CHAPTER
10
The Mountain House
They took him to the Ayt mansion.
Ayt Yugontin, when he was Pillar of the Mountain, had fittingly chosen the highest point of elevation in the city to build his residence and had endeavored to recreate the feel of a Green Bone training sanctuary like Wie Lon Temple School in his own estate. The approach into the property looked like the entrance to a forest fortress, but when Gont rolled down the car window and nodded to the two guards—his own Fingers, no doubt—the thick doors swung open on silent automatic controls.
Anden had never seen a house more impressive than the Kaul residence, but the Ayt mansion was just as splendid in an entirely different manner.
While the Kaul home was grand and modern, with both Kekonese and foreign-influenced architectural touches, the Ayt residence was classically Kekonese—a sprawling single-story structure with stone facade and dark wooden timbers, swooping rooflines, green tiles, and wide walkways. It might have been the home of a Kekonese landlord hundreds of years ago, if it wasn’t for the security cameras, motion sensors, and expensive imported cars in the driveway.
The ZT Valor pulled up to the front. Gont got out of the car. When the driver opened the other rear door, Anden stepped out nervously and followed Gont through the entrance of the house. Two Fingers stood to the side. They saluted their Horn but gave Anden no more than a cursory glance; they could
Perceive that he was not wearing jade.
Gont pointed to a padded bench standing against the wall near the front door. “Wait here and don’t move until you’re called,” he ordered Anden.
With no further explanation, he strode down the wood-floored foyer and disappeared down a hallway.
Anden sat down as he’d been told. Gazing around, he found it hard not to admire the landscape artwork and the antique blades mounted on the walls, even as his palms kept sweating and his insides twisted themselves into knots.
Surely he had been brought here as a hostage, to be held against the Kauls because of something that was going on between No Peak and the Mountain —the trouble that Hilo had spoken of last week. Should he have resisted, or tried to get away? He doubted it would have made any difference. What would Lan do when he found out what had happened? What would Hilo do?
The threat of the Mountain hurting Anden or keeping him prisoner might provoke violence between the clans. Was that what the Mountain wanted? He glanced around, wondering if he could escape this place, and noticed Gam standing by the door with the guards, keeping a close eye on him. He didn’t know all the key people in the Mountain, but he knew Gam was Gont’s Second Fist and had a reputation as a formidable fighter. Anden remained where he was.
A good deal of time passed, perhaps an hour. Long enough that Anden’s anxiety turned to boredom and then to impatience. Finally, Gont returned.
“Come with me,” he said, again with no explanation, and led the way back down the hall. Anden hurried to keep up with his long, purposeful strides.
Along the way, they passed two men in suits walking in the opposite direction. Glancing at them, Anden suspected one was Ree Turahuo, the Weather Man of the Mountain, as he’d heard that Ree was a short man. The other was probably one of his subordinates, or a highly regarded Lantern Man. Gont and Ree did not acknowledge each other. Interesting. Apparently No Peak wasn’t the only clan in which the Weather Man and the Horn maintained a frosty relationship.
Gont stopped outside a thick, closed door and paused, turning his broad shoulders toward Anden. “Don’t look so nervous,” he advised. “She doesn’t like nervous men.” He pushed open the door and motioned Anden through.
Ayt Yugontin had perished without an heir. His wife and infant son had died in the war, buried under merciless tons of mud and earth when Shotarian bombs started a landslide that destroyed the small village that had been Ayt’s birthplace.
During the war, the people called Ayt the Spear of Kekon. He was the daring, vengeful, ferocious Green Bone warrior that the Shotarians feared and hated, a man who spoke little but wreaked deadly havoc on the occupiers, only to always escape into the shadows and up into the mountains.
His closest comrade, Kaul Sen, was the elder, more seasoned rebel, a shrewd and masterful tactician who, along with his son, Du, distributed secret pamphlets and broadcast subversive radio messages that inspired and organized the network of Lantern Men that became the key to the One
Mountain Society’s success.
The Spear and the Torch.
A year after the end of the war, Ayt Yugontin adopted three children, orphans from his former village. Advocating that Green Bone abilities and traditions needed to be preserved and passed on to future generations of Kekonese, he gave all three adoptees—a teenage girl and two younger boys —a martial education at Wie Lon Temple School. The girl had undeniable natural talent, despite beginning training late. The elder of the boys, Ayt Im, had an ego greater than his skill and was killed in a duel of clean blades at the age of twenty-three. The younger, Ayt Eodo, had enough ability, but grew up to be vain, more interested in becoming a playboy and art collector than a clan warrior. His sister, Ayt Madashi, became the Weather Man of the Mountain.
