Shae looked up at the sky that stretched over the lights of the city. She couldn’t share her brother’s apparent equanimity. No Peak was everything she’d once hoped it would become—a powerful, modern, international entity, green at its core but far more than the sum of its jade or warriors. It was too difficult to wrap her mind around the possibility that after a lifetime of striving, after everything they had accomplished and sacrificed, they might still lose to an enemy they’d held at bay for decades, like an ancient city buried at the pinnacle of its glory by the volcano whose shadow had loomed threateningly over it for so long.
Tia is still too young. She still needs me.
“How do you do it, Hilo?” she wondered out loud. “How do you handle this world when you don’t believe in the gods?”
Hilo exhaled twin streams of smoke and leaned back contentedly, his vision sliding out of focus. She knew he was stretching out his Perception, perhaps sensing where everyone was as he made a circuit of the Kaul estate in his mind—Wen upstairs in the main house, Woon and Tia across the courtyard, their mother doing slow stretching exercises in the garden, Lott and Niko engaged in evening training with a small group of Fists in the field behind the Horn’s residence. Or perhaps Hilo was casting his jade senses even farther out, letting the surrounding energetic burble of the city wash over him, surveying it from a distance like a lion on a rock.
“How do we do it?” Hilo sighed deeply. “You of all people already know the answer to that, Shae. We don’t handle this world. We make it handle us.”
CHAPTER
55
The Little Knives
Kaul Jaya chose several of her best Green Bones and traveled from her peninsula base in Toshon to the city of Lukang. Before she left, she spoke to her father over the phone. The Pillar told her, “Lott Jin is going to send the Juen twins down there with another twenty of our warriors. They’ll get there tomorrow evening.”
“I’ll have it taken care of by then,” Jaya assured him. “They can help clean up.”
“Don’t be so cocky,” Hilo said. “Cleaning up is the hardest part.”
“I’m joking, Da,” Jaya said. She was only half joking. She wanted to accomplish her task quickly and independently, to prove to her father that she and her people could be trusted with difficult missions and didn’t need help from Janloon. She suspected Lott Jin had persuaded the Pillar to give her this important responsibility. If it were up to her father, Jaya thought, he would have her back in Janloon, living at home and patrolling some safe and boring district like Green Plain where he could keep an eye on her. After Ru’s death, he’d wanted her to move back right away. She’d had to argue and beg to be allowed to stay in Toshon.
“Jio Somu is an old wolf by now,” Hilo reminded her. “He betrayed his own uncle, and he’s hung on as Pillar of Six Hands Unity ever since. His Fists and Fingers are trained by the Mountain. You shouldn’t underestimate him.”
“Don’t worry, I know what’s at stake.”
Her father said, “How often have you been training? When was the last time you dueled?”
“Every day, Da. And I dueled last month—followed all the new rules and everything. A former Fist from the old Jo Sun clan, she was pretty good, wicked fast, and I got two new studs out of it.” Her father was silent, and Jaya said, “Don’t worry so much, Da.” He didn’t use to be like this.
“After this, we should talk about when you’ll move back to Janloon. I miss you, Jaya-se.”
“I miss you too, Da. I love you.” She flipped her phone closed and went out to the parked Brock Compass. Eiten Asha and Noyu Kain were packing the last of their luggage, weapons, and gear into the ample trunk. “Leave the cooler in the back seat,” Icho Tenn called from inside the SUV. “It has all the drinks and snacks.”
The drive to Lukang took most of the day. The train could’ve gotten them there faster, and in another two years, when construction of the national high-speed rail line was complete, the trip would take under two hours. But considering everything they needed to bring, driving was the only option. It was slow going at times—many of the roads in the peninsula were single lane, and not always well maintained. But the Brock handled the occasional potholes with ease and they were in no rush.
They stopped along the way to take photos of the coastal scenery and have lunch in the small town of Yanshu. Tenn drove, with Jaya sitting in the front passenger seat, and Asha and Kain in the back. The summer heat grew thick by midafternoon, when the roads widened into Kekon’s flatter central countryside. The four young Green Bones blasted Shotopop music from the open windows and talked about fights they’d been in, movies they’d recently seen, the best and worst sex they’d had, and whether summer and low-residency students at Kaul Du Academy could be considered real graduates or not. All four of them came from traditional Green Bone families and scorned those who were “light green,” but as Tenn said, “Not everyone can be cut.” They all agreed that Danny Sinjo was cut, but the other actor, the Espenian, was obviously using stunt doubles and wires. Asha scoffed, “That scene on the rooftop. Have you ever seen a foreigner use Lightness like that? No way.”