The only question was how to eliminate a rival without drawing the Fire Lord's wrath upon myself.
The answer was equally obvious.
If Zhao captured the North Pole with acceptable losses, then the mysterious disappearance of the Herald might well go unnoticed. And if, on top of the Pole, Zhao delivered the Avatar to the ruler gift-wrapped and bound, then Ozai would fail to notice not merely a disappearance but even an unfortunate accident involving the esteemed Herald falling onto a knife…
Yeah. Backwards. Fifteen times.
On the other hand, if Zhao failed, I would be fully within my rights to declare him incompetent and shorten him by a head. Which meant what? It meant Zhao would do everything he could to take the city with minimal risk to his troops and would prefer to rely on more "tactics" and less "meat."
Amusingly enough, that was exactly what I needed from him.
So then—harassing bombardments it would be!
But how could they be conducted without exposing our fleet to excessive risk? The admiral found a solution in less than ten minutes. He organized a small carousel directly in front of the Water Tribe city. One group of ships would approach, fire a volley, and immediately fall back to reload, while another group took its place.
Naturally, with engines rumbling constantly, detecting saboteurs would be considerably more difficult than if we'd drifted with everything shut down. But the tactic had its advantages as well.
Since the catapults themselves were far from silent, complete quiet would never be possible anyway. And boarding a drifting ship and boarding one moving at full speed were two very different propositions.
Of course, firing on the move was far less accurate, but accuracy wasn't what we needed in this case.
The waterbenders were in for a long night.
***
Chan. Dawn.
Everything in the world has a beginning and an end. The artillery preparation phase came to an end as well. Morning arrived, and the relatively well-rested, relatively refreshed warriors of the Fire Nation troops began their assault. They were to be "greeted" by defenders and waterbenders who had been on their feet for two straight days—not merely awake, but spending the entire night running through the city extinguishing newly ignited fires. As it turned out, there was no such thing as a fireproof object; there was only not enough napalm.
That said, the night had not been bloodless for us either. Over the course of the twenty-four-hour bombardment, we lost a total of two dozen ships. Most of the crews, however, were rescued. That damn flying saboteur was making a diligent effort to destroy vessels while being equally diligent about not harming their crews. At worst, he'd blow someone overboard. The icy water certainly wasn't good for one's health, but it usually wasn't fatal.
I also realized just how lucky the world had been that the Air Nomads were pacifists who had always preferred to retreat and hide rather than strike back. Why? Because I had just witnessed a rather vivid demonstration of what they were capable of.
Even if one assumed that Aang was a genius with absurd reserves of power, and that other airbenders had been far weaker, it was still... impressive.
Previously, I had believed the primary strength of airbenders was their mobility. The ability to fly opened up incredible offensive and defensive possibilities, but reality proved far more interesting.
The Avatar was fast.
No, that wasn't right. He was ridiculously fast, capable of casually running along vertical surfaces. A strike from even a light, hollow staff delivered at those speeds would practically guarantee broken bones. And what if he actually knew how to use a sword—or, Spirits forbid, a saber?
Compared to that, his air blasts were little more than a minor annoyance. I think that was the first time I truly regretted being a firebender instead of an airbender.
Still, Aang had a weakness. He could only maintain that insane speed for a limited time and tired rather quickly. In fact, he'd wrecked a dozen ships during the first hours of the bombardment. During the night, he managed to cripple another three cruisers, more or less, and that was it. Nobody saw him afterward.
The remaining five ships fell victim to Water Tribe saboteurs. They showed no such concern for enemy crews, though the "uninvited guests" paid a price as well. Not all of them managed to disappear into the darkness alive.
By morning, even the flagship had received a "friendly visit." Somehow, the waterbenders had somehow gotten their hands on Fire Nation military uniforms—or rather, an ancient model nearly a century old. In the twilight and at a distance, however, they were convincing enough. The infiltrators made it all the way to the flagship's command center…
And then they failed so spectacularly that I honestly have no better word for it.
What had been going through their commander's head? Platypus-bear droppings?
It went something like this:
Zhao, Iroh, and I were once again standing on the little balcony we had all grown so fond of, discussing our next move...
"Well then, the cost of the nighttime bombardment turned out to be quite modest. Let us hope the damage we've inflicted will be sufficient to end this today," the admiral said, standing with his hands clasped behind his back as he watched the smoke from the fires rising into the sky.
"Perhaps, but I would advise against becoming overconfident. It's still early spring, and the days remain short. I'd rather not see our forces caught in the middle of a resisting city when night falls—especially while the moon is still strong."
"You're being too... cautious, Herald." The fleet commander clearly wanted to say something else but wisely bit his tongue, remembering how our previous "discussion" had nearly ended.
"I agree with the commodore," Iroh joined in. "We chose a less-than-ideal time for the attack. In practice, we'll have only a few hours before the moon rises. If we haven't captured the city by then, we'll find ourselves surrounded by an enemy whose strength has increased dramatically."
"Don't worry, general. I know exactly how to solve that problem. In fact, I invite you to witness it personally. As for our esteemed Herald, since he's so... concerned, he may remain aboard the ship. We certainly wouldn't want anything to happen to Lord Ozai's observer, would we?"
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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