Avatar: The Heir of Ban

Chapter 4: The Daughters of the Black Current

Part 4

"You know, that story got me thinking," Heng said to Chu as she finished bundling her brother down for the night, "that you could really help out with keeping the inventory count straight. The revenue numbers too."

"I guess I could do that, but how are you keeping track now?" Chu asked. "You must have someone doing that already."

"Yeah, we keep our records okay, but most of my people can't even read. Even I only know basic arithmetic. But with you on the team we could restructure our inventory and pricing system as needed to compensate for daily changes in the market back in Ba Sing Se."

Suddenly Chu's ears pricked up. "Do you hear rumbling? Like earthbending?" he asked Heng.

"Tieh said he might ask Zhengyi to show him some techniques or spar. It must be that," she said, shrugging it off. Then she snapped her fingers. "Oh, actually you should teach my people math. Then we could have a bunch of people keeping the books instead of just one," Heng said, smiling at the sudden insight. Chu was barely paying attention to her at this point, sure something was going on with Zhengyi. Heng continued to be awash in bright ideas. "And you could teach their kids too. Oh, the parents would like that. That would reinforce their loyalty. You know, the Yumsoon-Hans don't make any effort to provide education to the peasants, so if I—"

Suddenly Fu Shan appeared in the hut, pacing and making pained mews. Momentarily it bit Chu's pant leg, tugging him.

"Zhengyi's in trouble!" Chu said. "I knew it! Fu Shan wouldn't leave him otherwise!"

Heng hadn't even considered the possibility Zhengyi could be in danger in her town. Chu had kept his guard up a bit, but she had paid absolutely no mind to the claims that girl had made about Tieh. She was very surprised by this turn of events. "What?" she said

"Something's wrong. You go find him, I'll get Su and Fung," Chu ordered, zipping out of the hut.

Chu ran up the road toward the town square as fast as he could, trying to keep pace with Fu Shan. Fortunately, Su and Fung had been expecting this and had not gone far. Still, Chu was panting by the time he got to them.

As soon as Su saw the frantic, winded boy, she knew what had happened. "Chu? Zhengyi's in trouble, isn't he? Tieh got him alone, right?" Chu nodded. "Where are they?"

"I don't know," Chu huffed. "They're on the bank somewhere, past Heng's hut."

"It's gotta be some of Wu's people. Let's go," Su said, taking off.

For a minute, Fung caught herself thinking Why should we help? But there was no time for a debate like that. Zhengyi had treated her badly, but if he really was being attacked by assassins sent by Wu, like Su had predicted earlier, then he could be in serious danger, and she wasn't about to let him die. She took off after Su.

"Where's that other girl?" Chu asked, running alongside Su.

"She just left. Said she had to see to something," Fung answered.

Heng ran down the bank of the delta in the direction Zhengyi and Tieh had gone. She saw Zhengyi fending off four people. Tieh was walking away from the scene, coming towards her. She ran up to him. "What's going on?" she cried.

"It's all right," he said, taking her hand. He took her hand as though he were going to hold it, and Heng thought he was going to try to comfort her. But spun behind her, forcing her arm behind her back and kicking her in the back of one of her knees, dropping her into a kneeling position. He immediately produced a sash and bound her hands together behind her back.

"What are you doing?" she screamed, thrashing.

"This is for your own good, Heng. I'm doing this for you."

"You did make a deal with the Ban clan!" Heng realized. "It's just like that girl said!"

"I did it for you, Heng!" he yelled back. "Look!" He grabbed her head, forcing her watch Zhengyi battling the four hunters. "The Ban clan sent them! You want to mess with the Ban clan? You want to cut off their main plant supplier just 'cuz some stranger asked you to? This is what happens! And that's just four Ban clan agents. Do you think you could stop them if they wanted to shut us down, or kill you? I had to make a deal with them to undo your mistake!"

Heng thrashed more and swore at him. "Once they kill Zhengyi they'll leave us alone. You'll thank me for this later, Heng," Tieh said. He pushed her over and grabbed her legs, attempting to bind them with another piece of cloth.

