Peasprout Chen, Future Legend of Skate and Sword by Henry Lien

Author:Henry Lien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN

How did Suki do it? Even if those trinkets are explosives and she could get her hands on large amounts of them, why didn’t we hear anything? And explosives wouldn’t make a hole whose edges look like they’ve been licked apart, not ripped.

Two vandal attacks now. And the Empress Dowager’s threat to bind the hostages’ feet if she doesn’t get the secret of the pearl. And Pearl Shining Sun waiting for enough evidence from Suki to write my name and Cricket’s across the sky for everyone to read.

I don’t know how she attacked the palace, but her purpose was clearly to upset me right before the luckieth Motivation, to get her revenge. And she’s succeeded.

“She could have killed someone!” screeches Suki. “She’s threatening to kill us if we don’t give the Empress Dowager the—”

“You’re the one trying to kill us,” I yell back.

“Silence!” says Sensei Madame Liao.

We’re sent back to our dormitory chambers to try to sleep until morning comes, but I lie awake all night.

* * *

In the morning, Supreme Sensei Master Jio announces that the boys’ Motivation must be postponed. However, the girls’ Iron Fan Dance luckieth Motivation will go forward this morning as planned.

For me, the whole Motivation proceeds in clouds. Clouds roam across the Radial of Mighty Tranquility while each girl competes against her attackers. Clouds roam through my mind as my concentration on the Motivation competes against my thoughts about the attack on the palace.

Suki does well. She takes on ten attackers wearing nothing but a pair of forearm gauntlet shields, a torso plate, a sleeveless pearlsilk top, a pleated skirt, and pearlsilk underclothes, of course.

Sensei Madame Liao announces, “Disciple Chen Peasprout will be skating to Multipliers of ten attackers, wearing seven articles including two pieces of armor.”

I choose the same number of attackers as Suki did and wear the same armor except I don’t have a gauntlet on my left arm because of my injured wrist. So my Multipliers are higher than hers, but so is my risk. I skate onto the court.

I look at the practice mannequins standing on the perimeter to act as shields against stray fans. I think of the head of that mannequin burst open, the soft bodies crushed under the wedge of the ceiling on the starting line of the boys’—

An iron fan comes flying through the air at my unarmored arm.

I dodge just in time. Be here now, Peasprout. I focus my Chi. Then I do a forward flip and sling one of my fans back at the row of girls in front of me.

My opponents don’t rely on just their armor to block my fans; they also use their skate blades to block. I’m relying on dodging and reversing direction and twisting with mostly hummingbird-school moves, because I don’t have much armor and I can’t afford to use my skates to block.

I quickly discover that my deficiency is actually a great advantage. The fact that I have less armor doesn’t just mean that I have a higher

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