Breaking the Wheel

Chapter 16

The dust around Korra cleared as they approached the mountain range, the sun a lonely candle to the west. It was good to be able to breathe without having to use airbending again, and the outlaws stopped to loosen the scarves and bandanas they had been using against the dust.

They had survived their encounter with the earth empire forces with only minor injuries, and some of the younger men seemed almost jubilant, hooting and waving their polearms. Korra wished she shared their exuberance, but mostly she just felt wrung out, like she had after the evening spent hurling rocks into the ravine. They might have succeeded in their first objective, but that was no guarantee that her friends were recoverable, or even alive.

Their earthbending meant their convoy left no tracks, and the land behind them was a rolling expanse of yellow earth kingdom dustbowl. The mountain range before them was home to a different air nomad shrine. Korra recognised this one as a shrine to Tang Xu- it had been on Tenzin's proposed route for his tour of important airbender sites. The figures of meditating air monks towered over them, their shoulders and faces draped in vines like green cowls. Wolfbats flew from the caves above as they approached, skittering into the dusk as Gombo waved to the others and the convoy pulled to a halt. Korra jumped to the ground beside him.

"First time seeing wolfbats in the wild, huh?"

Korra squinted up at the creatures as they streamed by, howling to each other. They weren't quite man-sized, but some of them came close. The largest was about the size of an adult dog. "They're bigger than I imagined."

Gombo chuckled to himself. "As long as they're not nesting where we're camping, we should be safe."

Zaheer was in the back of Gombo's truck, leafing through the records they had recovered, his brow furrowed as he traced his fingers down the columns.

Korra leaned over and tapped on the window.

"We're here," she said, and he looked up. "Did you find anything?"

"Maybe," said Zaheer, reaching for the logbook that lay open on his knee. Several entries were ringed, and he lifted it for Korra to see. "There's an order for transportation of a lightningbender here, dated just after the white lotus prison was destroyed. That might be your friend Mako."

"And Asami?" Korra asked, her mouth feeling suddenly dry.

"Nothing stands out," said Zaheer, shaking his head. "But I'm not familiar with all their shorthand. We can go through it together tonight."

"Alright," Korra nodded. "Thank you."

Zaheer gave her a bemused look as he closed the book and got out of the truck. "Thank me when we've found them."

Korra frowned at him, the scar by her eye aching.

"Get the vehicles under cover," he called to the others, his voice level but unmistakably commanding. "I'll take a look at the upper levels."

With that, he took off, his ponytail streaming behind him as he rose up the mountainside.

---

Disused for nearly two hundred years, most of the pathways up the mountain had long since fallen into disrepair, overgrown or buried, and the great wooden gates that had once been the formal entrance to the shrine were collapsed under rocks and vines, only fragments of their deep red lacquer showing through. The first accessible entrance he found was an old meditation hall, used by the air nomads who had lived at the shrine. The gongs and bells they had used to play their music had long since gone, destroyed by Sozin's soldiers or stolen by enterprising locals, but the stonework that had supported them remained. Zaheer ran his hand over a stone hook that protruded from the ceiling. Most of it had a coarse texture, but it was worn smooth where a rope had suspended a bell from it. If he looked to the south, he could see the coast in the distance, the sea a black curve under the darkening sky.