blubbering. It was hard to understand her through her tears, but Ty Lee just murmured to her, stroking her hair. It seemed to be exactly what Cara needed because she pushed her head into Ty Lee's neck and just clung there again.
Suki glanced at Ty Lee and frowned at the expression on Ty Lee's face. It was tender and filled with sorrow, and something else that made Suki's stomach tightened with worry. Ty Lee's crush on Cara had just edged into full-blown puppy love if she wasn't mistaken.
Suki decided right then and there that it was none of her business. Ty Lee was a grown woman, and she could look out of her heart herself. She just hoped Cara didn't eventually break that tender heart of hers.
Sighing, Suki turned away and looked at Guo again. "I have a lot of questions for you when you wake up, Guo."
The bellows pumped, competing with Cara's sobs in the sterile little room. Suki took a breath and started to say something to Cara when she heard a noise outside the door that set off warning bells in her head. The sound was followed by raised voices and a loud bang that rattled the door in its frame.
Ty Lee's head came up, and she jerked away from Cara instantly, gaining her feet and pulling the fan off of her belt.
"What's going on?" Cara sniffed and then jumped out of her seat as another loud bang rattled the door. "Another assassin?"
Ty Lee reached the door before Suki could, yanking it open and just narrowly missing getting hit in the face with the butt of one of the guardsman's spears. Ty Lee jerked her head away at the last second and ducked beneath the spear, entering the fray in the hallway with her fan drawn and her painted face in a determined grimace. The guardsman glanced at her, but let her pass. He was facing something in the hallway that Suki couldn't see.
Suki made to follow her, but Ty Lee seemed to realize what she was planning to do and whipped around to face her, pointing the fan at her and saying, "DON'T YOU DARE!"
Suki stopped, one hand straying to her stomach. She wanted to follow with every inch of her being, but she knew that she couldn't. Not now. She'd already made that mistake once and she wasn't going to do it again.
"Guard the Seneschal and Guo," Ty Lee barked to the guardsman who nearly got her in the face with his spear. He nodded and set his body in the open doorway. Suki came over to the door, but he held out his hand to stop her from getting past him.
"Careful, Seneschal. We have a situation," he said, as Suki got a look around the doorway over his arm.
What she saw made her gasp immediately, her mouth opening in shock. The other three guardsmen were standing in a semi-circle around two people at the end of the hallway. One was a man with a beard, wearing healer's robes. He had a pair of scissors to his throat, held by someone wearing a thin white gown and teetering on one foot. Her other leg ended in a thick white bandage, stained red and dripping blood on the floor beneath her. Part of the bandages was unraveled, trailing into the blood and onto the floor.
The assassin's eyes were wild, like a caged animal's and she was breathing hard, the scissors digging point first into the healer's throat. She was pale and sweaty, her dark hair clinging to her forehead.
"Let Pikon go right now!" Ty Lee said as she approached the assassin. "You have nowhere to go and you know it."
"Where am I?" the woman gasped, spittle flecking her lips. She jerked Pikon back and he grimaced, the scissors drawing blood now. It chased the closed blades and dripped down his robes. The woman hopped on her remaining foot, trying to capture her balance and using Pikon as a crutch. "What's going on?"
"You're in the palace healing ward," Ty Lee said in a patient voice, stalking slowly closer and closer, one inch at a time. "The man you're holding hostage is a healer. He saved your life."
The woman's eyes went wild. "My foot...what happened to my foot?"
"We had to amputate..." Pikon gasped, his face white as he flinched away from the dig of the scissors into his jugular. "There was no saving it. I'm sorry."
"You crippled me," the woman growled and shoved the scissors harder into his skin. Any more pressure and they would puncture his neck completely and he'd bleed out. Suki could see it and so could Ty Lee.
"Stop!" Suki said, shoving the guardsman's arm out of the way and ducking into the hallway. "He's not the one who crippled you. I put that qiang in your foot. Not him!"
