Chapter 10
The next morning, the boy awoke to tense whispers filtering through his bedroom door. He slid open the door to find his parents huddled around the cramped kitchen table. They hadn't noticed him yet.
"…you should have never accepted that deal with the Truthspeakers," his mother said.
Truthspeakers? The Dai Li had mentioned the Truthspeakers yesterday.
"They offered a profitable deal, Imitsa. The most yuan I've ever seen! How else are we going to escape these slums?" his father muttered.
"We smuggle shark fin. Exotic oils. Things people want," his mother replied. "Not information. Especially not for shady organizations trying to pull Ba Sing Se into the war. You know that would only attract the Dai Li's attention."
His father didn't answer. He sat at the table, his expression rigid like ice.
"You need to get rid of that cursed knife," his mother hissed. "I don't know what you were thinking when you scratched the Truthspeaker symbol into the handle."
"I needed a way to show them I was their contact," his father countered. "But you're right. The deal is too risky. We've made the profit we were looking for, anyway. I can't be caught with the knife. I can't have the Dai Li accuse me of being a Truthspeaker and take me away, like they did with Nilak."
Like they did with Nilak…
The boy's knees wobbled. He clutched at the doorframe, the only thing holding him up. "Papa, did the Dai Li take Nilak away?" the boy said in a terrified whisper.
His mother rushed over to him and smoothed his hair with her hand. "Listen to me, Takit. Nilak got mixed up with the wrong people. We don't talk about the Dai Li, and we don't talk about Nilak or the Truthspeakers. We have nothing to do with any of them. Okay?"
Takit nodded. "Okay," he said in a small voice.
"Oh, and your father and I have great news!" his mother said, trying to cheer him up. "We've saved up enough to afford a house in the Middle Ring. We won't have to live in this tiny shack anymore. You'll get a better education, and maybe even attend university. Isn't that wonderful?"
As his mother pulled him into a tight hug, Takit stood with his arms at his sides, his body stiff and unbending.
The clouds hung like a gray shroud that blanketed the early morning sky. Katara thrust her arms out in front of her. A furrow in the water traveled away from her, as if an invisible seabird was skimming the surface. Her canoe rocked slightly from the momentum. Her hands separated and pulled to either side, parting the water into two streams that curved around before meeting again to form a circle. She pushed the water away again and pulled her arms to the sides, creating two halves of a circle once more.
Push, pull. Push, pull. When she used to waterbend with Aang, one of their favorite exercises was to pass around a ball of water between them, two people creating a complete circle. Two halves forming a whole. Now that Katara waterbent alone, the only circle she could form was always split down the middle. Sometimes the split was between the sea and the sky, when she pushed her globe of water through the ocean and pulled it through the air. On this particular morning, the circle she created on the surface of the water was split because she was missing her counterbalance. She was missing her waterbending partner.
She was missing Aang.
Seeing Aang again, standing near him, talking to him, touching him, had made her morning waterbending practice even more lonely than before. Her solitude had been easier to bear when she was separated from Aang by distance and time. But now that he was in her life again, even if only for a few short days, the composure that she had learned to so carefully cultivate was being thrown out of balance.
Every time she waterbent, whether she was thinking of him or not, Aang was there. He was in every flowing movement, every splash, every droplet. After all, he had been at the heart of her waterbending journey. He was the reason why she'd even had a chance to learn. And she was the reason why he had mastered the element in the first place.
Push, pull. Push, pull. Katara tried to lose herself in the rhythm of the water, the friction and the drag. Pushing and pulling against the water gave her the satisfaction of feeling like she was doing something, something tactile to hold on to while the forces pulling her toward Aang threatened to drag her down.
Aang was leaving tomorrow. That was a good thing. She wouldn't have to see him watching her anymore, his gray eyes drinking her in. She wouldn't have to hear him talk anymore, the sound of his voice stealing into her heart. She wouldn't have to feel his arms around her, his hand covering her wrist, holding her like he still loved her.
Did he still love her? He had clearly moved on, learned to live without her. But sometimes, in the few times they had been together in the past two days, she thought that maybe he did love her. But maybe what she'd felt from him was just old feelings, the memory of a spark flaring up again. She'd heard of that happening between people who used to be lovers. Maybe that was happening to her and Aang, too.
Besides, he had let her go. The memory of her ribbon burning in his hand was seared into her spirit like a cruel streak.
Katara shuddered at the image of her ribbon lying in Aang's hand like a dead thing, a piece of rubbish burning away. Her arms dropped to her sides. The surface of the water stilled. She hugged herself, taking deep breaths in and out, trying to banish the chill inside her that had nothing to do with the arctic air.
