Shae said, “I’m still getting phone calls—from within the clan, from the press, and from our people in the Royal Council—asking about our stance on branding.”
Juen snorted. “It’s ineffective. More of a hollow publicity stunt than anything else.”
Shae personally thought the practice, though popular, was cruel and pointless and usually directed at immigrants, but it was her job as Weather Man to point out the ramifications of every decision. “There are people who say we’re not following the Mountain’s policy because of pride or softness.”
“Those people are shortsighted fools. Branding clanless sympathizers only makes it easier for them to find one another and gives them more reason to feel unified in their enmity toward society. And those who are wrongly branded are going to be driven into the Clanless Future Movement even if they weren’t in it to begin with.”
Hilo laced his hands behind his head, slouching into his armchair as he considered the issue. “Juen is the Horn. I trust his judgment. People who help the clanless should be punished, but there’s no reason our Fists have to follow exactly what the Kobens do in Mountain territory.” Juen nodded, satisfied by the verdict.
Shae sat down in the remaining empty armchair. She thought about what she’d seen earlier in the afternoon outside the Temple of Divine Return. “I doubt even Ayt Mada fully believes in the Kobens’ methods,” she mused. “She’s partnered with barukan and Uwiwans and Ygutanians in the past. She’s brought outsiders into the Mountain clan. She’ll work with foreigners so long as doing so serves her goals, but the Koben family targets and opposes them on principle.”
“Ato is a young and popular traditionalist,” Juen pointed out. “Ayt Mada will be sixty in another couple of years and people will start wondering when she’ll retire. If she’s planning to name Ato her successor, she has to let him show some of his own strength.” The Horn pursed his lips. “Maybe she’s willing to let the Kobens have their way in certain things, even if it antagonizes some parts of her clan, so long as they continue to support her while they wait their turn.”
“Even the biggest tigers grow old.” Hilo took out his silver cigarette lighter and rolled it absently between his fingers. “But if the Kobens think Ayt Mada is going to hand leadership over to that pretty boy any time soon, they’re deluded. The old bitch will be worse than Grandda—let the gods recognize him—hanging on to power until it’s pried from their withered claws.” He ignored Shae’s remonstrative glare for his disrespect toward their grandfather. “Ayt’s using the Kobens the way she uses everyone. Wiping out the clanless is the thing we can all agree on right now. But she won’t let the Kobens’ zeal endanger the Mountain’s foreign businesses or barukan alliances. As long as she keeps her nephew waiting, she has them on a leash.”
And thank the gods for that. Shae nursed the fear that a day would come when she would deeply regret saving Ayt Mada’s life, but for now, she was grudgingly glad their old enemy lived and continued to rule the Mountain. Wiping out the CFM was one thing, but the Kobens epitomized a broader reactionary backlash that, if unchecked, would lead to equally extreme policies—closing trade, expelling foreigners, more draconian measures against anything perceived as anti-clan thinking.
There was a knock on the door of the study. Wen came in with her hair pinned up in an elegant coil and wearing a high-collared forestgreen dress that made Shae abruptly self-conscious about not changing into something nicer or refreshing her makeup. “Our guests from Toshon are here,” Wen said.
Hilo, Juen, and Shae stood up to greet Icho Dan, the Pillar of the Jo Sun clan, who entered the room with his Weather Man and his Horn. Jo Sun’s former Pillar and Weather Man had both been killed in the Janloon bombing. Since then, Icho had valiantly tried to fill his brother-in-law’s position as best he could. But even though he was a competent leader, he had health problems that made it difficult for him to wear jade, and no one could run the business side of their clan as well as the former Weather Man. That was the weakness of the minor clans. Many of them did not have a deep pool of talented Green Bones and losing their key leaders was a death sentence. In the years following the Janloon bombing, some of the minor clans had combined with each other or been absorbed by one of the major clans. The Black Tail clan in Gohei had been peacefully annexed by the Mountain last year. Icho Dan had begun discussion with No Peak six months ago. Today, the Jo Sun clan would cease to exist.