Jade War

CHAPTER 62 Still at War

Shae had been sitting in the sanctum of the Temple of Divine Return for some time when she Perceived the unexpected presence of Ayt Madashi’s dense, molten jade aura pierce the fog of her thoughts, intensifying like a heat source against her closed eyes as it approached. Ayt knelt on the green cushion next to her. “I’m told that you visit the temple every week at the same time,” she said, conversationally. “Unwise from a security standpoint.”

A sense of oddly poignant déjà vu kept Shae motionless for a moment. She imagined reaching back in time with her mind and looking down at herself nearly five years ago, meeting Ayt Mada in this same place, unsure of whether she or her clan would survive the encounter. She felt no fear this time, though the puckered scar across her abdomen prickled. She opened her eyes, and for a second, her gaze slid involuntarily to Ayt’s bare arms. The coils of silver encircling them were more densely set with jade stones—jade that had once been part of Shae’s two-tier choker.

She raised her eyes calmly to Ayt’s face. “You’ve had your chances to kill me.”

“True,” Ayt agreed. “We’ll both know when the real time comes.” The Pillar of the Mountain was as formidable a presence as ever, but a few fine lines were visible around her eyes as she turned them on the younger woman. Over the past years, with all her public speeches and television appearances, she had taken to wearing some makeup. Shae was all of a sudden self-conscious of her own appearance; her face was still visibly bruised from where Hilo had struck her.

She brought her gaze back to the front, to the mural of Banishment and Return and the circle of meditating penitents. “You don’t bow in the sanctum,” she observed. “Do you ever come here to ask forgiveness from the gods? Do you even believe in the gods, Ayt-jen?”

“I believe in them,” Ayt said, “but I don’t need to explain myself to them. When I was eight years old, they destroyed my town and killed my family and everyone I cared for. In the orphanage, I was told that it wasn’t the gods that caused the landslide; it was the Shotarians and their bombs. Which goes to show that the gods don’t determine fate. People do. Powerful people.” Ayt gazed impassively at the penitents, who were, it was believed, carrying all their words to the ears of the gods in Heaven. “I’ve never killed or ordered someone to be killed out of anger or a desire for personal vengeance. When I’ve taken lives, it’s been out of necessity, for the ultimate good of the clan and the country. Can you say the same for yourself and your family, Kaul Shae-jen?”

Shae wondered if perhaps Ayt resented her in some way—if, beyond her simple ambition to see the Mountain prevail over No Peak, she harbored an ongoing desire to punish Shae specifically. The last time they’d met in this temple, Shae had spurned Ayt’s fratricidal offer that they rule together under one clan, and chosen instead that they should struggle against each other at every turn. She’d offered Ayt a clean blade, and by all rights, she should be dead, yet here she sat.

“I congratulate you on assassinating Zapunyo,” Ayt said, not expecting or waiting for Shae to answer the rhetorical question. “Perhaps you acted out of retribution, but you acted correctly for us all. Zapunyo was a blight on the world—an untrained foreigner, an Uwiwan—selling our jade to other foreign criminals. As Kekonese, as Green Bones, we can agree that he had to die. Zapunyo’s sons are dead as well. Iyilo and the rest of the barukan saw to it that same night.”

The casualness with which she said this shifted something in Shae’s mind. Suspicions revolved and fell neatly into place. “You were collaborating with them the whole time.”

Ayt said, “Your brother wanted to destroy the enterprise that Zapunyo had built. I wanted to take it. You and I came to the same conclusion, Kaul-jen: If we hope to extend our influence beyond the borders of our island nation, we need allies abroad. Allies with jade. Iyilo leads the barukan in the Uwiwas and has influential friends back in Shotar. They now control Zapunyo’s estate and all his considerable assets.”

“Which means that you control them,” Shae amended. “What did you pay to the half bones in order to secure their allegiance?” She made a noise of understanding before Ayt could answer. “Of course. The passing of the Oortokon Conflict Refugee Act. You whispered Chancellor Son’s name to ensure that the vote in the Royal Council would go your way.”

