Jade War

CHAPTER 61 Lines Crossed

Shae scrambled across the floor of her bedroom and grabbed up the receiver as soon as the phone rang. Anden’s voice, dampened by the long-distance connection, sent her sagging against the bed in relief at first, but he sounded so strange that her alarm surged again. “Shae-jen,” he said, “sorry I didn’t call you on time. It’s done, it worked as we planned, but we were ambushed afterward, and… the Crews…” Anden’s voice caught audibly in his throat. “Rohn Toro is dead.”

“Are you and Wen all right?” Shae demanded.

A pause. Her cousin was breathing hard. “I’m not sure yet,” he said, almost too quietly for her to hear, even with the phone pressed hard against her ear. “If I give you a number, can you call me back? I’m on the pay phone at the hospital and running out of coins; I think this call is going to cut out soon.”

After Shae returned Anden’s call, he told her what had happened, with enough faltering throughout that she could tell he was still in shock and having difficulty grappling with his emotions. “How will we tell Hilo?” he cried. Shae told him not to worry about that, she would handle it, and to call her again in two hours so she would know he’d made it safely home.

Shae was reeling when she hung up. She took several minutes to compose herself, then placed yet another long-distance call to the personal residence of Hami Tumashon, catching him before he went to bed and instructing him to go to the hospital at once and spare no effort on the part of the Weather Man’s branch office to make all the urgent and necessary arrangements.

Shae dressed and walked across the courtyard to the main house. In the kitchen, Kyanla was sitting at the kitchen table, coaxing Jaya to eat from a bowl of porridge. The toddler banged her fists on the high chair and flung a spoon onto the ground. “Where’s Hilo?” Shae asked.

The housekeeper’s brows rose in worry at the tone of Shae’s voice. “The Pillar is in the training hall, I think. Is everything all right, Shae-se? Are you not going into the office today?”

Outside the training hall, Shae paused and leaned her forehead against the door. Her dread was worse than it had been in the cabin with Doru, worse than standing across from Ayt Madashi, knowing she might die. She could Perceive her brother’s aura and her nephew’s small presence and she hesitated, reluctant to take the next step, to ruin the moment, to destroy everything.

She slid open the door. Hilo and Niko were sitting on the floor playing Blind Miner, a game that Shae recognized immediately, one that every Green Bone family played with their children. A piece of cloth was spread on the floor; it covered a dozen small rocks, only one of which was a piece of jade. Niko was feeling the cloth and the hard objects underneath. He tapped one of them and Hilo whisked the cloth away and grinned. “Another point for you.” It was a silly, simple game to pass the time, but it was also a way to expose children to jade and begin to attune them to its physical effects. Which one makes you feel good when you touch it—a little warm, a little tingly?

Niko looked up and said, “Do you want to play, Auntie Shae?”

“No, Niko-se, not right now,” Shae said. “I need to talk to your uncle.”

Hilo scooped up the rocks and the single piece of jade, depositing them into a cloth bag with a drawstring and putting them into a drawer. “Go play outside,” he told Niko. “I’ll let you and your brother watch television later.” The boy ran off and Hilo turned to his Weather Man.

“How’s Ru?” Shae asked.

“He’s still sleeping. We didn’t get home until past midnight last night.” Shae already knew this because she’d still been wide awake at that time and had seen the lights of the Duchesse come up the driveway. “He’s groggy from being put under and his throat’s sore, but he’ll be fine.” Hilo looked as if he would say more, but instead his eyes narrowed and his chin tilted to the side; Shae knew there was no way he could fail to Perceive the roiling agitation of her aura.

“What is it, Shae?” he asked.

“Zapunyo’s dead,” Shae said. “After I spoke with you yesterday, Wen phoned me from Adamont Capita. We decided to go ahead with the plan, because we might not get another chance. Wen carried the jade into the room. She, Anden, and Rohn Toro—they killed Zapunyo and his guards—but they were ambushed afterward. Anden and Wen are alive, but they’re in the hospital.”

Afterward, Shae couldn’t recall how much and what else she told him, she couldn’t even remember if she explained it all calmly, or if she stammered and struggled. What she remembered later was the contrast: the way Hilo’s face grew wooden, as if each muscle was locking into place, while his aura built in heat and intensity, began to roil and heave, bubble, smoke, and burn, as if it were subsuming her brother’s physical energy, turning him into a statue even as he swelled in her Perception to a bonfire.