The Warrior's Gambit (Zutara)

XLIII

What was waiting for them? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Well, of course, there were always things waiting for them, but not what Katara - or clearly anyone else - had been expecting. Zhi had greeted them at the door with a wide smile, announcing that they would have a formal dinner tonight, so they should wear their finest semi-casual option, and that afterward, there would be a band playing for their enjoyment. It was as though they were returning from an exotic trip out east and not from a day in the war. Was Zhi overcompensating, as she looked at their haggard faces and the dirt-smeared all up and down their skin, or was the palace truly not going to acknowledge what had just occurred?

Well, even if the palace wasn't going to say anything, Katara surely wasn't going to just let the matter drift away like lotus flowers in a river.

"So, what happened to the rest of you?" Katara asked as they waited for their bags at the entrance of the palace. "You know Prince Lu Ten and I found shelter, but what about the rest of you?"

"Forests," Cilla croaked out, still coughing up dust, "I climbed a tree. Never saw any Equalists, but I heard them. Swapping loot, trading...I'm lucky no one looked up."

"I'm surprised we're all alive," Suki said, looking at Katara. She had tried to press her concerns on the ship but was met with tired minds and backlash from Azula. "The probability of that seems weird, doesn't it?"

"You wanted one of us to die?" Ratana demanded, "I was running for my life most of the night with Besu! Wasn't a walk in the park, you know!"

"Besu?" Katara prompted. Besu was looking pensive.

"That's true, we were, and well...I mean...I guess the adrenaline was all there - I had no weapons and they were packing much bigger ones - but they weren't really trying to kill us, didn't it seem, Tana?" Besu offered hesitantly. Ratana sputtered.

"Of course they were!"

"But you tripped and they could have...and they didn't. It seemed it was more of a chase game, but there wasn't any bloodlust that I could tell. And I know these things," she said, raising a chin. "I think they would have been awful had they caught us, don't get me wrong, but they didn't seem like they did at the last Palace attack. I know they were trying to kill people then."

Katara shuddered, recalling the man that tried to stab Alcina, and agreeing.

"And they just left," Nadhari agreed, nodding to Suki to indicate she thought it was strange too. "One second I was blasting them away, and the next...there was some signal, I'm sure of it, but they all just vanished into the trees."

"You're right that they didn't seem intent on killing us," Yue piped up. "One cornered me and he just...looked at me, like he was waiting for something, I'm not sure. But before anything could happen, Azula saved me. She for sure killed him," Yue added with a timid gulp.

"Speaking of which, where were Zuko and Azula during the fight?" Mai questioned, "I didn't see either until the end."

From how it seemed, most saw Azula battling it out at one point or another, but not many saw Zuko. He looked tired and dirt-stained and haunted when they'd found him in the morning, so there was little doubt he was fighting, of course.

"Hey...I have a question," Suki said, finding her bags and handing them off to her handmaid. "Why didn't Prince Lu Ten go with his cousins, to begin with? Why was he with us?"

Katara sharply turned to her. "What do you mean?" she demanded hotly.

"I just...why was he with us instead?" she said, blinking. "He's got more military training than anyone. He should have been the first to be sent out."