Shae looked down at her family’s mortal enemy, the woman who was ultimately responsible for so much of the pain that had defined Shae’s adult life. The murder of her brother Lan, the clan war, the loss of much of Shae’s jade and her near death in a clean-bladed duel, the car bombing that had killed Maik Kehn, Tau Maro’s treason and execution, the death of her short-lived chief of staff Luto. The list of everything that Ayt had inflicted upon No Peak went on and on, each one an ugly scar on Shae’s soul.
She glanced at the empty platform at the front of the sanctum. Today, of all days, there were no penitents present to witness what happened in the temple and report the deeds to Heaven. Her hand moved to the small of her back, to the talon knife that she carried sheathed there. She drew it with the bone-deep certainty that the gods had turned their faces away on purpose, like sneaky relatives slipping a child a gift they should not be approving. The weapon settled in her hand, warm and solid with purpose. Her clan, her family, her life might be in ruins—but she had this. It was up to her now, to finish what her brothers could not, to finally end the war between the clans. Perhaps Lan was watching. Perhaps Hilo was as well.
Shae crouched warily. Ayt might be fatally wounded and close to death, but a tiger in a trap could use its dying breath to rip out one’s throat. Ayt was wearing far more jade than Shae was, and might summon one last surge of vindictive willpower to take an enemy down with her.
Ayt shifted painfully. “I congratulate you, Kaul-jen. By tonight, you might be the only Pillar left standing in Kekon. I don’t envy you.” The scornful smile was gone from her face. She sounded weary and angry. “A word of advice: Don’t ever make the mistake that I did. Don’t show mercy.”
Shae stilled. Ayt’s words, filled with grim portent, seemed to add weight to the knife in her hand. You might be the only Pillar left.
The clans had fought each other for years. Yet it was a different enemy who had struck today, intent on destroying all the Green Bone clans at once. The extremists did not care about aisho, about killing hundreds of innocent people. They wanted to upend Kekonese society altogether, to sow chaos and destruction, to prove that even the country’s most important institutions were vulnerable and even the strongest Green Bone leaders could be killed by people who had none of their powers.
She had seen the rubble left by the bombing, and as much as she wanted to deny it, she knew that what Ayt had said was likely true: The people in that building were dead. She saw clearly now what would happen. The minor clans would be thrown into crisis by the loss of their Pillars. Entire towns and industries would be cast into disarray. The country would look to the two major clans for direction. Ayt Mada’s twenty-two-year-old nephew would become Pillar, and the Mountain clan would fall under the rule of the imprudent Koben family. The Kobens would blame immigrants and foreigners for the terrorist attack. They would whip people into a reactionary frenzy and wield all the Mountain’s influence over the Royal Council to push for isolationist policies that would reverse the country’s decades of growth, threaten No Peak’s international operations, and provoke foreign aggression.
As for No Peak . . . Shae felt cold apprehension deep in the marrow of her bones. She was a new mother, likely a widow, physically unwell, and without most of her jade. She was in no condition to be Pillar. She did not want to be Pillar. The idea filled her with horror.
Was this how Hilo had felt, she wondered, on the night of Lan’s death? She’d never truly spoken to him about it. It would be even worse for her, trying to lead No Peak, and perhaps the country itself, in the aftermath of a national disaster, with the other Green Bone clans in chaos and the people howling for retribution, while outside powers crouched, ready to sweep into the turmoil.
She tightened the grip on her talon knife. Ayt’s eyes were lidded; her jade aura pulsed with feeble impatience, even as her breathing grew increasingly labored and shallow.
Shae made a noise under her breath and stowed her weapon. Without believing what she was doing, she moved to Ayt Mada’s side and put a supporting arm under her back, sitting the other woman up. She put additional pressure on the seeping neck wound and began Channeling her precious energy, forcing warmth into Ayt’s body.
Don’t show mercy. “It would be a mercy to cut your throat, Aytjen,” she hissed, “and spare you from being the Pillar at this awful time when you’re most needed.”
CHAPTER
28
Make Your Choice
Anden had been through shocking events in his life, but not in his wildest imagination could he have envisioned his cousin Kaul Shae emerging from the back of the Temple of Divine Return with Ayt Mada’s arm over her shoulder, both of them staggering, covered in Ayt’s blood.