An hour after her father’s death, Mada killed the longtime Horn of the clan. This was followed immediately by the murder of three other rivals, all of them among the Spear’s closest friends and advisors. The Green Bone community was stunned—not by the fact that she’d done it, but that she’d done it so quickly and publicly, before her own father’s funeral. No one expected the Weather Man to best the Horn in battle. Her opponents within the clan clamored to Ayt Eodo, hoping he would return from his vacation home in the picturesque south of the island and stand up to his sister’s rampage.
The Kekonese term “to whisper a man’s name” originates from the occupation period when the identities of foreign officials targeted for assassination were passed secretly through the rebel network. Ayt Mada whispered the name of her adoptive brother, and a day later, Eodo’s mistress emerged from the shower to find him lying on the bed with his throat slit and his jade gone.
When the bloodshed was over, Ayt Mada sent a message to her father’s estranged comrade, Kaul Sen, expressing her deepest respect, her condolences over the recent loss of his wife, her sadness over the unavoidably violent internal transition of power within the Mountain, and her utmost desire for the continuation of peace between the clans. Kaul Sen instructed Doru to send a generous delivery of white heart blossom and dancing star lilies, symbolizing sympathy and friendship, respectively, to the funeral of his old friend, addressed to his daughter, the Pillar.
In the two and a half years following, two minor clans threw in their lot with the Mountain. The Green Winds clan did so willingly; its patriarch retired to the south of Kekon and its remaining leaders took positions within the Mountain. The other was the Three Run clan, which was made to see reason when Gont Asch cut off the head of its Pillar.
The office of Ayt Mada was spacious, bright, and cluttered. Books and papers were piled on the wall shelves, the desk, and the floor. Sunlight flooded in from the large windows. The space was divided in two: the office proper, and a reception area with a sofa and brown leather armchairs. Ayt was sitting in one of the armchairs, a short stack of file folders balanced in her lap. She was a woman nearing forty years, in loose linen pants, a sleeveless green top, and sandals. She looked as if she had just come straight from a workout or brunch. She wore no makeup, and her long hair was pulled back into a single functional ponytail.
Anden wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. He’d imagined that perhaps the Pillar of the Mountain would be a glamorous and deadly femme fatale. Or perhaps a hard-bitten she-man who exuded toughness and iron authority.
Instead, she appeared ordinary, except for the spectacular amount of jade running up both her arms. Mounted in coiling silver bracelets that twined up
her forearms and biceps like snakes, there must have been at least a dozen stones on each arm. So much jade, worn so unpretentiously—Green Bones had no need for any other symbols of status.
Without looking up, the Pillar said, “You made the call?”
Gont made an affirmative noise. “He understood. A reasonable man, as you say. His brother has massed a small army in Little Hammer, but so far they’re waiting.”
Ayt closed the file she was perusing and tossed the stack onto the polished wooden coffee table. She motioned Anden to the sofa across from her without ceremony. Even with a short distance between them, Anden could feel the woman’s jade aura—a steady, focused red intensity. In the center of the coffee table was a bowl of oranges and a cast-iron teapot. “Tea?” Ayt inquired.
Caught off guard, Anden didn’t answer immediately. Only when Ayt raised a gaze as formidable as her aura did he manage to say, “Yes, thank you. Ayt-jen.”
Ayt opened a cabinet under the coffee table and brought out two small clay cups. She set one in front of Anden and one in front of herself. “It’s a fresh pot,” she explained, as if it were important that hostages were served hot tea and not stale, oversteeped dregs. She poured for herself first, then for him. An honored guest, particularly a fellow Green Bone, would be served before the host, but Anden did not qualify as either. Anden glanced at Gont, who settled his large frame into an armchair near Ayt’s. She did not offer to pour him a cup, nor did he help himself; apparently he was not a party in this conversation and remained present only as a silent, disquieting observer.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why you’ve been brought here.” Ayt did not waste additional time with pleasantries. “We’ve taken a large risk in seizing this opportunity to speak with you. After all, there’s a chance your adopted family might attribute dishonorable motives to our actions, when in truth they are entirely to your benefit.”
