Jade War

Hilo sighed in exasperation—possibly with her for redirecting the conversation, possibly at the fact that as Pillar he was being constantly petitioned by various groups and had never ceased to find it tedious. “All right, as a favor to your… friend,” he said. “Sometime in the new year, when things aren’t as busy.” Wen was due to give birth in a month. Niko came back with a fistful of colorful pebbles; Hilo made a show of admiring them, then picked the boy up to bring him indoors for lunch. “Andy’s doing well,” he said to Shae over his shoulder. “He wasn’t happy about staying, but he understands.”

Shae watched her brother’s back recede toward the house. She called after him. “Would you really have done it? If Ayt had killed me in the duel, would you have broken aisho and gone back to war with a dirty blade?”

“Ayt thought I would.” Hilo’s aura was smooth as a river. “That’s what’s important.”

* * *

Chancellor Son was warming up at the target range of the Three Springs Leisure Club when Shae joined him that afternoon. “Kaul-jen,” he exclaimed, with a relaxed and cheerful air. “A lovely day, isn’t it?” The chancellor was three months away from the end of what had been a grueling six-year term in office and he was obviously looking forward to having more time for his family business, his grandchildren, and the game of chasso.

Chasso is a cross-country game that involves walking through a sprawling and manicured parkland, stopping at regular intervals to shoot fake birds (tufted rubber balls launched from hidden machines) with crossbow darts fired from specialized bows. Although chasso began as a foreign gentleman’s game with origins in hunting and archery, in the past decade it caught on as a popular pastime for wealthy Kekonese. Janloon’s most well-heeled politicians and businessmen regularly conducted business over games at the recently built Three Springs Leisure Club, located thirty minutes south of Janloon.

Shae personally found the game uninteresting in the extreme, but she understood why it appealed to someone like Son Tomarho. Devoting so much land to private recreation on an island where space was at a premium meant exorbitant, status-enhancing membership fees; the sport required reflexes, good aim, and expensive equipment but low physical fitness; and aging Kekonese men still liked to pretend they were capable warriors. She also suspected that Son enjoyed beating her at the game, as jade abilities were of minimal advantage.

Shae waited until after they’d spent the first two flushes in social chat and were hiking up a low hill against the wind to the third flush point before she decided to broach the topic she’d come to discuss. “No one deserves a break from the pressures of Wisdom Hall more than you, Chancellor Son, but it’ll be a loss for the No Peak clan to no longer have such a dependable friend in the chancellor’s office next year.” The Royal Council had voted in Guim En, the current Minister of Home Concerns, as Son’s successor. Guim was viewed as an experienced, fiscally responsible statesman with a populist streak. He was also a long-standing member of the Mountain clan.

“Guim is a reasonable man,” Son said unconcernedly, planting himself at the vantage marker and lifting the chasso bow to his ample shoulder. Son raised his left arm to signal his readiness to the machine operator below. One after another, half a dozen chasso balls flew into the air from behind a row of shrubs. Son fired in rapid sequence and grunted in satisfaction as three impaled balls thudded to the lawn below.

“This is a difficult time for the country and for No Peak,” Shae said. “The clans have held to peace, but only because the world around us hasn’t. Can we count on Guim En to continue to pressure the Uwiwa Islands over smuggling? Will he keep holding the Mountain accountable to the KJA? Will he oppose the Oortokon Conflict Refugee Act when it’s time for the Royal Council to vote?”

Son stepped aside and Shae took his place at the vantage marker. The chasso balls flew; Shae pinned two of them using the rented bow from the leisure club shop. She grimaced, tempted to cheat by Deflecting her opponent’s darts at the next flush. As they hiked down to collect their points, Son said, in a considerably more somber voice, “Kaul-jen, I was there in the room during the visit from the Espenian secretary, and I’m well aware of the foreigners’ security concerns. But the Refugee Act addresses a humanitarian issue. No Peak will seem heartless to oppose it.” He wiped his brow and bent his large frame to pick up his downed chasso balls, which he handed to the young chasskeeper who tailed them at a respectful distance, carrying equipment and water and keeping score. “Compassion is one of the four Divine Virtues, after all.”