Jade War

“What do we do now?” Anden asked miserably.

Mrs. Hian’s mouth was set in a worried line. She turned to her husband, who folded his arms on the small kitchen table and nodded reluctantly. “We must go to the Pillar.”

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!”