It didn't matter if Aang still loved her in some way. What mattered was that he had let her go. And she was not about to let anything undo that.
I need to think about something else, she thought desperately. Anything else.
Takit was leaving tomorrow, too. He and Professor Song would travel with Minister Shi and his retinue back to Ba Sing Se. The vessel that had brought Takit and the professor to the Southern Water Tribe had already returned to the Earth Kingdom. Winter storms this time of year often delayed the passage of ships, and the arrival of the next ship bound for the Earth Kingdom was difficult to predict. Takit and the professor had gathered the information they needed on the carvings in the ice caves—for now—and they longed for the relatively balmy weather of home. The Earth Kingdom trade minister, whose ship was still docked in the harbor, grudgingly agreed to bring them with him. They were his countrymen, and they had no other way to get home. He couldn't really say no.
The thought of Takit leaving the South Pole made Katara's heart ache. She wasn't sure why. Takit wasn't even a close friend, and she was still annoyed with him after last night.
The truth, she realized, was that she envied him.
Takit could go back to Ba Sing Se, free from memories of the past. Fly to the air temples with Aang without the burden of a complicated history between them. Travel to Caldera City, sail to the Northern Water Tribe, or hike to Omashu. In other words, Takit was free to live the kind of life she used to have with Aang. And as an anthropologist, he probably would.
Meeting Aang, traveling with Aang, had opened up the world to Katara and sparked a deep-seated curiosity about what lay beyond the village walls. Now she was back in her village, behind those very same walls, with no reason to leave. Takit would live the life she used to have—and the life she still longed for.
But she had given up that life, her life with Aang, for Aang's sake. She had exchanged that life for a future without Aang. A future without his smile, his touch, or his love. Cutting off their relationship had been like cutting out her own heart—and his as well, which made her choice all the more devastating. But she was a danger to him. She would do anything to keep him safe from her, no matter what the cost.
A flock of snow petrels took flight, a cloud of fluttering gray and white wings filling the sky. The birds had emerged from their roosts to feed for the morning. The day had begun. That meant it was time for Katara to meet up with Aang at the ice caves.
As Katara rowed her canoe back to shore, a gleam on a distant ice floe caught her eye.
Could it be…?
Her pulse quickened. She hadn't seen the waterbender since she had first witnessed them throwing ice daggers almost two weeks ago. What were the chances she would catch sight of them again today?
Katara paddled between the sea ice to take a closer look. She almost jumped up and down with excitement when she reached the floe. Several ice shards glinting in the dull morning light were embedded into the side of the floe. Her eyes followed the line of flight the shards must have taken, which led her gaze to a larger ice floe where the waterbender must have stood.
Must have stood, because no one was there.
Katara rowed to the waterbender's ice floe, which was surrounded by a wall of bulky icebergs that hid it from view of the shore. No wonder she hadn't been able to catch the waterbender practicing again. They had become very good at hiding.
She hauled herself out of the canoe and onto the floating block of ice. Small craters the size of her palm dotted the surface of the floe, just like the ones she had found on the coast near her usual waterbending spot. But instead of forming lines like the ones she'd seen two weeks ago, these craters sometimes clustered together. Sometimes they followed no pattern at all.
Craters and ice shards. She always found them together. What did it mean?
Katara raised her hand and swept an arc from the surface of the ice floe toward the ocean. A flurry of shards shot out from the ice and into the water.
She looked down. By her feet was a shallow gouge in the ice, as wide as her arm was long. Throwing ice daggers, a basic waterbending move, was typically done by bending a single mass of ice and splintering it into innumerable shards. This was the technique she had learned in the Northern Water Tribe, and it was the most efficient use of bending.
But what if the mystery waterbender never learned proper technique? What if they had to learn waterbending on their own, like Katara did at first?
She studied the craters again. Each one would have held enough ice to create one ice dagger.
What if the waterbender bent each ice dagger individually? This method would take more energy and focus, but it could be done. She was struck by the impression that anyone who bent ice daggers this way must have a single-minded way of thinking.
Katara lifted her hand once more. Furrowing her brow in concentration, she bent several individual chunks of ice into razor-sharp shards and sent them flying into the ocean.
When she looked down again, in the place where the ice shards had originated was a cluster of craters, each one as wide as her palm.
Ah ha! So this method of bending the ice into ice daggers leaves these craters behind.
One question answered. But the remaining and more important question was:
Who is the waterbender?
Katara hopped back into the canoe and made a beeline for the shore. When she neared the vast ice sheet of the coast, she leaped onto the shore while the canoe was still drifting, too impatient to wait for the sealskin-covered boat to come to a stop. She jogged down the coast, her eyes scouring the icy ground for any sign of human presence.
