Fonda Lee

marked the page,

He’d cost her not just a friend, but the once matchless admiration she’d had for her grandfather.

“I look for people who have two things: jade, and something wrong with the part of the brain that’s supposed to make them fear death.”

“Way to sell the job,” Bero said.

“I promised your ma I’d bring you home safe, but disobey me, and I’ll break her fucking heart.”

“You didn’t think there was anywhere else in the world where people have jade?”

“A great day, Kaul-jen.”

“What a miserable day, to end a miserable month,” Hilo grumbled after dinner.

Just because you’re not the Torch, or because you’re different from Lan-jen—let the gods recognize them—doesn’t mean you can’t be a strong Pillar, or an even better one. For myself, I can’t be the Horn that you were; I can only be my own sort.”

Kekon has no record of this man, other than a royal genealogy set down at the time with an unnamed reference to “a young prince, lost.”

Look at Ayt Mada and how alone she is. We must never be like that.”

“You’ve insulted and slandered me enough. You’ve called me a poor granddaughter, an unfit Weather Man, unworthy of jade, a traitor, and a whore.”

She stopped; the heartbeat of silence that fell was blistering. “Ayt Madashi, Pillar of the Mountain, I offer you a clean blade.”