Her phone rang. “Hi, Ma,” Tia said when Shae picked up. “I know you said not to call your cell phone unless it’s really important, but your secretary said you left the office hours ago, and Da wants to know if you’re planning to be home for dinner.”
Shae looked at the Mountain Green Bones still standing at the gates of the Ayt mansion. Some had left and others had arrived, but many had been there the entire time, standing from dawn to dusk and perhaps through the night as well. As stoic as students in a martial school training in the sun and the rain, hardening themselves to the physical and mental hardship that went along with becoming Green Bone warriors.
“I don’t think so, Tia-se,” Shae told her daughter. “Don’t wait for me.”
“Can you take me to the mall on Sixthday?” Tia asked.
“Maybe. Finish your homework before I get home and we’ll talk about it.” Shae hung up and stared at the phone in her hand. Let her stay this way for as long as possible, just an ordinary soon-to-be teenage girl, Shae prayed to no one god in particular, simply offering up a wish to the universe. She knew it could not last forever. Tia already struggled with the cruelty of her mother’s world. As she grew older and understood even more, it would drive her apart from the family.
Unless, starting today, that world could be different than the one Shae had known. Let it be possible. Let this be a world where I can keep her.
Something about the crowd changed. Shae’s bodyguards Perceived it and turned alertly toward the gates. Shae got out of the Cabriola and stood in front of the car. She could not see anything different at first, but then a faint ripple of backward movement opened a gap in the crowd. Ayt Mada came down the path from the front of her mansion, her loyal Fists and Fingers flanking her on all sides. The great iron gates opened with smooth electronic silence unbroken by any other sound. The Pillar walked out among the dissidents, and even the ones holding the white banner condemning their leader murmured warily and touched their foreheads. Even the biggest tigers grow
old, Hilo had once said. But even the oldest tiger was still a tiger.
Ayt’s gaze did not seek out her longtime enemy standing across the street, but Shae knew the Pillar of the Mountain could Perceive her, waiting and watching with everyone else. Ayt Mada adjusted the coils of jade on her arms. She raised her chin and spoke in the firm, clear voice she’d become known for over the years, the one that Shae had heard in person and on television and that needed no amplification because it silenced those around it.
“The Pillar is the master of the clan, the spine of the body,” Ayt declared. “But the clan is more than the Pillar, and a body cannot be at war with itself. I will not justify all the actions I’ve taken for the ultimate benefit of my clan and my country. However, it’s clear that too much doubt has been cast on my past decisions for the Mountain clan to remain strong and united under my leadership.
“I hereby step down immediately as Pillar of the Mountain. I name my nephew, Ayt Atosho, as my successor. I give him my blessing. I ask all the members of the clan—Green Bones and non–Green Bones alike, Fists and Fingers, Luckbringers and Lantern Men—to pledge their allegiance to him as you’ve done for me. Under Heaven and on jade.”
The momentous announcement was met with powerful silence. Then voices rose, reporters shouted questions, and Ayt Madashi turned and walked back into the house.
CHAPTER
60
Final Debts
Ayt Atosho’s first act as Pillar of the Mountain clan was to throw the city of Janloon an enormous Autumn Festival celebration. The Koben family, eager to rehabilitate the clan’s damaged image, spared no effort connecting the clan’s change in leadership to the public’s good feelings about the popular holiday. Streets in Mountain districts were lined with glowing lanterns in alternating colors—the traditional festive autumn red and the pale green of the Mountain clan. Vans full of Fingers and Wie Lon Temple students drove around town handing out yellow cakes decorated with the clan’s insignia. Ayt Ato’s handsome face was seen all over town as well as on television talk shows and in full-page newspaper announcements.
The No Peak clan held more subdued holiday celebrations in which members whispered cautious optimism and wide-ranging speculation about the future. The clan’s oldest and most formidable enemy was out of power. It seemed impossible to believe. An entire generation of No Peak Green Bones had grown up thinking of Ayt Mada and the Mountain clan in the same breath—as one constant, hateful threat. No one yet knew what to think of her replacement, or what to expect from the Kobens.