Read a free chapter from the next story arc of Avatar: The Last Airbender

In Nickelodeon’s animated series The Last Airbender: Avatar, protagonist Aang, a young Avatar facing his world’s greatest crisis, is frequently struck with a vision of a long chain of past Avatars who rose to power before him. While the show’s creators have been planning a sequel movie about Aang and his friends as adults, F.C. Yee’s Chronicles of the Avatar novels have been filling in of the backstory of a few of those past Avatars, starting with Kyoshi, the founder of the Kyoshi Warriors.

The book that is currently in print, Yangchen’s Dawn, begins a new arc with a new Avatar — and a waterbender who opens the book with a daring heist. Here’s Abrams Books’ summary of the action:

Yangchen’s inexperience may prove to be her greatest asset… Plagued by the voices of Avatars before her for as long as she can remember, Yangchen has not yet earned the respect felt for Avatar Szeto, her predecessor. Her counsel is not trusted in an era when loyalty can be earned rather than bought. Yangchen is on her way to Bin-Er, in the Earth Kingdom for political business. A chance meeting with Kavik makes it a dangerous partnership. Bin-Er, a city run by corrupt shang merchants that have grown resentful towards the mercurial and arbitrary Earth King. The shangs are determined to remove him from their control and have a secret weapon of mass destruction in their sights. As Yangchen and Kavik seek to thwart the shangs’ plan, their unlikely friendship deepens. Yangchen will need to learn how to depend on herself to be an Avatar of singular power in order to navigate her path.

You can read the entire chapter in Yangchen’s DawnBelow, Kavik attempts to water bend, while Yangchen interfers.

VOCALS OF THE PRESENT

Abrams Books

Middlers often had difficulty understanding how quickly one place’s fortunes could rise at the expense of another’s. In the continuing wake of the Platinum Affair, many of the new arrivals to Bin-Er seemed caught off guard by the city’s explosive growth even though they were part of it themselves, swept along by change.

Kavik on the other side knew that vital places could move great distances and without warning. The movement of herds was like that of water. Schools of fish move just like water. It was also what people did when their livelihoods depended upon it.

And the flow wasn’t always peaceful. Human beings can rush into one pool too quickly, smashing flotsam and ice to pieces. The key to survival in a vortex is knowing how much time you have before you suffer the same fate.

Kavik wasn’t sure how much time Bin-Er had left as a whole. For himself, however, he thought that there was only ten minutes to go before it got too ugly. Out-of-control ugly. He’d been trying to cross the square in the international district when a large crowd, buzzing with hostility, blocked his way. It was difficult for him to get through because of his heavy winter clothes, which everyone had to wear to survive at the Earth Kingdom continent’s northern edge.

These kinds of disturbances were usually handled by Kavik. “What’s going on?” he asked the people nearby.

“We finally pinned Shang Teiin down,” a large man said while peering over the top of the crowd. “He had to leave the walls of his estate at some point. Either he listens to us here and now, or he gets to spend the night holed up in Gidu Shrine.”

Kavik swallowed his alarm. “And… how did you do that exactly? Teiin’s normally hard to find, isn’t he?”

“We pooled our money together and paid for an errand runner to copy the shrine’s schedule of private reservations,” the man said, grinning with satisfaction. “Gotta use the enemy’s methods against him. And wouldn’t you know it? Tonight is the anniversary of Teiin’s grandfather’s death.”

This wasn’t going to end well. Teiin wasn’t all talk and no stick. The idea that the powerful shang would interrupt his ancestral rituals, appear on the steps of the Gidu Shrine, and benevolently acknowledge his employees’ grievances was misguided at best and dangerous at worst.

He was going to have to move on. “Give that old goat-dog the business,” Kavik said. He turned and left. His shoulder was struck by a large, heavy object that twisted him around. “Stay with us, brother,” said the man, staring at him intently. “If the shangs don’t get an earful now and then, they’ll pretend we don’t exist. Every voice counts.”

