There was no miracle, Hilo explained, once he was lucid enough for conversation. Years ago, Hilo had asked the ex–Navy Angel Jim Sunto to teach him and all the top Green Bones of No Peak the Espenian IBJCS techniques against IEDs. Traditional Steeling techniques concentrated on the bones and the surface of the body, to ward against blows and blades. The most lethal effect of a nearby explosion, however, was the overpressurization of vital organs, particularly the lungs, intestines, eyes, and ears. The instant he’d realized what was happening, Hilo had Steeled for his life, concentrating all of his formidable jade energy inward, into his own head and torso, battening the pressure-sensitive parts of his body first, then pushing jade energy outward to protect against blunt trauma as he was thrown through the air, as he put it, “like a cat tossed into a fucking typhoon.” Woon, too, had attended Sunto’s IBJCS training sessions, and although his ability in Steeling was not as great as the Pillar’s, he was already out in the hallway and thus farther away from the explosion; his injuries had been sustained by the building collapsing on top of them.
Shae took her baby daughter into her husband’s hospital room. Woon was groggy with painkillers, but his eyes went soft with relief and happiness to see them. “While I was trapped in the dark, I kept thinking I might never see you or Tia again,” he said to Shae. “I knew Hilo-jen was still alive, because I could Perceive him somewhere nearby, so I didn’t lose all hope, but it was a terrible feeling.”
Shae choked up at the sight of his injuries. “I feel as if everything bad that’s ever happened to you is my fault.” She wondered, not for the first time, if she was cursed to bring disaster to anyone who came too close to her.
Woon shook his head and reached for her hand. “I’ve been the Pillarman, and the Weather Man’s Shadow, and the Sealgiver—so my place has always been standing behind someone else. In truth, that’s where I’ve always felt most useful. I’m grateful the gods put me exactly where I needed to be. On any other day, it would’ve been you in that room.”
Shae placed Tia in Woon’s arms. The baby stirred but did not wake. So far, she was a calm infant, so much so that superstitious Green Bone families might be a little worried. “She’s eating well and gaining weight,” Shae said, “but she doesn’t cry much.”
“That’s good,” Woon said, cradling their daughter. “The Kaul family has enough thick-blooded warriors. I’ll be glad if she takes some of my personality, since she already looks so much like you.”
Shae sat beside Woon, feeling full of heavy, vaguely anxious gratitude, until he fell asleep. Then she nursed and changed Tia, and walked a short way down the hospital corridor to her brother’s room.
Days after being dug out of the rubble, Hilo still looked terrible, with bandages covering much of his body, but he was sitting up in bed, eating a bowl of pureed fruit and saying cheerfully to Niko, Ru, and Jaya, “At least my face still looks good. You wouldn’t want your da to look like a ghoul, right? Don’t worry, I’ll be home soon. Remember to help out your ma and don’t give her any trouble while I’m in here.”
The boys nodded solemnly, and Jaya threw her arms tightly around her father’s neck. He winced at the impact and gently loosened her grip, then said, “All right, you’ve missed enough school for one week. Lott-jen will drive you back.” His sons and daughter left with bodyguards surrounding them. Wen remained in the chair by Hilo’s side. Juen Nu came in from the hallway and closed the door behind him.
With the children out of the room, Hilo’s bright facade dropped and he glared up at Shae. “I still can’t believe you saved Ayt.” Word had spread that Ayt Mada had reappeared at her residence in High Ground and was shut away inside recovering, surrounded by her loyalists, including Nau Suen and her Weather Man, Iwe Kalundo. “I saw her with a knife in her neck,” Hilo exclaimed, his voice rising. “You of all people, Shae. All you had to do was walk the fuck away.”
Still cradling a sleeping Tia in her arms, Shae took the only other chair in the room, on the other side of the bed across from Wen. “I thought you were dead, Hilo,” she said, unmoved by his ire. “Along with dozens of Green Bone leaders and government officials. Without Ayt as well, the country would’ve fallen into chaos.”
“It’s come close enough as it is,” grumbled Juen. The Horn looked as if he hadn’t showered or shaved in days. As soon as Hilo and Woon had been found, he’d turned his attention to dealing with the insurrectionist violence. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, with the clan leaders missing and so many Green Bones busy digging through the rubble for survivors, several loosely coordinated cells of armed extremists had heeded the Clanless Future Movement’s call to rebellion and taken to the streets.