Anden sipped just enough tea to wet his dry mouth. He was more perplexed than ever but sensed with trepidation that what was happening now was different from what he’d initially suspected, a more complicated ploy than merely holding him prisoner to provoke violence or to gain a concession from No Peak over some dispute.
“I’m told you’re the best student at Kaul Du Academy,” Ayt went on.
“When I was young, my father never allowed anyone with foreign blood to train at Wie Lon, but times are different now. I’m not like my father. I break from tradition when I see that there is cause to do so and when there is gain to be had. I believe differences can be overcome; disagreements in the past can be set aside. Your lineage is impressive, and even without the Kaul blood or name, you are a representative of the family.
“I’m making you an offer to join the Mountain.”
Anden’s heart began to pound. He knew both Ayt and Gont could Perceive his fear, though neither of their expressions changed. His reaction was a sign that he understood what was happening, what was truly being said.
Betraying his patron and his adoptive family by crossing over to the Mountain would be suicide; he could never accept such an offer and they knew it. No, this was a thinly veiled proposition not to him, but to the Kauls themselves, to the clan of No Peak. An opening position.
The realization that he’d been brought here to be a messenger at the highest level, that Ayt expected him to infer the import of her words and take them directly back to Lan, filled Anden with a certain amount of relief. He was not going to be harmed or imprisoned. Then, on the heels of that relief came a burst of bewilderment and anger at the excessiveness of it all. Why force him into a car instead of conversing somewhere neutral? Why provoke Lan and Hilo to the brink of attack? Why include him at all?
Anden imagined standing up, tossing his cup of tea into Ayt Mada’s face, and saying in a voice cold with disgust, “Kaul Lan would never kidnap a jadeless student from Wie Lon School. The Pillar of No Peak would have the decency not to play mind games like this.”
Of course, Lan would not want him to do anything so stupid. He’d want him to stay composed, pay attention, and return safely. Anden remained still, keeping both his face and his voice calm as he responded, carefully, “I’m flattered, Ayt-jen.”
Ayt smiled at his discomfort. “I’m glad you understand the significance of such an unprecedented offer. You would be a Fist with many Fingers, in a position of considerable status and responsibility. But not here in Kekon. In
Ygutan.”
Anden blinked. “Ygutan?”
“We’ve established vital new operations there. I need enterprising and talented Green Bones to be in charge of our expansion in that country. You
would work under the Horn, but you would report directly to me.”
Ygutan was cold and desolate, the food was awful, and there wasn’t a pebble of jade in the whole vast country. Why on earth would the Mountain want to expand into Ygutan? Perhaps Perceiving his bafflement, Ayt lifted her lips in a thin smile. “The world is opening up. International trade is flourishing. Why should we Green Bones concern ourselves only with the bit of land that is Kekon when vast opportunity exists abroad?”
“But … what’s in Ygutan?”
Ayt paused with the teacup below her mouth. “SN1 production.” She sipped and put the cup down. “We’re going to sell shine to the Ygutanians.”
Anden was speechless. Shine was both illegal and reviled on Kekon. It was a drug engineered by foreigners, a shortcut to allow jade to be worn by non-Kekonese, by people without the hard-won tolerance that Green Bones proudly possessed. An entire civilization and culture was built around the inviolable truth that jade destroyed any wearer except the most worthy Kekonese warriors.
The Espenians, arrogant and inventive beyond compare in the world, had circumvented that. As soon as they’d established military bases on Kekon, ostensibly to help their allies defend and rebuild after the Many Nations War, they’d gone to work in secret labs to determine how their own soldiers could acquire the same legendary jade ability as Green Bones. Ten years ago, they’d succeeded, albeit imperfectly, by creating SN1.
The formula of the experimental serum had leaked from Espenian military bases on Kekon, and the illegal shine trade ballooned. Apparently a lot of people, here and overseas, were willing to trade years of life for a dangerous drug that allowed them to wear jade without being Kekonese, without putting in the years of hard training, and without dying horrible deaths from the Itches. Less acknowledged, and universally scorned, was the fact that there were some Green Bones who secretly used it, too, to artificially enhance their own natural jade tolerance.
SN1 was a contentious topic among Green Bones. Anden had heard arguments at school on occaison and even a debate in the Kaul house once, with some firmly of the opinion that the drug was an unmitigated social ill and others contending that limited use was acceptable so long as it was by sanctioned, highly trained individuals such as Green Bones who might, due to illness or injury, for example, benefit from medicinal use to temporarily
bolster tolerance.
