Inheritor

  "Jase, she said Tatiseigi might — might — have moved against us. I'd hope he wouldn't, but she said his virtue was a lot safer if we weren't in his reach. I didn't think that. But I did think things in Shejidan were going to go a lot more smoothly without us in the way. So it was the same move, two reasons."

  Jase was listening, at least, without the anger he'd shown.

  "We are going to Mogari-nai, nadi?" Jase switched back to Ragi.

  "I have no doubt of it. The Messengers' Guild has been pulling at the rein —" Source of his metaphor, Nokhada tried a different vector and got another jerk of the rein he held, hands behind his back. "And Ilisidi intends to make it clear the authority is in Shejidan, not in the regional capitals. That's an old issue, the amount of power Shejidan holds, the amount of power the regions have. They've fought over it before. Your ship dumping technology into Tabini's hands has raised the issue again. That's why the tension between some of the lords and the capital."

  There followed one of those small, tense silences, Jase looking straight at him as if thoughts alone could bridge the gap.

  "Thank you," Jase said then, carefully controlled. "Thank you, nadi."

  "Why?" was the invited question. He asked it, angry in advance.

  "It's the first time," Jase said, "that I've ever felt I've heard the truth."

  "I have not —"— lied, he almost said. But of course he had. And would. "I haven't known what I could say." He changed back to Mosphei' to be absolutely certain that Jase understood him. "Jase, if I told your ship enough to let them think they could guess the rest and go hellbent ahead, I knew they could tear the peace apart. You can see now what the stresses in the atevi system are, and I don't know the quality of people in office on your ship. But the people in my government who've cut the Mospheiran Foreign Office off from communication with the Mospheiran public have completely written off the majority of people on this planet as of no value to them. They're not pleased with my continuing to operate as the Foreign Office, such as it is, but here I am, and here I stay. That, I have told you.

  For what you can see with your own eyes, look around you. See how it works. See the land. See the people. See everything you came here to see. It's all I've got to offer you."

  And even while he said it he was hedging his bets, telling himself — just get that spacecraft built, get it flying, get atevi up there before politics shuts atevi out of the meaningful decisions.

  If he could get help — he'd take it.

  But jeopardize that objective? No.

  Jase didn't answer him. He decided that was a relief. He couldn't debate trust with Jase. It didn't exist. It might, eventually, but it didn't, not here, not now. He daren't debate it with Ilisidi, either, but he did trust her, as far as he could reason what she was doing.

  Banichi and Jago — there was his one known quantity, though Tabini never was: believe that those two, who were right now deep in conversation with Cenedi, would bend Tabini's orders a little to save his neck. He was sure they had done that very significantly at least once. Believe that Tabini valued him and his objectives? So far he was irreplaceable.

  One of Ilisidi's men came close to him, Haduni, bringing the boy back. He looked in that direction and saw them offloading the baggage from the mechieti.

  Are we camping here? he wondered. That didn't accord with his knowledge of the situation.

  No, he thought, seeing men adjusting mechieti harness, we're going to move.

  Harness adjustment was something he didn't venture to do. There were straps he knew what to do with: mechieti shed a little of their girth after a morning start, especially when they were traveling this hard; and a saddle that slipped more than Nokhada's had been doing just before the dismount was a problem he didn't want. Expert handlers moved through the company seeing to any mechieta the rider for one reason or another wasn't able to see to; and just as the young man was attending to Nokhada's harness, the discussion the senior security officers had been holding among themselves was breaking up. Banichi had left the group and was leading his mechieta along the edge of the company at a very purposeful stride while Jago and Cenedi went to speak to Ilisidi.

  "Banichi-ji?"

  "Everything is fine," Banichi said cheerfully. "Our enemies are being fools."

  "Doing what?"

  "Oh, nothing up here. Down the coast. The authorities have caught one of Direiso's folk on the Wiigin-Aisinandi line."

  On the train, Banichi meant.

  "Illicit radio? Saying what?"