Heng couldn't move her wrists, but she flexed her fingers, calling a small mass of rock out of the ground to strike Tieh. As Tieh recoiled, Heng rolled and moved her leg, summoning another sharp mass of rock. She sat up as it burst through the ground, cutting the sash that tied her wrists. She leapt up. "Thank this!" she spat as she stamped the ground and kicked a rock right into Tieh's chest. He hit the ground and rolled. Heng rotated her stance ninety degrees to one side as she swung her fists in a circle in front of her. A mass of earth rose up and fell on Tieh, pummeling him to the ground. Heng rotated her feet the other way and repeated the motion, burying Tieh up to his neck in another wave of earth. Tieh struggled to free himself, shaking his head and cursing Heng. Noticing his head was now conveniently located at foot-level, Heng kicked him square in the face and ran to help Zhengyi.

Heng rushed over, calling Zhengyi's name. As she ran to get to him she leapt in the air and executed a forward flip. She called three rocks out of the ground with her landing, and quickly sent them each toward a different attacker with three separate kicks.

"Heng! Watch out!" Zhengyi called, riding an earthen wave as he blasted flames at the large man. "They're Wu's guys!"

Heng noticed the woman making a circular motion with her hands just in time. She somersaulted away just as a flash of blue lightning leapt toward her. "Woah," she breathed. She sent a column of rock speeding towards the woman. Shuurai shattered it with the whipchain she wielded. Heng fired several more at the woman, only to have them all shattered.

Suddenly Aguta swore as an arrow caught him in the arm. A barrage of arrows fell near the other three hunters, stifling their movements. Fa emerged from the nearby reeds, with her bow drawn and an arrow nocked. She held her weapon in a way Zhengyi had never seen before: she held a bundle of eight arrows in the pinky of her left hand, against the bow itself. She held the bow drawn with the thumb of her left hand.

As Fa stared down the hunters, Shuurai noticed shouts coming form the direction of the huts, barely a half-mile away. She could see them in the distance, and the villagers gathering near them and starting to mobilize. "They're flanking us!" Shuurai barked to her comrades, assuming Fa also had some backing her up. Shuurai knew she and the others were powerful, but they would have a hard time fighting dozens of armed villagers as well as the Avatar. "Stay on them! I'll trash the huts to make a distraction!" She took off running, leaving Fa, Zhengyi, and Heng to the others. Heng immediately chased after Shuurai, realizing her people were in danger.

At Chu's urging, the villagers were arming and beginning to gather outside their huts, preparing to help Heng and Zhengyi. Shuurai fell upon their homes before they could react, firing balls of flame into them. In a matter of seconds several of the wood-and-straw huts were burning, and the villagers panicked at the sight of their homes being engulfed. Heng caught up to Shuurai just as she lobbed a fireball into Heng's hut through the door. "Shen Kuo!" Heng shrieked, redoubling her speed and bounding straight into her now burning house.

Zhengyi, with fireblasts of his own and help from Fa's bow, was able to put some distance between himself and the other hunters and rush after Heng, with Fa following. He shouted her name as he saw her rush into the burning hut. The fire crackled loudly as a piece of the straw roof tumbled down. Just in time, Heng burst through the doorway in a flying leap. She landed in a crouch, slowly uncurling her body to reveal Shen Kuo, crying emphatically, but safe in his sister's arms.

As Zhengyi took in the destruction around him, he started to realize that it was all because Wu's people had tracked him to Chen Shi Wan. He had brought them here.

Fa, catching up behind Zhengyi, looked around and noticed some of the small punt boats beached nearby. "Zhengyi, they're after you," she said urgently, giving voice to Zhengyi's own concerns. "Get in one of the boats; we'll draw them off." Zhengyi took notice of the boats as well. He yelled curses at Shuurai to get her attention, adding a sarcastic invitation to try and fight him again.

Heng saw Zhengyi about to depart and leapt into the boat with him, still carrying her brother. "Go!" she said. Zhengyi began to rotate his arms at the shoulders, bending the water at the stern of the boat in order to propel it forward at great speed.

Shuurai jumped into another boat, joined momentarily by Aguta, Dr. Teng, and Junren, who had caught up to Zhengyi. Aguta did the same as Zhengyi, driving the boat forward with waterbending.

The two crafts were now engaged in a high-speed chase, flying down the Shi Wan River. They were moving so fast their bows constantly kicked up a light spray. Zhengyi attempted to navigate the boat around the curves and twists of the river. Heng helped him, crying out "Left! Bank more!" Shuurai stood at the prow of the hunters' boat, launching a barrage of fireballs at her fleeing quarry, hoping if not to hit them, at least to throw off their steering and make them crash. Fa returned fire with her arrows.

