Darting Lynx refused to let Kia Min give up hope.

"We'll find another way out of here, and to the Imperial City as quickly as possible," she said as the nobles fretted in the hangar. Mumblings about how they would keep their interests and wealth with this kind of embargo permeated the area, but none complained too loudly. The Lotus Assassin had proclaimed a town-wide announcement, no doubt about Emperor Sun Hai's fate.

Kia Min fell to a crate and held her head in her hands. "How? If we can't go by air, and it takes too long by foot... we should have left Golden River the moment we stepped off the boat. Bought a cart, take turns driving it so we would never have to stop... we'd be halfway there by now."

"That's not how it works, Kia Min. We'd be no better off."

"We'd be on our way."

Darting Lynx was silent for a moment, and then she offered, "Well, your friend has a flyer. She can't go anywhere either. So we're not losing any time, not really."

"But what if the second we leave for the Imperial City in a flyer, she leaves the Imperial City in hers? The Imperial City has to be much bigger than Tien's Landing. I won't find another lead so easily."

"Well," said Darting Lynx slowly, "from the sounds of it, you had a chance meeting in One Stone to know that the Lotus Blossom was in Tien's Landing. One village in the vast empire. And then again at Tien's Landing. Fate is fate, Kia Min. Destiny cannot be challenged. You'll find your way to her, one way or another."

Kia Min waved her arms at the grounded flyers. "Not like this."

Darting Lynx sighed and mournfully replied, "No, I suppose not. Not like this. But we will figure something out."

Kia Min said nothing, and she hung her head. Now what? Fate is fate, Darting Lynx said. But perhaps Kia Min had misinterpreted hers. Wu was lucky; whatever her destiny was, Master Li had prepared her well for it. She had no question about her path, and she knew what she had to do, where she needed to go. Kia Min had no such direction, and her way was murky at best.

Perhaps there was something else she needed to do in Tien's Landing. Maybe to help Wu, maybe to enforce what Kia Min had done in Hehua. But there were pirates and slavers Wu had taken care of near Tien's Landing. How could their two destinies not be woven together somehow? Or perhaps there was something seedier happening in Golden River? Maybe that was the reason why she was now stranded here.

Or, perhaps Kia Min had no great destiny after all. Maybe it had been pure luck she had survived the destruction of Two Rivers, and maybe it had been pure coincidence she wound up in Hehua and she had run into Chen Yi in One Stone. Maybe Wu's influence had been so great that of course she would have run into Darting Lynx as soon as she brought her up.

So, then, what was Kia Min doing so far away from home?

Darting Lynx said suddenly, "You know, I just thought of something we could do. It's risky, but you said you've fought Lotus Assassins before, right?"

Kia Min frowned. "Are you suggesting that we kill that Assassin and take his flyer? Because I don't know how to fly one."

"Neither do I, and that's not what I'm suggesting," said Darting Lynx. "But air travel is prohibited--by everyone but the Lotus Assassins. They are the exception to every rule. And this Assassin is clearly not staying too long. He's here to make his announcements, and then he'll leave. I'm betting his destination is to the Imperial City."

"So, what you're saying is--"

Darting Lynx grinned wickedly. "I've done it once as a little kid, I can do it now as a grown woman with skills unmatched. When the Lotus Assassin makes his address to the people of Golden River, we're sneaking onto his flyer."

Kia Min's mouth fell ajar, and she struggled with the right words to respond. "That's... that's ridiculous. Insane. Ludicrous. Lynx, we can't... that's..."

"You have a better option? It's risky, but he's one Lotus Assassin. He can't be any more skilled or high-ranking than the one you faced in Hehua. If he finds us, you can take him."

"But what if he finds us before we get to the Imperial City?" asked Kia Min. "What if he's not going to the Imperial City? And what if he's staying here indefinitely?"

Darting Lynx shrugged. "That's why I said it's risky. We don't know. But if this is what you're meant to do, if this is what the heavens and the gods demand of you, he'll be going to the Imperial City, and he'll leave as soon as he makes his address to Golden River. And he won't find us before we get to the City."

The crowd of disgruntled noblemen began to recede from the hangar, no doubt being led by the Lotus Assassin, for the man was nowhere in sight. Kia Min studied the flyer he had left behind--it was small and modest, not unlike a few of the ones she saw crashed into the hillsides in Two Rivers.

Wu. She had to find Wu. If she knew nothing else, she still knew that she had to do that. And if this was her only option, then so be it.

"Alright," she said. "Let's go." She turned to grin at Darting Lynx. "Best idea I've heard all week."

Darting Lynx smiled widely, and the two hid behind crates while the guards cleared out the rest of the hangar. The guards, Kia Min saw between the wooden planks of the barrels, were half-heartedly doing their job, as they just skimmed around the area in a sweep of a small radius. Their faces, she saw, were more haunted than anything else, and Kia Min could not decide if it was because they already knew something about what happened to Emperor Sun Hai, or if it was because they had just been given some vague orders by that Lotus Assassin.

Now that she thought about it, what did happen to Emperor Sun Hai? And now the new emperor was Sun Li? That name sounded familiar. Perhaps she should have paid more attention to Old Ming; he would have known. A brother, a cousin, perhaps?

And didn't the emperor--the old emperor--have a daughter or something?

"Now's our chance," Darting Lynx whispered. "We have to go now before the guards make another sweep."

Kia Min shook herself out of her reverie. "Yes, okay."

