Jade War

CHAPTER 17 The Pillar of Southtrap

The following evening, Anden and the Hians took the bus six stops to the other side of the Southtrap neighborhood where they entered a blue, split-level house and were greeted by a woman of about fifty with permed hair and white nail polish, who welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Hian warmly and ushered them inside. “You must be Anden, the student from Janloon who’s here studying,” she said.

“Yes, Auntie,” Anden said, and the woman exclaimed, “So polite!” and smiled at him approvingly. “Come in, you can put your shoes there. Losun-se!” she called down the stairs.

A man came up the steps, wiping his dusty hands with a rag. The sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled up to his elbows. “Nearly done putting in the bathroom tiles,” he said, unrolling his sleeves and buttoning the cuffs. “After this, I think the basement will almost be finished.”

“It’ll never be finished,” his wife said with cheerful pessimism.

“You have no confidence,” he grumbled. “Ah, the Hians are here.”

Yesterday, Anden had asked his hosts, “Who is this Pillar? What clan does he lead?” He was bewildered and wondered why none of this had been mentioned to him before.

Mr. Hian had scratched his beard. “Well, it’s not the same as it is in Janloon. We don’t have that many Green Bones. Dauk Losunyin is the one that the others obey, and the only man around here that all of us call Pillar, so I suppose that makes him…” Mr. Hian shrugged. “The Pillar of Southtrap.”

The Pillar was a heavyset, balding man with large, tradesman’s hands and a friendly, agreeable countenance. Looking at him, Anden did not know what to think. This man did not strike him as a Green Bone warrior, much less as the leader of a Green Bone clan. His house was smaller than the guesthouse on the Kaul property. He gave off no great sense of power or authority; picturing him next to someone like Kaul Hilo or Ayt Mada was laughable.

“Dauk-jen,” said Mr. Hian, clasping his hands and touching them to his forehead. He bent into the salute to show his great respect. Mrs. Hian did the same and handed Mrs. Dauk a plate of homemade almond paste buns. “Thank you for having us over,” said Mr. Hian. “This is Emery Anden, the student from Janloon, the one we told you about.”

Anden followed his host family’s lead and inclined in a formal salute. “Dauk-jen.”

Dauk clapped Anden on the shoulder in an amiable way. “How’re you liking Espenia?”

“I… um… I’m getting used to it, jen,” Anden replied.

The Pillar chuckled. “It does take some getting used to, doesn’t it?” He motioned them through the kitchen and into the dining room, where he proceeded to pull up extra chairs at the oval wooden table. There was an alcove in the wall between the kitchen and dining room with a lustrous green vase that made Anden’s jaw fall open, until he realized that it was not, as he’d thought upon first glance, an astonishing and dangerous amount of jade, but a decorative item made of nephrite.

Then he noticed two small matching carved statues of horses on the mantel, and a candleholder on a side table next to the sofa, all made of bluffer’s jade. In Janloon, such a display of false green in one’s home or business would be terribly gauche. Was it because the Kekonese-Espenians had so little real jade, and could not wear it openly, that they showed the fakes instead? Or maybe, Anden thought, they appreciated the ostentatious appearance of the inert ornaments as a visible reminder of their cultural heritage?

The front door opened and a young man walked in. It was the Green Bone that Anden had seen before, the one who’d saved the woman from running into traffic some months ago. Mrs. Dauk hurried to the door to greet him. “Coru, I didn’t think you’d make it home for dinner tonight.”

The young man took off his cap and gave his mother a hug. “We have guests?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Hian, you know them,” Mrs. Dauk said, “and this is Emery Anden, a student from Kekon who’s living with them while he studies at Port Massy College.”

Anden realized he was staring like an idiot. Only now did he remember that Mr. Hian had told him the Green Bone’s family name was Dauk. It had been so long ago, he’d forgotten and not drawn the connection. The quick-witted bicyclist was the son of the Pillar.

Coru’s eyes widened in recognition. Then he grinned. A dimple formed in the center of his brow, and his dark eyes danced with mirth. “So we meet again,” he said in Espenian. “And you still have the expression of a startled deer, same as you did the first time I saw you.”

