Anden’s eyes flicked toward the television. It had been playing on mute, but the screen was no longer recycling the same clips. Now it was showing stretchers being carried into an ambulance. The camera was too far away for Anden to make out faces or details, but the line of text at the bottom of the screen read, NO PEAK CLAN PILLAR AND SEALGIVER FOUND ALIVE.
Anden went light-headed. His knees weakened and he put a hand on the back of the sofa. He’d never considered himself especially religious, but now he whispered devoutly, “Yatto, Father of All, Old Uncle Jenshu and all gods in Heaven, thank you.”
Only because he was still wearing his jade did he notice the tension that charged the room in the instant that followed. Nau Suen’s eyes were also on the television. His normally unreadable jade aura darkened and swelled in Anden’s Perception.
As soon as Shae had uttered, They’re alive, everything had changed.
For Kekon to lose the Pillars of both major clans in one blow was too great a national crisis. Shae had saved Ayt’s life fearing that without her the entire country could be destabilized. However, if Kaul Hilo was alive, then he was still the Pillar of No Peak. There was no doubt of what he would expect Anden and Shae to do if they had Ayt Mada helpless and at their mercy. If Ayt were to die now, the Mountain would be thrown into turmoil, while No Peak remained intact. The Kauls would win.
Slowly, Nau shifted his unblinking gaze to Anden, who was standing between him and the door of the apartment. The former Horn of the Mountain had been a feared man, but even in his prime, he’d never been the most physically intimidating warrior. He defeated others with cunning and skill. Nau was an old man now, and Ayt was too weakened from her injuries to walk, much less fight. Shae and Anden were younger and stronger than the other two Green Bones. And Anden was wearing all his jade.
He could feel Nau’s knife-like sense of Perception raking over him, gauging his intent, even as he sensed in Nau’s jade aura a bitter readiness. The old man was prepared to fight, to die defending his Pillar and to take at least one of the Kauls with him. No one in the KJA building had been willing to do the same, not even the late Koben Yiro.
Anden remained where he was, standing in front of the woman who’d been his family’s enemy for twenty years. He could do it. He was tired, but he had enough Strength to strike a deadly blow or Channel a lethal strike.
“Anden,” Shae whispered, low and urgent. He didn’t look at his cousin.
Nau shifted Ayt in his arms, preparing to set her down. Instead, the Pillar of the Mountain put her feet on the ground and stood under her own power, steadying herself on the shoulder of her former Horn, but straightening to her full height. She glanced at the news on the television and commented, with bitter humor, “I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve wondered why Kaul Hilo isn’t dead yet, and it seems I’m destined to keep wondering.” Sweat stood out on her brow but her expression was iron in its calm as she looked at Anden. “Make your choice, Dr. Emery.”
Anden could Perceive every heartbeat in the room, most of all his own. A pressure built in his chest, his jade energy compressed. He’d sworn to himself that he would never use jade to take lives again. But he could never have imagined this moment.
He would willingly sacrifice his medical career if it meant the Mountain couldn’t harm anyone he cared about ever again. Would killing the woman he’d spent the last day working so hard to heal accomplish that? If he could end the war between the clans for good, how many more lives would that save in the future? Was it worth breaking his personal oath? Would it be what Lan wanted him to do?
Seconds passed, unnaturally long. Anden’s hands curled into fists at his side. Without taking his eyes off Ayt and Nau, he stepped out of the way and opened the front door. Nau Suen’s stare flickered and his face twitched. He shifted to support his Pillar, and the two of them walked through the door, down the hall and out of sight. Anden watched them go, standing in the doorway until he could no longer Perceive them.
“Did I choose wrong?” He whispered the question to himself.
Shae slumped against the wall. “I have no idea.”
CHAPTER
29
Rude Awakenings
Kaul Hilo and Woon Papi were rushed to Janloon General Hospital, where they remained for over two weeks, with the clan’s Fists guarding them continuously. Hilo suffered a concussion, a shattered scapula, ruptured spleen, burns, and contusions. Woon was bedridden with several broken ribs and a fractured pelvis, and he’d lost the hearing in one ear. By the time they’d been found and dug out of the rubble, both men were also badly dehydrated. That they had survived when many other people in the building had not, including other heavily jaded Green Bone leaders, was widely spoken of as a miracle and a sign of the gods’ protection.