“That boy is here!” I give him time for the shock to sink in. “And Cricket needs all the help he can get to do well at the third Motivation. So much depends on it now, with all these accusations in the air about us not really being wu liu skaters. Cricket sees some rich, handsome boy who never goes to class take fifth ranking with no effort, when he himself needs so desperately to do well, when he has sacrificed more for this than any of us will sacrifice for anything in this life. I beg you to help him do well; I beg you to teach him the boys’ moves that he needs to learn!”
We stare at each other in silence.
“You think I’m handsome?”
I gape at his breathtaking arrogance. He smiles.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tried to make a joke. Believe me. Your words have pierced me as they should. If I don’t show it, it’s just because my heart is more raw right now than I’m used to showing. I promise I’ll help Cricket in his wu liu in any way that I can. Now, I need to leave you because my heart is breaking and I don’t know you well enough yet to let you see that, but thank you. May we meet here in the New Year.”
“May we meet here in Pearl,” I say, a bit stunned.
Hisashi bows, climbs onto the rail, and skates back toward the Principal Island. When he’s out of view, I take to the rail as well and skate in the opposite direction, to the sound of waves kneading below my skates and of blood beating within my ears.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
As soon as I see Supreme Sensei Master Jio rush into our wu liu class on the morning of the last day before the third Motivation, I know something is wrong because it’s the first time that I’ve seen him without a smile on his face.
He summons Sensei Madame Liao from our training and reaches into his sleeve. When she sees what he produces, she dismisses the class.
As he turns away, I see in his hand a letter orb.
That afternoon, we arrive at the Conservatory of Literature to find a scroll that says class has been canceled.
In the sky, the drifts of mist seem to be caught in an unusual air current. Then we hear the squawking.
“New. Deitsu. Dancers. Send. Letter. Orb. Claiming. That. Empress. Dowager. Threatens. To. Bind. Their. Feet. If. She. Does. Not. Receive. The. Secret. Of. The. Pearl. Chiologists. Agree. That. There. Is. No. Blockage. In. Tone. And. Dancers. Were. Not. Speaking. Against. Their. Will. Buy. Pearl. Shining. Sun. News. To. Get. Whole. Story.”
This has to be a lie. The Empress Dowager would never bind the boys’ feet. She’d have to break the bones in their feet and fold them in half to bind them. They’d never skate again. They’d barely be able to walk. And Zan Kenji and Zan Aki are boys. Only girls ever have their feet bound in Shin because they consider it a sign of feminine delicacy. This is all just a slur against Shin by Pearl Shining Sun. The Empress Dowager’s never done anything that unreasonable.
Except for the Bamboo Invasion. And the Tianshang Birthday Party Incident. And the Baby Catbear Bonfire. But those were different because now Cricket and I are here, and she would never do something that would endanger us.
All the girls are looking at me. Suki begins stamping her skate on the pearl. The other girls take up the beat. They stamp in time, all of them staring at me, not caring if they’re cutting up the pearl, harder and harder, until the sound feels like blows. I hop on the rails leading away from the Conservatory of Literature.
I have to find out what the Empress Dowager is actually doing to the New Deitsu skaters because it’s putting Cricket and me in a terrible position. Doi must know something. Why else would she be receiving Chi pulses from someone about a “hostage”? She must know Kenji and Aki through New Deitsu. As soon as the third Motivation is over, I need to focus on this.
However, right now, it’s most important that Cricket and I do well at the third Motivation to prove that we really were sent here because of our wu liu abilities.
I skate to find Cricket so we can do one more Chi healing session before the third Motivation tomorrow. To my surprise, the Chi healing sessions with Cricket have been helping my knee. However, I can’t get the balance of Chi flow back and forth between us right. Cricket sends me Chi energy for me to direct to my knee, but it drains him terribly. Then I have to spend twice as much time sending him Chi healing, drawing energy from every part of my body other than my injured knee, and that leaves me exhausted.
He needs all the Chi energy he can get. Hisashi spends every White Hour teaching Cricket essential boys’ moves, and another two hours after evenmeal. As much as I am grateful for this, my heart throbs with soreness when I see how utterly depleted Cricket is at the end of every day.
* * *
The morning of the third Motivation, my knee is still throbbing with excess heat, but the swelling has gone down to the point where I can’t see it anymore. Sensei Madame Liao states that Doi and Suki have been instructed to stay in their rooms during the Motivation as part of their punishment for fighting. At least I don’t have to worry about Suki trying to distract me. Thank you, Sensei Madame Liao.
When the Motivation starts, we swarm up the eight tiers of the Pagoda of Filial Sacrifice like a cloud of black locusts. Most of the girls try to claim a space on the highest tiers they can, but that is a strategic mistake. To eliminate an opponent, we have