"You!" the woman said, dragging the scissors away from Pikon's throat and pointing the blood blade at Suki. "You did this, you bitch! You killed me!"
"Suki, get back!" Ty Lee said, without turning to look at her. Suki ignored her.
"You look pretty alive to me," Suki said. "You're lucky I didn't kill you for what you did to Guo."
Something flickered in the woman's eyes. "Did I kill him? That...that dagger... I saw it. It didn't hit where it should have. Is he dead?"
Suki smiled at her, smugly. "No. You missed his heart. He's alive. So you're either the shittiest assassin I've ever seen, or your heart wasn't in it."
The woman's pale face went red and her eyes seemed hazy all of a sudden. Her arm dropped away from Pikon's shoulders and she sagged in place. Pikon jerked away from her, running past Ty Lee, clutching the slice on his throat.
Suki ignored him, watching the assassin as she dropped the bloody scissors with a clang.
"I failed."
Her knee buckled and she hit the ground, sitting there, looking defeated and pale. She looked at the bandages stained dark red and then up at Suki. Their eyes met for a long moment as Ty Lee kicked the scissors away from her, and gestured to the guardsmen to grab her.
"Wait, stop," Suki said, making the guardsmen look from her to Ty Lee and back again. Ty Lee glanced at her and then nodded. Suki came up beside Ty Lee and crouched down before the assassin, who looked up at her with bleak eyes. "Who sent you after Guo?"
The assassin laughed tiredly. "You think I'll tell you that?"
"Things will go much easier for you if you cooperate with our investigation. Were you hired to kill him?"
"I was hired to do a job and I failed. Do you understand? I failed. I didn't get away and that means I failed," the woman said, but not to Suki. She suspected that she was talking to herself. "He's alive and that means..."
"Tell us who hired you. Why Guo?" Suki said loudly. The woman looked up at her and then laughed again. The sound was exhausted and defeated, and full of hatred.
"You stupid, Earth Kingdom bitch. This all your fault," the woman said and then her tongue dug into her cheek. The next moment she bit down on something hard, making Suki frown in confusion.
"What are you...? No!" Suki said, and then gasped, surging forward and grasping the woman's face, trying to force her mouth open. It was too late though. Bloody pink foam frothed on her lips as the assassin glared at Suki. "No! No!"
The woman collapsed backward, all of the weight easing out of her body as she jerked in place. The foam spilled down her chin as one last rattling breath left her. Then she was still. Suki stared at her for a long moment, breathing hard, unable to grasp what had happened.
The assassin's eyes were still trained on Suki as she watched the light in her eyes die.
"Spirits...did she just...?" Ty Lee breathed beside her. Suki glanced at her and then sensed someone moving up beside her. It was Pikon, clutching his sleeve against his bloody neck. He glanced at her and then pressed his fingers to the woman's neck, checking for a pulse.
Suki already knew that he wouldn't find one.
Pikon dropped his fingers and then opened the woman's mouth, bending to smell the foam on her lips and chin. He pulled back and said grimly, "Poison."
"Where did she get poison?" Suki asked, glaring at Pikon, who seemed taken aback.
"I don't know," he said, looking as stunned as she felt.
"What happened? How did she get the jump on you?"
Pikon stood, still clutching his bloody neck. "I thought she was unconscious. She should have been! I was changing her bandages and I turned my back to get some more gauze. When I turned back around she was awake and she had the scissors. She grabbed me before I could do much more than shout for help and by the time the guards came she had the scissors at my throat. It happened so fast..."
"We were afraid to rush her," one of the guardsmen said, as Satori and Nam-Kyu came down the hallway. Suki had seen them out of the corner of her eye, standing there at the end of the hallway watching the standoff. "She could have killed him."
"You did the right thing," Suki told them, sighing as she stood. She stared down at the assassin and then glanced up at Pikon again. He looked stunned, as Satori pressed a bandage to his throat. Nam-Kyu stood over the assassin and prodded her with her foot.
