CHAPTER

61

Old Tigers

the twenty-sixth year, twelfth month

The secret meeting between the leaders of the No Peak and Mountain clans, the first such occurrence in twenty-five years, was held on a Seventhday morning in the headquarters of the Kekon Jade Alliance, in the perennially neutral Temple District.

The original KJA building had been a square, squat, utilitarian government building. Its replacement, built with national and joint clan funds after the Janloon bombing, was a far grander structure—ten defiant stories of steel and green marble, overshadowing even the ancient stone pillars and clay roof of the nearby Temple of Divine Return. An enduring fuck you to anyone who might imagine that the clans had been destroyed or diminished by the attacks against them.

When Hilo, Shae, and Niko arrived at the appointed time, Ayt Ato and his retinue were already in the room, as were four penitents from the Temple of Divine Return, standing against the back wall with their hands folded inside their long green robes.

The Mountain Green Bones stood, and Ayt Ato touched his forehead in wary salute. “Kaul-jen.”

“Ato-jen,” Hilo said, returning the informal gesture. “I hope you won’t take offense if I call you by your personal name. Ayt isn’t a name I’m able to say in a friendly way, so I’d prefer not to use it for you if we’re to start off on good terms.”

Ato said, “I don’t mind. It’s what most people call me anyway.”

Hilo had seen Ayt Ato’s image many times but had never directly faced the man in person before. Ato was indeed as handsome as he appeared on television, nearly as camera-worthy as the movie star Danny Sinjo. The distinctive rows of tiny jade studs in his eyebrows accentuated his large eyes, although a rigidity in his face spoke to the enormous pressure that the young Pillar had been under for the past two months. His jade aura felt closely held and tightly stretched, frayed at the edges.

Ato introduced a stout, bearded man as his Weather Man, Koben Opon, and a muscular Green Bone with a flat nose as his cousin and Horn, Sando Kin. “I was raised to fear and hate you, Kaul Hiloshudon,” Ato admitted. “And now I’m speaking to you as one Pillar to another. You’ve harmed the Mountain in so many ways over the years. You’ve also stood with us at times and fought fiercely against criminals and clanless and greedy foreigners. You brought down my aunt Mada as Pillar, but now you’re here, willing to discuss friendship. So in truth, I don’t know what to think of you, whether you’re an enemy or an ally.”

“I hope to be neither, Ato-jen.” Hilo was honestly not sure what to make of Ayt Ato either. It seemed incredible that a man could be in the public eye for so much of his life and still be so unknown when it came to whether he had any true capability. Hilo said, “You asked me here to discuss the future between our clans. I’m not the future of my clan. I’ve been Pillar of No Peak for twenty-seven years, and I intend to step down soon and hand the position to my nephew. I’ve asked him to sit at the table and lead this meeting for our side. That way, any agreement today will be made looking forward and not behind.”

Ato was surprised by this unexpected announcement, but he turned toward Niko with a cautious, pleased expression. “It’s been a long time since we last crossed paths, Kaul Niko-jen. We’ve both been through a lot since then, I think. I’m sorry if I came across as an insufferably arrogant buffoon in the past. But I did say I hoped we could work together and not have to follow the examples of our elders. I hope that’s still true.”

For the past several evenings, Niko had been sitting in long consultation with his aunts and uncles, preparing for what would be expected of him, being briefed on everything that might come up in the discussion with the Mountain. Now, he stepped forward next to Hilo and said, humbly but with assurance, “I’m not the Pillar yet, Ato-jen, and I still have to prove that I’m worthy of my family’s confidence. So my aunt and uncle will sit at the table with me and the final decisions are theirs. But I want to say that I don’t hold any grudge against you or the Koben family, not even over the death of my brother. I truly hope we can end this long war.”

Niko’s mention of Ru caught Hilo off guard. It caught Ayt Ato off guard as well; Hilo Perceived the beat of startled uncertainty in the other man’s jade aura. Shae darted a glance at both of them. Niko’s aura didn’t change. Hilo couldn’t tell if his inscrutable nephew had spoken sincerely about his hopes, or if he’d invoked Ru’s death as a way to gain the subtle mental advantage over Ato and the Kobens, as if to say: I could hate you. But I choose not to.

