I don’t want to cry during the first day of classes, but the ache in my chest is so great that I might. I watch Cricket being led away from me, over to the boys’ side at the assembly at Divinity’s Lap, the largest square on the Principal Island of the academy. Cricket, with his small build and his bewildered face, thrust among these noisy, confident boys, disappears in the sweeping expanse of this square, under a towering sculpture of the Enlightened One, into a sea of black robes, all jostling sharp shoulders, narrow torsos, long sleeves, scholars’ collars, and trim pants. They look as hard as an army of crows. Cricket turns back to look at me as he departs, every stroke of his blades cutting sore little slices on my heart. Fifty first-year boys. Fifty second-year boys. Twenty-five third-year boys. And Cricket is the youngest and smallest one among them.
How is Cricket going to hold up against these huge, rough boys? He only learned girls’ wu liu styles with me. No one taught boys’ styles in Shin. I had to teach him what I could read about in books. I can’t help but feel like I’ve failed him. He’s so unprepared.
I straighten my robe and pretend to rub at something in my eye under my smoked spectacles. I’m glad that our uniforms are black so that no one can see where I dry my fingers in the pleats of my skirt.
During the assembly, the first-years watch the older students to see when to stand up or kneel down. A couple of evil second-year boys keep pretending to stand up at the wrong point to trick us into standing when we should be kneeling. One student is left standing by himself twice as the whole school giggles. It’s Cricket. I’m going to remember those evil older boys’ faces in case I ever have an excuse to fight them.
The second- and third-year students separate to go to their classes. We’re told that the first-year girls will be taught wu liu by Sensei Madame Liao and the boys by Sensei Master Bao. I’ll have to get used to calling my teachers by the Edaian title sensei instead of shifu like we did in Shin.
In the gathering of first-year girls, I see the girl with the waterfall hair. Hisashi’s sister, Doi. I skate over to introduce myself properly and make a fresh start, but before I can speak, another girl cuts me off.
This second girl is not without beauty. But her hair is bobbed short and tucked behind the ear on one side, swinging loose on the other. This must be the fashion here, since she’s followed by an entourage of other girls with identical haircuts. Why doesn’t anyone besides me wear braids? This bobbed-hair girl says to Doi, “Nice hair. It looks like pearlsilk.”
Her followers giggle behind their hands. One of them says, “Ask her how much she paid for it, Suki!”
“Don’t think that we owe each other anything,” Suki continues. “What happened at Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters meant nothing.”
Pearl Rehabilitative what?
The girls go silent as Sensei Madame Liao skates to the front of our gathering. She has the sharp cheekbones that indicate a hunger for power. I can tell she’s a cold woman. “Worthless, ungrateful daughters of Pearl—” She notices me and quickly adds, “And worthless, ungrateful daughter of Shin.
“The wu liu regimen here at Pearl Famous incorporates rigorous daily training; grueling Motivations; deprivation of food, shelter, and sleep; and whatever else it takes to achieve excellence. The effectiveness of our institution’s curriculum is directly proportional to the misery of the student. That is why Pearl Famous is number one in helping each student attain the greatest joy possible in life, which is to bring honor to her esteemed parents.”
She’s just trying to frighten us. She doesn’t know me. I don’t know what sort of training these rich students in Pearl got, but I’m not afraid of hard work. I’m not afraid of disappointing my parents. I don’t even know where they are. The only thing I’m afraid of is not winning. Let’s get on with this.
“We will test just how completely without qualities you are. You will be examined in wu liu this year through six Motivations. Today will be the first, Veneration of the Three Aunties. Three beacons have been lit on three different islets. It’s not easy to see the beacons. It’s even less easy to get to them. Touch the beacon on the Conservatory of Wu Liu, then the Conservatory of Literature, then the Conservatory of Music. You must not, for any reason, attempt to enter the Conservatory of Architecture.
“You will encounter water on this route, so you will need to step in the pit of tuber root starch powder to keep your socks from slipping.
“The girl who reaches all three beacons in the correct order and comes back first will receive top ranking.
“Any girl who fails to touch all three beacons or who falls off the rail will fail the Motivation.”
So here it begins. All the years of training. They were all leading to this.
The chance to prove that I’m the best, that the Empress Dowager was right to choose me, that wu liu belongs to Shin.
I will place first.
I will make Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword history.
I will be a legend.
