I notice that the sound is strange here in the garden. Echoes don’t work the same. I read in the Pearlian guidebooks that if you clap your hands, it might echo once, twice, or never, or only after the count of eighty-eight beats, or after one year, depending on what sort of arch you’re standing under.
That’s why I don’t hear Hisashi skating here until after I see him. He’s on the far side of the false river of pearlsilk ribbons flowing under a whispering arch.
I raise my hand to wave to him, then hesitate. Has he heard about how his sister was humiliated by Sensei Madame Yao because of me? When Hisashi sees me, he smiles and gives a slight bow. Is his manner slightly colder than it was before?
Hisashi smiles again and bends to speak into the whispering arch, nodding to indicate that I should also lean in.
I bend near the base of the arch and hear his whispered message, carried over the arch as if he’s speaking next to my ear: “Gee-Hong went to take a nap.”
I whisper back into the arch, “Who?”
“No one you need to know about, apparently,” says Hisashi with a laugh. I don’t know what’s so funny, but I’m relieved that he’s laughing.
We skate atop the arch, but just as we meet in the middle, a terrible screeching of birds fills the air. We read the words being traced on the sky, standing side by side.
“Mayor’s. Sons. Send. Letter. Orb. Claiming. They. Are. Voluntary. Guests. Of. Empress. Dowager. Chiologists. Confirm. They. Hear. Blockage. In. Tone. Indicating. Words. Spoken. Against. Speakers’. Will. Buy. Pearl. Shining. Sun. News. To. Get. Whole. Story.”
“I don’t care if ten thousand Chiologists hear blockage in the skaters’ voices,” I cry. “Who knows why they might have spoken those words against their will? The Empress Dowager isn’t holding them as hostages. Your father sent Zan Kenji and Zan Aki because they were the two best New Deitsu Opera Company skaters. The Empress Dowager sent Cricket and me here in a cultural exchange between our two countries. We’re not spies. No one can possibly believe Suki’s allegation.”
“Peasprout, there is so much distrust right now,” Hisashi says, placing a hand on my shoulder and turning me away from the birds. “My father intended a goodwill gesture.” He leads us off the bridge and down through the path of whispering arches. “However, the government of Pearl believes that if New Deitsu doesn’t share with Shin the secret of where they get the pearl, the Empress Dowager will eventually invade and take our city apart, piece by piece, to build a pearl city of her own.”
“You don’t know that!” The sound of my words as we skate under a scalloped-shaped whispering arch vibrates in a sustained echo, as if my voice were being stretched on a torture rack and crying out with a voice of its own. “And, anyway, why can’t you share?”
“I’m not sure. There might not be enough to build and maintain two cities,” Hisashi says. “That’s not my father’s fault. But we Nius seem to get blamed a lot for things that aren’t our fault.”
He must have heard what happened to Doi over my soaps. Heat flushes up my whole head in shame for what his sister suffered for me.
“Your sister must hate me after what happened in Sensei Madame Yao’s class.” As I speak these words, we skate under another whispering arch that has an underside patterned with little indentations. They must capture very select sounds, as only one word of my sentence is whispered back in echo. “Me, me, me…”
He pauses but then says, “No, I’m sure she knows that whatever happened was Suki’s fault.”
Here’s my chance to ask about the hatred between Doi and Suki!
“Yes, Suki clearly has some history with Doi,” I say quickly. “What happened between them at Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters?”
“All the girls have to get their hair cut when they arrive there. On the first day, Doi helped the nuns cut off Suki’s hair. You can imagine how happy Suki was with Doi after that.”
“Is that why Suki and the other girls all have bobbed hair?”
“Yes.”
“How did Doi avoid it then? Her hair is like a waterfall. It couldn’t have grown back so quickly.”
I turn to him as we skate under another whispering arch. I see his mouth open and start to form words, then close, open, then close, but I hear nothing. Is this an arch that swallows sound? No. He wants to speak, but he doesn’t want to speak. Another secret.
I see that my question has made Hisashi uncomfortable. Maybe Doi and Hisashi get special treatment as the Chairman’s children. Whatever it is, he clearly doesn’t want to talk about it.
“Well, whatever the explanation, I’m glad,” I say. “If for no other reason because of how furious it must have made Suki.”
He smiles. I like it that I made him do that. He says, “Peasprout, sometimes appearances— My sister might not seem very— You’re not like anyone Doi—or I—have ever met, so if she acts confused … or I mean— And how Suki— Oh, I don’t know what I’m saying. Just remember that every time something good happens to Doi or you, some part of Suki dies inside.”
“Good,” I say.
He smiles. How did I ever think that he smiled too much? His warmth is endless, like the sun’s.
“But even if Doi and I both beat Suki,” I say, “at some point, it’s going to be Doi against me. Only one of us can take first ranking and get the lead in the Drift Season Pageant.”
“Don’t