  Banichi shot him a guarded, assessing kind of look. "That Tabini-aiji is fortifying Saduri plain and preparing to bomb Mospheiran cities. That he's seizing Mogari-nai to have absolute control of the radar installations during the aforesaid operation, because he knows a retaliation is coming immediately after he bombs the island and the northern provinces are going to take the brunt of it."

  "That's absolutely insane!"

  "We're quite sure it is, but it is indicative of Direiso's objective. She wishes to seize Mogari-nai and the airstrip and say there's nothing there because she's thwarted the plot."

  "The plant at Dalaigi." He had a sudden great fear of harm to Patinandi. "What if it's a diversion, Banichi-ji? Are we protected there?"

  "Oh, we are protecting all such places," Banichi said. One of the men was adjusting harness, and Bren gave a distracted yank on Nokhada's rein as she swung her hindquarters and refused cooperation. "We have very heavy security on those plants, especially in facilities where you've very diligently pointed out security problems, Bren-ji, and your eye is becoming quite keen in that regard."

  "One is grateful to know so, nadi-ji."

  "Once the report said bombs would fall, we became very much more concerned that the reserve here is a major target — because maintaining that falsehood means controlling this area within a certain number of hours or attacking government facilities within the same time, so they can say we moved the equipment. And Direiso has adherents among Messengers' Guild officers, but not necessarily among the membership. That we silenced that radio and were ready with statements laying out Direiso's plans will at least throw water on the fire. Our press release is being routed through Mogari-nai and the local stations are carrying the official broadcast. It may be significant, however, that Mogari-nai was the last major communication center to pass the aiji's press release to the broadcast stations."

  It was ominous. Very much so. He made a motion of his eyes toward the heavens. "If they have bombs —"

  "No, Bren-ji. I assure you, no aircraft will reach us. There are aircraft sitting ready to take action against any craft Direiso can send against us. We learned at Malguri, and we have taken precautions. Not mentioning Tano's position, which is quiet, but very capable of defending itself. The fortress is ancient. But for you alone to know — though possibly Direiso does — even the dust of Saduri is modern. They blow it on. For the casual hiker. This is more than a game reserve. If we've kept that secret from Mospheira, numerous people will be surprised."

  He was mildly shocked; and no, his government didn't tell him everything: particularly the Defense Department with its touchy secrets. His mind raced through memories of dilapidated halls, a row of doors facing their bedrooms that didn't open and didn't have windows.

  In this vast, open government reserve there were fences, he guessed, that were far more than low stone walls. And he had no idea what other electronic barriers might exist out here, or what those vans he'd seen parked behind the old fortress might contain, but Tano and Algini were surveillance specialists, he had guessed before this, while Banichi and Jago were surely what the Guild so delicately called, with entirely different meaning, technicians.

  "We aren't using the pocket corns to transmit any longer," Banichi said. "Though I assure you reception is no problem. We listen to a mobile unit up near Wiigin talk to one east of the fortress and know all we need. This time, Bren-ji, we are not using a defense heavily infiltrated with the opposition, as we were at Malguri. As for
what we need worry about, there's one other road that goes up the cliffs from Saduri Township. It supplies Mogari-nai, and tourists use it to tour the cannon fort. The aiji's forces will keep that road open. Meanwhile —" Banichi's voice, from rapidfire cataloging of assets, took on an airy quality. "Meanwhile, the dowager will assert her prerogative, as a member of the aiji's household, to tour the facility. But we have to be careful. To dispossess the Messengers' Guild of Mogari-nai would tread on Guild prerogatives. Even to save lives, our Guild will not countenance that kind of operation. Politics, you understand. And in the balance of powers, it is wise to preserve those prerogatives."

  "One understands that much." A Guild disintegrating would be very dangerous to the peace. As the fall of the Astronomers from credibility after the Landing had been catastrophic for atevi stability: for lords there were successors, but for the Guilds there were not. "Banichi-ji, the aiji does know, I hope, that we can receive data without the earth station. Surely he does know."

  "Yes. But Guild prerogatives demand it go through the Messengers' Guild no matter where we receive it. The Messengers will bend, nand' paidhi. Their rebellion will go on precisely as long as that Guild sees other entities defying the aiji with impunity, or until the fist comes down on them. The aiji can no longer ignore Hanks' challenge to his authority."

