“Did she tell you that? I thought you avoid each other.”
“Doi doesn’t talk much. She’s different from other people. You must know what it’s like not to fit— I mean, it’s hard for Doi to know people. Don’t let her confident Chi fool you. It’s like how so many Pearlian opera performers are really shy when they’re not onstage playing a— No, it’s not like that; it’s like sometimes a boy likes a girl—he’s afraid he’ll be made fun of by the other boys, and he’s confused by his feelings, so he pushes her into a puddle, or he talks and talks whenever she’s around about everything except…” He catches himself and slows. He looks into the sky as if the words he needed were written there and finishes: “… what he’s really thinking.”
He pauses, and the awkwardness rings in the silence.
Now it’s my turn to be confused and silent. I’ve never sought attention from any boy because I never wanted it. Now that I might have this boy’s attention, I realize I wanted it from him. Because he’s not just any boy. But now that I have his attention, I don’t know what to do with it. All I know is that I understand what it is to be confused.
“Aiyah,” he says. “I’m sorry. If you, ah, heard all these noises come out of my mouth just now, it’s just a trick of the, ah, sound here in the garden. I didn’t say anything. Not a word. Is my face red? Please say no.”
“That’s the nicest thing a boy’s ever said to me,” I say.
“Is it? Well, I practiced to get all the words just right.”
When he smiles, it’s like beams of sunlight are shooting out of his dimples.
“I’d like to show you a special place in the garden. The Arch of the Sixteenth Whisper.”
He takes my hand in his. Despite the gentleness of his figure and manner, the knuckles on one hand are all rough, as if he’d been training in fist work. The palms are rough and scratchy. I find that I like it.
“It was built by Cloud-Tamer Zwei herself, as one of her first experiments,” he says as he leads me to a slender, filigreed arch. “You whisper words into the base of the arch at this end. The sound will rebound back and forth sixteen times before it can be heard at the other end of the arch, sixteen beats later. Only eleven students in the history of Pearl Famous have been fast enough to get to the other side in time to hear their own voices. Want to try it?” Hisashi’s eyes are shining. “You can be the twelfth.”
I look at the vast arch and the span I have to cross. Does he really think I can do it? Or is he trying to make me attempt something he knows I can’t succeed at to make me question my skills? I am his sister’s rival, after all. Whatever his intention is, I don’t want to risk failing in front of this boy. So I’ll just have to make sure I don’t fail.
“Let’s do it,” I say.
“Ready yourself. San. Ni. Ichi!”
He whispers something into the base of the arch, and I explode out toward the other end. I lunge forward with each stroke of my skates, as my will reaches for the other end and the arch rises above me, then descends again. I must not miss Hisashi’s words.
I arrive at the other end of the arch, slap my hands against it to halt myself, and press my ear into the base just in time to hear Hisashi’s voice whisper, “I knew you could do it.”
Eight beats later, Hisashi himself arrives. He touches the end of the arch, his fingers brushing a bit of my shoulder, then skates on without a word.
CHAPTER
NINE
We have newspapers like Pearl Shining Sun News back in Shin. According to them, I am the Empress Dowager’s secret heir in disguise; I was murdered by palace eunuchs and replaced with a boy eunuch who looked like me; and I am actually seven twin sisters, each skilled in a different school of wu liu, pretending to be one skater. They print whatever nonsense will sell copies.
However, even nonsense can be dangerous if believed.
The birds circle in the sky above us in the open court of architecture class and begin to write dangerous nonsense.
“Empress. Dowager. Declares. Mayor’s. Sons. Hostages. Demands. Secret. Of. The. Pearl. In. Exchange. As. Mayor. Demands. Chairman. Niu’s. Arrest. Buy. Pearl. Shining. Sun. News. To. Get. Whole. Story.”
“See,” says a voice. We all look away from the birds to see Suki get up from her desk at the back of architecture class. Her spreading cloak drapes about her figure as she rises, like the folding wings of a crow. “I told you.” She skates to my desk. “Your Empress Dowager was planning this all along. She took those boys as hostages and then sent her ‘Stealthiest Skater’ to steal the secret of the pearl.”
She flings a paper doll onto my desk. The sunlight flashes off the gold logograms celebrating Peony-Level Brightstar Chen Peasprout, the Stealthiest Skater in Shin! Make me drink sand to death. I thought I got rid of all of them.
“Everyone, mark my words!” she announces. “She’s not really a skater; she’s just a spy who is decent enough to pass for one. Don’t turn your back to her. She’s probably going to try to kill one of us during Lady Ming’s Hand-Mirror!”
At that, Supreme Sensei Master Jio arrives. He doesn’t say anything about the newspaper headline. I don’t pay attention to his lecture. I’ve got more important things to worry about than architecture. It’s even more important now that I do well at the second Motivation in three days. If I don’t, it’ll confirm Suki’s accusation.
I don’t believe for a moment that the Empress Dowager actually declared Zan Kenji and Zan Aki