“Since before I was born, my whole life has been defined by the clan war that killed my father,” Niko said. “That’s one thing we have in common, Ato-jen—our lives were shaped by the deaths of men we never knew. Maybe we can break that legacy.”

Ayt Ato studied Niko with guarded, optimistic respect. “I hope so, Kaul-jen.”

The six Green Bones sat down together at the table. As they did so, Sando Kin noticed something amiss. He leaned over to Ato. “Where is the Horn of No Peak?”

“I asked Lott Jin not to come, so Niko could attend without making our sides unequal,” Hilo answered. “As a former Horn myself, I’ll speak for the military side of the clan.” None of that was a lie. Even Green Bones with better Perception than these men would not Perceive it as such.

Hilo waited until their attention was elsewhere before putting his hand into his pocket and depressing the button to send the preloaded message on his phone.

Lott Jin sat in the front passenger seat of a black ZT Bravo in the Commons district, watching the townhouse at the end of the street through a pair of high-powered binoculars. Two Green Bone guards walked circuits around the building, but they looked bored. Lott had the townhouse under constant surveillance, keeping his own Green Bones well out of Perception range and relying on jadeless White Rats to pass by and get closer looks. Ayt Mada had met her former Weather Man, Iwe Kalundo, for dinner at a nearby Mountain-owned restaurant the previous evening. She had returned to the townhouse afterward and no one had seen her emerge so far today. Lott estimated there were two other bodyguards inside, but that was all. This was Mountain territory after all; Ayt’s people were not overly concerned. Lott and Vin were alone in the inconspicuous ZT Bravo (Lott’s red Lumezza FT Scorpion would be far too recognizable) and Vin could reliably Perceive patrols before the patrols could Perceive them.

Lott’s pager buzzed and he looked down at it. It was the signal he’d been waiting for: a short numeric code that he and the Pillar had agreed would mean Hilo, Shae, and Niko were in the KJA building with Ayt Ato and his people, and Lott was to proceed.

He made a cell phone call. Hami Yasu picked up at once. “It’s time,” Lott said.

“We’ll be there in five minutes,” said the Fist. Two cars full of No Peak’s best Green Bone warriors were waiting in a parking lot across the district border in Old Town. As soon as they arrived, they would storm the townhouse from all sides, kill Ayt Mada and her bodyguards, and steal back across into No Peak territory. If all went according to plan, they would catch Ayt unawares and it would take no more than a few minutes.

Lott fingered the sheathed moon blade lying across his lap. On the surface, the task should not be difficult. Four Mountain bodyguards plus Ayt Mada, against ten of No Peak’s greenest fighters. Ayt Mada was still the most heavily jaded woman in Kekon, but she was in her midsixties. Jade did not stop a person from getting old, and it didn’t matter how much green someone wore if they didn’t have the physical stamina and reflexes to employ it, particularly against men forty years younger. Nevertheless, Lott was worried. Ayt had survived assassination attempts before. She’d won a duel against Kaul Shae. She’d had a knife plunged into her neck and fallen out a window. She seemed legendary, unkillable.

It was possible that other Mountain Green Bones would be alerted and rush to her aid. Bystanders might get in the way. There might be other guards inside that they didn’t know about, as they were parked too far away for even Vin to Perceive how many people were inside. Lott sent up a silent prayer to the gods. By nature, he was a risk-averse person. He knew he was not unusually talented, but he’d reached the position of Horn as a result of being lucky, hardworking, and dependable, giving others no reason to doubt him or his ability to deliver on his responsibilities. Now the Pillar was counting on him, had left this final mission in his hands.

Vin started the car engine. A minute later, two Victor STX SUVs roared past them up the street. “That’s them, let’s go,” Lott said. Vin hit the gas, and they tore down the length of the block to the townhouse, squealing to a stop behind the other vehicles. Lott threw open the door and dove out.