  "So we are going to fight, there? The dowager is truly on our side?"

  "Fight, nand' paidhi? Ilisidi is on holiday at Saduri. The television says so quite openly. The television says, during her holiday, she will tour Mogari-nai." The call was going out to mount up. "Saigimi's death was a serious blow to Direiso. Tatiseigi's appearance on television was a second. Badissuni's attack of heartburn was a third, leaving Ajresi unopposed in the Tasigin Marid, and Badissuni very cooperative with the aiji, if he's wise. The Messengers' Guild admitting Ilisidi for a tour is a fourth. Direiso may strike in any direction, but it's the business of aijiin to settle their affairs and then the Guilds have no difficulty arranging their policies. Believe me that the Messengers are no different from our Guild."

  Banichi made his mechieta extend a leg and got up, in that haste the maneuver needed. Others were getting up. Bren had Nokhada kneel and as he rose, turned and landed in the saddle, he saw Jase attempt to do the same.

  Attempt. Jase failed, was left clinging to the saddle ring with one foot hung and the other off the ground as the mechieta rose and tried to turn full circle in response to Jase's unwitting grip on the rein. It was a dangerous halfway, from which a man could fall with his foot still trapped; but Haduni was there instantly to put a hand under Jase and boost him up, disheveled and with his braid loosening, but safe. Jase still pulled, and the mechieta resisted, lifted his head and turned another circle until Jase apparently realized it was his own fault and slacked the grip on the rein.

  "It took me a while," Bren said.

  Jase still looked scared. Well a man could be. And dizzy. For a man who had trouble with the unclouded sky and kept taking motion sickness pills, the mechieta turning while he was off balance was not, Bren was sure, a pleasant thing.

  "You're doing fine," Bren said.

  And with no warning but a ripple of motion through the herd Nokhada spun and joined the others in a rush after Ilisidi, who had taken off. Bren looked back, scared for Jase, but he had stayed on. Jago fell back to join him as the herd sorted itself out, Nokhada fought the rein to get forward, and Banichi rode ahead of him.

  But the rush settled into a run for a good long while. Ilisidi, damn her, was having the run she'd wanted, a perverse streak she had, a desire to challenge a man's sense of self-preservation, never mind Jase was fighting to stay on and scared out of good sense.

  He dropped further back, a fight with Nokhada's ambitions, and came past the boy from Dur, who was riding with a death grip on the saddle straps and excitement in his eyes. He came alongside Jase, then, who was almost hindmost in the company. Jase was low and clinging to the saddle, his whole world doubtless shaking to the powerful give and take of the creature that carried him.

  "What are we doing?" Jase yelled at him. "Why are we running, nadi?"

  "It's all right!" he yelled back. And yelled, in Ragi, what he'd said on the language lessons when Jase had reached the point of anger: "Call it practice!"

  Jase, white-faced and with terror frozen on his features, began suddenly to laugh, and laugh, and laugh, until he wondered if Jase had gone over the edge. But it was funny. It was so funny he began to laugh, too; and Jase didn't fall.

  In a while more, as Babsidi ran out his enthusiasm for running, they slowed to that rocking pace the mechieti could hold for hours, and then Jase, having been through the worst, grew brave enough to straighten up and try to improve his seat.

  "Good!" Bren said, and Banichi said, riding past him, "Well done, Jase-paidhi!"

  Jase glanced after Banichi with a strange look on his face, and then seemed to decide that it was a word of praise he'd just heard. His shoulders straightened.

  The mechieti never noticed. The boy from Dur dropped back to ride with them and with Haduni and Jago. But then Nokhada decided she was going to go forward, giving little tosses of her head and moving as if she could jump sideways as easily as forward, meaning if she found an excuse to jump and bolt, she would.

  Bren let her have her way unexpectedly and touched his heel to her ribs, which called up a willing burst of speed around the outside of the herd and up to the very first rank. She nipped into place with Ilisidi and Cenedi, where she was sure she belonged.

