She walked straight up to the most senior of the Fists in sight. “Tell your Pillar that the Weather Man of No Peak is here to speak with her.”
The guard spat at Shae’s feet. “You Kauls are scheming, opportunistic dogs. None of you are half as green as Ayt-jen. She should’ve cut off your heads years ago.”
Shae said, “If you’re truly loyal and obedient to your Pillar, you’ll carry my message to her. Tell her I’m here on my own and not as an emissary of my brother.”
Still glaring hatefully at Shae, the Fist barked an order to one of his Fingers, who turned and hurried into the mansion. Shae waited patiently. The crowd waited with her in the sweltering, late summer heat. Sweat shone on their faces. People fanned themselves and sipped water and shifted their weight, but still they remained. After several minutes, the Finger reemerged, and with great reluctance, the Fist ordered that the gate be opened and Shae be allowed inside.
She was escorted up the paved path to the stately front double doors, into a spacious wood-floored foyer, and down a hall to a thick, closed door. “Wait outside,” she instructed her bodyguards, then pushed open the door to Ayt Madashi’s office.
Shae had never before been in Ayt Mada’s presence without wearing jade. Seeing Ayt without being able to Perceive her unmistakably dense, powerful aura was like seeing a photograph of the Pillar instead of the real woman. Ayt was standing at one of the large windows that spilled sunlight across her overflowing office. She was wearing tan slacks and a draped burgundy tank top, her arms bare as usual and densely encircled with jade. Even in the heat, she had a white silk scarf snugly wrapped around her neck. She did not turn at Shae’s entrance. From her office window, Ayt couldn’t see past her front gates, but she was no doubt Perceiving all the members of the clan gathered in rebellion outside the walls of her estate. It was a sight Shae would always remember: the Pillar of the Mountain in profile, standing straight-backed and silent in the sunlight, arms crossed, her gaze unmoving and slightly off-center. A statue of an old warlord before her final battle.
A heavy apprehension gathered and settled in the pit of Shae’s stomach. Every time she’d confronted Ayt Mada in the past, the consequences had been dramatic and irrevocable, affecting both of their clans and their lives for years afterward. She’d come here counting on a pattern that seemed set by the gods.
“It was cleverly done, Kaul-jen,” Ayt said at last.
Shae stepped farther into the room. “I’ve learned from a clever enemy.”
Ten days ago, Iyilo’s interview with KNB news anchor Toh Kita had aired on national television. In thorough testimony, the imprisoned barukan smuggler detailed over two decades of Ti Pasuiga’s collaboration with the Mountain clan. Iyilo explained that during his employment as Zapunyo’s closest aide and bodyguard, he and his cousin Soradiyo had acted as messengers between the Uwiwan kingpin and the Mountain’s Pillar. The conspiracy to assassinate Kaul Hilo with a car bomb, which had instead killed Maik Kehn and injured several civilians, had been suggested and encouraged by Ayt Mada in exchange for promised lenience over jade smuggling.
Afterward, Iyilo had cleverly cut his boss out of the conversation and conspired directly with the Mountain to take over Zapunyo’s business and kill his sons. With undisguised self-satisfaction, he told viewers that he agreed to partner with Ayt Mada in exchange for the promise that the Oortokon Conflict Refugee Act would be passed in the Royal Council—which it had, due to the sudden death of former Chancellor Son Tomarho.
Iyilo gave further detailed information about the ensuing triangle of trade established between Ti Pasuiga, the Matyos, and the Mountain clan, to move smuggled jade and shine from Kekon to the Uwiwa Islands to the Orius continent. Ayt Mada, Iyilo explained, controlled the price on the black market by buying back jade for her own clan and bringing it into the country covertly through Lukang, a scheme that had provoked a civil war within the Six Hands Unity clan. She thereafter allowed and even helped Ti Pasuiga and the Matyos barukan to move jade unmolested into Ygutan and East Oortoko to supply the nekolva program and other Slow War proxy conflicts in exchange for a cut of the profits, which she funneled back into growing the Mountain’s legitimate businesses. At times during the leisurely interview, Iyilo spoke of Ayt Mada with admiration and cautious respect as a business partner, at other times he expressed sneering disdain for all Green Bones, and at others still, such as when he lamented the way Ayt had abandoned his cousin Soradiyo to No Peak’s vengeance, he was openly bitter and full of resentment.