The two guards patrolling the building Perceived the murderous rush and raced to defend the entrance. They drew Ankev pistols, but they were badly outgunned. Shotgun muzzles aimed out the open windows of the lead SUV sprayed them with ammunition. The Mountain Green Bones threw up a surge of Deflection that sent the pellets flying into the townhouse’s windows, peppering the siding and shattering windows. One man’s Steel was not quick or strong enough; he took lead to the knees and went down screaming and clutching his legs.

In the brief pause after the first volley of gunfire, No Peak Green Bones exploded out of the cars with guns and blades and were upon the sentries in an instant. Suyo and Hami shot the man on the ground several times at close range, his body jumping on the lawn as if from hammer blows as his Steel collapsed under the barrage. Juen Din flew Light at the other guard, moon blade descending in a lethal overhead chop. When the guard raised his own blade to meet the high attack, Juen Ritto rushed into the opening in a blur of Strength and disemboweled the man in the time it took to blink.

Lott and Vin were already flying past the fighting on the lawn. Wary of traps, Vin blew the lock out on the front door with a shotgun blast, and Lott Deflected the door inward. They braced to Steel themselves, but the door slammed open on its hinges, revealing an empty hall. No trip wires were snagged, nothing exploded. Lott was about to rush inside when Vin shouted, “Wait!”

Lott turned to his First Fist with alarm. Vin tapped the side of his head and pointed to the house. “Can you Perceive that? Nothing. There’s no one inside.”

The Horn took a wary step closer, throwing knives in hand, stretching out his Perception to take in as much of the building as he could. Vin was right. He couldn’t sense a single jade aura in the house.

“That’s impossible,” he exclaimed. “We saw Ayt go inside the house yesterday and we’ve had eyes on the building all night and this morning. No one came in or out.”

No one doubted Vin’s Perception, but they searched the house anyway. It was empty. There were signs that Ayt Mada had been here recently: dishes in the kitchen, food in the fridge, clothes in the bedroom—but no one in the house. The back door was still locked. No Peak Green Bones had surrounded the townhouse and they were certain no one had left through the windows. Ayt and her bodyguards had vanished.

Vibrating with furious disbelief, Lott walked back out to the front lawn and crouched beside the guard lying on the ground with his entrails spilled out, still alive but only for a short while longer. “Ayt was here,” he said. “How did she leave?”

The guard didn’t answer. His face was waxen and sweaty and he was gazing far away. Lott stood and ground a foot on the man’s open abdomen, eliciting a scream. The sound made Lott wince, but there were times cruelty couldn’t be avoided. He waited until the dying man’s eyes focused on him. “Suyo here is excellent at Channeling,” Lott said, motioning the Fist over. “Tell me how Ayt Mada got away and where she went, and I’ll have him end your pain in an instant. Otherwise, I’ll throw you in one of our cars and ask him to stop the bleeding enough to keep you alive and suffering for hours.”

“Tunnel,” the man moaned. “I don’t know where she went, but this building… used to be a safe house for the Clanless Future Movement. There’s a tunnel… under the laundry room.”

“Godsdamnit,” Lott breathed. He pointed to the guard. “Save him if you can, kill him if you can’t,” he told Suyo. He gave instructions to Vin and half the other Green Bones to find and follow Ayt’s escape route. He ordered the other half to get in one of the cars and follow him. “We need to get to the Kekon Jade Alliance building.”

Ayt Ato leaned over to consult quietly with his Weather Man before turning back to the table. “We’re amenable to the idea of Euman Island being officially declared clan neutral territory, and we agree that there should be no more jade mining there, offshore or otherwise. A national park ought to be established to protect that area from further exploitation. But how do you propose to deal with the foreigners?”

Niko took a moment to confer with Shae before answering. “From what we know about how the criminal investigation into the company’s CEO is unfolding, it seems likely that Anorco will be broken up and sold. Its assets include a sizable amount of jade inventory. I’m sure we can all agree that we want that jade back in Kekon and not in the hands of other foreign companies or criminal organizations.” When Ato and his people nodded, Niko said, “The Weather Man has a proposal.”

