Suki’s words reach me as soon as I drag myself out of the water. “You see! She’s going to stop at nothing until she gets the secret of the pearl for the Empress Dowager! Imprison that filthy, murderous—”
“It was Suki!” I cry. “I saw her! She brought the temple down. She used some sort of fire jelly to melt it!”
Everyone is silent. Suki is smirking.
“I nearly drowned right now! Because of her! Aren’t you going to do anything?”
Sensei Madame Liao says to me, with her brow bunched into a cleft, “Peasprout. Suki was in my boat during the entire festival.”
“So she must have gotten one of her House of Flowering Blossoms girls to do it for her. Did she ask to be in your boat? She wanted you as a witness. She set you up!”
“I asked her to join me in my boat,” says Sensei Madame Liao.
My mouth drops open. Did she want to keep an eye on Suki? Should I feel betrayed?
Suki shouts, “Did anyone notice that she wasn’t at the Festival of Lanterns? And then she happens to be the only one at the site of the attack? Throw her in prison now!”
My Chi shudders. I’ve skated right into her trap.
“Enough. We will deal with this after the girls’ fifth Motivation tomorrow,” says Sensei Madame Liao. “The boys’ fifth Motivation is postponed, obviously.”
She orders the third-year students to usher us all to our dormitories.
* * *
I sleep little.
It’s even more urgent now that I consult Chingu after this third incident and with me at the site of the crime by myself with no witnesses.
I have to prove my innocence before the Chairman comes back. He’ll be here with the New Deitsu team tomorrow, just like the other times. Maybe sooner, since I promised to get him the evidence I needed to clear my name before another attack happened. He didn’t have enough evidence before to have a legal right to imprison me in that pavilion. If three incidents are enough evidence for Pearl Shining Sun to defame me, will it be enough for him?
I need to go while everyone is occupied with the girls’ fifth Motivation. But I have to finish participating in it myself first to keep up my ranking. I can escape into the city while it’s night, wait there until the markets open as soon as it’s light, and get back while the academy is still sleeping during the day.
So I’m going into the city, and I’m getting that wine, and I’m going to use Chingu’s oracle to prove to everyone that Suki is the criminal.
After I knock her out of the sky at the fifth Motivation.
* * *
We’re awakened at the usual time, and we meet at Divinity’s Lap.
Sensei Madame Liao leads the first-year girls to the Palace of the Eighteen Outstanding Pieties. She ascends to the roof of the palace with a single-footed dolphin heel-kick. We copy the move and follow her atop the structure.
When we’re assembled, she barks, “Willful, unfilial daughters of Pearl and Shin. I can see from how you stand in your skates that you are all still selfish and depraved and that none of you is prepared for aerial combat.
“Because it will take place in the night sky, you are to tie these rings of luminescent seagrass around your wrists, ankles, hips, and shoulders so that I can see your movements and score you accordingly, and so we can find your bodies should you fall into the dark sea.
“Every pair of girls will fight every other pair simultaneously in an open field of combat on the roof of the palace and in the sky above. If both partners in the pair touch the pearl at the same time, that pair is eliminated. You will be scored based on how long you last. Those of you who have already selected your partners, form a line. Those of you who haven’t, you have until the count of one hundred to choose your own partners or you will be randomly assigned one.
“Now, one. Two.…”
I look for Doi. She’s standing at the edge of the palace roof, looking on at everybody. I still don’t know if I can trust her, but I’ve decided she’s my best chance to win the Motivation. I see Mole Girl, and she waves at me. I pretend not to see.
“Eight. Nine.…”
Suki’s pairing up each of the other House of Flowering Blossoms girls with some girl who has terrible ranking. She’s doing it to eliminate as many of her competitors as possible by pairing them with weak partners.
“Twenty. Twenty-one.…”
Suki skates to me and says, “If you and I pair up, we’ll win. If we win, you’ll be in first place.”
“What makes you think I would even—”
“If you don’t partner with me, I’m going to Pearl Shining Sun as soon as this Motivation is over and telling them everything I know about the three attacks. As well as some new ‘secret weapon’ evidence I found.”
“Then I’ll tell them all about how you cheated at the—”
“No one’s going to believe a word you say after last night. You waited too long to play that tile and you know it.”
“Luckity-seven. Luckity-eight.…”
I look at Doi, who’s looking back at me. What if she has some wild plan for this Motivation like she did at Iron Fan Dance? Can I trust her? I think so. But then, I thought I could trust her brother.
“Sixty-nine. Seventy…”
Etsuko stares at us from the sideline, waiting to see if Suki succeeds in convincing me. I guess she’s Suki’s backup choice. Why do these girls put up with such treatment?
“Eighty-two. Eighty-three.…”
Only a couple other girls haven’t found partners yet. They’re ranked so low that I’ve never bothered remembering their faces. I’m going to get paired with one of them if I don’t choose.
“Ninety. Ninety-one.…”
Doi still stares at me. Does she have as many doubts about me as I have about her?
Finally, I say to Suki, “Make me die of laughing! I’d sooner pair with Chingu.”
“Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine.…”
Suki sneers and grabs Etsuko’s hand.
Something tugs