“We think of them as petty gangsters, but the barukan are human beings as much as any of us. They want to get their families out of war-torn Oortoko.” Ayt brushed a stray bit of lint from her smooth black slacks. “The Royal Council has voted to allow seven thousand Shotarians of Kekonese ancestry to immigrate to our country. Opponents of the Refugee Act have argued that it would be a security concern and a costly burden on the government. Fortunately, Green Bones will come to the aid of the country, as we have in the past.”

Ayt’s smile was cold and satisfied, the expression of a snake that has successfully swallowed a great meal. “Lawyers in my Weather Man’s office have already been clearing the way in anticipation of this important legislation. The Mountain clan will be reviewing applications and sponsoring refugees, helping them to find new homes, gainful employment, and a place in our society. We’ll teach them to leave behind their foreign customs, to learn our ways and integrate into Kekonese society—including accepting the authority of the clan.”

Shae nodded. Up to seven thousand additional sworn members of the Mountain clan, selected and brought in by Ayt and her people. New barukan Fingers who already wore jade, who romanticized the Green Bone way of life, who had strong connections to the black market jade trade and other criminal enterprises throughout Shotar, the Uwiwa Islands, Ygutan, and the rest of the region. The Mountain had been busy. While No Peak had been growing its international businesses, strengthening relationships with the Espenian government and the Green Bone community in Port Massy, Ayt had been building a base of power closer to home.

“You’ve always had visionary strategies, Ayt-jen,” Shae said, not attempting to hide the grudging admiration in her voice, “but do you really believe you can control the barukan you’re bringing in? They might wear jade, but they’re not Green Bones; they weren’t trained at Wie Lon or the Academy, nor raised with aisho. The local criminals you supported years ago, the ones you used as informers in No Peak territory and then cast off—they turned into a social rot in Janloon, one that the barukan themselves took advantage of in order to steal jade from our shores.”

Perhaps she and Ayt Mada had something else in common, Shae thought—the arrogance to rationalize their own worst ideas, to commit to a course of action out of pride without truly understanding the possibility of disaster. “You claim to be a patriot, a protector of Kekon and our way of life. But you’re willing to bargain it all for your own gain. You’re willing to ally with anyone who gets you closer to your ultimate goal. Even if you achieve it, even if the Mountain comes to rule all of Kekon, it won’t be the Kekon we recognize. If you have your way, being a Green Bone will mean nothing.”

Ayt appeared to consider Shae’s words. “It will mean something different, something even more powerful than before. Change is inevitable, Kaul-jen; the only question is whether we control its direction or become victims of a landslide. There will always be people who resist, who try to drag us backward. People like Ven Sandolan, who believed that family pedigree and wealth meant he was untouchable.” Ayt’s dense jade aura emanated the deep heat of old coals. “Now that Ven and his heirs are dead, K-Star Freight has been acquired by an Ygutanian transportation conglomerate that has made assurances that K-Star will continue to be run independently in Kekon. We’re all biased against foreigners, but the world is opening up more each day, and I’ll take foreign allies over Green Bones who insist on standing in the way.”

Shae said, “Did you seek me out here in the temple just to gloat, Ayt-jen?”

For the first time in their conversation, Ayt showed irritation. “I want to make it clear that even after all these years, No Peak remains in the weaker position. You’ve expanded your own businesses and cultivated your own allies, but the Mountain once again possesses more people and greater resources. Both of our clans have interests spread well beyond our borders; we have international networks and stakeholders. We’re past the point we were at five years ago, when one of us might have won the war in the streets and conquered the other through superior exercise of violence.”

