Jade War

The first thing he saw was two suitcases and a folded stroller sitting in the living room. One of the suitcases was latched shut and upright; the other was open on the floor and partially packed with toddler’s clothing, a stuffed monkey, and a few children’s board books. Eyni’s open purse lay next to the suitcase, wallet and passport visible. Cold understanding filled Hilo. Eyni came out of the bedroom, arms full with baby blankets, towels, and a pack of diapers. She froze when she saw Hilo standing in the foyer.

“Sister Eyni,” Hilo said softly. “It seems you’re about to take a trip.”

Eyni blurted, “We’re not meeting until tomorrow.”

Hilo looked at the suitcases and the pile of supplies in her arms. “You’re overpacking if you plan to be back in time for dinner tomorrow night. Where’s that foreign boyfriend of yours?”

The blankets trembled in Eyni’s arms. “He went out for a minute.”

“He’s tying things up at work because you don’t expect to be back for a while,” Hilo inferred. His voice turned hard. “Where were you planning to go? You were going to disappear without telling me; you figured you’d leave me waiting around like a fool.”

“Go home, Hilo.” Eyni’s voice rose, pleading and angry. “I didn’t reply to your letters for a reason, and you still showed up at my house uninvited. Lors doesn’t know what you and the clan are like. You would’ve convinced him to let you have what you wanted—to take my son back to Kekon and raise him as a killer. That’s right, a jade-obsessed killer destined to die young, just like his father and his grandfather. And like you.”

“That’s how you talk about your husband and my brother? And my father, who gave his life for his country?” Hilo’s lips drew back. “What happened to you, Eyni?”

Eyni set the items down and straightened to her full height. She’d always been a proud and elegant woman, a former dancer, and now, in an effort to reclaim some of the status she’d once held over Hilo when he’d been a young Fist and she the wife of the Pillar, she lifted her chin and glared at him. “You haven’t changed at all, Hilo. You always were a vicious thug at heart, an arrogant boy obsessed with jade and his own ego. You don’t care about Niko; you only want to turn him into one of your followers.” She breathed in hard. “Do you know that in Espenia, civilian possession of jade is now banned? That other countries including Stepenland are likely to follow suit? People associate jade with soldiers and mercenaries and gangsters, and that’s how you want to raise my son? No, Hilo. Nothing you can offer will sway me. I want Nikolas to grow up Stepenish, with Stepenish friends and siblings and a Stepenish education. I don’t want him to have anything to do with you.”

For one of the few times in his life, Hilo was speechless. For some seconds, he felt nothing except an initial shock, as disorienting as being stabbed in the stomach. Then hurt flooded in, and with it, rage.

“Go home to your Fists and turf wars,” Eyni said. “I won’t ever let Niko become a Green Bone.” She stepped backward into the kitchen and picked up the receiver of the phone, hovering her finger over the dial. He saw her eyes flicker to the block of kitchen knives that lay within her easy reach. “Go or I’ll call the police. They’ll be here in minutes. You’re a foreign tourist with no power or authority in this country, and if I tell them you broke into my house, they’ll put you in jail.”

“Let me see Niko,” Hilo said. Eyni’s finger moved, dialing a single number. “I’ll go,” Hilo promised in a low voice that bordered on a plea, “but at least let me see my nephew.”

For a second, the defeat in Hilo’s voice and the open hurt in his expression seemed to have an effect on Eyni. She depressed the phone cradle. Then, as if remembering her determination not to give her former brother-in-law even a sliver of leverage, she set her lips together in a line and shook her head.

From the nursery, Nikolas began to cry. “Maaaa…”

Eyni turned toward the sound and took two steps, and Hilo moved, with the sort of speed that only a heavily jaded Green Bone can call upon. He wrapped one arm around the front of her body, holding her in place. Pressing his palm to her back, he Channeled with all his might in one sharp, violent thrust. Eyni’s head snapped back; the top of her skull smacked Hilo in the chin. His jade energy tore through her with the destructive precision of a metal shaft and she died without uttering a sound.