Hilo had told his nephew, When in doubt, get your aunt to do some talking. She’ll say something smart, and meanwhile you can watch them and have time to think ahead.

Shae leaned forward. “If the Mountain and No Peak both try to acquire Anorco’s jade, we’ll end up in a bidding contest, one that could turn violent and have us at each other’s throats again. We propose that our clans form a joint venture company under the auspices of the Kekon Jade Alliance, to acquire Anorco’s reserves and allocate them in the same way as jade produced from the mines—equitably between the Green Bone clans, as well as to schools, temples, doctors, and the national treasury.”

Hilo was finding it difficult to pay attention to what was arguably the most significant and far-ranging negotiation that had ever happened between the Mountain and No Peak. He glanced surreptitiously at his watch. At this moment, the Horn was leading a team of the clan’s strongest Fists in an attack on Ayt Mada’s residence.

“That seems reasonable,” Ato replied. “But can we expect any trouble from the Espenian government, after what happened this summer with the GSI soldiers?” Ato glanced at Hilo. “To be clear, I admire what you did, Kaul-jen. Making a public statement like that. It played so well on television. I wish I’d thought of it myself, honestly. Although, of course, I wasn’t in a position to say so at the time.”

Hilo brought his attention back to the conversation. “Don’t worry about GSI,” he said. “As for the Espenian government, they’ll gladly pretend it didn’t happen.”

Shae said, “The ROE is already lagging in its diplomatic commitments to reduce its military presence, and the protests and deaths of unarmed civilians hardly plays to their advantage. If the clans stand together, we can put even greater pressure on them.”

Ayt Ato said, “We have a common interest in cooperating against overreaching foreigners, but we also need to discuss how we’ll treat our clans’ overseas markets.”

Hilo’s phone vibrated. He waited until he had an opportunity to discreetly take it out of his pocket, flip it open, and sneak a glance at the small green screen, which displayed two lines of text from Lott Jin: Escaped. Before we arrived.

Hilo closed the phone and slid it back into his pocket. Slowly, he leaned back in the chair and breathed in and out, calming himself, not wanting to betray his fury and agitation. Niko was focused on the conversation with the Kobens, as he should be, and didn’t notice any change in his uncle’s aura. His nephew’s Perception had never been any better than average. Shae, however, was glancing at Hilo suspiciously, questioningly. Even without any jade senses, his sister could tell something was amiss.

A dull roar began to fill Hilo’s head. Fuck the gods. Ayt Mada, always one step ahead, even now—publicly disgraced, unpopular, old and ousted from power—she was not yet defeated, not yet dead. Which meant that the bitch was still going to make a play, still going to find some way to get what she wanted, to bring down everyone who stood in her way. Wherever she was now, she was still a threat to No Peak, to the family.

Niko and Ato, in consultation with their respective Weather Men, had agreed that the clans would no longer block each other’s expansion overseas. No Peak would allow the Mountain to enter Espenia and set up businesses there without attacking their operations or their people, directly or through allies. In exchange, the Mountain would extend the same courtesy to No Peak, allowing it to expand into Shotar, Ygutan, and the Uwiwa Islands, where the Mountain had been dominant for decades.

At last, they turned to the heart of the negotiation, the decision that would seal peace between the clans: a pledge of friendship between the Koben and Kaul families. As the petitioners of the meeting, the Kobens were expected to make the overture. Hilo could tell, however, that Ato was still uncertain. He wanted greater assurance from the Kauls, whom he had no reason to trust.

Ato cleared his throat. “You don’t have a girlfriend you’re planning to marry, do you, Kaul Niko-jen?”

The question surprised Hilo, but Niko answered without so much as blinking. “No,” he said. “Not yet.”

Ato said, “Since our families hope to be friends, I hope you won’t consider it too forward that I offer to introduce you to some of my younger cousins who are about your age.” He glanced cautiously at Hilo. “With your uncle’s permission, of course.”