"Looks like a poison capsule," Nam-Kyu said grimly.
"Where did she get that?"
"Not from my stores, I can tell you," Nam-Kyu said, looking at Pikon. "You took her clothing off before the surgery, so she didn't pull it out of her pocket. Did you check her mouth at any point?"
"No," Pikon said, as Satori dabbed at his wound. "I didn't think to look. She must have had it the whole time. Tucked into her cheek maybe."
"I saw that once, a long time ago, during the war. They coat it in a hard shell so it doesn't dissolve. They have to bite down on it to break it open. And afterwards..." Nam-Kyu's voice trailed off and she prodded the dead woman again. She looked up and met Suki's eyes.
"A poison pill is a pretty serious contingency plan," Suki breathed.
"You heard her. She heard that she failed in her attempt to kill Guo," Ty Lee said. "She must have had orders to kill herself if she failed."
"That's something a Smoke Demon might have done, but she doesn't have the tattoo. I checked," Suki said, looking at the woman's eyes for a terrible moment. She was still staring accusingly up at Suki. She wished someone would close her eyelids, but she was loathe to reach down and touch her. Her stomach tightened uncomfortably and she tasted bile in her throat.
"If she's not a Smoke Demon then she must have really wanted Guo dead," Ty Lee said. "The moment she heard he survived she just gave up."
"I don't think it was Guo surviving that put her over the edge," Suki said slowly, unable to tear herself away from the woman's pale face and the pink foam still bubbling on her still lips. "I think it was that she failed to get away with it. She wasn't supposed to get caught."
"This isn't your fault," Ty Lee said sharply, and Suki looked at her. Ty Lee knew her too well. And hadn't the assassin told her that before biting down on that pill?
"I know. It's just...there go all of my answers," Suki sighed and then felt her stomach turn over again. It was the sight of the blood, and she knew it. The sharp coppery tang hit her nostrils and she felt her throat close. Her eyes did too and she put one hand against her lips, trying to will her stomach to settle down again.
She knew it was a losing battle and drew in a breath that smelled too much like blood and poison.
"Suki?"
"Excuse me," Suki said tightly, turning her back on them. Cara was as white as a sheet and clutching her throat as she watched everything from the doorway. The guardsman was still standing in a protective position, but when he saw the look on Suki's face, his frown turned into alarm.
"Seneschal?"
"Move or get puked on, your choice," she said shortly, and he quickly stepped aside, apparently convinced by the green shade of her skin.
"Suki, what's wrong?" Cara asked, stepping back from the door.
But Suki grabbed an empty bedpan from the shelf on the wall and shoved her face into it, heaving the contents of her stomach out right there in Guo's room. Cara gasped, one hand over her mouth as Suki vomited. She was breathing hard by the time her stomach stopped seizing, and she found herself sinking down onto the bench against the wall, the bedpan between her shaking knees.
"Fuck," Suki said with feeling, as Cara sat down beside her. She handed her a handkerchief from her pocket. Suki took it gratefully.
"Are you okay?"
"Not really," Suki sighed, wiping at her mouth. She looked up and saw the guardsman watching her with a grimace on his face. She glanced back at Guo, still motionless in the bed. She felt exhausted all of a sudden and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and forget everything that had just happened. Instead, she drew herself up and set the bedpan aside. "But when do I ever get a break?"
"My father doesn't give you much of one, I'm afraid," Cara said apologetically. "He doesn't like you."
"It's mutual," Suki said heavily. "But I swear I'm going to find out why someone would send an assassin after him. I promise I will find out who did this. That assassin was working for someone else. She failed to kill him. She was terrified when she found that out. Terrified of someone enough to kill herself."
Cara sniffed and rubbed at her runny nose. Even with puffy eyes and a runny nose, she was beautiful. No wonder Ty Lee was head over heels for her. She looked at her father in the bed for a long moment and then back at Suki. "Whoever hired her must be someone really powerful. And really scary."