Anden blinked and said, in halting Espenian, “You surprised me both times, jen.”

Mrs. Dauk exclaimed, “Coru, what kind of a way is that for you to talk to a guest?” She gave her son a reproachful smack across the back of the head. “Speak Kekonese!”

“It’s all right, Mrs. Dauk,” Anden said, warmth rising into his face. “I need to practice my Espenian if I’m to get any good at it. Your son was only being helpful, as he… often seems to be.”

“Sana,” Dauk Losun called. “How long before dinner?”

“It’s ready,” his wife called in reply, rushing back into the kitchen and bringing out a steel pot, which she placed on a trivet in the center of the table. “The pork stew is not quite done, but everything else is. I’ll bring it out later. Don’t stand there everyone; sit down and start eating!”

It was crowded around the table with six people. Dauk Sana had made more than enough food—spicy cabbage, shrimp with lemon chili sauce, and the belated vinegar pork stew, which had generous chunks of mushroom and egg in it—all of it traditional, homey Kekonese food, with the exception of the long, thick, dark salted crackers that went around the table in a basket; Espenians seemed to serve them as an accompaniment at every meal, for scooping up food like a spoon and dipping into soups and stews. Anden was seated next to Dauk Coru, who ate heartily and, like a good Kekonese son, complimented his mother on all the dishes.

Anden tried desperately to think of a way to start a normal conversation with his neighbor at the table without bringing up their awkward prior encounters. He kept glancing over, trying to see if he could spot the jade Coru wore. Anden leaned over, deliberately timing his reach for the basket of crackers so that his arm brushed close to the other man’s. A tingle went through his elbow and deep into his bones; he felt a firm tug in his gut, like a steel hook on the mouth of a fish before it’s yanked from the water. Anden broke into a sweat; it had been a long time since he’d been close enough to feel another’s jade aura. After such an absence, his own body’s unmistakable, longing reaction to the proximity of jade made him nearly dizzy. He shivered and drew his arm away.

“So, how long are you here for?” Coru asked.

“Hm?” Anden hastily pulled himself together. “Ah, two years. Long enough for me to complete the language immersion program and get an associate degree. That’s the plan, anyway.”

Coru took another mouthful of food without asking a follow-up question. After an unwieldy pause, Anden said, “So… Coru-jen, I hear you’re a student too. You’re going to law school?”

The other young man looked up at him and laughed. “Nobody calls me Coru except my parents and their friends. Everyone else calls me Cory.” He wiped his hand and held it out to shake Anden’s. “Now that we’ve met properly, yeah, I’m going into the law program at Watersguard U next fall. I’m taking this year off to do some community volunteering and save up tuition money working as a paralegal. And I’m planning to travel the country for six weeks next summer.” He tilted his chin up and raised his voice so his father could hear him. “Before I’m forced to follow in my sister’s footsteps.”

“You have an older sister?” Anden asked.

“Three of them.” Cory shook his head. “Feel free to pity me.”

Anden didn’t know what it was like to have so many sisters, but he too was the youngest in his family and had three older siblings, so to speak, and he said so. Cory got up from the table and took a framed family photograph from the mantel. Showing it to Anden, he said, “My oldest sister’s the lawyer; she works in the federal Industry Department. Her husband’s an engineer; they don’t have kids, though. My second sister studied nursing; now she stays at home with her two little ones. The third one—that’s her—she graduated with a degree in social work and got married just last year.”

All the Dauks bore family resemblance in the shape of their smiles and the broadness of their shoulders. Anden wanted to ask if any of Cory’s sisters were also Green Bones, but he’d made so many cultural mistakes and wrong assumptions in Espenia so far that he was hesitant. If the people here hid their jade, maybe it was rude to publicly ask if someone was a Green Bone. He studied the family photo appreciatively for another minute before handing it back to Cory.

