Jade War

CHAPTER 10 A Ridiculous Waste

They left Zapunyo’s estate fifteen minutes later. The barukan in their silver cars did not escort them this time; Hilo did not ask, and Iyilo did not offer. The darkly tanned half bone stood at the front entrance, watching their departure, his expression carefully guarded. As Hilo got into the car, he Perceived the unmistakable pulse of hostility in the bodyguard’s jade aura. Iyilo might be a hired Shotarian goon, but he and those like him had reason to resent and hate people like the Kauls. Jade and lineage made Green Bones the historical heroes and unofficial rulers of Kekon; the same traits made the barukan criminals and outsiders in Shotar. Hilo was quite certain that, if given the word by Zapunyo, Iyilo and his men would be eager to prove themselves just as worthy of jade as their Kekonese guests, by killing the whole lot of them.

This time, Hilo took Tar, Vin, and Teije in the first car with him and sent Juen, Doun, and Lott in the other. Teije, thoroughly cowed and blotting his lip with ice wrapped in a paper towel, was silent throughout the drive. Tar rolled down the windows and said, “Did you see how that runt and his barukan dogs couldn’t even look us in the eyes back there? They let us walk right out. If they’re the toughest men in the Uwiwas, it’s no wonder this country is such shit.”

Hilo did not respond; he’d chastised Tar once already today and didn’t want his Pillarman further distracted. Tar sometimes ran off his mouth when he was feeling insecure. He was loyal and fierce, but he didn’t have a strategic mind. As Hilo had said to Wen, Zapunyo would not have tried to harm them on his own estate. Too risky for him, too much exposure.

Hilo tilted the car seat back and closed his eyes. He appeared as if he was resting, perhaps trying to take a nap. The sun beat down on his face; the inside of his vision was a wall of red that colored even his sense of Perception as he extended it, scanning, fully alert. As they entered the airport road, Hilo sat up and opened his eyes. Five police cars and two motorcycles were parked in front of the runway where their small charter plane lay waiting. “Vin,” Hilo said.

“Twelve men,” the Finger said at once. “Hilo-jen… they’re here to kill us.”

Hilo nodded, but Teije Runo, speaking for the first time since they’d left Zapunyo’s estate, exclaimed in a panicked voice, “They’re here for me. They think I’m jumping bail.”

“They don’t give a shit about you,” Hilo said. “They’re on Zapunyo’s payroll.” Two of the officers motioned for them to pull over; Hilo told the driver to obey. The other car pulled up behind them. Hilo turned around to speak to Teije. “You stay in the car,” he ordered. “I promised your ma I’d bring you home safe, but disobey me, and I’ll break her fucking heart.”

Hilo got out of the car. His Green Bones followed. “Hands up! Put hands up!” one of the police officers ordered through a bullhorn. The fact that he addressed them in broken Kekonese was another sign that he knew exactly who they were, that this had been arranged beforehand. Hilo raised his empty hands over his head and began to walk forward.

“Stop!” the officer with the bullhorn shouted. He sounded frightened. “Stop now! This is final warning!”

Hilo did not stop, but continued ahead with slow, deliberate paces. “You understand Kekonese?” he called out. “You can’t stop us from getting on that plane. But I’m giving you a chance to leave. Green Bones don’t kill those without jade. Unless they break our laws or side with our enemies.”

Hilo’s Perception clamored with galloping heartbeats. Behind him, he could sense the tension in his men, their jade auras straining forward like horses behind the starting gates, and in front of him, the stench of fear and grim determination. Hilo slowed. “Even if Zapunyo owns this island, and you have to take money from him, it’s not worth your lives,” he called out. He took another step forward. The police opened fire.

Hilo was already moving; he thrust his arms down sharply, unleashing a wide, descending Deflection that swept over the hail of bullets like a vertical gale wind. The scared policemen had overcompensated and fired wastefully. All of the initial shots—at least thirty—had been directed at Hilo. It was what he’d intended when he walked out alone; focused fire was more easily Deflected. The volley of disrupted gunfire tore up the tarmac well short of its target, though a few bullets sailed close enough that Hilo flinched with Steel.

His Green Bones rushed in. Tar’s and Juen’s auras blazed with Strength and Lightness as they bounded over the row of squad cars, Tar landing amid the cluster of officers with drawn talon knife, Juen warping the roof of one of the vehicles as he dropped onto it in a crouch, straightened up with a pistol in each hand, and began firing precise shots into the line.

Doun, Vin, and Lott were not far behind their Fists. Two of the Uwiwans turned and fled toward the airplane; Lott drew a pair of slim throwing knives he carried sheathed against the small of his back and hurled them together along with a razor-thin Deflection that deftly parted the trajectory of the blades. They sailed through the air like twin prongs, catching one man between the shoulders and another in the back of the neck.

Hilo strolled into the melee, talon knife in hand; he seized one man and cut his throat from behind. Another policeman abandoned his empty handgun and swung a black truncheon at Hilo’s skull with whistling force. Hilo slid his head under the arc and slashed the man across the inside of the forearm. The truncheon fell from the man’s nerveless grasp and Hilo caught it in his left hand before it hit the ground. With a burst of Strength, he twisted his weight into a strike that smashed the Uwiwan across the knees with the length of the steel, then he uncoiled and slammed the butt of the weapon into his opponent’s chin, breaking the man’s jaw as he fell.

Hilo looked around for the next adversary, but there was nothing left for him to do. His men were accustomed to fighting other Green Bones, and this had not been anything similar to that. Their opponents were poorly trained and had no real abilities; they were not even Kekonese. Looking around at the bodies, Hilo was struck by a swift and powerful hatred for the smuggler Zapunyo—nearly as strong as what he felt for his enemy Ayt Mada. The Uwiwan criminal kingpin sat safe in his luxurious stronghold, guarded by barukan who might have been a real contest for Green Bones, but he did not risk them or himself. He had ordered corrupt policemen to see to it that Hilo was killed resisting arrest.

