Dawn Star pushed the rubble around with the toe of her boot. They searched their own cabins to see if there was anything left of their possessions. There wasn't much of anything.

"They must have come back to search for supplies."

Dawn Star still believed Kia Min and others escaped. After everything, it was hard for Wu to be that hopeful. "Maybe."

"It's what we would have done."

"Yes, that's true."

Wu knelt down where her bed had used to be and pulled a piece of rotten wood aside. Bugs scattered off the top of her slightly charred memento box. She pulled it out of the ground and brushed off the ash and char.

It wasn't much; just a carved wooden box she had traded a necklace for with one of the children in Two Rivers. She used it to keep special things in it; special being relative to a poor ten year old. Master Li had not believed in frivolous things, but she had.

She opened the box and found her favorite green stone from the river bank, a trampled ribbon she'd found on the ground that she'd spent her spare time washing until it became clean again, and a bit of metal she'd found in a cave that she called 'ghost gold,' though it was not gold at all. Treasures to her, but no one else.

It was strange, how her heart moved to see it all again, when it was a shrine to a time and feelings that were false.

"I remember that stone," Dawn Star said. She picked it out of the box and held it up, so that the light caught the green. It was no piece of jade, but it was beautiful in its own way, a way that was separate from any memory.

She would keep it. It reminded her of another stone.

"The Imperial City," Dawn Star breathed. "It's beautiful."

"Look!" Wild Flower pointed towards the nose of the Marvelous Dragonfly, at what looked like a glittering jewel in the sky. It was the Imperial Palace. From here Wu could see the water falling to the Empire below. All of it was -

"Amazing, right?" Sky leaned over her shoulder. "I remember the first time I saw it. Not from up here, though. This view is a little more impressive."

Kang turned around. "Do we have our silver?" he asked.

"Silver? For what?" Wu wracked her brain for anything Kang had said about silver.

"Eyes forward, Kang! Eyes forward!" Hou cried.

"There are landing fees. Oh yes. No free air in the Empire." Kang guided the Dragonfly around the tangle of airships that were floating above the docks. "I hope we have money for that!"

"I hope we have money for wine," Black Whirlwind added.

"Pay attention!" Hou screeched, as the Marvelous Dragonfly's wing missed another airship's anchoring ropes.

Wu's stomach dropped as the Dragonfly dipped below the walls of a docking area, cutting off her view of the capital. A man in opulent robes, flanked by two servants, was waving at them from the flagstones below.

"Here come the money collectors!" Kang said as he powered down the ship for a landing. Wu jumped out of the ship as it touched down to approach this man who seemed to be waiting for them.

"We've been waiting for you," said the yard manager cried. He bowed so low that his topknot brushed the stones at his feet. His servants helped Dawn Star and her from the airship. "Everything has been prepared for your arrival. We have rooms in the dock hotel for you - as many as you need. Since the Emperor began restricting flyer travel, we haven't had many visitors as it is, but - ahem! Not that I have anything to say against the Emperor; may his vision never be clouded."

Wu kept her face neutral. "And the arrangements were made by our friend..."

The loquacious manager continued. "The woman in black, yes. Very mysterious, very 'mind your own business.' But she pays in silver, she pays on time, and she pays well! Very well indeed! Would you like to see your rooms now?"

"When we come back," Wu said as the others exited the Dragonfly. She wanted to get out into the city as soon as possible. Based on what she had seen in the sky, their search for Master Li could take weeks.

The manager bowed and backed away. As soon as they walked into the loading and unloading area, they were stopped by Imperial soldiers who questioned their presence in the city. Only the appearance of the Princess Sun Lian stopped them.

The meeting with the princess did not go well.

"Are ladies supposed to do that?" Wildflower whispered, as the noblewomen, now disheveled and dirty from their fainting spells, followed the exasperated princess out of the landing area.

"I don't know. I've never met a lady before." Wu held the gift from Lian in her hands. It was small and not too light. In the layers of wrapping, it could be anything. "So. The meeting with Silk Fox?"

"Trap," Zu said immediately.

"I have to agree," Sky said.

"She did give me a present." Wu unwrapped it carefully, removed the gem wrapped in silk, and smiled at the note inside. She had never felt herself to be a naturally charming person. The gift could be quite useful in certain situations. That was for another time though. "But we can't rely on her. Sky, can you speak to some of your old friends about getting into the Imperial Palace? Kang, could I trouble you with some inventions that perhaps could get us there? And, I'm sorry, Wildflower, but could Chai Ka speak with the Heavenly Powers to see what they might do?"

They nodded, submitting to her orders without question.

"I can go see how the city's wine supplies are," the Black Whirlwind volunteered.

"And I guess I should see how my wonderful wife fared without me." Hou sighed. "It would be a pity if she had died from a broken heart while I was gone. Unlikely, but a pity."

Wu took Dawn Star by the arm. "And why don't you explore?"