“Your younger son is still at Watersguard, isn’t he?” said Dauk Losunyin to the Hians. “How’s he doing there? Is he still working on his doctorate?” The conversation between the four elders veered into talk and sundry complaints about their grown children, then turned to gossip about neighbors in the Kekonese parts of Southtrap. To Anden, it all seemed like talk that was far too common to be worth a Pillar’s attention, but Dauk Losun propped a heavy elbow on the table and listened with chin on fist as Mrs. Hian bemoaned the increasing traffic in front of their house and expressed concern about the couple across the street, the ones who were constantly fighting.

Dauk Sana had just cleared the dinner plates and brought out tea and a tin of Espenian biscuits when the doorbell rang. Cory opened it to admit a man who stepped inside and nodded in solemn greeting to all of them. “Dauk-jens. Mr. and Mrs. Hian.” He looked at Anden but didn’t say anything. The man took off his hat and coat and boots. He was wearing fine black leather gloves, and he took these off as well, but instead of leaving them with his coat, he tucked them into his front shirt pocket as he joined them at the dining room table. Cory pulled over another chair and the man muttered a thanks, helping himself to a biscuit as Sana poured them all tea.

This newcomer was the first man Anden had met in Espenia that made him think: Fist. He was not an especially large man, but everything in his manner—his sharp gaze, the way he stood and moved and carried his lean frame—suggested the capacity for violence. Kaul Hilo had once told Anden that good Fists had the minds of guard dogs—they could be friendly, smiling and wagging their tails, but they were always alert. If you made a wrong move, if you threatened what they valued, they wouldn’t hesitate to use their teeth. Without having ever met this person before, Anden recognized him immediately as someone who would fit in alongside the Maik brothers.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t join you for dinner,” said the man. His arrival signaled a shift in the evening; Anden suspected it had not been coincidence at all, but precisely timed. The idle chatter ceased. Chairs scraped back slightly from the cleared table; cigarettes and hoji appeared.

“Rohn-jen, you know you’re welcome anytime,” said Dauk Sana, but there was a subtle reserve in her voice that had not been there earlier. “How’s your shoulder feeling these days?”

Rohn said, “Much better after your healing sessions, Sana-jen.”

Dauk Losun gestured to Anden. “Toro, this is Emery Anden, a visiting student from Janloon. He’s only half-Kekonese, but his mother was a powerful Green Bone and he was adopted into the Kaul family of the No Peak clan as their youngest grandson.”

Anden was taken aback. All through this dinner he’d been under the impression that the Pillar of Southtrap knew him only as a student living with the Hians. Dauk Losunyin spoke in the same neighborly, casual tone he’d used all evening, as if Anden’s history was known to everyone, even though that was clearly not true. Cory’s eyebrows rose. He sat back and cocked his head, looking at Anden with heightened interest.

Rohn Toro dipped a cinnamon biscuit into his teacup. “Kaul is a famous name,” he said.

“Very famous,” Dauk Losun agreed, sitting back and rubbing his stomach with satisfaction after such a good meal. “I grew up in Kekon in a Green Bone family during the Shotarian occupation and was always hearing stories of the brave leaders of the One Mountain Society. Ayt Yugontin and Kaul Seningtun—the Spear and the Torch. After my father killed a Shotarian policeman, the Society helped me and my mother and sisters to escape to Espenia. Those three weeks in the hold of a cargo ship were the worst of my life. But gods be thanked, we arrived safely in our new country, with nothing but the clothes on our backs. I was fourteen years old.” The Pillar gazed at Anden intently. “Young man, I tell you this so you understand that I have the highest respect for your family. I make it my business to know what happens in this neighborhood, so when Mr. and Mrs. Hian called to say they were bringing you to meet me, of course I had to ask some questions and find out more about you. Now that I know who you are, my family and I want to help you in whatever way we can.”

“Thank you, Dauk-jen,” Anden said, trying to recover from the sudden change in both Dauk and the tone of the conversation. He was still not sure what to expect from this unassuming Pillar, the snug family dinner, the house decorated with false jade.

“Anden-se, tell them what happened,” urged Mrs. Hian.

After Anden told them of his violent encounter in the park, Dauk turned to Rohn Toro. “You know of this Carson Sunter?”