Suki nodded. She agreed with her, and that was a sobering thought. An assassination attempt by a random enemy was one thing, but an enemy both powerful and threatening enough to make said assassin kill themselves rather than face their wrath for failure was another thing altogether.
"Do you know why they would go after your father?"
Cara hesitated and then said softly, "My father has a lot of secrets. He didn't get where he is without stepping on a few toes. Perhaps he angered someone along the way."
"Can you think of anyone?"
Cara shook her head. "No. No, he keeps me out of his business. I'm sorry. I don't know anything more than that."
Yet she couldn't help but think that Cara knew more than what she was saying. She didn't press the issue, however. She'd get her answers when Guo awoke if he had any to give.
Suki collected herself and went back out into the hallway, where Ty Lee was ordering more guards to stand watch over Guo, something Suki had been about to do. Ty Lee glanced at her with worry in her eyes, but she nodded grimly at her, trying to tell her that she was okay.
Just pregnant, she thought wearily, watching as orderlies put the body on a stretcher and carried it off to the morgue. Nam-Kyu eyed her with amusement but didn't ask her if she was okay. She already knew what was wrong and seemed to enjoy Suki's discomfort a little.
It took another hour, questioning Pikon, and dealing with everything, before Suki and Ty Lee marched back to her office.
"I'm worried about you," Ty Lee said.
"It was just morning sickness," Suki said, but Ty Lee grabbed her arm, stopping her.
"I don't mean that. I think you're in danger," Ty Lee said. "There's something off about this. I just have this feeling. I want to double the guard on you."
"You and Tam are doing just fine."
"You were attacked while I was on duty and should have been guarding but wasn't. That's not fine."
"Guo was attacked. I wasn't in any danger until I followed that assassin. Which was my own dumb fault," she said, rubbing her stomach.
"But I should have been there!"
"That's not your fault, Ty Lee. I told you to take Cara. You followed my orders."
"No, I just wanted to be alone with Cara. I left you vulnerable because my feelings got in the way of my duty," Ty Lee said sharply. "It's the same damned thing that happened after the ball last year. I thought Azula betrayed Zuko and I was so angry... I wanted to make her pay and it nearly got us all killed. I let my feelings overrun my good sense. And I did the same thing with Cara."
"It's not the same. And you didn't know the attempt on Zuko was fake. None of it was your fault."
"Yes, it was!" Ty Lee said hotly. "And so was what happened to Guo. If I'd been there, even guarding the door while you two spoke... She wouldn't have been able to come anywhere near him. I failed, Suki. And now Cara... Cara..." Her face fell and misery settled over her like a thick blanket.
Suki sighed and grasped her arms. "Look, I didn't want to say anything, because it's your business, but Cara... I see the way you look at her. I just want to make sure you're not going to get your heart broken."
Ty Lee licked her lips and looked down at her feet. "I like her, Suki. I more than like her. I keep telling myself that she'll never like me the same way, but then when I look at her, all I want to do is be with her, you know? Even as a friend. So long as I'm with her, that's okay."
"She definitely needs a friend right now," Suki agreed. "And she likes you. I can tell. I just don't want you to get hurt if she doesn't feel the same way you do."
"I'm a big girl, Suki."
"I know you are," she sighed, looping her arms around Ty Lee and holding her tightly. "I just want you to be happy. So stop beating yourself up about this. I don't blame you. No one does."
Ty Lee pressed her nose into Suki's shoulder for a long moment and then pulled back. "Don't think I don't know that you're changing the subject! I'm doubling your guard and that's final. Tam and I can only work single shifts and that's not enough protection," Ty Lee said firmly. "The Royal Guard can take up the slack until Zuko returns with the rest of the Warriors."
Suki sighed but knew by the light in Ty Lee's hazel eyes that there was no fighting it. She meant business. She could also see the sense in it, all things considered. Her hand strayed to her stomach. It wasn't about protecting her anymore. She had something precious to protect from harm now.