Hilo’s eyes narrowed. “I know the Kobens are an admirably traditional family, but a man’s heart is his own.”

“Nevertheless, I would be happy to meet your cousins,” Niko said to Ato without smiling or hesitating. “My uncle is concerned for my happiness, but my heart’s more sensible and less picky than a lot of other men.”

“I’m glad you’re willing to consider it,” Ato said. “After all, words, money, and even jade—they don’t bind people together the same way family does. That’s something that hasn’t changed even in modern times, wouldn’t you agree?” Ato stood and his Horn and Weather Man stood with him. With ceremonial deliberation, the young Pillar placed his moon blade on the table in front of Niko. The weapon was a fine thirty-three inches in a beautifully carved scabbard and with small inset jade stones running down the length of its black hilt.

“Kaul-jens,” Ato said, speaking formally to all of them, “as Pillar of the Mountain, I pledge to you my friendship, the honor of my family, and the strength of my clan. I give my blade to you in service.”

Niko, Hilo, and Shae stood as well. The sheathed thirty-four-inch Da Tanori moon blade that Niko set on the table in front of Ayt Ato was made of twenty-two inches of tempered white carbon steel, with five jade stones in the hilt. It had once belonged to his father.

Lan, are you watching? Hilo wondered, with a tight feeling in his chest. This was what his brother had wanted, so many years ago. No Peak strong enough to stand against any foe. True peace between the clans, as equals.

Bullshit. Something was wrong. Hilo could sense it like a ghostly flickering in the periphery of his Perception, or perhaps it was simply the terrible knowledge of being outmaneuvered by Ayt Mada yet again, even after everything he’d done, every sacrifice his family had made, every last drop of his clan’s strength, cunning, and resolve given over the years. Shae was glancing at him frequently now. Despite his efforts to appear unperturbed, the other Green Bones in the room could not fail to Perceive the disquiet in Hilo’s jade aura. Niko looked over at him. “Uncle?”

Hilo forced a smile. “This is a difficult and emotional moment for me. I hope you all understand. I’ve fought the Mountain clan all my life, so it’s hard for me to accept this is happening, even if I agree. I’m glad I made the decision to have Niko speak.”

His sincere explanation satisfied everyone, except for Shae, whose gaze lingered on him another moment before turning back to the matter at hand. Hilo stretched his Perception out through the building and onto the street. Both clans had Green Bones standing guard outside, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Hilo brought his focus back, rested his Perception carefully on every person in the room in turn.

Niko echoed Ato’s words. “As the Pillar’s son, I pledge to you my friendship, the honor of my family, and the strength of my clan. I give my blade to you in service.”

A pledge of friendship, sealed with a personal exchange of moon blades, was not made lightly between Green Bones. It meant they could not go to war with each other, at least not before failing at other means of resolution and formally breaking the friendship by symbolically returning the other’s blade, since it was unthinkable to take a warrior’s weapon and use his own jade to strike him down—tantamount to theft. From now on, anyone who attacked the Kobens would be an enemy of the Kauls, and vice versa. Each would come to the aid of the other if asked.

The practical implication of this promise in the short term was that No Peak would help the Kobens to put down any mutinous challenge, by Ayt Mada loyalists or anyone else, and to support them as the rightful ruling family of the Mountain clan. It was what Ato needed more than anything at the moment, even if it meant appearing to lower himself to the Kauls.

Ato smiled a movie-star bright smile that did not quite reach his eyes. “I’m not like my aunt,” he said. “I’m not ashamed to admit that. I don’t believe that one clan has to prevail over the other, and I promise I’ll do everything I can to put the long grudges behind us. Under Heaven and on jade.”

Niko inclined his head. “When I was a boy, I felt a lot of pressure to one day match you, Ato-jen,” he said. “Now I welcome you giving me a good reason to feel that way. I’m still a Pillar-in-training, so I can speak for my clan only with the final blessing of my uncle.” He turned to Hilo.