Newcomers just had to be difficult, didn’t they? Kavik should take a more firm stance, he was asking. The boy who was asking Kavik questions, could be in Teiin’s pockets or one of the other shangs sent to observe the crowd. Kavik received a jostle from him. It was equal parts fraternal, and threatening.

“Sorry, but I have to place an order at the apothecary’s,” Kavik said. He had his own tasks ahead of him and didn’t want to make any new friends.

“At this time of day?” The grip on him tightened.

“I know it’s late,” Kavik said quickly. “But Uncle Ping takes his time closing and always lets me get a request in before he goes home.”

He watched the story work its way through the man’s head. Perhaps he’d overdone it with the details. The delay was sufficient. “There he is! There’s Teiin!” came a shout. Kavik was freed from his grip by the man who turned to see him.

He made his way through the mass of moving water, swimming along the river’s edge, but he didn’t stop to admire the shrine. Gidu’s steps in stone rose to fifteen feet above the ground and ended up in a double-roofed room where the rich could pay respects and offer offerings to the spirits.

Shang Tiin, an elderly man in his 60s who was slim but healthy, had risen to the sacred island.

“Cheat! Fraud!”

“Pay us what you owe us!”

Teiin seemed as bothered by the screams as the falling leaves. He took a deep breath through his nose, and Kavik’s heart began racing. That wasn’t the face of a man ambushed. This was the face of an attacker.

With his fingers, the shang indicated that he was ready to move and an army of men began pouring out from behind the shrine. Headkickers and hired toughs, waiting in the wings. Teiin was aware of the protest and had prepared his countermoves ahead of time, whether through betrayals or bribes.

As he slid into the front of the crowd, the hired muscle began to descend the stairs. Kavik pulled the hood of his jacket as low and loud as possible. He spun around under his elbows, hid behind people’s backs until he got to the edge.

Abrams Books, Photo

He tried not to look back. It would get worse. Yes, there would be fists thrown, and he assumed Teiin’s goons probably had saps and coshes hidden up their sleeves, but that would be the extent of it. There would not be any bending for the sake of bruises. Bin-Er knew that no one, whether shang or not, would try to introduce Earth Kingdom law in the city through a capital crime.

This whole event had nothing to with Kavik. Never mind that Kavik was the errand runner who’d broken into Gidu Shrine a week ago to copy the reservation list in the first place. If he hadn’t taken the job, it would have gone to someone else.

It’ll be all rightHe told him, over the crowd of violence behind.

~~

Peace was found only two blocks from the square. There were no fighting or disturbances. It was quiet and peaceful as the day winds down. You could find yourself in Bin-Er by taking a quick walk.

Kavik saw men and women rushing out of shipping offices onto the streets. The empty stands selling paper, brushes and paper by the bale at closed shops, which sold only midday food, and the auction houses that determined the price of porcelain and cloth across the Four Nations, were not visible to their right or left. Straight ahead only, towards their beds.

They’d learn about the scuffle in the square, and then they’d simply go around it. The same way you’d take a different route to avoid an overturned wagon. A nuisance ruckus to be sure. Bin-Er was the site of a more frequent occurrence, however, this is part of business.

Kavik turned away from the main road and into an alleyway. He hadn’t known who the buyer of the shrine information was going to be. Qiu was a good broker to protect both sides. Kavik thought it was another shang trying to get an edge on their competitor, which is the same way that most business in Bin-Er for errand-runners was generated.

He finally reached the home he wanted to enter.

At the edge of Shang territory, sat The Blue Manse. The vast expanse beyond it was nothing more than an open field that was bordered only by the Earth Kingdom. The guard stations were visible in the distance.

The agents of the Earth King were supposedly on high alert across the continent after His Majesty’s most recent rampage in Ba Sing Se. Qiu said that the walls of The Upper Ring had been painted by all highborn traitors, spies and expelled from court during the latest round. They were not with their blood but with the people. They were able to gather enough conspirators to cover the wall.

Qiu was a broker that needed to trade in high quality information and believed only the most ridiculous stories. Kavik understood that getting involved in the national fray was not good for your health. Kavik was thankful for his work on behalf of the shang.