Zhengyi whipped the boat around a curve and the river suddenly grew more narrow, the banks steeper. He almost fell off as the keel barely scraped some obstruction under the water and jostled all aboard. Heng caught notice of a tree hanging over the river, some of its roots emerging from the steep bank. "Fa, hold him!" she called over the whipping wind, handing Shen Kuo over to the other girl. "I'm gonna end this!" She carefully stood up in the boat. As the hunters' boat rounded the curve, Heng took a deep stance and reached out her arms, drawing them back toward her body with great effort. The earth slid out from under the tree, bringing it crashing down on to the hunters' boat. Zhengyi saw them scream and dive off, so he did not stop propelling his own boat for several minutes.

Finally exhausted, he landed the boat on a sandy bank. He stumbled off of it and collapsed on to his hands and knees, panting. Heng did the same, taking a seat on a rock. She saw that this one of the places where her people secretly grew dai zhiwu. Clusters of the plants were scattered all along the bank. Fa placed Shen Kuo on the ground, and he scampered over to Heng, burying his head in her side to calm himself. Heng patted his head.

Fa took a few breaths herself, then whipped another cluster of arrows out of her quiver and fired straight for the Avatar's head.

Heng raised an earthen wall just in time. The arrow thudded into it. "What are you doing?" she cried.

Fa wheeled and fired at her. Heng raised shielding rock formation to cover herself and her brother. Fa bolted around the wall toward Zhengyi firing one, two, three arrows at him. Due to her unorthodox method of holding the arrows she was able to fire them incredibly fast, every two seconds or so. Zhengyi sprang out of the way, rolled, and fired off a rock that caught the third arrow.

"My name is Cai Fa," she announced, nocking her next arrow and circling Zhengyi, "daughter of Cai Di of the Ba Sing Se City Guard. My father's life's work was to bring the Ban clan to justice. In order to do this he developed a new method of police work. He joined the clan under an assumed identity, and worked his way up until he joined Ban Ti Xi's inner circle." The girl was glaring at Zhengyi venomously, but spoke coolly and directly. His eyes locked on to hers at the mention of his father's name. He had never before heard of any such incident as the one Fa described. "But he was found out," she continued. "His identity as a guardsman was exposed. So the clan eliminated him." She paused, drawing in a deep breath. She saw the Avatar down the shaft of an arrow, but still looked deep into his eyes. "Ban Ti Xi tied my father to a chair and cut his throat." She loosed her arrow.

It flew off in a curve to the left. It hit the ground and skittered across a few feet to a spot on the ground where Heng's fingers penetrated it. She was kneeling over the ground with her hand thrust in. She rose with a grin.

"Magnetized the ground," Fa observed.

"Ya like that?" Heng sneered.

"Not really," Fa huffed, putting the rest of her arrows, now mostly useless, into her quiver. She rushed at Heng with her bow. Heng sent a tremor towards her, but Fa sprang off it expertly. Heng was already firing off a rock at her. Fa knocked it away with her bow, whipped the bow around her body like a staff and knocked away the next rock. She landed a side kick on Heng's hip, then spun around to throw a reverse kick. Heng caught her leg and threw her to the ground. Fa fell, but quickly swept Heng's own legs out from under her, dropping her to the same position. They began to grapple, rolling back and forth over each other. Heng pressed her palm into Fa's cheek, grinding the other side of her face into the dirt. Fa freed her arm and smashed her fist into the side of Heng's face. As Heng recoiled Fa was able to stand.

Fa's fight was with the Avatar, and she needed a way to get this girl out of the picture. She saw her way in Heng's young brother. Fa sprinted over and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. As Heng and Zhengyi advanced carefully on her, Heng held the screaming toddler aloft. "Louen Heng," she called, "stand down or I'll throw him in the river!"

Heng froze. "Don't hurt him," she pleaded, keeping her voice calm, since she was unsure of what Fa might do to her brother. "He's just a baby. He's not a threat to you." She slowly extended her arm. "Please don't hurt my brother."

Fa looked at the boy she held. She turned to Heng. "The Ban Clan is very selective as to whom they show mercy." She heaved Shen Kuo into the river.