Hilo’s eyes focused on Ato and he nodded. “Under Heaven and on jade,” he declared, then drew his pistol and fired twice.

The shots went over Ayt Ato’s shoulder and hit the penitent behind him. Shae saw the man’s brains spray out across the wall. The Fullerton carbine he’d begun to raise to waist height beneath his voluminous green robes fell from his hands and clattered to the floor. As everyone else in the room spun in alarm, Shae glimpsed the baleful, fiery vindication in her brother’s eyes, his expression twisted with savage understanding.

The other penitents opened fire.

Sando Kin threw himself onto his cousin, pushing Ato under the table. The bullets meant for the young Pillar tore through Sando’s back. Hilo fired again and hit another penitent in the chest, then began to raise a Deflection as the remaining two guns turned on him. A split-second realization as his jade energy swelled: In the tight quarters of the meeting room, the Deflected bullets would swerve into Niko and Shae.

Hilo twisted and sent the Deflection straight into his nephew’s chest. The force of it knocked Niko to the ground. Bullets chopped through the air above him and stitched into Hilo’s side.

Shae saw her brother fall as if in slow motion. Later, she wouldn’t remember anything else. She wouldn’t recall throwing herself to the ground under the desk. She would have no memory of the Green Bone guards outside charging into the room with drawn weapons, Koben Opon shouting for them to cut down the remaining two penitents, who were not penitents at all. She would remember only the jerk of Hilo’s body and the pistol falling from his hands, the way her brother’s shoulders struck the wall before he slid to the floor.

The next sound to break into Shae’s awareness was a ragged cry next to her underneath the desk. Ato had pushed himself out from underneath Sando Kin and was holding his cousin’s limp body, clutching his face and keening. “No no no no…”

Shae scrambled over to Hilo on hands and knees. He was slumped against the wall, his legs straight out in front of him as if he were slouched lazily after a hard workout. His face was contorted with pain. Shae watched in horror as blood spread across his shirt and pants, pooled around her knees on the hardwood floor.

“Hilo.” She could not say anything else.

Niko crawled over to them. He stared down at his uncle and went completely, terrifyingly still. In that moment, Shae saw another face emerge beneath that of the coolly determined young man her nephew had become. She saw unmistakably the face of the frightened toddler in the airport, the one who would follow her around the house and clutch her legs, full of confusion and loss.

“Niko.” When he didn’t answer, she shouted, “Niko!” He looked at her, eyes blank with fear. She seized his hands and pressed them over Hilo’s wounds. “Do you remember emergency medical Channeling? Try to stop the bleeding. I’ll call an ambulance.” She grabbed her bag and fumbled for her cell phone with shaking hands. Where was it? Gods, please please please. Her thoughts turned into an unthinking litany of pleading. She found it, began to punch in the emergency number.

Hilo shook his head vehemently and grabbed her by the front of her shirt, his hands twisted in the fabric. “Get me home, Shae,” he said, his voice strained.

“We need to get you to a hospital.”

Hilo shook his head again. “I’m not dying in a fucking hospital.”

“You’re not going to die,” she told him.

“Shae,” Hilo said gently, “I can’t feel my legs. I want to go home. I want to see Wen. Please, Shae.”

She began to cry. There was no warning—only the abrupt, hot blurring of vision, the strangling pressure in her chest. Hilo gripped her tighter, more impatiently. “Are you my Weather Man or not?”

All of a sudden, they were surrounded by No Peak Green Bones. Lott Jin was there—When had he arrived? How had he gotten here? Shae did not know. The Horn stared down at them, ashen-faced. Then he shoved Niko aside roughly and shouted, “Suyo!” One of his senior Fists rushed over, dropped to his knees and began Channeling while Lott and several others applied pressure to the wounds.

Hilo screamed in pain and frustration. “Get me home, godsdamnit, that is a fucking order from your fucking Pillar!”

“Do as he says,” Shae whispered. Then she shouted. “Do as he says!”