Together the two women sneaked towards the Lotus Assassin's flyer and, after both peeked around to make sure no guard was in sight, Darting Lynx slowly lifted the hatch to the flyer. Kia Min cringed, but there was no creaking noise. Lotus Assassins must have the means to properly take care of these contraptions, she realized.

Before she could get too comfortable with the notion that this task would be a lot easier than she thought, both Kia Min and Darting Lynx froze as soon as they saw what was hiding inside the hull of the flyer. Ragged-looking people, some bleeding, some bruised, and all cringing at the daylight that now invaded their little prison. Not one dared to look at the ones who opened the flyer, and one man raised his shackled hands in protest.

"Oh, by the heavens," Kia Min whispered.

"P-please," the man whimpered, "please let me appeal to your sense of humanity--" The man opened an eye, and he lowered his hands. "You... you're not... you're not one of them! ... are you?"

"What's going on?" asked Darting Lynx. "Why are you all in here like this?"

"They're slaves," said Kia Min. She was right; there were more 'customers' like the one in Hehua. Hehua had not been alone in its plight. This is what would have happened to Little Qing and the others if Kia Min had not run into Wayfarer Wei in the swamp!

"Slaves?" But then Darting Lynx's attention was stolen by a stray movement from beyond the flyer, and she tugged at Kia Min's sleeve. "We have to get inside now, before they spot us!"

They hopped into the flyer and Darting Lynx very carefully shut the hatch behind them. Kia Min blinked a few times to adjust her eyesight quicker but to no avail. There was no windows or cracks to expose these poor people to light. She could not see a thing.

"And now there's no way out," said an older woman from the back. "You poor, foolish girls. What were you thinking, coming in here?"

Kia Min waited for Darting Lynx to say something, but she did not. She wished she could see her face to have some clue about what the acrobat was thinking. Maybe Darting Lynx regretted this decision? Or perhaps this was her first encounter with any prisoners, innocent especially.

But there was no turning back now. "We're trying to get to the Imperial City, and quickly," said Kia Min quietly. "This is our last option to get there, by stowing away."

"In a slaver's flyer?" said the same man as before. "You're either that foolish or that desperate."

Darting Lynx chuckled. "Desperation makes a wise man a fool."

"I suppose it does."

Another few tense moments silently passed, and Kia Min decided that if she was not going to meditate, she could at least try to get some questions answered. "Do you know if this flyer is going to the Imperial City?"

A few uncomfortable shuffles sounded through the flyer. "We... we don't know," said the man. "But does it really matter? Our lives are over as we know it. What does it matter to us if we're in a graveyard or a palace? And you... both of you... your lives are over as you know it, as well. By locking yourself in here with us, you've become one of us."

"A graveyard or a palace?" asked Darting Lynx. "It sounds like you do have a little bit of an idea of where we're going, and it is to the Imperial City, I'm betting."

"Does it matter? We're slaves now. Us, and you."

Kia Min felt a shoulder upon hers and hot, excited breath on her ear. "It is the Imperial City, Kia Min, I promise you," Darting Lynx whispered. To everyone else, she said, "And we're not slaves. None of us are."

She jabbed Kia Min in the ribs, and if Kia Min could see, she knew what kind of look Darting Lynx would be giving her. To be fair, though, Kia Min did not need the look, or that jab in the ribs. She was already a few steps ahead of Darting Lynx.

"We'll get you out of here when we land at the Imperial City," she said. "I promise. I've fought Lotus Assassins and slavers before, and won. I'll take care of him, and my friend will sneak you into the vast crowds of the City so that they'll never find you, and then we'll find a way to get you home."

And with any luck, it would be with Wu the Lotus Blossom's help.

The enslaved farmers were hardly enthusiastic by Kia Min's promise of freedom, but at least Darting Lynx's presumption had been correct. They could not have been in the flyer for more than an hour before the Lotus Assassin returned and the flyer jolted back and forth and Kia Min heard tiny explosions around her. They were on their way to... somewhere.

Kia Min never asked how Darting Lynx knew that they were headed to the Imperial City, and no one spoke for the entire journey. She could only hope that Darting Lynx was right, and she could only hope that Wu would be easy to find once they reached the Imperial City, if the Imperial City was indeed their destination. How would Wu respond to seeing her? How would Dawn Star? Would they feel sheepish for forgetting about her, or would they be ecstatic that she had found her way to them? Or would they be appalled that she was there, as a reminder of a past they were trying to forget?

Did she really want to see them?

The flyer bumped violently a few hours later, and the noises and the swaying had come to a standstill. Kia Min jolted awake, and she cursed herself for falling asleep. She needed to be more alert for what was to come next.

Unfortunately, the Lotus Assassin had no sympathy for her grogginess, and a bright white light breached through the darkness of the flyer. Shadows of the farmers scooted away from the hatch clandestinely, and Kia Min reached for her bamboo staff.

It was time.

Kia Min lifted herself off the flyer floor, and as the white light transformed from crack to doorway, she launched herself towards it, staff unsheathed. She landed outside, and it was dusk, and her staff had swung and swept the Lotus Assassin off his feet, his skull cracking on the stone ground. As the blood pooled from his head, she thought briefly about whether she was getting more skilled, or if the element of surprise made this the easiest battle she ever fought against one of these monsters.

That was when she noticed a dozen more Lotus Assassins lined up by the flyer, and this time, all of them were armed with swords.