"Fine. Put as many guards on me as you need. I don't like it, but you're right," she said, as Ty Lee smiled and looped arms with her. They started walking down the path toward the palace, but Suki stopped dead in her tracks when she saw two familiar figures walking toward them. "Is that Tam and Piandao?"
She glanced at Ty Lee, who frowned. "What is she doing with him?"
"Knowing her, flirting for all that she's worth," Suki snorted. "She's going to eat that man alive if he doesn't watch out."
"And you're worried about my love life," Ty Lee intoned dryly, watching as Tam and Piandao spotted them and quickly made their way across the garden toward them.
"There you are! Fen said you'd come to the healing ward. Any news on Guo?" Tam said, glancing at Piandao, who nodded at her, looking grim. Suki looked between them, noting Piandao's hand on Tam's shoulder. She couldn't help the way her eyebrow rose. Piandao saw her look, and then seemed to catch himself. He dropped his hand quickly, clearing his throat and clasping his hands behind his back.
Well. That was interesting.
"I guess you haven't heard," Ty Lee said, and then launched in, telling them what had happened. Tam looked shocked but didn't interrupt. Piandao's stoic face grew dark, his gray eyes stormy as he listened. Suki let Ty Lee tell the story, lost in thought for a moment.
"That's not good," Tam said when Ty Lee had finished. She glanced at Piandao. "And by not good, I mean it's astoundingly bad. Drink until you blackout bad. Especially after what Piandao and I found out."
"What's wrong? What did you find out?" Suki asked, looking between them. Tam looked around and then gestured to a bench beneath one of the ornamental trees dotting the gardens. Piandao looked around the garden, but they were alone for the moment.
"Suki, there's no easy way to say this," Tam said, gesturing to Piandao for something. He pulled a red bundle out of his pocket and handed it to her gently. Suki frowned, as Tam slowly unwrapped it, revealing a familiar dagger. She recognized it as the one the assassin had used to stab Guo, which Piandao had taken to examine further.
"Did you find something?" she asked, glancing at Piandao, who shifted uncomfortably in place.
"There's a touchmark on the handle of the dagger, beneath the leather wrappings. I found it yesterday. I asked Tamarind to look at it for me, to confirm what I already suspected."
"And that was?"
Tam started forward, unwrapping the leather on the handle of the dagger. "Suki, the touchmark..."
Suki frowned and took the dagger from her. Her hand trembled as she stared at the familiar shape pressed into the metal. She knew how that shape had been formed. She could still remember watching her mother press her stamp into the blazing hot metal of whatever she was working on at the moment, the steam rising around her face.
She knew the touchmark as well as she knew her own name. It was shaped like a fan, tiny, smaller than the nail on her pinky toe. The same touchmark adorned all of her weapons. It was stamped into the edge of her fan, on her sword, on her armor. Everything her mother made carried that mark.
Suki's hands shook as she looked up at the two of them, and then at Ty Lee.
"My mother made this dagger," she said, unnecessarily, trying to process it. "Why would the assassin have one of my mother's daggers? I..."
"Maybe it's a coincidence? You know she sells them on the mainland. It could have been bought anywhere," Tam suggested, but Suki shook her head.
"No. No, there's no way this is a coincidence," she said, swallowing, feeling sick again. She refused to vomit. Not now. Her hands felt numb though and she felt Ty Lee take the dagger from her trembling fingers. Tam crouched down before her and touched her knee. It felt like everything was spinning around her all of a sudden.
She knew. She knew it wasn't a coincidence. And so did Tam. She could see it in Tam's eyes. It was Piandao who voiced what they were all thinking, however.
"Someone gave the assassin this dagger on purpose, knowing it could be traced back to your mother fairly easily. And then to you. Clearly, someone is trying to make it look like you ordered the attempt on Guo's life. You're being set up, Seneschal."
The words echoed in Suki's ears as she looked from Piandao to Tam and then to Ty Lee.
"Well," Suki said with a weary sigh. "Fuck."