The Dawn of Yangchen, page 29
But one night, while he was aimlessly skirting the square, his irrelevance came to a grinding halt.
A Water Tribe man appeared twice in the corner of Kavik’s eye. He still had the Northern gait of walking softly so as not to break through ice crusts or overturn gravel, which meant he was new to the city. After Kavik paused to have a meaningless conversation with a shopkeeper he’d never met before, he observed over his shoulder the same Water Tribe man paying special attention to the storefront from afar, in case it was a safe house or a handoff point.
There was no doubt about it. Kavik was being tailed.
Despite his quickening pulse he slowly, calmly went through his list of moves, executing broken paths, double-backs, every maneuver he could think of. Nothing worked. He couldn’t shake the man, who must have been a hunter and tracker far beyond Kavik’s skill, possibly the equal of Kalyaan. Sometimes you could just walk down your prey, even if it spotted you.
As his options for escape were taken away one by one, Kavik found himself at the alley wall he’d climbed over when he thought he was breaking any link between his actions at the Blue Manse and his home life. He hadn’t been able to fool the Avatar. He looked up, just in case. The skies were clear. He bent a ladder of ice like he’d done that night.
It melted underneath his feet while he was halfway up.
His face scraped along the brickwork on the way down, a stinging rash against his skin. He landed in a heap. His follower appeared at the other end of the alley.
Kavik reached around him for water but the man had already drawn the nearby sources to himself, the puddles, the melt from the rooftops, spinning the growing mass between his hands with expertise. Their shared element flew to him alone in droplets and streams, leaving Kavik with nothing.
Kavik was split between pretending to be helpless and ignorant, and fighting back with every ounce of strength he had. The one thing he could be sure of was that he would not talk. Even if it was kill or be killed, he was not going to be part of any more games. He was done.
And then he heard a dull thud.
The water the man was bending splashed to the ground. He fell forward onto his knees, and then onto his face, revealing Mama Ayunerak standing several paces behind him.
The elderly woman tucked some unseen weapon under the back of her parka. Kavik had never been so confused in his life. With the spryness of a person half her age, Ayunerak went over to the man she’d knocked unconscious and started digging through his pockets, running her hand down his collar for anything looped around his neck, searching his skin for marks and tattoos.
“What is going on?” Kavik asked, his breath short as if he’d been running. He hadn’t seen Ayunerak since giving her the Avatar’s money.
“This man is a Thin Claw,” Ayunerak said, her focus never wavering from her task. “A scout loyal only to High Chieftain Oyaluk. The fact that he was following you means your involvement in Unanimity and its secrets are uncomfortably close to reaching the light of day.”
Hearing the code name on someone else’s lips was a shock. It made him forget any kind of discipline, took from him the ability to play dumb. “How did you—How do you know about that?”
“It’s my job to know things, Kavik. My friends and I know a great deal.” Mama Ayunerak looked up at him with the same cool, assessing eye the Avatar used when she’d recruited him. “And I think it’s high time you joined us.”
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and the entire Avatar team for making it all possible. Very special thanks to my editor, Anne Heltzel, and agent, Stephen Barr, for guiding me through ups and downs and ups again. And very, very, very special thanks to all the fans of every Avatar. And I almost forgot about Karen.
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F. C. Yee, The Dawn of Yangchen
