by Henry Lien
Her hair comes away in my hand.
I’m holding a wig of fine, black threads of pearlsilk.
We both scrape to a stop, and I look into the face of the person before me: those big, soft eyes; that short, dense hair; those cheeks where I know dimples lie dormant.
Not Doi. Hisashi.
No. It can’t be. Not my Hisashi. He’s not the vandal, because he can’t be the sister of the boy from Shin. And because … because he’s good. I need him to be good.
I stagger back a few steps and then slump with shock.
“Hisashi, why?”
He lunges for the wig, but I lift it up close to the spinning fan near us. The blades slap against the tips of the tendrils of pearlsilk hair.
“Why did you do this?” I demand. “Why were you pretending to be Doi?”
“Peasprout, I need that!”
“Answer me, Hisashi!”
“I’m not Hisashi!”
“What?”
“There is no Hisashi here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Peasprout…”
I lift the wig even closer to the fan. The blades snag on a lock of hair and I tug back. With a whine, the fan pulls the lock out by its roots.
“Peasprout, I’m not pretending to be Doi. I am Doi. It was always me. Both of us.”
Both of them. The same person.
That’s why they never appeared together. That’s why she had to sabotage the boys’ Motivations. So that they wouldn’t take place at the same time as the girls’. I think of Doi’s smile when she said, “No one can be in two places at the same time.” My hand is trembling so fiercely that I almost lose my grip on the wig. All those things that we said to each other when I thought she was Hisashi. At the Arch of the Sixteenth Whisper. On the dragon-phoenix boat during the Festival of Lanterns. I squeeze my eyes shut to force the tears of confusion and shock back down inside me.
She swipes at the wig again, but I open my eyes and tug it back behind me with a snap.
“Peasprout, I need that!”
“Why did you have to pretend to be two people?”
She tries to lunge around me, but I block her by hooking my leg around hers.
“Where is Hisashi? Do you really even have a brother? Answer me!”
She scissors her legs around mine and twists in midair, sending me spinning. I fly onto my rear and slide across the path from her.
“Were you disguising yourself as Hisashi to get close to me?” I ask. “So you could spy on me for your father? Is that whom you were talking to in the Courtyard of Supreme Placidness?”
Doi lunges at me. While she’s in flight, I whip the wig behind her. She snatches at it but misses. I spring forward in a double somersault leap as she tumbles to the ground and snatch the wig out of the air.
“Peasprout, someone will hear us!”
“Tell me the truth!” I cry and lift the wig to the spinning fan again.
She leaps with both hands stretched like claws to snatch the wig from me. I flick the wig onto my head to free both arms to fight her, then crouch with my fists extended to meet Doi.
Seeing this, Doi changes the position of her leap midair. She rams her skates hard under the broken blade of my right skate, sending me hurtling into the air. The wig goes flying off my head.
She leaps up and plucks it from the air. She lands, clutching it to her chest, then turns to skate away.
With a yell, I yank at the strands of hair that trail behind her and haul her back like a horse on reins.
A sound rises across the campus. Someone has seen our battle and pulled an alarm.
“Please let go of the wig!” Doi says. “We have to get back before they find us out of the dormitory! I’ll explain everything.”
She’s right. I can’t be caught outside of the Dian Mai. I let go of the wig and we race back to the girls’ dormitory.
When we skate into the central courtyard of the girls’ dormitory, Sensei Madame Yao is standing there, waiting for us. Her muscles bulge through her little night undershirt. Suki stands next to Sensei, holding the cord of the alarm. The House of Flowering Blossoms girls flank her in formation, shoulder to shoulder, all of them in their night-robes, with their hair clamped in wooden straightening paddles. Suki stands next to Sensei, holding the cord of the alarm.
Sensei Madame Yao skates to Doi and me. She reaches into the sacks that we have slung around our shoulders and pulls out the balls of salt. For the first time I have ever seen, she smiles.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
First, Sensei Madame Yao brings us to Supreme Sensei Master Jio’s chambers, then the two of them take us to a tower I have never been inside along the edge of the Principal Island. Doi and I are placed in a round chamber at the top of the tower.
Sensei Madame Yao commands, “Kneel on the pearl. Do not speak to each other. Speak into this if you have a confession to make about your crimes.” She places a letter orb on the pearl between us. “Or about each other’s crimes.” She exits.
Supreme Sensei Master Jio looks at us with his hands folded up in his sleeves. I expect him to spout some useless, shaming nonsense. Instead, he says, “This hurts me, my little embryos. You have done something so extreme. People do not do something so extreme unless they are really suffering. My heart hurts because I failed to help you through that. I failed even to see that. I apologize.” He bows to us.
And I thought he was a fool.
He leaves, closing the shoji.
“You owe me some answers,” I say. “Start talking now, or I’ll tell the senseis everything.”
“I didn’t want you to get involved. I was trying to protect you.”
“Do you even have a brother named Hisashi?”
“Yes. But he’s in Shin.”
Chingu’s oracle was correct after all. We just interpreted it incorrectly. If Doi’s brother is in Shin, then the criminal responsible for attacking the buildings is not me, the sister of the boy from Shin. The criminal is Doi, the sister of the boy in Shin.
