I have so many things I want to say to Cricket, but when he sees me, he skates away. That is probably for the best. He shouldn’t be associated with me.
* * *
New Deitsu comes to the campus and does its work quickly, since all they have to do is replace the rails. When they’re finished, Chairman Niu doesn’t follow it with another visit. I wonder if I’ll ever know if he sent my letter orb. I wonder if the Empress Dowager will ever receive it. If she’ll be fooled by it. If she’ll realize I tricked her. If I’ll ever be able to return to Shin. All I know is that I never wanted to choose between Shin and Pearl. But the Empress Dowager’s own actions forced me to. And when I had to choose, I chose my new home.
I chose Pearl.
* * *
Sensei Madame Liao and Supreme Sensei Master Jio command Doi and me not to talk to any of the other students about why we’ve been unskated. But it’s not going to matter whether we talk about it or not. The two best girl skaters in our class got eliminated from the final Motivation after all these attacks on the campus. No one is going to fail to put it together.
But it seems like the excitement of the final Motivation, and the upcoming Drift Season Pageant and Beautymarch, and maybe even a bit of satisfaction that two leading girls got kicked out of the running, mean that most of the students leave us alone more than I expected. I think that all the students can sense that we’re damaged, we’re trouble, we’re unlucky to know. Our spectacular downfall makes Suki as happy as if she had been anointed Empress Dowager.
* * *
Doi stops pretending to be Hisashi. She appears on campus as herself, with her close-cropped hair. The student known as Niu Hisashi simply disappears from the life of Pearl Famous. But then again, he never went to classes, never appeared in crowds, never seemed to have any more friends than I did.
You’d think that the son of the Chairman of New Deitsu would have a lot of friends. Perhaps he does.
I wouldn’t know.
I’ve never met him.
* * *
The secret of the pearl and the salt seems to be intact. As everyone said, the pearl comes from the sea. The sea is salty but only so salty. Everyone here seems to grow up accepting the danger of salt without asking why it destroys the pearl. That must be why no one uses anything saltier than seawater to season their food. That must be why none of the merchants at the market except for the Shinian woman had any salt to sell. She probably smuggled it in from Shin. She only sold it to me because she hates Pearl. She knew the destruction it could cause. I remember how she told me to burn everything down with it.
Why would they build a city that can be destroyed by so common and useful a thing? And not ask more questions about it? But then again, fire is common and useful, too. No one asks why fire burns. It’s just something that people are taught to be afraid of from when they’re little without needing more explanation. I’m starting to learn that there are a lot of things like that that we’re taught.
Now that I know, it seems so obvious. Salt is prohibited because it destroys the pearl, which means the pearl is made from some living matter. It’s probably a rare crop, just like bamboo. Shin invaded Pearl for its bamboo, and Pearl is afraid that Shin is going to invade again, this time for the pearl. Shin and Pearl are sending their most famous skaters as pawns in the fight for the pearl.
Salt. The pearl. My fame. All of them fine, sparkling things. All of them responsible for the position I’m in now. All of them leading me to my decision to become a traitor to Shin.
* * *
One evening, as I’m shuffling in my socks back to my dormitory chamber after evenmeal, I pass a gathering of students. The twilight has repainted the campus in hues of black and kingfisher blue. A cluster of boys huddles in a golden glow of lanterns under the Gate of Complete Centrality and Perfect Uprightness.
They’re playing some sort of game. Each boy holds the carved wooden sculpture that he’ll be submitting for the competition. There’s a boy in the center of their circle with a band of cloth folded over his eyes. Cricket. One of the other boys holds out a sculpture. Cricket reaches out with just his thumb, his pointing finger, and his long finger.
As soon as his three fingers touch the sculpture, lightly, Cricket cries out, “The Pavilion of Dreams in Red!”
The boys around him laugh and demand, “How did you know?” And then, as if they’re used to hearing the answer, they sing in chorus, “Proportions!”
Cricket looks as happy as a brightstar of wu liu, taking his place on the stage of an opera. He doesn’t have to excel at wu liu now to prove that he’s not a spy who is just decent enough to pass for a skater.
Architecture comes as naturally for him as wu liu does for me. When you’re doing it, it feels as if all the forces within you are pushing you to your destiny. It doesn’t matter whether I think he’s good enough to succeed in architecture. It’s not for me to decide.
With an indescribable heave in my breast, I say good-bye to the brother I have known.
“Farewell, my little Cricket,” I whisper. “I release you. You have found your grain.”
* * *
Doi and I each struggle alone across campus in our socks on the slick pearl. She won’t speak to me. I’m not sure I want her to. She lied to me and made a fool out of me. She played me like a pearlflute.
Why did she do it? She must have known that it was pointless.
She created