Her friend shook her head emphatically. "While you hunt for Master Li alone? I couldn't face him knowing you did everything while I went sight-seeing."

"I was hoping that you'd see what the mood of the city is."

Dawn Star looked away. "I don't really want to look for ghosts - "

"No, no! I meant the mood of the people who live here. Rumors about the city, the Lotus Assassins, whatever you can find. No one will suspect you're anything other than - "

"A country peasant?" her friend suggested with a smile.

"A visitor to the capital." She pressed some coins into Dawn Star's hand. "People tend to loosen their mouths when you spend a little silver. Make it look good."

"What are you going to do?"

"Meet Silk Fox in the Scholar's Garden."

"And you know where the Scholar's Garden is?" Zu asked.

He had been so quiet there, that she hadn't thought about him. Nor had she thought about how she was going to get to the Garden. The sight of the people seething just beyond the stone arch was making her dizzy.

"Sagacious Zu, will it be safe for you to be out there" - Dawn Star waved at the crowds - "without some kind of disguise?"

"Those who would know me are either dead or will not be walking these streets. If they are out there, I will be gone before they know I'm here."

Wu did not like the idea of drawing attention to herself by asking for directions. This was a better alternative. "Then let's go. I'd like to hear Silk Fox's proposal today so we can make a decision tonight."

"Stay close," he warned and then stepped into the human river. She plunged in after him.

She kept Zu's back in front of her and tried to focus on only him, wishing they could move faster through this crowd, wishing that she could get air to breathe. The different odors were like a tangle of overgrowth that she had to work through; she smelt sweat and day old food and dirt and the undeniable stench of tanneries. The heat from the sun and the air's humidity only intensified the smells.

Zu glanced over his shoulder at her and then suddenly pulled her into a a small alley. The stone scraped her shoulders; alley was a generous word for this space between buildings.

"Trouble?" she asked.

"No." He peered around the corner. "It's been awhile since I was in the city."

Zu was a master of understatement. She wondered if this would be another flying swimming ox problem. "Are we lost?"

"No," he snapped. "But the city has changed since I was last here. I need a moment."

She waited in lee of the narrow alley while Zu got his bearings. The noise washed up in between the walls and she heard town criers relaying the most recent edicts, men and women haggling with sellers whose wares spilled into the already crowded streets. Oxen lowed and wooden wheels rumbled over the paving stones..

This place where they stopped; it was too narrow. She did not mind being with Zu when they were with the group, but when she was this close, it was impossible to ignore how dangerous he felt.

"You are staring," he said.

This was not the first time she'd been caught staring at her companions. But maybe it was because she'd seen the same faces for twenty years in Two Rivers. There was no room for a half-bow to apologize so she begged his pardon.

"Sky also stares," he added.

"At you?" The two men had never been fast friends, but their animosity was getting ridiculous. "I will speak to him - "

"Not at me. At you. His eyes are always on you; too much, I think." Zu's gaze didn't waver from the street and the people on it, but he still said, "You are blushing."

She knew she was and she knew why. Two Rivers had not been so complicated. In Two Rivers, there were men who were her master, men old enough to be her grandfather, men who were husbands to women in the village, and men who were students who could not match her in anything.

But Two Rivers was gone and things were not simple anymore.

She touched the amulet, as she often did when she was unsettled. She'd left in stones of blue, they pulled her down the path of the scholar. True observations became clear to her. "But your eyes are always on Sky. So between the two of you, I will be perfectly safe."

He stepped away from the street, giving her his full attention. "You always reach for your amulet when you're nervous. That was fine in Tien's Landing, but in the city, you'll be marked by thieves."

She didn't care. The amulet had served its purpose. She did not feel like she was balancing on poles now. These observations gave her confidence. "Says the man wearing the jade necklace out in the open."

His hand went to the leather thong that hung around his neck. "This? It's not jade, and a real thief will know it is not worth anything."

"Not worth anything in silver, perhaps, but I've never seen you take it off." She smiled. "I, at least, have the excuse of holding the fate of the empire around my neck. What's yours?"

Zu looked at her long and hard. She thought that he was on the verge of revealing something about the necklace and himself. Then he turned away. "I know where we are going. Don't get lost."

And the amulet said to follow.

And that had been that. It was the only time she'd mentioned his necklace and it was the only time he'd spoken of it. She'd meant to ask later.

Later had turned into too late.

"Wu?"

She pocketed her treasure. "Sorry. I was just thinking."

Dawn Star didn't ask about what. Perhaps she didn't want to know which ghost or demon was haunting her now. There were so many to choose.

"I'm going to need to go into the caves under the school. You don't have to come, but I won't feel right until I'm certain every ghost is freed."

If a ghost was still bound to this world, she'd send it back to the Wheel of Life herself. It was only right to do so; it was a way to restore balance.

Dawn Star did not back down. "I'll come. I'd like to see where you first met the Water Dragon."

And so they walked towards their master's old home.