“You know that I will,” Shae said.
Hilo closed his eyes. Shae pressed her hand over his heart and listened to his labored breathing. He asked her, “Is there anything you want me to say to Lan?”
Shae bowed her head over him. “Please, don’t talk like this Hilo,” she whispered. “I can’t handle it. I can’t stand to think I’ll be the last one left.”
“You’re not.”
A noise rose from outside. Shae did not at first recognize it as the rumble of a huge crowd. She went to the window and drew back the curtain. Lott Jin had opened the gates of the Kaul estate and let in the clan’s Green Bones—hundreds of them were standing in the driveway. Shae saw the entire Juen family, Hami Tuma and his son Yasu, and Maik Cam. She saw Terun Bin and Luckbringers from her office standing alongside Vin the Sniper and Hejo, the First Fist of White Rats. She saw her own husband and daughter, Woon’s arm around Tia’s shoulders, both of them looking up at Lott Jin, who stood on top of the Duchesse Imperia in front of the house. When the Horn raised his arm, all the clan’s warriors shouted, and the sound of their combined voices thundered. “The clan is our blood, and the Pillar is its master!”
The crowd stayed for the rest of the night. Every once in a while, their voices rose up in spontaneous chorus, proclaiming their allegiance. Wen and Niko and Anden came back into the room, and Hilo said, “Stop looking so godsdamned glum, everyone. Andy did a great job, it doesn’t even hurt anymore.” He talked with them for a while, and he dictated a letter to Shae for their mother, insisting that they shouldn’t wake the frail old woman only to put her through more pain. He joked that it was true the closer you got to the afterlife, the more you believed in it, and personally he couldn’t wait to see Ru again. He reminded them of all the times they’d persevered despite the odds, and all the things they’d done. “I’m lucky, really.”
He said he would try to hang on until Jaya got home, but at some point he slipped into unconsciousness with Wen holding his hand. The rest of the family left the two of them together in the end. Shae sat with Anden, her head on his shoulder, gripping his left hand and wrist in her own, both of them using his jade, Shae unflinchingly for the first time in years, to keep Hilo in their Perception as long as they could. In the early hours of the morning, as dawn broke over the skyline of Janloon, Shae felt her brother’s irrepressible jade aura fade out of her mind.
Hours later, Wen emerged from the bedroom, dressed in white from head to toe. She said nothing, but went out into the garden where she had been married and sat under the cherry tree in the courtyard to mourn from the bottom of her soul.
CHAPTER
62
Pillar of Kekon
the first weeks
When word reached Jaya in Toshon that her father had been shot and would not survive for long, she got onto a motorcycle and drove through the night up the KI-1 freeway at top speed for ten straight hours. She arrived too late. Her cousin Cam and her uncle Anden met her at the gates of the estate and told her that her father had died from his injuries two hours ago.
Jaya stormed into the house, shrieking with grief and rage. She found Niko sitting in the living room, his head bowed in solemn conference with the Horn and Weather Man. “Why haven’t you done anything?” she demanded. “I’m going to call twenty of my Little Knives up here and go after Ayt and Iwe myself. I’ll cut them into pieces!”
“You won’t do anything,” Niko said to his younger sister. “The Mountain is already in an uproar. We’ll wait to see how the Kobens handle it first.”
Jaya said to Lott, “So we’re going to sit back and leave it to those fools?”
“Niko-jen is the Pillar now,” the Horn reminded her. “It’s his call.”
Shae said, “Niko exchanged a pledge of friendship with Ato, so we won’t act until we’ve heard from the leaders of the Mountain. Ayt Mada intended to murder all of us, but her most serious offense is betraying her own nephew after naming him her successor. If there’s anything we need you to do, you’ll get your orders from the Horn.” When Jaya opened her mouth to argue again, Shae said sternly, “You’re a first-rank Fist; show respect.”
Jaya wheeled on her aunt with tears spilling from her eyes. “My da is dead, and it’s your fault! You convinced him to go to that meeting. You could’ve killed Ayt years ago when you had the chance. You always had a soft spot for that evil hag, but you never showed love to your own brother, you coldhearted bitch.”