9

The shock of seeing Hui after so many years made me forget my purpose, but for only a moment. As I pulled away from our hug, I took in Hui's face, which had barely changed over the last ten years. Stubble speckled his jawline and he had grown a few inches, but otherwise he was the same.

And for those few fleeting seconds, I remembered him only as my brother, the only other soul I had connected with during my years on the sea. But then, the fog lifted and I remembered how we had parted.

My smile shrunk, and he noticed. He knew and accepted my guilt with a light shrug.

"Would you want to get a drink somewhere and talk?" I asked, before remembering why I had arrived at this village. "I just, I need to do something first."

"Already trying to get away from me," he said, brushing his hair back, which still rested loose against his shoulders.

"I'm really sorry. I just need to find someone. It's important."

"There's a bar on the other side of that factory. The Eelhound. Meet me there at sundown."

"I will."

And like that, Hui sauntered off into an alley.

The village was really a growing city, housing developments cropping up across the river. I made my way toward the docked boat, near a fish and farmer's market. Leaning over the side of the boat, I called but found no one inside. I scanned the market, and decided on speaking to one of the sellers.

"Hello," I said to an elderly man selling fresh melons. "Can I ask, were you here in the market two days ago."

The man eyed me and itched at his chin.

I pulled out my coin pouch and offered him five copper pieces, which wasn't much, but more than I could afford. He accepted and nodded in answer to my question.

"A friend of mine might have de-boarded that boat over there. He's in his twenties, black hair, yellow eyes, large scar across his eye."

The old man gestured for me to come closer, and I did. His voice came out in hoarse syllables.

"Two days past."

"Thank you. Can you tell me where he went? Was he injured?"

"A tall woman," he said. As he spoke, a foul stench emanated toward me, and I noticed a large abscess spreading across his gums. I handed him a few more copper pieces. "Woman took him." He pointed toward a large building adjacent to the factory. It was a hospital.

"Thank you," I told him, pressing his hand.

The hospital was two stories and packed with the sick and injured. I scanned the lobby and failed to see any medics, so I paced down the hallway, searching rooms, finding Zuko nowhere among the bedridden. On the second floor, I finally encountered a team of medics, frantic, jogging toward a large room at the end of the hall marked Surgery.

My heart raced as I sped up, worried that Zuko had somehow been gravely injured, that the blood staining the medics' robes was his. Instead, I found a middle-aged man, arm mutilated, hand shredded, unconscious on an operating table.

"You, out!" one medic yelled, noticing me in the doorway.

"Sorry," I said, backing away.

On the main floor, having exhausted every room, I lingered. I didn't know why. Every staff member was clearly unable to speak at the moment, and I doubted any of the civilians waiting to be treated would have seen him. I also knew that I couldn't spread word that I was searching for Zuko. I couldn't know if someone might recognize him and, like many victims of his wartime brutalities, desire vengeance.

At the doorstep to the hospital, I rubbed my hands over my face, cheeks burning with anxiety. As I looked up again, I noticed a tower of a woman, a waterbender, approaching. She was tying on her medic robes as she ascended the steps.

"I'm sorry, please," I said, gaining her attention. "I'm sorry, I am looking for a friend of mine. A young man with a scar along his face. Have you seen him?"

The woman stopped only for a second, looked me over, and continued on her way inside as she replied.

"We discharged him this morning. Fractured ankle, bruised ribs. He'll be fine."

"Do you know where he went after?" I followed her.

"No."

"Please," I said, touching her arm. "Please, I need to find him."

"If he was traveling, he's probably at the Cranefish Inn. It's a few blocks north."

The Cranefish reminded me of the inns I had stopped in as I journeyed across the Earth Kingdom in those months after the raid of the Academy and before the fall of Ozai. It was too small for a town this size, with less than a dozen rooms, and a dusty, unlit restaurant on the main floor. A tank of a man, hands rough with scars and neck popping with veins, stood at the reception desk, which was little more than a wooden podium.

"Hi," I said, smiling and affecting a naïve manner. "I'm so sorry. I think I was supposed to meet my cousin here, but he didn't give me his room number."

The man barely moved, taking note of my torn and blood-spotted robes—damaged from that spirit-monkey's attack.

"His name is Lee. He's got black hair, yellow eyes, and—,"

"Haven't seen him."

Everything about this man didn't feel right to me. Big, scruffy men didn't intimidate me any more than an eleven-year-old girl, but something in his demeanor unsettled me. His pale green eyes inspected every inch of me, as if looking for some damning marker. His head was shaved, an uncommon practice in this region of the continent. More than anything, the utter lack of another human body concerned me.

"You know, I am just famished. I've been traveling all day. Is your restaurant open?"

"No."

"Of course. I understand." It was an hour till sundown, dinnertime for most. "Could I at least use your public restroom?"

"Out of service."

I smiled at him again. He was lying to me. The only question was whether he knew I was lying to him, too.

"Well, thank you, sir. Have a good day."

I bowed and exited the building, preferring not to instigate anything until I was sure. I crept toward the back of the building, hoping for an open window. It appeared that most of the rooms were along the second floor, and near the far end, I spied flimsy shutters hanging open. Checking to ensure that no one would see me, I used my firebending to leap toward that open window.

As I climbed in, my eyes took a moment to adjust to the absence of light. When they did, I saw an empty room: bed made, dresser upright, nothing out of the ordinary. Quietly, I opened the door leading into the hallway.

Instead of similarly ordered rooms, I found every door in that hallway ripped ajar. Furniture toppled, rugs dragged into the hallway. Each room was empty, and silence spread across the entire inn. As I came to the last room, I peered in to find the bed stripped, floorboards ripped up, and, finally, a pair of eyes, blue in color, glaring up at me.

Before I could react, the young man whipped water toward me. I stumbled backward. With another lash, I lost my balance, hit my heel against the edge of a step, and went falling down the stairs.

My head hit the earthen floor, flashes of light filling my world.

When my vision cleared, I found that burly, scarred man standing above me. Before I could bend, the earth beneath me shook, slanted, and I was sent tumbling into a lightless corridor underneath.