Then she found them. Footprints and tracks, like the ones she had found two weeks ago. Only this time, the waterbender had tried to cover up their tracks by bending them flat into the ice. But the effort was less than perfect—Katara could still make out shallow impressions in the ground.
The tracks led to the ice cliffs. She was certain that if she climbed to the top of the cliffs, she would find more evidence of the waterbender's trail.
Katara glanced at the canoe bobbing in the water, and then at the sheer cliff in front of her. She wanted to follow the tracks. But she had left her sled at her waterbending spot far down the coast. She also had to meet Aang. He was going to the spirit world, and he needed her help.
She was torn. After discovering what the craters meant, she felt like she was on the verge of solving the waterbender mystery. But she had promised Aang that she would watch over him while he left his body to enter the spirit world.
And if Katara was honest with herself, she wanted to avoid being alone with Aang. They had been close again last night. Dangerously close. What might happen when they were completely alone?
But following the tracks would take most of the morning. They would probably lead back to the village again, anyway.
And Aang was waiting for her.
As much as she knew she should stay away from Aang, she would never let him go to the spirit world without someone to watch his back. And, today, that someone was her.
Katara gave her head a little shake and climbed back into the canoe. The waterbender mystery would have to wait.
She had to go to Aang.
Aang was waiting for Katara, staff in hand, at the entrance to the ice caverns. Like her, he had donned a knee-length cloak lined with polar leopard fur for an extra layer of warmth. Even though Aang would rather not wear animal pelts, the caves deep under the ice were far colder than the surface, and even his airbending would not entirely shield him from the subterranean cold.
Three months ago, the entrance to the caves had been nothing more than a crack in a mound of ice. After the children had discovered the caves, Katara and Pakku cleared away the ice and snow covering the entrance, revealing a gaping hole large enough for a polar bear dog to amble through without ducking its head.
This was not the first time Katara had entered the caverns. She had accompanied Takit and the professor a handful of times to help widen small passages or clear away ice debris. But she could never quite shake the sense of foreboding that gripped her every time she entered the darkness of the yawning maw.
The entrance opened up into a much wider passage with walls and ceiling slick like glass, covered in ripples like the surface of a frozen ocean. Except that the ocean didn't curve back on itself to create a tunnel, a throat leading to the gullet of a gigantic ice monster.
Once she and Aang were inside the passageway, her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light of the caverns. The low light came from the caves up ahead. Fissures in the roof of the caves allowed daylight to stream inside, illuminating the caverns in an otherworldly blue glow.
The ice-covered floor gradually sloped downward, taking them deeper into the massive ice sheet, where the tunnel would branch out into an extensive network of caves. Because of the light coming from the caves close to the surface, she and Aang would not need their own light until they were much deeper into the ice. If they needed to go that far, Aang would create fire to light their way.
They had only reached the first cavern when Aang asked, "How does your wrist feel?"
Katara folded her arms across her chest, tucking her mittened hands under her arms. "My wrist feels a lot better now. It's fine, actually. I healed it last night after dinner."
"What happened yesterday? How did you get hurt?"
Katara bit her lip. She really didn't want to talk about Amarak. Last night, Amarak's father, Ivuluk, had barged into her family's tent. Ivuluk had demanded an explanation for why Katara had frozen his son in a block of ice. She had been summoned to explain herself, which she did—and displayed her bruised wrist as proof of Amarak's manhandling.
Ivuluk had then castigated her for causing the incident by not apologizing to his son in the first place, and he had insisted that she apologize for everything then and there— not only for insulting Amarak, but also for attacking him and embarrassing him in public. At this point, Katara's temper had boiled over and she told Ivuluk in no uncertain terms what she thought of him and his son. She had been about to tell him where he could stick his demand for an apology when her father intervened. But Hakoda's efforts at peacekeeping could not mollify the incensed Ivuluk, who had stormed out in self-righteous huff.
Even just thinking about yesterday's events made Katara tired. She had defended herself and her dignity from Amarak, but the repercussions of her actions were only starting to become clear. Her role as the chieftain's daughter and her family's relationship with Amarak's powerful family were getting more complicated by the day.
And telling Aang about all of that—well, she didn't want him to get involved. Things were messy enough already.
But he had asked her, yesterday, about what had happened. And she had promised to tell him about it—later.
I suppose later is now, she thought with a resigned sigh.
"Did you hear," she began, as casually as possible, "about the incident with Amarak yesterday?"
Aang stopped in his tracks. He gaped at her. "Amarak did this to you?"