Sensei Madame Liao turns from us, sits on a small stool, pulls a little scroll from her sleeve, and begins to read.
I assume that the race has started.
None of us is quite sure how to begin. Then one girl, with a friendly round face and a mole on one side of her chin, grins and begins taking off her skates to powder her socks.
The other girls see this and everyone else starts to take off their skates to step into the pit. These socks they gave us are terrible for skating, as loose and droopy as elephants’ ankles. Why are girls made to wear inane, impractical, performance-hindering, accident-inviting things? For the sake of cuteness? Why don’t boys have to wear them? At least we get to wear skirts, which we don’t have to worry about tearing when doing splits, like boys’ pants.
Doi looks at the pit, then looks at Suki and her entourage. None of them is taking off her skates to step into the pit of powder.
Instinct tells me that these are powerful girls, and if the powerful girls don’t want to step into the pit, it’s because they know something. I keep my skates on.
Suki hops on one of the rails connecting the Principal Island to the smaller islets, with her followers close behind. Doi watches them skate away. She leaps onto the rail after them. All the other girls put on their skates and follow.
We glide on the rail toward the islet where the Conservatory of Wu Liu sits. I look for a beacon as we speed along the rail over the open sea, but there are so many structures covered with pearlplate roofs that their rows seem like meandering, elbowed moon dragons. I’m grateful for my smoked spectacles, for the whole of the white academy blooms with glare.
Behind us, I see several girls stopped on the route. What is happening? Some of them are taking off their skates and banging them.
We skate on the rail curling around the Conservatory of Wu Liu. Fields of older students train below. Some are doing exercises in lines. Some are practicing weapons combat with staffs and dual katanas.
I flip off the rail onto the spine of one dragonlike structure and ride its undulations. I think I see a brightness that could be a beacon in the coils of its tail, but it’s only a tower studded with little lounges and sitting rooms. What does the beacon look like?
A glimmer on the edge of the islet catches my attention. It’s difficult to see in the full daylight, but the wind sweeps a spray of seawater in front of it, refracting it into a flash of wild colors.
The light issues from a pagoda topped by a mirrored bowl that has a blaze of torches in it. The beacon! How do I get up there? The structure is three stories tall. Sprays of seawater keep blowing at me.
I see how to reach the beacon! The hall next to the pagoda has a roof that sweeps up like a pumpkin vine. I can skate off that roof and leap up toward the tower next to the pagoda. I can kick against its side with a single-footed grasshopper move so that I spring back at a sharp angle, followed immediately by a hammer throw spin in midair. I’ll come slinging toward the pagoda and land directly on the platform with the beacon. I have to be careful not to overshoot or I’ll go sliding off into the sea.
As I prepare to execute these moves, two figures skate past me and do exactly what I planned. Suki and Doi. Ten thousand years of stomach gas!
I execute the moves. They work just as I thought. It feels wonderful to finally be doing these moves on actual buildings after doing them for so many years on just a training court. This is how it felt in my dreams.
I tag the beacon with my hand. The pearl forming the mirrored bowl is surprisingly cool. I look around for the next destination, the Conservatory of Literature.
The beacon there is easier to find because the conservatory is made of enormous sheets of the pearl formed into scrolls, unfurling out of the sea. Below the rails, students sit at desks in neat rows, working on the scripts of operas in open air. They look up and begin to applaud as the first-years pass over them. It’s a joyful thing to be applauded by students of so legendary a school.
Ahead, Suki and Doi skate hard toward a curling sheet of the pearl. It sends them flying back toward the beacon. They execute a string of three backflips in the air, scissoring and snapping their legs closed at the end of each flip to sling themselves farther. I’ll have to try that.
The backflips send them whipping up toward the pedestal on which the beacon sits. They each reach out a hand and tag the beacon. They grab the pedestal below the beacon with one hand and use the remaining momentum to whip around the pole twice. They sling toward the rail leading past the Conservatory of Architecture. I’m not far behind them. I tag the beacon and follow them onto the rail.
Ahead of me, Doi skates just an arm’s length behind Suki. Suki turns around and takes an illegal swipe at her with one skate. What a vicious little snake.
Doi easily ducks Suki’s skate. She even adds the insult of flicking her finger against Suki’s blade as she dodges under it, as if she were testing the quality of a porcelain cup in a half-reputable shop. This has become personal.