“Why isn’t he here?”
“Hisashi went to try to bring back the New Deitsu skaters. He pretended to be a third wu liu skater from Pearl Famous. He brought some of the pearl to create a skating court for them to perform on for the Empress Dowager. They were going to invite her to sit in the place of honor, in a little structure in the center of the court.”
“Just like Lim Tian-Tai got the eunuch Mu Haichen to do,” I say.
“Yes. Once the Empress Dowager stepped in it, Hisashi would trap her and threaten to shrink her into a trinket unless she gave him and the New Deitsu skaters safe passage out of Shin. My task was to stay here and pretend to be both of us so that nobody would know he wasn’t at Pearl Famous. But the Empress Dowager wouldn’t step into the little structure.”
“How did you know what he was doing in Shin?” I ask, but then I realize I already know the answer. “You were communicating through the Chi pulse messages.”
“Yes.”
Someone comes skating up the ramp to our chamber at the top of the tower. The shoji door is unbolted and flung open so hard that the entire chamber shudders with the force. Chairman Niu’s silhouette towers like a monster in a shadow-puppet play. He sees me, hisses, and grabs a fistful of my robe. He hauls me up so forcefully that both my skates leave the pearl for an instant.
“Let me go!” I pull my arm back to deliver a three-fingered gouging phoenix strike at his face.
“Don’t hurt him!” Doi cries. Her arm shoots out at my head, but her fist stops short of my ear.
How dare she! I launch my other fist at her and stop just short of the Chi spot between her eyes.
The three of us stand there locked in this ridiculous triangle, our arms unmoving, all of us darting our eyes from one person to the other.
Finally, the Chairman releases his fist from my robe with a shove of his palm. I drop my arms only when Doi drops hers.
“I’m innocent,” I tell him. “You have n
o right to detain me here.”
“I owe you an apology, Father,” Doi says. “Hisashi and I were just trying to help you. But I was careless, and I got caught.”
The Chairman’s head whips toward Doi when he hears Hisashi’s name. “What does your brother have to do with this?” He turns to me. “Did you drag him into the Empress Dowager’s plans?”
I open my mouth to tell him the truth, but I pause. Doi came up with this plan that could have gotten me imprisoned. But she also convinced her father to let me consult Chingu. When she knew that Chingu would name her. She couldn’t have counted on the oracle being misinterpreted. She risked herself for me.
I fall silent. I can’t tell the Chairman that Doi was responsible for all of this. It has to be her decision to do so.
“You Shinian snake,” the Chairman spits, reaching for me.
“No, Father!” Doi says, shifting in front of me. “I’m the one who’s been attacking the structures.”
The Chairman stares at her. When it comes out, it’s almost a bellow. “Why?”
“The boys’ Motivations were at the same time as the girls’. I couldn’t be in two places at the same time, so I had to find a way to delay the boys’ Motivations.”
“Two plac— Where is Hisashi?”
“He’s in Shin. That’s why I had to pretend to be both of us. So no one would know about our plan.”
“What plan?” he roars.
“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 the broken long nail on his small finger, and bolts the door behind him.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
Doi’s heaving as hard as if she just skated a Motivation.
“Are you hurt?” I skate over and kneel by her side.
“It’s nothing.”
“You’re bleeding.” I reach to wipe the corner of her mouth with my cuff, but she flicks my hand away.
“Just leave it.”
I let her collect her Chi.
“I’m not going to let you send the orb to the Emp
ress Dowager,” she says.
“Your father already has the orb. It’s too late.”
“I’m never going to put you in danger again. I’m going to keep you safe.”
Doi pushes herself up and kneels facing me, too close. She says, “Because all we have is each other.”
Her eyes are soft and needing and familiar. Hisashi’s eyes.
All those deeply private things that she got me to share with her while she was disguised as Hisashi. She deceived me. She tried to kiss me.
Doi reaches out to touch my face.
The thought of her touching my skin repels me. I feel so betrayed. I slap her hand away.
Doi’s expression swells with hurt.
She touches my arm, and I can’t help it. I shrink back. “Don’t touch me!”
“Peasprout—”
“Stop it! It was all lies!”
“It was never a lie. It was real. It wasn’t Hisashi; it was me.”
“It could never be real.”
“Why?”
I say nothing. I’ve said enough. I don’t want to be cruel, but Doi understands as if I’ve spoken every thought aloud.
“Because I’m a girl,” Doi says quietly.
She gets up, picks up one of the bags, and plucks out a salt ball from it.
“Fine; it could never be real. But now I’m going to do something so real, you’ll never forget me.” Doi hurls the salt ball at the floor beneath her skates. The pearl begins to steam and sizzle.
She stamps on the ball and the salt sprays outward. She brings down the other skate onto the material and with a crack, she disappears through the hole in the floor.
“Doi!” I cry.
I need to stop whatever she’s going to do, but I’ve struck a pact with the Chairman. I can’t go breaking out of imprisonment again. Not with my record.
But I also can’t let Doi do whatever it is she’s planning on doing.
I grab the other sack of salt balls and drop through the floor.
I spot Doi on the floor of the tower below.
“Doi, stop!” I cry again. But she leaps out through an arch and is gone. I lean hard and skate after her.