“He’s a coat for Skinny Reams.” Rohn said the word coat and the name Skinny Reams in Espenian. “Boss Kromner wouldn’t bother himself over a small thing like this, but Reams might take issue.”

Mr. and Mrs. Hian looked deeply concerned. “Dauk-jen, the Crews have no principles at all,” Mrs. Hian exclaimed. “Might they come after our home, or even our sons?”

Anden was entirely lost and increasingly alarmed. “That man I fought—who is he?”

To his surprise, Cory answered. “You didn’t know any better than to get into a scrap with a crewboy? They’re gangsters, you know. Boss Kromner runs all the gambling, extortion, drug dealing, and racketeering on the whole south side of Port Massy, and Willum ‘Skinny’ Reams is his number one foreman. That man you beat up, Carson Sunter, is a coat—a foot soldier in Kromner’s Crew. Not very high up, mind you—the sort of guy who shakes down businesses and carries drug money. But the foreman Reams—he might see a Kekonese thrashing a local as something else.”

“Those crooks, they prey on anyone weaker, especially immigrants,” said Mr. Hian. “But they leave our Kekonese neighborhoods alone because we have Dauk-jen as Pillar and Green Bones with jade to protect us. That’s why you don’t see them in our part of Southtrap.”

“We have something of an understanding with the Crews. They stay out of our business, and we stay out of theirs,” Dauk Losun explained. “But I’m afraid things will change as soon as civilian possession of jade is made illegal.”

His words caused a ripple of consternation to go around the small table. Dauk Sana muttered a profanity under her breath. Her husband held up a calming hand. “We might as well accept it. There’ve been too many publicized stories of irresponsible usage, cases of the Itches, and now this swell of interest in jade because of the military involvement in Oortoko. The legislation to ban jade is already in the National Assembly and has the backing of the premier and the biggest Trade Societies. It’s a foregone conclusion that it’ll pass.”

The Pillar reached under the collar of his flannel shirt and pulled out a circular jade pendant on a silver chain. He kissed the jade disc and said to Anden, “This is our Kekonese heritage. My family has worn jade for generations. Today, it keeps our people safe from the Crews and anyone else that would take advantage of us; it binds our community and is part of our identity as Keko-Espenians. Now the government tells me it’s against the law? It’s the law that’s wrong.”

His wife nodded in vehement agreement. “I may not be a doctor, but I was trained as a nurse back in Kekon and I learned enough medical Channeling from my mother to help people who come to me with problems. Now, because of this ridiculous law, they will be afraid of getting involved in something illegal, even though they’ve been coming for years.” As he had with the other Dauks, Anden tried to determine where Cory’s mother wore her jade but could not.

Dauk Losun dropped the pendant back under his shirt, out of sight. “The only thing this upcoming ban will accomplish is to make the Crews hungry for jade of their own. I can tell it’s already happening; they expect a piece of any black market business in Port Massy. They’re already into drugs, so naturally they’ll want the shine trade too. It won’t be long before we have to contend with the Crews targeting us for what we have.”

Dauk Sana blew out sharply. “That day isn’t here yet. Let’s not get off track. Anden and the Hians came to us for help, and we can’t let this silly misunderstanding cause problems for any of them. Let’s ask Rohn-jen to go to Skinny Reams with”—she considered for a moment—“two thousand thalirs. I would say we can go up to three thousand, but not more.”

The Pillar nodded. “As usual, my wife’s smarter than I am. It’s a good thing I have her to keep me focused these days. Toro, you should bring two of your greenest friends with you, and if Reams tries to bargain for higher, remind them that we know all about the Gerting job and have said nothing to the police. Three thousand and our continued silence—they’ll accept that.”

Anden stared around the table. He felt caught in the clutch of two simultaneous epiphanies. The first was that he had not, contrary to his own initial beliefs and those of his cousins, come to a land devoid of jade and clans after all. In Janloon, the question of who would control jade had led to open bloodshed in the streets between No Peak and the Mountain; here it was just beginning, simmering in the Espenian underworld and the shadows of immigrant communities, but it existed nonetheless.

