“No one else in your class is a Kaul.” Wen was starting to feel exasperated herself. “It’s not just the Mountain. There are plenty of other bad people out there.”
“In the Commons?” Ru exclaimed. “It’s not like I’ll be wandering alone at night in Dog’s Head!”
“Still, our Fists and Fingers won’t be nearby, and you can’t walk into a store and expect there to be a No Peak Lantern Man who’ll help you if you need help.”
Hilo came in through the patio door. Ru wheeled on his father. “Da, can I go to Tian’s house after school? It’s two blocks into the Commons, and Ma is being paranoid about it. Please, Da!”
Hilo looked from his son to Wen. She sighed and shrugged in defeat. “Have your talon knife on you,” Hilo said. “And phone your uncle’s apartment before you leave, tell him when to expect you.”
“I will, I promise,” Ru exclaimed, instantly cheerful. He grabbed his school bag, bent to rub Koko’s head, then ran out the front door toward the driveway, where Shae or Woon would pick him up and drive him to school on their way to the office. Koko ran out the door after his master, wagging his tail and whining at being left behind. Wen was not especially fond of the creature, who occasionally chewed her shoes or the furniture, but he’d been Hilo’s gift to Ru when the boy was ten, on the day he would’ve begun training at Kaul Du Academy, if he hadn’t been born a stone-eye.
Hilo sat down at the table. “He has to have some freedom, so he feels capable.”
Wen said, “I know. But we don’t know his friends or their families that well.” Niko’s and Jaya’s classmates were from No Peak clan families; it was easy for Wen to pick up the phone and speak to their parents. Ru went to one of the best schools in the city, but it wasn’t the Academy. Tian’s father was a civil engineer and his mother stayed at home; they had no clan affiliation at all. They seemed like good people, and Wen’s few interactions with them had been friendly, but it wasn’t the same.
At times, when she missed Niko and Jaya, Wen was grateful that one of her children still lived at home, but at other times, his presence was a daily reminder of her own experience as a child, an outsider even in her own family.
As if sensing her concern, Hilo reminded her, “Things will be different for Ru than they were for you. People aren’t as superstitious as they used to be, and besides, he has your example to look up to.” He was looking at her the entire time as he stirred chives into a bowl of hot cereal. “Why are you so dressed up today?”
“I’m going to a charity luncheon,” Wen said. “It’s in support of the Kekon Parks & Nature Foundation.”
A skeptical crease formed on Hilo’s forehead. “What do you need to go to that for? Didn’t you go to something similar a couple of weeks ago?”
“That was for the Janloon Small Business Council.” Wen opened a black schedule book. “Going to all these events wouldn’t be a good use of the Pillar’s time. But someone from No Peak should go to them. Someone who can speak for the clan.”
“We could send Woon.”
Wen raised an eyebrow at him. “Woon might be the best person in the clan to give press conferences, but can you imagine him making small talk at a gala for the arts?” The Pillarman smiled and shook her head. “We shouldn’t pass up these chances to show that No Peak stands for ordinary people and not just jade warriors. Especially now, with the extremists idealizing foreign ways and brainwashing people into thinking Kekon can do away with clans altogether.”
Hilo gave her his lopsided smile. “I’ll tell Juen that our new weapon against the clanless will be garden parties.”
“Be serious,” Wen said. “This is important.”
Hilo finished his breakfast, then picked up the empty bowls on the table and put them into the sink, running the water to rinse them off. Kyanla was partly retired now, but she would come in later in the day to tidy up and make dinner. Wen could see Hilo considering what she’d said, frowning as he dried his hands on a towel. “You’re probably right that going to these events and showing a good face to the public is worthwhile, but I still don’t see why it should be you. That’s not the Pillarman’s job.”
Wen got up and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. “The Pillarman’s job is whatever the Pillar says it is,” she argued with sweet forcefulness. “And besides, I’m not only the Pillarman, I’m your wife. Let me get dressed up and meet people and enjoy my place a little. It might even be useful to us. Didn’t you just say a person needs some freedom to feel capable?”