The door to the study opened and Lott Jin emerged. The new Horn looked as if he’d been badly taken to task. He wore a tight scowl of chagrin and resentment, mingled with relief that the ordeal was over and he’d gotten away without worse personal consequence. Anden intercepted him. “What’s happening?”
“Niko’s out,” Lott said. “No rank, bank accounts frozen, no help from the clan. The Pillar had half a mind to order him dragged in and stripped of his jade.” At Anden’s stunned expression, Lott said, “Maybe you’ll have better luck talking to him than I did. As far as he’s concerned, I fucked up with the kid, didn’t give him the right mentoring and opportunities, didn’t push him hard enough.”
“It has nothing to do with you,” Anden said to the Horn.
“You know what he’s like,” Lott said, and left the house.
Anden walked into the study. Hilo was standing behind the desk, the telephone receiver in his hand and address book open, looking for a number. The knuckles of his hands were untidily wrapped with gauze. At Anden’s entrance, he glanced up impatiently and said, “What do you want, Andy?” He found the number he was looking for and began to punch it into the phone.
“Don’t do this.”
“Do what?” his cousin snapped.
Anden walked up to the desk, forcing the Pillar’s attention back to him. “This. Raining your anger and guilt down on Niko because he isn’t following the plan you had for him. Pushing him away because you feel rejected and offended by the choices he’s making in his own life. You’ve done it before—to me, to Shae, and even to Wen. Gods in Heaven, don’t do it to your own son.”
Hilo depressed the phone cradle and slammed the phone back down with enough force to make the whole thing jump on the desk. “He’s not my son,” Hilo snarled. “He was never anything like me, not in the least. He’s as melancholy as Lan, and as shallow and disloyal as Eyni.”
“Let the gods recognize them,” Anden added in a murmur.
“I put up with a lot of bullshit from that boy.” Underneath the angry glare, Anden could see his cousin’s bewilderment and pain. “I know he’s young, he needs some freedom to rebel. I gave him his head as much as I thought was reasonable. But this beats fucking everything. Wasting the jade and training he owes to his family and his clan—to fight for foreigners, for strangers, for nothing but money. Even barukan are better than that. You’re a doctor, Andy. Don’t tell me you agree with what he’s doing.”
Anden looked at the ground, then back up at the Pillar. “I don’t agree with his choice, but I agree less with what you’re doing by cutting him off.”
“Don’t try to talk me down, Andy.” There was warning in the Pillar’s voice, a layer of menace that would have, at one time, silenced Anden the way it silenced most men.
“I know better than to try reasoning with you when you’re this angry.”
“At least someone has sense,” Hilo said, turning away and opening a desk drawer. “Leave me alone, then. I’m not in the mood to talk.” He pulled out an open pack of cigarettes and cursed vociferously to find the carton empty, having forgotten that Wen had thrown them out in an effort to help him quit smoking.
Anden did not move from his spot in front of the Pillar’s desk. “Let Niko take the job,” he said. “Let him keep his rank, his money, and his jade. Tell him that even though you don’t agree with his choice, he’s still your son, that he can come home when he’s ready.”
Hilo barked out a cough, as if he’d choked on his own saliva. “Didn’t you just say you weren’t going to try this? You go too far, cousin, if you’re telling me how to be a parent.”
“I don’t know anything about parenting,” Anden said. “All I know is what I needed from you once, when I was Niko’s age. I’m not trying to argue with you. I’m telling you what you should do as a father and as Pillar. If you disown Niko, you’ll lose your son and No Peak will lose its heir.”
“He’s not fit to be Pillar,” Hilo said.
“People said that about you once,” Anden reminded his cousin. “Niko’s not like you, just like you weren’t like Lan. He’s smart, Hilojen. Observant. He’s always trying to deeply understand things, but he has to do it in his own way, even if it means going all the way over to the opposite side. You say he’s cold and selfish, but it’s because he keeps what he feels to himself. He does care. He cares what you think of him. And I think he needs to be free of it too.”