Heng screamed his name and immediately dove in after him. Fa and Zhengyi locked eyes again. Fa leapt at him and swung her bow. Zhengyi sidestepped it and threw a flaming punch. Fa flourished her cloak across her body, dissipating the flames. Taking advantage of the brief visual distraction of the cloak's movement, Fa hammered her foot down on the side of Zhengyi's knee. He sank to his knees and in a flash she had the concave side of her bow pressing on his throat. She was garroting him with the bow. A brief acknowledgement of this girl's sheer speed crossed his mind. He had fought some hard-core Hei Chaoliu fighters in the past few weeks, not least of which were those assassins he had been tangling with minutes ago. So far, Fa had hurt him worse than any of them.

Zhengyi's fingers fumbled around at the bow on his throat, but quickly realized it was useless. Fa only pulled the bow tighter. Zhengyi could hear Heng splashing in the river. He could only hope she would be able to save her brother. He was unable to turn his head to see, but behind him Fa plucked an arrow from her quiver and held it in her fist, ready to plunge it into Zhengyi's neck.

Zhengyi knew he had to free himself, but also decided Fa ought to pay for bringing Shen Kuo into this. Feeling his anger, he gathered the earth next to him in a hard shell around his fist and and swung behind him, hoping to hit Fa's legs.

Fa leapt back just in time, but was forced to let go of her bow. Zhengyi took one gasp of air, but quickly realized he had no time to recover. Fa rushed back toward him, brandishing the arrow like a dagger. Zhengyi exploded a rock underneath her, but again she sprang away expertly.

"What do you want with us?" Zhengyi roared, throwing another rock.

Fa dodged it. "I've been watching you for a long time, Ban Zhengyi." She glared at him. "I know how you were raised in the Hei Chaoliu. I know how you think. You're willingness to help drug smugglers just confirms it more. An evil Avatar is the worst threat the world has ever seen." She pulled a second arrow out, wielding it in her other hand. She spoke directly, her voice low-key. "I'm going to save the world from you." She lunged at him.

Zhengyi grew angrier, whether it was because of what she had done to Heng and Shen Kuo, or just the threat she had made, he didn't know. He fired off more rocks, but she continued to avoid them and close the distance. She was remarkably agile. Zhengyi transitioned to waterbending, aiming a torrent of water from the river right for her. She rolled to avoid it, but he circled it around and back, turning it into a small loop that began to close around her arms. As fast as he could, Zhengyi compelled the water to freeze. Fa was faster still, breaking the stream with a crescent kick just before the ice could extend from Zhengyi to her. Continuing with the kick's momentum, she spun and nearly drove an arrow into Zhengyi. Just in time, he somersaulted backwards. He noticed she had changed grip on the arrows from forehand to backhand seamlessly. He and Fa had now almost exactly changed positions from where they were a moment ago.

Suddenly they both heard a splash and gasping. Heng had recovered Shen Kuo from the river. The toddler was bawling, but Zhengyi was relieved to hear it, because it meant he had full use of his lungs. Heng was heaving and coughing, but Zhengyi's eyes stayed locked on Fa. He was determined to protect Heng from her.

Immediately the sound of the Avatar's name being called reached them. "Zhengyi! Zhengyi!" It was Su's voice. Those of Chu, Fung and others from the village soon joined it. They were calling for Heng as well.

"Here!" Heng cried, barely finishing the word before she coughed violently. She called back to them again before her voice gave way to a hacking sputter.

Fa looked Zhengyi dead in the eyes again. "Avatar Zhengyi," she addressed him. He realized something obliged him to listen when she spoke, maybe because something in him had hooked on to this incident with both of their fathers. He couldn't be sure at the moment. "I am going to kill you, " she said.

Zhengyi's friends and several others landed another of the smuggler's boats a few feet away. Without a waterbender, they hadn't been able to travel nearly as fast as the other two boats.

Mr. Ru was the first one to step off. Hoping to deter the rest of the crowd from persuing her, Cai Fa whipped an arrow into Mr. Ru's shoulder like a dart. Fa threw the other one into her quiver and sprinted up the river bank. Zhengyi growled and threw one last fireball in her direction. It missed and dissipated, but he thought he discerned some of her silloughette in its light. He turned to tend to Heng, as those villagers who weren't already helping Mr. Ru were doing. One or two tried to follow Cai Fa, but Zhengyi could already tell they would tire long before they caught up to her.

Zhengyi and his friends returned to Heng's hut, to help take care of her and Shen Kuo. The villagers had been delayed in putting the fires out, but apparently they had manged to control them. Many of the huts were in various states of disrepair, like Heng's with its missing roof, but most of the structures were still intact. A few villagers had also stayed behind to hide the incriminating evidence in the huts, and explain to the guards who came down to investigate that the fire was merely an accident.