Several Fists together lifted Hilo and took him outside. He sagged between them, his legs limp, trailing blood as they carried him to the ZT Bravo parked beside the building. They placed him across the back seat, where he lay breathing raggedly, eyes closed. Niko got in with him, cradling Hilo’s head and shoulders in his lap. Shae got into the front passenger seat and hung on to the door of the car, her head pressed against the window glass as if the vehicle were a life raft.

Lott rushed them home. The only thing Shae remembered from the journey was Niko’s voice, almost too quiet to be heard. “Da,” he begged, “don’t leave me.”

Hilo did not answer.

When the car stopped and the doors opened in front of the main house, Anden was there. Someone must’ve called him, to tell him what happened and warn him to be prepared. Even so, when he saw his cousin, Anden swayed violently, as if he’d been struck across the face. He put a hand against the ZT’s door frame to steady himself. Then he went to work. Before they even had Hilo out of the vehicle, Anden was Channeling for all he was worth, forcing blood to clot, raising the Pillar’s body temperature, forcing energy into his heart and lungs. By now, Hilo was barely conscious; his eyes were closed and his face waxen.

Wen ran to the front door, saw her husband, and collapsed to the ground with a wail of pure animal pain.

“I’m not a godsdamned surgeon,” Anden cried at Shae.

“Would it make a difference?” she asked numbly. “Just do what he wants.”

Hilo was laid out on his bed and Anden worked feverishly to keep him alive and dull the pain. At times, he barked orders and others ran to help him or bring him supplies. During that time, word of what happened spread through No Peak and members of the clan began to gather silently in front of the Kaul estate. Fists and Fingers, Luckbringers, Lantern Men. Cars began to arrive, packing the road around the house. Makeshift Deitist shrines went up along the gate, dozens of cups of incense trailing smoke.

Lott Jin went out and came back again to report that the entire city was in shock. The Mountain clan was in turmoil. Ayt Ato was alive, but his Horn was dead, and his Weather Man was in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the chest. Four penitents from the Temple of Divine Return had been found tied and gagged, locked inside the stairwell of a parking garage near the Kekon Jade Alliance building. The four gunmen who’d taken their robes and their place inside the meeting were former employees of GSI, all recently out of work. One of the four mercenaries had survived long enough to confess that they’d been hired by Iwe Kalundo and promised an enormous sum of money by Ayt Madashi for the murder of everyone in the room.

“They were told to wait until the pledge of friendship had been made and moon blades exchanged,” Lott said. “Then they were supposed to kill Ayt Ato first.”

Shae sat in the kitchen, hugging her arms, folded in on herself and staring at nothing. Ayt Mada had whispered the name of her own nephew. She’d never intended to pass the leadership of the clan to Ato, only to lure them all into the belief that she had. That afternoon, after she’d sat across from Shae, serving her tea, after they’d talked of sacrifice and vision, of ending feuds and doing the right thing for the country, Ayt had resigned her position in anticipation of one final opportunity—the Kauls and the Kobens in the same room, discussing what the future would be without her. When they were all dead, she’d claim that the Kobens had betrayed the clan by pledging friendship to the Kauls. She would install her preferred successor, Iwe Kalundo, and rule from behind him.

The phone in the study rang and Lott answered it. After he hung up, he said, “They have her.” Vin and his men had followed the tunnel under Ayt’s townhouse into Janloon’s subway system. By then, the Koben family was on the hunt as well. Every Green Bone in the city was looking for Ayt Mada, but within an hour, she showed up back on the Ayt estate. She walked onto the grounds and into her office as if it were an ordinary day. That was where the Mountain’s people had found her.

“They say she didn’t try to run, or fight,” Lott said.

“No,” Shae said. Ayt Mada would never flee Janloon like a criminal, nor waste energy toward no purpose. As soon as she’d learned her nephew and the Kauls were still alive, she’d surrendered, knowing her final, murderous gambit was over.

Because of Hilo, Shae thought. Because old tigers understand each other.

