Jade War

“Ah,” said the woman, looking embarrassed, “the bail has already been paid and he was released two weeks ago.” When Hilo looked confused, she continued in a rush, “We didn’t pay it; our family was collecting the money, but before we could do so, we heard that the bail had been posted by a wealthy stranger and Runo released to his custody.”

“Who’s the stranger?” Hilo asked.

“His name is Zapunyo,” said Mrs. Teije. “They say he is a bad man, a smuggler. A jade smuggler.” She looked as if she would spit, if she wasn’t in the Kauls’ nicely carpeted study. “My son is being kept as a ‘guest’ of this man, who will not release him. We have tried to negotiate, to offer money, but this Zapunyo says he will only talk to the Pillar of the clan.”

Aunt Teije left her chair and knelt in front of Hilo, grasping him by the hands. “Please, Kaul-jen, you must get Runo back. He has a troublesome, wayward heart, but he is a good boy. My husband refused to come to you—curse his stubbornness! ‘If we ask the Kauls to help us with our own matters, they’ll always look down on us,’ he says, but I don’t care. I know that you’re as big-hearted and caring as your grandfather—let the gods recognize him.”

Hilo winced inwardly at the comparison but patted the woman’s clutching hand. He did not look at Shae, but he could feel her aura prickling warily as she watched the exchange. He considered Mrs. Teije’s plaintive face for a long minute before making up his mind. “Don’t worry, Auntie. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure Runo is freed and returned to you. What would the No Peak clan be without the Teije family? I’ll go to the Uwiwa Islands myself to speak to Zapunyo.”

Mrs. Teije let out a sob and touched her clasped hands to her forehead over and over. Hilo raised her to her feet and showed her out, rubbing her bowed back with his hand. Then he closed the door and turned around to face his sister, who had not moved from her spot in the chair near his. Shae didn’t look pleased. “You shouldn’t have raised her hopes like that.”

Hilo dropped into a seat across from her and slid down low into it, legs outstretched. “What was I supposed to do? Send her away thinking we’d let that Uwiwan crook take her son without consequence? He’s a member of the family after all, a Green Bone.”

Shae squinted. “You’re not seriously going to risk your own life for Teije Runo.” Runo had been three years ahead of Hilo and Shae at the Academy; he’d been good at singing, relayball, maintaining a revolving list of girlfriends, and not much else. He’d graduated with a single jade stone and earned another during his two years as a Finger before deciding to travel and see the world while seeking his fortune. According to clan gossip, as a Green Bone for hire, Teije had guarded mining and oil-drilling projects in war-torn parts of the world and spent time as a personal bodyguard to some rich oligarch in Marcucuo. Hilo had not seen the man for years and had no desire to; he had no respect for any person who used his jade abilities for personal gain and gave nothing back to the clan to whom he owed his green.

“I couldn’t care less about Runo myself,” Hilo said, “but you know this isn’t about him at all. Clan war has been good for the jade smuggling business, and that scavenger Zapunyo has gotten fat and bold in the past couple of years. With the news out of Shotar these days, he’s got even more reason to think the black market’s going up.” A separatist conflict had broken out in Shotar between the country’s government and a pro-Ygutanian insurgency in the easternmost province of Oortoko. The major world powers were likely to get involved and escalate the armed crisis—which meant greater demand for jade, from both legitimate and illegitimate military forces around the world.

“Hilo,” Shae said seriously, “Zapunyo is trying to force a meeting under his terms, in his country, where he has the corrupt government and the police on his payroll. You’d be walking into certain danger if you went there. It’s not worth it, not for the sake of that useless ass Teije Runo.”

“But he’s our family’s useless ass,” Hilo said, standing and stretching. A muscle in his shoulder twinged, and he rolled it out with a grimace. The outward marks of the vicious beating he’d taken at the hands of Gont Asch and his men more than a year ago had long since faded, but his body still insisted on offering unwelcome reminders. “How does it look, to have an Uwiwan holding a Kekonese Green Bone hostage, one of our own blood relations? Zapunyo knows we won’t stand for it. This is his way of getting my attention.”

“Send Kehn or Tar to deal with him.”