Heng and her brother both seemed to be okay, but Zhengyi was concerned one or both of them could have swallowed water. If nothing else, they were both exhausted. Shen Kuo didn't stop crying for a while, and Heng was mostly concerned with him. She was fighting sleep, but Zhengyi was kept awake, harrowed by guilt. She finally dozed off when Zhengyi offered to watch over her brother. The rest of the group was staying in Heng's hut as well, and even Fung and Chu had fallen asleep by this time, but Su remained awake like Zhengyi did. She sat on the floor with her back against the wall, directly across from Zhengyi. Zhengyi tried not to meet her gaze, but at one point he noticed her staring at him.

"The plant is still going to Wu," she said, her voice barely audible. She didn't need to be loud. "Next time, you should listen to me."

Zhengyi stared off, but made a very subtle nod that he understood.

"And you realize those bounty hunters are going to continue to come after you," Su said.

Zhengyi looked over to the sleeping Heng and Shen Kuo.

The next morning, Zhengyi told Heng that they had to go. It was almost the first thing he said to her.

Heng did not protest. She understood Zhengyi's reasoning. "I don't know what we're going to do," was her only response.

"I put you in too much danger already," Zhengyi said. He and Heng shared the same sad, resigned tone. "Those people were after me. But you can't stop the shipments to Wu." He understood that the people of Chen Shi Wan needed her, and she couldn't leave to go with him.

"I don't want to keep selling to an oath-breaker," she said. Chu, Fung, and Su were making ready to leave a few yards off. Heng caught a glimpse of them. "Su was right. I don't know what I'm doing."

"Don't put yourself and all the villagers in danger over that," Zhengyi urged, although he couldn't muster any enthusiasm for the order. Obviously they both wished Heng didn't have to keep supplying Wu. "Just keep the shipments going. No one can blame you."

"I think I'll have to keep the shipments going so I can keep a low profile with the clan in Ba Sing Se, but I'm going to try everything I can to find a way around this."

Zhengyi gave her a weak smile. "All right," he said. "What are you going to do with Tieh?"

"He's tied up in the Rus' basement right now. My guys are going to put a few packets of plant in his pockets and leave him outside the guard station tonight. I'm sure they'll take good care of him," she joked half-heartedly. "I heard they picked up Fu An too, so Tieh will still have him to kick around. He'll be getting out of jail around the time I think I'll be able to stand to see his face again."

Zhengyi managed a very small laugh. "After I kill Wu, and his hunters, and I can stay in one place for a while, I'll come back and see you."

Heng nodded. Zhengyi gave her another, stronger smile. He shouldered a pack of food the villagers had given them and turned to get on a boat with the others. He tapped on his leg for Fu Shan to follow after him.

Heng watched them go, poled along in the punt boat by one of her enforcers for few moments, but suddenly ran several steps after them down the riverbank. "The Ban Clan of Chen Shi Wan will serve our true Mountain Master!" she called to Zhengyi, curling her left hand around her right fist in a promissory gesture. Zhengyi stood up and returned the intimation.

Soon the enforcer dropped his five passengers off a short way down the river. Following this tributary, they could get further west, into the Earth Kingdom's interior, and there were a good number of villages along the river in case they needed to resupply.

Fung saw that the place where they had been dropped off was still within the purview of the Chen Shi Wan smugglers, as it was thick with dai zhiwu plants. Trudging through them made Fung bristle with contempt for that reprobate of a girl who had more influence over the Avater than she—a devotee of Jian Lao, practically a spiritual expert—did. As they stepped out of the last of the plants, Fung took her pack off of one shoulder and pulled out a pair of spark rocks. She made two attempts to light them before Zhengyi noticed the clicking noise and turned around to see what it was.

"What are you doing?" he barked.

Fung didn't pause, striking the rocks together again as she growled, "I'm going to burn this crop. You can help your girlfriend sell poison to murderers all you want, but I'm not going to stand—"

Zhengyi snatched the rocks from her hand and with his earthbending, he crushed them to dust in his fist.

Su was already continuing to walk on. Chu sort of looked at the ground sadly, and then followed her. Fung and Zhengyi glared at each other for a moment, but Zhengyi wheeled and followed after the others, flinging the dust of the spark rocks out of his hands like trash. Fung continued to glare at the back of his head, even as she began to walk after him, but no one had the energy to say anything.