“To show you how much we love you.”
I look at this girl, with her shorn hair and her arms at her side, looking down at her father’s feet.
“You’re not making any sense,” he says. “What plan? Why did you do this? Answer me!”
Doi still says nothing.
“Do you want me to tell him?” I ask her.
She looks at me and nods.
I take a deep breath and slip from behind her so that we’re standing side by side. I look steadily into the Chairman’s eyes.
“Hisashi went to the court of the Empress Dowager to bring back your hostages for you. He was going to trap her in one of the shrinking pavilions. Doi’s role was to stay here and pretend to be both your daughter and your son so no one would know. They did this for you, so that you wouldn’t have to give up the secret of the pearl to get back the hostages.”
I watch the Chairman carefully. He can’t be unmoved by this.
He glares at his daughter.
“You fool!” he spits out. “What if the Empress Dowager figures out that she has the son of the Chairman of New Deitsu in her custody?”
“We were just trying to help you.”
His hand lifts to strike her.
I ready to block it.
Doi lifts her chin and says, “Hit me. I deserve it.”
He pauses.
His towering outline quivers over her. Then it seems as if all the air is let out of him. The Chairman wipes his brow, chest rising and falling. He turns his own palms up and studies the lines on them.
“I blame myself,” he says to her. “But you’re done here, and you’re done with your plan. You’re going back to Pearl Colony. I’m going to commit you as a novice nun. You’re done with wu liu. You will never compete again. And you’re going to say that you found Peasprout attacking the structures.”
I look at Doi. She is being forced to choose between her own future and mine. I always knew we were rivals and that one of us must suffer for the other to prevail. Destiny just found another way to pit us against each other.
“We’ll imprison her and offer her up in exchange for your brother,” the Chairman says.
“No!” Doi cries.
“How else do you think I’m going to clean up this disaster?”
“You can’t do this to her!” shouts Doi.
“You did this to her. It’s her or your brother.”
How did I get caught in this dangerous game? I’m just a girl from Shin.
But so was Little Pi Bao Gu. And she came here to Pearl and was asked to use her talents to protect her new home from Shin.
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, but so do traitors.
Doi and Hisashi—the real Hisashi—and I are trapped between tigers. The Empress Dowager. The Chairman. We cannot fight. We cannot run.
The only way out is to grab one of the tigers by the tail.
I pick up the letter orb that Sensei Madame Yao left in the cell in case Doi and I wanted to confess or accuse each other. I twist apart the two halves.
I speak into it, “Divine and Calm Mother Empress Dowager of the Great Shin Imperium, your worthless servant Chen Peasprout has just learned how to discover the secret of the pearl. The third skater from Pearl brought a pavilion. If you sleep inside it, it will produce in your dreams a Bai Lou Meng, which is an oracle that will tell you any secret you wish. Please hurry. The future of Shin depends on it. Your undeserving emissary, Chen Peasprout.”
I close the orb, pull out the pearlsilk membrane.
The Chairman says, “Is that true?”
“No,” I say. “But the Empress Dowager does extreme things when she doesn’t get what she wants. She won’t be able to resist stepping inside, and Hisashi can trap her and demand safe passage out of Shin for your skater and himself.”
Doi wraps her hands around my hands folded around the orb.
“Peasprout, you can’t do this! You’ll never be able to go back to Shin,” she says. “Or Cricket! You’ll never be safe there.”
I push her hands away and hold the letter orb toward the Chairman.
“We’ve never been safe anywhere.”
“But the Empress Dowager’s Chiologists will analyze the orb and know it’s a lie!” Doi argues. “They’ll hear the blockage.”
“Chiologists can only hear if the speaker is speaking against her will. I’m not saying this against my will.”
“I’m not going to let you do this. I’ve pulled you into enough trouble.”
“Be silent, you stupid girl!” the Chairman says.
“This isn’t her problem,” she replies. “This is our family problem. I won’t let you bring her into this.”
“Don’t talk to me like that, you worthless child.”
He lifts his hand again.
My palm flashes out to stop him from striking Doi, but the blow never comes. Instead, the Chairman pulls back his hand. He covers his mouth, but not before I see the corners tug down as he tries not to cry.
He straightens and collects himself. Then the Chairman takes the orb from my open palm.
He skates to the door leading out of the chamber.
“Father,” cries Doi, rubbing her chest as if to squeeze the pain out of it. “Don’t leave angry with me. I was just trying to unbreak our family. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
He hesitates there and turns back. His eye is twitching. I can feel the tremendous effort coming off his Chi in waves, but he’s unable to contain his emotion.
He returns to Doi and looks as if he’s struggling to find words.
Say something to your daughter, I silently beg. Before I can reach them, he slaps her across the face so hard that he has to take two steps to keep from toppling forward with the force. Doi slides across the floor of the chamber and collides with the bags of salt balls.
The Chairman is crying, a grotesque keening sound. He says, “I should never have listened to your mother. I should never have chosen the two of you over her.”
He exits the chamber, looking only at