  "Ah," Ilisidi said. "Nand' paidhi. Did he survive?"

  "Very handily," he said, and knew then the dowager had kept one promise she'd made in coming here, to give the new paidhi the experience he'd had.

  And Jase had laughed. Jase had sat atop a mechieta's power and stayed on, Jase had been told by a man he hadn't trusted that he had done quite well, and Jase was still back there, riding upright and holding his own under a wide open and cloudless sky.

  And by that not inconsiderable accomplishment Jase was better prepared if they had to move: it was practice; and practice like that had been life and death for him — in a lot of ways.

  The sun declined into the west until it shone into their eyes and made the land black, and nothing untoward had happened. The sun declined past the edge of the steep horizon toward which they were climbing, and the light grew golden and spread across the land, casting the edges of the sparse, short grasses in gold.

  Suddenly, with the topping of a rise, a white machine-made edge showed above the dark horizon, far distant.

  Mogari-nai: the white dish of the earth station, aimed at the heavens. Beyond the dish in that strange approach to dusk, the blue spark of warning lights. Microwave towers aimed out toward the west, a separate establishment.

  They rode closer, and now the sky above the darkening land was all gold, the sun sunk out of sight. One could hear in their company the sounds that had been their environment all day: the moving of the mechieti, in their relentless, ground-covering strides; the creak of harness; the rare comment of the riders. Somewhere below their sight the sun still shone, and they discovered its rim again as, between the shadow of cliffs falling away before them, the ocean shone faintly, duskily gold — no longer Nain Bay, but the Strait of Mospheira.

  The last burning blaze of the sun then vanished still above the horizon. The mountains of Mospheira's heart, invisible in the distance, were hiding the sun in haze.

  "A pretty sight," Ilisidi said.

  If they had not struck their traveling pace when they had, they would have arrived well after dark. Ilisidi, Bren thought, had wanted the daylight for this approach to the earth station and its recalcitrant Guild.

  A peaceful approach. Banichi had said that was her intent, at least.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 23

  « ^ »

  A prop plane, a four-seater, sat beyond the dish of the A'tearth station, marking the location of the airstrip, and beyond it, a low-lying, modern
building, was the single-story sprawl of the operations center.

  The vast dish passed behind them, the dusk deepened to near dark, and the company stayed close around the dowager as they rode. Bren eyed the roof ahead of them and had his own apprehensions of that long flat expanse, and the chance of an ambushing shot from that convenient height. He was anxious about their safety and hoped Banichi and Jago in particular wouldn't draw the job of checking out the place. It looked like very chancy business to him, and chancier than his security usually let him meet.

  They stopped. A good thing, he thought.

  But the mechieti had scarcely gotten their heads down for a few stolen mouthfuls of grass when the door to the place opened, bringing every mechieta head up and bringing a low rumble and a snort from the mechiet'-aiji, Babsidi, who was smelling the wind and was poised like a statue, one that inclined toward forward motion.

  "Babs," Ilisidi cautioned him. One atevi figure had left the doorway and walked toward them at an easy pace, nothing of hostility about the sight, except the black clothing, and the fact that the man — it was a man — was armed with a rifle which he carried in hand.

  But about the point that Bren was ready to take alarm, the man lifted a hand in a signal and one of Ili-sidi's men rode forward to meet him.

  Not even of Tabini's man'chi, Bren thought, though Banichi had said Tabini was moving; it seemed to be all Ilisidi's operation. But it was reassuring, at least, that they had had someone on site; perhaps, as Banichi had also said, preparing security for Ilisidi's tour, much as Tabini's security had prepared the way for him on tour.

  There was some few moments of discussion between the two, then a hand signal, and a few more of Ilisidi's security went up to the door.

  A shiver began in Nokhada's right foreleg and ran up the shoulder under Bren's knee. Otherwise the mechieti were stock still. Creatures that had been interested only in grazing at other breaks were staring steadily toward the building, nostrils wide, ears swiveling. They had not put on the war-brass, the sharp tusk-caps that armed the mechieti with worse than nature gave them; but the attitude was that of creatures that might take any signal on the instant and move very suddenly.