Jade War

“When you said you were busy with clan things, you didn’t mention it might get you killed.” Cory looked unusually somber in a black suit and tie, his eyes fixed on Rohn’s casket. He rubbed a hand over his face and turned to Anden slowly. “My da always says you’re green in the soul, as if that’s a good thing to be. It’s not, crumb.”

“Did you get my letter?” Anden forced himself to raise his eyes from the yellowing grass at his feet. “I meant everything I wrote.”

Cory’s long expression was not warm, but had enough familiar softness to make Anden’s chest hurt. “I haven’t forgiven you, or my da,” Cory said. “But I’m glad you’re all right, and I’m glad you’re going home. I know it’s what you wanted.”

Anden was not certain if that was still true. Standing in the Kaul courtyard, he wished he had just enough jade to be able to Perceive his cousin’s aura, because Hilo’s face was unreadable. “I’m sorry, Hilo-jen,” Anden said. “I shouldn’t have agreed to do anything if Wen was involved.”

Hilo didn’t answer for so long that Anden wondered if he’d even heard. “Wen made her own choices,” the Pillar said at last. “I know how persuasive she is, how she gets her way when her mind is set on something. You’re the only reason my children aren’t motherless right now.” A wounded and confused expression flitted across the Pillar’s face. His voice turned hoarse and fell almost to a whisper. “She disobeyed me, went behind my back for years. How can I ever forgive that?”

Anden dropped his gaze to the paving stones. “It was never about going against you, Hilo-jen—for me or Wen. I know what it’s like, to not be the person your family expects you to be. And how hard it is to act for yourself after that.” He cleared his throat; his voice had gone scratchy. “It’s not your forgiveness we need. Just your understanding.”

Silence fell in the courtyard, disturbed only by the warm wind that stirred the leaves in the cherry tree and the surface of the pond in the garden. “You have to move back home, Andy,” Hilo said quietly. “I’ve missed you.”

Anden had been waiting to hear those words come out of his cousin’s mouth for years. Now, however, he felt no great relief or happiness—only the sort of heaviness that comes from wanting something for so long that the final achievement of it is a loss—because the waiting is over and the waiting has become too much a part of oneself to let go of easily.

“I’m enrolling in the College of Bioenergetic Medicine,” Anden said. “I’ve already spoken to their admissions department, and if I get my application and fees in this week, I can start in the coming year. Channeling was always my strongest discipline at the Academy. Killing Gont Asch made me feel like a bloodthirsty monster, but—” He tried, for the first time, to put his decision into words. “This time, when I used jade, I didn’t want it for myself. I wasn’t trying to overcome anyone else. I was only thinking of Wen, and the jade was just a tool in my hands that I could use to pull her away from death.”

Anden let out a shaky breath. The memory of those few desperate seconds was etched indelibly into his mind, more recent and vivid than even Gont’s death or his mother’s madness. “Maybe I can wear jade in a different way. If I’ve learned anything in Espenia, it’s that there’s more than one way to be a Green Bone. I’m coming back to Janloon to stay, and I’ll wear jade again, like you always wanted me to, but only to heal, never to kill.” Anden paused; Hilo hadn’t said a word to interrupt him the entire time. “I wouldn’t ask the clan to pay my tuition,” Anden finished.

Hilo’s mouth went crooked halfway between a grimace and a grin. “You think I care about the school fees? You haven’t changed as much as you think you have, Andy.” The Pillar rose from his chair at last and walked past Anden to the patio door. When Anden turned around, he saw the Kaul children standing at the glass, staring out at them. Hilo slid the door open and said, “Come out, you three.” They ventured out shyly. Ru ducked his face and went behind his father’s leg. Jaya toddled forward with an excited screeching noise and fell to examining bugs on the pavers.

Anden crouched down. “Hello, Niko. Do you know who I am?”

The boy gazed at him with large, calm eyes full of interest and mild skepticism. “You’re my uncle Andy,” he said.

“The one I’ve told you so much about, who was studying far away in Espenia,” Hilo added. “He’s come home to stay now, so you’ll get to know him. Would you like that?”

EPILOGUE You’ve Come to the Right Place