Shae said nothing, knowing that what Ayt said was true. The Pillar said, “Surely you’ve seen the news that an armistice has been declared in Oortoko. The western half will be governed by Shotar and an independent eastern state will fall under the ‘protection’ of Ygutan. Nearly four years of conflict and gods know how much money and lives spent by both sides, and the result is exactly what anyone could’ve foreseen when two powers of equal determination clash.” Ayt shifted on her cushion to face Shae more directly. Shae saw up close, for the first time, the woman’s left ear, the top third of it cleanly sliced away. A permanent disfigurement that was ambiguously a mark of atonement or a badge of combat. Either way, Ayt wore it without shame, making no effort to hide it.

“We sat in front of the cameras in the General Star Hotel knowing the peace we were declaring between our clans was a temporary measure based on necessity,” Ayt said. “Now the foreign proxy war is over but the necessity is no less. The military tension between Espenia and Ygutan continues unabated. The Oortokon War might’ve been an unfortunate thing for the world, but it has benefited the Kekonese economy and our importance in the world. The foreigners still want our jade—but now also our goods, our money, and our influence.

“So let this moment be one of true agreement between us, Kaul Shae-jen. Our own private armistice. We both tried to win the war covertly by manipulating agents. They failed, which only goes to show that outsiders are not reliable when it comes to Green Bone matters. I’ve whispered Kaul Hilo’s name enough for it to have become a predictable habit, and I tire of the game. In Oortoko, the global powers came to the realization that they had to check their feud or risk dragging the entire world into another Many Nations War. Your brother may not be able to think in such broad terms, but you can. Prevail upon his better judgment, as limited as that might be. There are small children in your family now, and I imagine you don’t want them to lose any more fathers or uncles.” Ayt’s voice took a softly menacing turn. “If you move against me again, or simply fail to keep Kaul Hilo’s vengeful nature in check, then remember that Ven Sando was the patriarch of an old and powerful Green Bone line, one that should’ve thrived for generations to come, but because of his treachery, he lost everything: his business accomplishments, the lives of his loved ones, the very existence and legacy of his family name and bloodline. It could happen to anyone.”

Yes, Shae thought. Even you. Ayt had not come by her victory unscathed. She’d been beleaguered by fractiousness within her clan—fractiousness abetted by No Peak at every turn. She’d sold the Mountain’s largest company to foreign interests, made allies of the criminal barukan, broken aisho by murdering Chancellor Son, and stained her hands with the blood of her own Green Bones yet again. She’d been forced to recognize the claim of an unproven twelve-year-old boy and elevate the undistinguished Koben family into a position of power she had never intended to share. Shae suspected that for all of Ayt’s smugness over her renewed position of strength over No Peak, she had not wanted to do any of these things.

Shae felt, in that moment, a curious empathy for her mortal enemy. What Ayt had said to her was correct: No one was untouchable. She felt the other woman’s aura pressing against her like an expanding solid surface. She remembered the critical moment in their duel when their energies had grappled, neither able to overcome the other, and the sense of elation she’d felt when she’d succeeded, for an instant, to bring her rival to a standstill. She’d done so again. Ayt would not be threatening her if she did not on some level, even with all her considerable victories, fear the fact that the Kaul family was still alive. Damaged, yes—but alive, and growing, with its own allies, resources, and implacable vengefulness. As surely as the division between East and West Oortoko would fester like an infected scar, the history of violence between No Peak and the Mountain meant that in the end, one of them was bound to prevail, perhaps by the finality of the blade, perhaps by other means.

Shae bent at the waist and touched her forehead to the ground in front of the cushion. “Yatto, Father of All,” she said, “I beg you recognize all the Green Bones who came before us, especially my grandfather Kaul Seningtun and his comrade Ayt Yugontin, and all the jade warriors who’ve fought for Kekon while striving to be true to aisho and the Divine Virtues.”

Shae straightened and said to her enemy, “Everything you say is true. We have more at stake now, and it’s in everyone’s best interests for our clans to keep the peace. But we will never be at peace. You’ll pursue your ruthless agenda—and my clan will pursue ours. Make no mistake: We’re still at war, in a different way.” She stood up, feeling the stiffness in her back unclench. “I have to pick up my nephews from swim class. If you’ll excuse me, Ayt-jen, my family needs me.”