Anden wasn’t sure which side of the issue he fell on, especially given his own family history. Nevertheless, in his experience, the one thing everyone agreed upon was that the illegal spread of shine violated Green Bone interests and values and had to be eradicated. The fact that Ayt Mada, the Pillar of the largest Green Bone clan in Kekon, was planning to sell shine was so astounding to Anden that when he was able to speak again, he forgot his role and his caution, and blurted, “You’re going to give more foreigners the ability to wear jade? Isn’t that exactly what we don’t want?”
He realized his outburst had probably come across as disrespectful, but Ayt seemed amused. “What we don’t want is to lose control. The Espenians already use SN1 on their own soldiers. Other countries will aspire to follow suit. Soon there will be an expanding population of foreigners wearing jade.”
Ayt leaned forward. Anden didn’t mean to, but he leaned away; the woman’s jade aura and her straightforward gaze felt like solid surfaces pushing implacably outward. “This could be the greatest threat we’ve ever faced, or an unparalleled opportunity. The faster Kekon speeds toward modernization, the more vital it is that Green Bones take strict control of our own resources.
We can be driven out of our rightful place, or we can stand to profit greatly.
“My father strived to keep the foreigners out, but let’s accept reality: They’re here to stay. Kekon is no longer a mysterious backwater of civilization. People around the world know about jade, and thanks to the invention of SN1, now they can have it. Rather than try to fight the inevitable, let’s give them what they want. At a price we control, under conditions we control. The shine trade on Kekon has given us better knowledge of SN1 production than anyone besides the Espenians, and we can ensure the security of the facilities we establish. If we develop the SN1 supply, then we decide the extent to which jade can be used by outsiders.”
Anden felt entirely out of his depth. He made himself sit forward, reach for his teacup, and swallow down the now lukewarm liquid. In doing so, the proximity of Ayt’s jade prickled his Perception for an instant. The Pillar’s tone was pleasant but firm. She didn’t sound threatening. But he sensed menace. A dogged avariciousness.
“Green Bones were once united against foreign threats. It’s time we were that way again. Time that the clans came together in a new alliance. That’s why I’m proposing that you join us. The rewards would be great for you.”
Ayt sat back, and her expression shifted, became flat and chilling. “If you spurn the hand we’re holding out to you, well, that is your choice of course.
Just remember that we’re extending this offer in good faith and complete honesty. I strongly urge you to reciprocate that respect by not taking some position in the future that might place us at odds with each other.”
Anden’s pulse was racing and he shifted uneasily in his seat, his neck hot.
Ayt was making the proposal as clear as if she were sitting here speaking directly to another Pillar. “Ayt-jen.” He cleared his throat. The near certainty that he would be returned in one piece to deliver Ayt’s pronouncements to No Peak gave him the courage to speak up with more force than he had before.
“May I … ask a candid question?”
Ayt raised her eyebrows. “Please do.”
“I’m only a student, so forgive me if I don’t understand, but … why go to the trouble and risk of bringing me here and involving me in this conversation? If you want to propose an alliance with No Peak, why don’t you do so directly?”
Ayt smiled a satisfied, enigmatic smile that held no real warmth. “You sell yourself short. My offer to you personally, is quite real. You have an important future role to play in ensuring peace between our clans, if your Pillar recognizes so. As for conversing with the Kauls …” She opened her hands in a gesture of helpless disappointment. “I would welcome a discussion with Kaul Lan, but how is that possible when his Horn keeps giving offense against us? He never passes up an opportunity to harass us over territorial lines. His Fingers spy on us; his Fists pick battles over minor disputes. How are we supposed to expect a reasonable dialogue with No Peak?” For the first time during the entire conversation, Ayt Mada glanced at her Horn. She and Gont shared a brief, silent exchange before she turned back to Anden. “If the Pillar gave us some sign that he was serious about peace, then that would be a different matter.”
Ayt stood up, smoothly and casually. Gont rose as well, and Anden followed suit at once. Ayt was taller than he’d expected. Anden was taller than most Kekonese, and her eyes were on a level with his. The sunlight struck the coils of jade on her arms and lit the steel settings with motes of light. “We’ve taken enough of your time this afternoon; let’s get you home before anyone misses you … too much.” A touch of the sardonic in both her voice and the movement of her mouth. “You have our offer. You know what
to do next. I’ll wait for an answer, but not for long.”
Anden clasped his hands and touched them to his forehead. “Ayt-jen.”