The landscaping shed was likely only used one month of the year. He took refuge behind it. He ran across the ground until it became clear and then he put his face against the wall. The cold air he felt on his face was a feeling he couldn’t quite believe. Blue Manse is made completely of ice, not bricks and boards like its neighbors.

Kavik tried to ignore the many annoyances by wriggling his nose. The Blue Manse was someone’s idea of a grand polar residence, but it failed to mimic Agna Qel’a’s architectural traditions. It was too large and too bulky for the snowpack melt, so it didn’t take into account how they would move. It was obvious that it would require regular use of Waterbenders for reshaping and refreeze.

We are sorry, friendsKavik was thinking. At least I’m giving you more work.

His parka was taken off and folded neatly. He then placed the shadow over it to keep it dry. Braced by cold and regret, he made a gesture that resembled a swimmer’s plunge, melting an alcove into the corner of the building. Kavik entered the building.

Around him, a coffin of ice sparkled. A strange bird was trapped in an eggshell. He couldn’t afford to make the chamber any larger or else he’d hatch prematurely into the hallways.

This was the difficult part. With small bending motions, he transformed the ice above his head to water and carefully—carefully—coaxed it to run down the surface in front of him. He pressed his head upwards using the walls on the right and left to prevent the water from soaking his feet. After his legs had been elevated, he frozen the pool beneath him to make it solid again.

Six inches. He had to go through a complex sequence of steps, which took him several weeks to master. It had raised him about six inches. He had to repeat it until he got to the third level.

An observer might have wondered why he didn’t go faster at the expense of getting wet. A observer could close the trap and head back to the middle, softened and warmer. It was clear that Kavik would survive if he stayed dry for thirty minutes. Then, the cold sets in. He might become incapacitated if he was sucked into freezing water.

He slowly lifted himself up through the corner and closed the tunnel behind. Kalyaan, the Great, for instance, might have been able to flow through thick ice unrestricted. Kavik The Lesser needed to crawl through the ice and was going needing to heal frostbitten fingers once he was gone.

For privacy reasons, the walls of Blue Manse were made intentionally opaque. But they weren’t perfect cover. Although the corners provided the best ice to hide in, anyone passing by could notice him. Qiu suggested that he could hear people congregating in the middle of the floor.

It was a good idea. Kavik was able to climb the first story with no difficulty and nobody stepped in his way. After a moment of silence, Kavik took a deep breath and crouch in the thick layer ice covering the ceiling and second floors. He then thinned some of the ice so he could see the next stage.

This time, there were also people walking in the hallways. His vision was slightly improved by the combination of darkness at night, the inside light from oil lamps, and his slight advantage of seeing outside. He was able to see four or five blurs when he stood still and wasn’t talking. They were they in line to get something?

The pair suddenly split, and they began to tromp down the hallway in perfect sync, with neither one pacing the other. Kavik could have banged his head on his chamber if he hadn’t been afraid to break.

Through it. Those weren’t idle guests. These were police officers.

Qiu, you bleeding hog-monkey. Kavik had been told the job was a light grab from a visiting bureaucrat, and there wouldn’t be any formal security. Now he was stuck between sky and earth, freezing his tailbone off, inches away from real soldiers and not goons for pay like Teiin’s. Before he could move, he had to wait for them to leave.

Then he needed to decide which direction he wanted. Take the largest risk of his life as a runner and go up. Down, and lose the lead he’d been working on for months.

Kavik was forced to burn more of his body’s time limit just sitting there, counting off the guard rotations for a window to move. Kavik’s teeth started to chatter. Hard. The next couple leaves. This pair is not the next. Next one.

The climb resumed as soon the backs of his companions were turned. According to his best estimate, he had to now move twice as fast than he was used to.

His neck was covered in cold trickles. While sweat would normally be a problem, this was actually runoff from ice. He wanted to cry from the freezing water. It was his only choice to accept it. He was just a third of his way up when the guards arrived on his return leg.