I skate behind Doi and Suki on the rail that passes by the Conservatory of Architecture, where students design the strange and wild opera sets that the wu liu performers skate across. There’s only one straight, ominous rail that leads to this conservatory. It passes through a little door in a high wall of the pearl rising out of the water, encircling the whole islet and blocking the operations within entirely from view.
As our path swings past it, I see that the wall is covered in adornments. There are fins, horns, paws, claws, tails, levers, prows, and masts erupting from the surface. Flowers and vines are carved everywhere. What do they do behind that wall?
Ahead on the rail, it’s all-out war between the two leaders. Now Doi is in the lead, elbowing Suki aside. Now Suki does the seven-fingered somersault egret move and lands ahead of Doi. These girls are not without skill. Of course. They train here year-round. But I’ve trained harder.
As we skate down the rail to the islet of the Conservatory of Music, I hear humming and ringing. The halls of the conservatory are grafted with wind flutes. Trumpets that end in spread-mouthed blossoms streak up the sides of towers.
A troupe of drummers skates in single file along the perimeter of the islet, racing up and down the gentle hills that form the breakwaters, each drummer beating at the drum slung on the back of the person in front of her.
Singing breaks out. We look into the glassy pearl trees sprouting from the sides of the breakwaters. They’re filled with boy choristers. They turn to watch us midsong, smile and wave, and make their song into a serenade for us.
We speed over the principal orchestra platform where spoon-fiddle virtuosos turn up their faces at the combat that’s playing out above. Their conductress barks at them not to drop the tempo. The fiddlers saw harder at their instruments, and the frenzied melodies seem to give our skates wings.
I have to say, this is fun.
Doi and Suki each strike the last beacon with flawless roundhouse kicks. They jump onto parallel rails leading back to the finish line at the Principal Island, skating side by side. Each knows the other’s moves well enough to perfectly dodge or block them. It’s clear from the emotion in their wu liu that they’ve not only fought each other before, they’re continuing unfinished business.
I slap the beacon and bear down hard toward them. If I keep this up, I’ll finish third. I didn’t come here to finish third.
As we ride the rails from the Conservatory of Music down to the Principal Island of the academy, we cross a great expanse of open sea. Here, the Season of Spouts makes itself most felt. All around us, we’re misted with warm, gentle rain, but it’s not rain, since it’s falling upward.
The rails ahead of us end. The Principal Island lies before me, across a stretch of open sea too wide to jump across. How are we supposed to cross that? I slow so that I don’t go shooting off into the sea before I solve the puzzle.
Doi and Suki are still too busy with combat to notice. When they finally see the gap, they hop and skid sideways to make a sharp stop, right in front of me. The only thing I can do to keep from crashing into them is to plant a two-heeled sesame-seed pestle jump so that my skates pound down together on the rail below me and the dragon tails curled under my heels bounce me up and send me flipping over the girls’ heads.
The next moments seem to pass so slowly, as if it takes days. I hang suspended in the air, skates above me, my braids swinging an arc under my head, the surprised faces of the girls watching me. I land and look behind me to see them clutching each other’s collars, mouths melting open at the realization that they’re not the only two in this race. In the distance, I see the banners that mark the finish line on the Principal Island. There’s only a short stretch of rail ahead of me, and I know I won’t be able to stop in time.
Three waterspouts grind slowly in the water in front of me, spewing water and fish toward the sky. Dolphins leap into the columns of wind and water, rise up, and go shooting out of the tops through the air.
I understand the solution to Sensei Madame Liao’s puzzle. I end my slide with a single-footed forward flip, flinging myself off the edge and into a waterspout. The spout spins me higher and higher. I focus my mind and loosen all my muscles except my back muscles to center my Chi and make my body as sleek as a dolphin’s. Like the dolphins, I go shooting out of the top of the spout.
I land in a crouch on the Principal Island so heavily that it bruises the pearl in a disk around me. I make sure to finish right in front of Sensei Madame Liao, in a one-footed landing, head thrown back, both arms fanning out behind me like a swan spreading its wings. Never let them say that Shinians have no style.
Suki and Doi land behind me. I don’t know which one came in second and which in third. I don’t care. Because I’ve finished first at our first Motivation at Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword. I, Chen Peasprout from Serenity Cliff. I’ve only just arrived here and I’ve already started my rise to become a legend of wu liu.
Bring on the rest of the days. It’s going to be a lucky year!