Katara nodded. "He said some very…insulting things, so I told him off. I started to walk away, and that's when he grabbed me." She absently rubbed the cuff of her parka. "He grabbed my wrist. Really hard."
"He WHAT?" Aang shouted. A burst of wind swirled around him, billowing out his cloak behind him.
Katara instinctively shielded her face against the blast of air. Only when the wind died down did she lower her arm. "That was when I waterbent him away from me," she said, when the air was calm again. "And then I froze him in a chunk of ice."
The rage in Aang's face was quickly replaced by bewilderment. "Why didn't you waterbend him away before that?" His look of confusion deepened. "Why didn't you waterbend when he was chasing you the other night?"
"His family has important ties to the Northern Water Tribe," Katara explained. "My father is working to renew our relationship with the North, and Chief Arnook has been generous with providing resources to help our tribe rebuild. Amarak's family is a big reason why our tribe is thriving like it is today. So we have to maintain good relations with his family." Katara kicked away a chunk of ice near her foot. "We used to, anyway. Those relations aren't so good anymore," she said with a mirthless laugh.
Aang stepped closer, the movement so natural, so familiar that Katara half-expected him to put his hands on her shoulders. He even started to raise his hands—but then let them drop, as if catching himself doing something he hadn't meant to do.
So they stood facing each other with space between them, a distance that was close yet still polite.
"Katara, I know you're the chieftain's daughter, and you have to keep up political relationships," Aang said with a frown. "But it isn't worth letting Amarak do whatever he wants." Then his expression softened with worry. "It isn't worth risking your safety."
"I know. But that wasn't the only reason."
"What's the other reason?"
"There's a chance that Amarak is a waterbender, and he's trying to keep his identity hidden. I didn't want to make him angry and have him come after me when I least expect it."
Aang listened, his face still and attentive, as Katara recounted how Amarak had pursued her in the tent complex and managed to follow her even after she icebent barriers along her path. She told him about the ice daggers and the tracks in the ground that she had found two weeks ago, and again this morning.
"The waterbender is going through a lot of trouble to make sure no one knows they exist," he said. "I wonder why?"
Katara shook her head. "I don't know, but with the ice daggers and hidden tracks, the reason can't be good."
"I'm worried about you." Aang was giving her that look—the one that made her feel like she was the only person in the world who mattered. "The waterbender seems to know that you spotted them two weeks ago."
While they were talking, she and Aang had somehow closed the distance between them, drawn to each other by an invisible force. He was almost standing over her. If Katara reached up, she could touch his face. She wanted to. But a gulf the shape of a burning ribbon separated them.
More than that, a weight heavier than his body plummeting to the crystal-covered earth, smoke trailing from his feet, held her hand to her side.
He cannot fall because of me.
I will not make him fall.
"I'll be fine," she said, a little too curtly. "I can take care of myself."
Katara crossed her arms and turned her head away. She couldn't bear to look into his eyes any longer, or else she might lose herself in the softness of his concern and his yearning. She couldn't let herself get too close to Aang. Because if she got too close, she wouldn't be able to stay away from him.
And that could be dangerous.
"I know you can," he said. Even though Katara couldn't see his face, his subdued tone made her heart ache.
But even with the unsettled state of things between them, Aang still had to go to the spirit world, and Katara had to watch over him. Two tunnels branched off of the cave. One led to the surface—the one they had just used to enter the cave—and one led to another cave deeper into the ice. Aang selected a spot close to the wall so that Katara would have a clear view of both tunnels. As he settled down to meditate, Katara stationed herself next to him, holding herself at the ready.
Once Aang's arrows began to glow, Katara watched one passage, and then the other. She scanned the walls and the ceiling with their glassy, frozen ripples. The belly of the beast, she couldn't help thinking. Then back to watching the passages again.
Even with an endless supply of ice at her disposal, Katara had no idea what she would do if a spirit appeared in the human world. Aang was the Avatar, not Katara. How was she supposed to fight a spirit? Could spirits even be touched by bending?
But Katara was a fighter. She would fight to protect Aang until he came back from the spirit world. Seeing Aang with arrows glowing, surrounded by walls of ice, brought Katara back to the time when he had traveled to the spirit world during the siege of the Northern Water Tribe. She had tried to protect him, but Zuko had knocked her out and whisked him away.
She had failed Aang back then. If she and Sokka hadn't found Aang in the middle of that blizzard, he would have died.
Katara would never, ever let anything like that happen again. This time, she would fight until every last bone in her body was broken. No one was going to harm Aang. He had put his life into her hands, and he trusted her—completely.
And I will live up to that trust, she promised him silently, no matter what it takes.
Author's note: If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review :) Chapter 11 coming in two weeks - see you then!