Anden came down the stairs. His eyes were ringed with exhaustion and he looked pale and aged. “I’ve done all I can. I stopped the bleeding, put him on an IV line, stabilized his temperature and blood pressure for now. He’s loaded with painkillers.” Anden rubbed a hand over his face, then looked up at the family, tearful. “All it buys him is a few more hours, maybe the rest of night. A bullet went through his spine, and the others tore up his insides. He’s conscious right now, but it might not be for long.”

Anden sat down next to Jirhuya on the sofa and put his face in his hands.

Shae went up to see her brother. Wen and Niko were on either side of his bed. Gauze and sheets covered Hilo’s torso. The jade studs across his bare collarbone stood out stark against unnaturally pale skin. When Shae touched Hilo’s shoulder, she nearly drew back at the shocking change in his jade aura—the smooth, bright river was a dim trickle. His eyes were open and focused, however, and he said to his wife and nephew, “Let me talk to my Weather Man, alone, just for a minute.”

After Wen and Niko had stepped out of the room, Shae crouched down near the head of the bed. A thousand things came into her throat and closed it completely.

The Pillar asked, “Is Ato alive?”

Shae nodded and told him everything she knew. “Ayt whispered all of our names. She only resigned and handed power to the Kobens to mislead them. To mislead me.”

A weak smile crawled up Hilo’s face. “But she failed. She’s done. This was her last shot, and she got me, in the end. But she didn’t get us. That’s what’s important.” He licked his lips. His eyes were glassy but bright, and he turned them on her with insistence. “Shae, you have to help Niko. You have to make him better. A better Pillar, a better person. Help him, the way you helped me.”

“You know that I will,” Shae said.

Hilo closed his eyes. Shae pressed her hand over his heart and listened to his labored breathing. He asked her, “Is there anything you want me to say to Lan?”

Shae bowed her head over him. “Please, don’t talk like this Hilo,” she whispered. “I can’t handle it. I can’t stand to think I’ll be the last one left.”

“You’re not.”

A noise rose from outside. Shae did not at first recognize it as the rumble of a huge crowd. She went to the window and drew back the curtain. Lott Jin had opened the gates of the Kaul estate and let in the clan’s Green Bones—hundreds of them were standing in the driveway. Shae saw the entire Juen family, Hami Tuma and his son Yasu, and Maik Cam. She saw Terun Bin and Luckbringers from her office standing alongside Vin the Sniper and Hejo, the First Fist of White Rats. She saw her own husband and daughter, Woon’s arm around Tia’s shoulders, both of them looking up at Lott Jin, who stood on top of the Duchesse Imperia in front of the house. When the Horn raised his arm, all the clan’s warriors shouted, and the sound of their combined voices thundered. “The clan is our blood, and the Pillar is its master!”

The crowd stayed for the rest of the night. Every once in a while, their voices rose up in spontaneous chorus, proclaiming their allegiance. Wen and Niko and Anden came back into the room, and Hilo said, “Stop looking so godsdamned glum, everyone. Andy did a great job, it doesn’t even hurt anymore.” He talked with them for a while, and he dictated a letter to Shae for their mother, insisting that they shouldn’t wake the frail old woman only to put her through more pain. He joked that it was true the closer you got to the afterlife, the more you believed in it, and personally he couldn’t wait to see Ru again. He reminded them of all the times they’d persevered despite the odds, and all the things they’d done. “I’m lucky, really.”

He said he would try to hang on until Jaya got home, but at some point he slipped into unconsciousness with Wen holding his hand. The rest of the family left the two of them together in the end. Shae sat with Anden, her head on his shoulder, gripping his left hand and wrist in her own, both of them using his jade, Shae unflinchingly for the first time in years, to keep Hilo in their Perception as long as they could. In the early hours of the morning, as dawn broke over the skyline of Janloon, Shae felt her brother’s irrepressible jade aura fade out of her mind.

Hours later, Wen emerged from the bedroom, dressed in white from head to toe. She said nothing, but went out into the garden where she had been married and sat under the cherry tree in the courtyard to mourn from the bottom of her soul.