The second realization fell into place as he looked from Dauk to his wife, to the stranger Rohn. This small family dining table was a far cry from the formal study in the Kaul house or the top floor of the tower on Ship Street, but Anden understood now that he was looking at a Green Bone Pillar, his Weather Man, and his Horn. In Port Massy, they were something different than in Janloon. Simple people in the community, neighbors secretly helping neighbors.

He glanced at Cory. The young man soon to be a lawyer was leaned back with his chair tipped against the wall, one leg drawn up on the seat, still paying some attention to the conversation but seemingly more interested in his handful of jam-filled biscuits. Cory was smooth-skinned and tall and had strong calves from biking. He wore a T-shirt with the logo of what Anden presumed was a popular music band and seemed in all ways to be very Espenian. But he was a Green Bone; he wore jade somewhere on his body and had been trained to use it. What was his place in the clan?

Rohn Toro finished his tea and got up. “I’ll find Reams and talk to him.”

“Thank you, old friend,” said Dauk Losun, standing up as well and seeing him to the door. “Also, sometime soon, it would be a good idea for you to pay a friendly visit to Tim Joro. What happens between a man and his wife is his own business, but when it becomes a known problem in the neighborhood that could bring the police—well, that becomes a bigger issue affecting everyone. Be sure to remind him of that, will you?”

Rohn nodded and left the house. As Dauk Sana pressed a casserole dish of leftovers into Mrs. Hian’s hands, Mr. Hian gathered their jackets and again saluted deeply to the Pillar. “Dauk-jen, we can’t thank you enough for taking care of this problem for us. May the gods shine favor on you.”

“Don’t worry,” said Dauk. “Rohn Toro is completely reliable, and we’ve had to deal with the Crews before. Come over for dinner anytime, and bring this one with you.” He leveled a mock stern finger in Anden’s face. “Stay out of trouble from now on, you hear? Now you know dueling is not allowed. There are ways to get around that, but we won’t talk about it right now. I admire your thick blood, though, standing up for yourself and refusing to be talked down to by anyone. A real Kekonese man from the old country, green in the soul, not like our soft Espenian kids these days.” He slid a look at his son.

From behind his father, Cory winked and said, “See you around, islander.”

Anden touched his clasped hands to his forehead in parting salute. He was still reeling from everything that had happened. “Dauk-jen, are you sure this will work to smooth things over?” He was most concerned about the Hians; he couldn’t bear to think he’d put them in any danger.

“Well, there’s never any guarantee, but you should put it out of your mind,” said the Pillar. “There’s a saying, you know: When there’s a problem to be solved, the Espenian tries money first, then resorts to violence. The Kekonese tries violence first, then resorts to money.” Dauk Losun chuckled. It was clearly a phrase he’d quoted before because his wife and son rolled their eyes behind his back. “We’re in Espenia, so in the same way the Hians are your foster parents here, allow me to act as a friend to you and your family.”

Anden nodded in thanks but felt a creeping worry. He had a strong suspicion that the Pillar of Southtrap, though he might be a warm and genuine man, was extending his assistance not just out of affection for the Hians, but because of Anden’s association with the Kaul family. Might he not expect that at some point, friendship and favor would be returned by the No Peak clan? He would be sorely disappointed if Anden could not provide any reciprocation.

Anden chose his words carefully. “Dauk-jen, you have my gratitude. I’m a stranger in this country and have only gotten by thanks to the generosity of those in the Kekonese community. I only wish I could speak on behalf of my cousins as well, but I’m afraid I don’t hold any status in the No Peak clan—that’s why I was sent away from Janloon to begin with. I’m not a Green Bone myself, but I hope that one day my friendship will be worth something more than it is now.”

The Pillar seemed not in the least disappointed by this candid admission. Perhaps, in finding out more about Anden in advance of this evening, he’d learned everything there was to know and was already aware of Anden’s role in the clan war and his subsequent disgrace. He extended his large, rough hand and as Anden shook it, he said, “A well-spoken young man like you? I’d bet on it. Things change. Circumstances exiled me and my family to Espenia as well, but I have no regrets.”