He ran and became more wet. To make things worse, the glow of a hand lamp rounded the bend, someone he hadn’t accounted for. Un serviteur fetching water or snacks.

It was hard to imagine being taken for such an inane reason. Kavik scrabbled upward, throwing caution to the wind in the exact manner he promised himself he wouldn’t. He was covered in ice on the third and fourth floors, with his knees pressing against his chin.

He might as well have plunged head-first into a turtle-seal’s breathing hole. There wasn’t enough space to dry himself with full-armed waterbending. His muscles stopped moving in less than one minute and any kind of death was possible. Suffocation, proper freezing The floor under him could give out and he’d fall three stories.

To get to the right temperature and dried quickly, he needed to go to the same place where he was trying for entry: the bedroom he was trying. He had no choice. If the occupants were still inside, he’d throw himself upon their mercy because the cold didn’t give a lick.

Kavik, in a fit of despair, raised his arms and made a small opening. Kavik squirmed through the portal and fell onto the third level like a landing fish, gasping for air.

He whipped the water from his body like it were a cloud of mosquito-leeches. He noticed a large oil lamp in the room, and moved with his heels towards it. Kavik didn’t have any other concerns than the heat. This was the point where he realized that getting caught would be a serious offense.

But in the first bit of luck he’d had all night, no one interrupted his crawl for survival. The entire room was silent. Fate allowed the giant soapstone lamp to do its work, and blood slowly returned to Kavik’s extremities. After gaining the courage to stand up, he looked around.

This was evident as he was in the Blue Manse’s most exclusive quarters. Wooden furniture made from rich hardwood that was harvested from the continent. Foreign wool rugs are used to insulate walls.

These decorative plants would surely have died the moment they left this sanctuary. Of course, there were no furs. Bin-Er was known for its high demand skins and hides, but there were not even a few scraps.

He was attracted to the desk that had a huge slab of polished obsidian on top. The desk was cluttered with books, scrolls and stacks of correspondence. This was the purpose Qiu sent to him. Information. It is worth more than gold in Bin-Er if it was from the right persons.

Kavik stood up and placed his hand on the desk to support him. Kavik was instructed to enter the room and remember any information that was important. However, his brain was not functioning well, so he was unable to focus. There was so much treasure in this area. A single document can be worth more than its neighboring ones.

It’s a good idea to start with those that are being used. One large scroll was laid out and its corners were weighed down with books. It was a building plan. He couldn’t read the notes so he carefully removed the weights, noting how they lay so he could replace them, and held the paper up to the light.

The door was opened. He took the scroll down. The scroll was dropped by a girl about 16 or 17. She entered the room with her eyes closed.

The robes she wore were orange, yellow, and thick. A damp towel was tied to her shoulders. Her long, black hair blew behind her as she flinched her fingers. Her forehead was slightly higher than normal. Her scalp was tattooed with a large blue arrow, which made it stand out.

She nicked her own shavingKavik was adamant. A Air Nomad. Why would an Air Nomad be staying in the Blue Manse, which was normally reserved for—

No.

No.

She opened her eyes. She noticed Kavik and her eyes widened slightly. He held out a scroll and she stopped drying her hair. “Please don’t take that,” she said. “I haven’t finished studying it.”

Kavik swallowed. If he could open his mouth to speak, he might pray to the Moon and Ocean that this wasn’t actually happening, and he was imagining it all in his head. But the one human being who could intercede on his behalf with the spirits was the very person he’d burgled. His pleas were ignored by her, and he was left as a hopeless forsaken man.

He gave the scroll back. He was unable to do any other.

“Thank you,” Avatar Yangchen said as she took the paper from him.

An excerpt taken from the book. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Dawn of Yangchen (Chronicles of the Avatar Book 3).F.C. Yee, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams; ©2022.

Avatar, The Last Airbender: The Dawn of Yangchen

Price at publishing time.

A brand new Chapter in Chronicles of the Avatar, beginning with an Avatar. This is the continuation of the story that began with F.C. Yee’s Kyoshi is on the RiseAnd Shadow of Kyoshi.