Such a ridiculous waste.

Some of the men on the ground were not dead, but since none of them posed a threat any longer, Hilo told his Fists to leave them. They went back to the cars and gathered their belongings as well as Teije Runo, who blanched when he saw the scene and let himself be led meekly to the plane. The Kekonese pilot was an associate of the clan; he had not radioed in the disturbance, instead waiting patiently as instructed.

Juen’s shoulder had been grazed in the gunfire, and Doun had taken a bullet clean through the calf. “I was careless, Kaul-jen,” he said, grimacing in pain but looking embarrassed to have been injured in such a one-sided battle. Hilo found the first aid kit in the airplane’s cabin storage and passed it back but told the pilot to take off immediately. The twin-engine aircraft sped down the runway and lifted into the sky, leaving the bloody tarmac and lush green fields of Tialuhiya far below.

On the way home, Hilo checked on Juen and Doun. He made sure their bleeding was under control and that they were kept hydrated with the soda in the onboard cooler. Tar was in a more relaxed mood now; it seemed their violent exit had purged some of his earlier frustration. He stretched out across a row of seats and napped. Hilo went to sit beside Lott, who was in the farthest row back, staring out the window at the ocean below.

Hilo said, “I’ve only met one other Green Bone who can throw knives that well, and direct them with Deflection no less.”

“My father, I know,” said Lott, still staring out the window. The young man was upset and confused, that much Hilo could tell from the persistent churning of his jade aura, though like a typical teenager, he pretended otherwise.

“You’re not much like your da in other ways,” Hilo said.

The young man’s shoulders stiffened. “I’m sorry if I disappoint you, Kaul-jen.”

“That’s not what I said,” said Hilo. “Your father was as green as they come, one of my most fearsome and loyal Fists, let the gods recognize him. But he could be cruel for no reason and he didn’t care for most people. You don’t seem that way to me.”

“I killed those men, didn’t I? I know you brought me along to see how I’d perform.”

Hilo was certain the young man would never speak to the Pillar of the clan with such candid resentment under other circumstances, but he’d taken a life for the first time and was emotional, not knowing the proper way to react. There was no proper way, Hilo knew; people reacted differently. Some threw up, some were exhilarated, others felt nothing.

“You only killed one of them,” Hilo said. “The one you got in the neck, yes, but the other one will live.” He wasn’t certain that was the case, but if it made Lott feel better, there was no harm in saying so. The Finger didn’t answer or even turn his head.

“Lott-jen, look at the Pillar when he speaks to you,” Hilo demanded, his voice sharp.

The young man flinched, in the way of a boy accustomed to punishment, and turned quickly toward Hilo with guilt in his eyes. His expression flickered briefly between doubt and defiance, but he dared not meet Hilo’s commanding stare; he dropped his gaze and murmured, “Forgive my disrespect, Kaul-jen.”

Ever since he’d first met Lott, Hilo had noticed him to be a moody, sulky sort of teen, which could be forgiven for a short while, but the man was a Green Bone now; he had to learn how to behave. Hilo’s eyes did not shift or lose their sternness, but after another minute had passed, he said in a much gentler voice, “I’ll always forgive a friend, because otherwise how could people be honest with each other? I didn’t bring you on this trip to make you prove yourself. I brought you because you stood in front of me ahead of all your classmates last year and took your oaths first—that’s something I’d remember. When it comes to which brothers I want to get to know, which ones I want fighting next to me if it comes to life or death, that sort of thing is important.”

Lott did not look back up, but after a second, he gave a nod and his jade aura settled into a grudging but calmer hum. Hilo turned around in his seat and reached into the cooler to pull out two mango sodas; he opened them and handed one to Lott, who accepted it and drained half the bottle.

Hilo said, “Those men you fought today—you didn’t know them and they’d done you no personal offense. That’s why it bothers you to have killed them. It’s only natural to feel that way; if we didn’t, we’d be no better than animals. There are some people who are like that, of course, even some Green Bones, but thankfully not too many.”

Hilo drank from his own soda bottle. “People are born selfish; babies are the most selfish creatures, even though they’re helpless and wouldn’t survive a day on their own. Growing up and losing that selfishness—that’s what civilization is, that’s what sets us above beasts. If someone harms my brother, they harm me—that’s what our clan oaths are about. Those men weren’t your enemies—they were our enemies. You can understand that, can’t you, Lott Jin?”

The Finger hesitated. “Yes, Kaul-jen.”

Hilo put a warm hand on Lott’s shoulder and left it there for a moment, then rose and went to another seat to give the young man space to be by himself and think. When he’d been Horn, Hilo had considered it a vital part of his job to see to it that new Fingers were coached along, and that those with the most promise were noticed and mentored. He was still unsure about Lott, but he was glad that he’d had this chance to speak to the young man personally; sometimes those few words mattered.

Hilo finished his soda and set the bottle on the empty seat next to him. He leaned his head next to the small window and stared out to the distant horizon. The noise and vibration of the propeller plane droned in his skull. Midway between the Uwiwa Islands and home, there was nothing to see but ocean and more ocean separating Kekon from its nearest neighbors. On the other side of that seemingly endless expanse of water lay the country of Espenia and the city of Port Massy where Anden was now living.

Hilo glanced across the aisle at his blood cousin Teije Runo, still morosely icing his bruised face, and felt a savage desire to push him out of the airplane and watch him fall a long way into the ocean below. When he turned back to the window, Hilo was frowning, and his frown grew deeper and more pensive than the one he’d tried to ease off Lott.