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Summer had barely begun and already the city of Janloon was like a spent lover—sticky and fragrant.
only a full-blooded Abukei native, immune to jade, could palm a gem and walk out of a crowded restaurant without giving himself away.
Lantern Men were jadeless civilians after all; they were part of the clan and crucial to its workings, but they would not die for it. They were not Green Bones.
The Tems were part of the powerful and sprawling Mountain clan. They were a proud family of Green Bones, but Tem Ben was a stone-eye. It happened sometimes—recessive genetics combined to produce a Kekonese child as unresponsive to jade as any Abukei native.
True love, Hilo mused, was sensual and euphoric, but also painful and tyrannical, demanding obedience.
A truly skilled Green Bone, of the kind Anden and all his classmates desired to be, could call upon any of the six disciplines—Strength, Steel, Perception, Lightness, Deflection, and Channeling—at any time.
He’d been taught the early warning signs of jade overexposure since he was a child—every Green Bone had. Severe mood swings, sensory distortion, shaking, sweating, fever, a racing heart, anxiety and paranoia. The appearance of symptoms could be sudden or gradual. They might come and go for months or years, but were exacerbated by stress, poor health, or injury. If left unaddressed, they could progress into the Itches, which were almost always fatal.
That had been her mother’s entire philosophy of life: Sit straight and be quiet. Everyone is watching you.
Any old horse will run when it’s whipped, but only fast enough to avoid the whipping,” Hilo said. “Racehorses, though, they run because they look at the horse on their left, they look at the one on their right, and they think, No way am I second to these fuckers.”
But for the most part, you give a man something to live up to, you tell him he can be more than he is now, more than other people think he’ll ever be, and he’ll try his godsdamned best to make it true.”
“Expectations are a funny thing,” Wen said. “When you’re born with them, you resent them, fight against them. When you’ve never been given any, you feel the lack of them your whole life.”
Two strong-minded women in a man’s world, if they do not quickly become allies, are destined to be incurable rivals.
Anden paused, thinking the crowd was shouting for Hilo. When he realized they were cheering him, heat flowed into his face. They’re saying I’m a Kaul. A mixed-blood orphan like him, and they were placing him alongside Lan and Hilo and Shae. It was the greatest flattery he could imagine, and he was mortified. Because it wasn’t true; he wasn’t like them.
“You do this and you’re out of the family.” “Hilo,” Shae hissed, looking as if she would strike him. “Stop this.” “Hilo-jen…” Anden pleaded, his body turning cold. “Get out of my sight,” Hilo said. When Anden didn’t move, he roared, “Get out of my sight! You ungrateful, traitorous mongrel, I never want to see you again!”
