“What are you thinking?” the American called to his daughter. “You can’t possibly—”

“Can’t possibly miss this grand event,” his daughter interrupted. Her words were still slightly slurred but her speech had much improved since Shan had last seen her in the hospital.

Pike darted forward to steady Natalie as she slid off Cao. “The doctor said—”

The American woman held up her hand to cut off her father, then accepted the cane from Tink and adjusted the red silk patch over her eye. “The doctor said I am ready for travel to America. If I can go to Baltimore, then surely I can go to Yangkar,” she declared and limped forward.

At last the assembly quieted and Kami appeared in the doorway of the main house, wearing a simple red dress and holding a bouquet of fresh heather. The coral and turquoise beads that had been woven into her hair rattled as she scampered to Shan’s side. She reached up and took her father’s hand as the brides, with excited murmurs from the onlookers, stepped into the courtyard.

Both of the women had beads in their hair. Yara’s long black tresses had been gathered into the traditional one hundred and eight tiny braids, most anchored with beads of turquoise and amber, although several were of silver, borrowed from friends all over the township. Over her richly embroidered blouse hung the silver gau of her grandfather, set off by a necklace of large amber and agate beads. From her belt hung an ornate silver hook, a symbol of the milk pail hook that nomadic women traditionally wore at their waists. On her head above the braids was a khampa-style fox fur cap.

Meng, in the red dress they had bought in Lhasa, had beads woven into a dozen small braids. Around her neck she wore a silver-and-turquoise prayer amulet, loaned by Shiva. All signs of the pain she increasingly experienced were banished by her radiant smile.

As the wedding party gathered in the center of the courtyard, Tserung, who had disappeared an hour earlier, arrived with a herder, carrying a cask of fresh water between them which he set on the cobbles. Shan glanced at Shiva, marveling at the magic that had caused her to include the traditional wedding cask in the horoscope for Ko. Under Lhamo’s careful instruction, the two couples joined hands and walked around the cask three times. Lokesh, wearing a shirt embroidered with auspicious signs, had proclaimed that all was ready for the formal blessing when the ominous thump-thump-thump of a helicopter suddenly rose from the south. Every smile faded as it settled onto the flat hilltop above the farmhouse. Colonel Tan climbed out, then gave a hand to Amah Jiejie. Both of them were wearing long coats, which fluttered in the rotor wash as Dr. Anwei jumped out.