Intruder

  Bren drew in a long breath, and braced himself. “Yet—if it brings peace and stabilizes the aishidi’tat, aiji-ma, might it be right?”

  “Only one man in the court would dare say that to me.”

  “Forgive me, aiji-ma,…but—still—”

  “You have backed the Edi question, paidhi! You have taken her side—you have spent far more time with her than I have, since she has not seen fit to consult me on such matters. You lived with her for two years…only scarcely in the Bujavid. You have not only represented her—you have represented this Taisigi warlord!”

  Dangerous. Dangerous edge.

  “Have I indeed erred in my judgment, aiji-ma? One thought—one thought that a peace with the Marid benefited the aishidi’tat and therefore benefited you. One thought—with potential trouble in the heavens—having your administration at peace with all elements was good. One thought, however, that you did not wish to be informed until this had either failed or gotten to a workable state…”

  Expressions warred on Tabini’s face, somewhere between real exasperation and anger. Finally he said: “Deniability on my part does not mend things my grandmother may have upset to the north of here. Do you know any less obvious plan my grandmother has in mind?”

  To the north of here…

  Northward sat, of most note, the Ajuri. Damiri’s clan. The maternal relatives of Tabini’s heir. With whom Tatiseigi of the Atageini had an ongoing feud. “No, aiji-ma. I do not know of any plan.”

  “You agree with the aiji-dowager?”

  “I have agreed with her that what solves the long difficulty on the west coast makes the aishidi’tat that much stronger. That was my opinion. —But—”

  “You have not yet had to deal with the northwest,” Tabini said glumly. “Ajuri and interests in their district will not be pleased with this: it challenges the arrangement of power within the aishidi’tat, and they view themselves as emergent influences. Nor will the Padi Valley, which has suffered directly from the Marid’s actions. That covers a considerable portion of the aishidi’tat, and we have not even gotten to the eastern mountains, where no two people hold the same political opinion.”

  “Aiji-ma, if I have failed to comprehend, if I should have consulted—”

  “You could not consult. The situation within the Guild unfolded as she sent you to Machigi in the first place. And she knows, gods unfortunate, she well knows what Ajuri is up to, and my grandmother is not a patient woman.” A long, deep breath. “Paidhi, I sent my son to the Atageini with her because his life was in danger in the Bujavid; I separated my household so they could not strike us all at once. I sent him to space because it was safer than his being on earth, and because, should I fall, I wanted him taught revenge by his grandmother. The Ajuri were irate at his being a guest in Atageini. They were not happy when I removed him to space, completely out of their reach. Now that he is back, they are bent on gaining influence to check the Atageini. There are also those trying to counter any rise in Ajuri influence—I number among them the Kadagidi, who also oppose the Atageini. My grandmother may unite the west coast, yes. But one has to fear that she will also unite the northwest with the north central, and not in a good way.”

  “Lord Dur is loyal, of clans in the northwest. The Gan certainly will be. There is lord Geigi’s surrogate in Targai, in the southwest, not to mention the Edi. They are firm beyond any doubt. And there is the East…”

  “Where my grandmother proposes to create another raging controversy. One has no doubt she is out there in Malguri at this moment doing far more than marrying off that fool Baiji to that ambitious relative of hers! One is quite certain she is also meeting with the Eastern lords and proposing to overturn order there! It is no guarantee the villages of the coast will be grateful to have Marid foreigners sailing into their fishing grounds, if such ships ever survive the southern seas to get there.”

  “Yet—if she can cure Marid poverty—and eastern poverty—with one stroke, then the things prosperity can buy, the technology, all of that comes from the central clans and from the trade with the space station. Such things come from alliance with you, aiji-ma, and while Machigi seems worried that you may choose to embarrass him during his visit, one believes he sees exactly where this must go, which is toward full participation in the aishidi’tat, or toward his eventual demise as a minor lord in a divided Marid. One believes he hovers between fear this is all a plot to kill him and take over the Marid—and the hope that what the dowager has presented him might work, because it would certainly be hard for Shejidan to rule the Marid. This is a young man who, offered a ship to go to safety during the action down there, instead went overland to confront what was happening on Taisigi land, for the protection of his people. This was not the act of a coward. Or a selfish ruler.”

  Tabini listened to him, thoughts flickering in those pale gold eyes. “You hold a good opinion of him.”

  “I did, aiji-ma—at least until I read that letter.”

  “The letter is interesting. And you say he agreed to my seeing it.”

  “One believes he intended you see it, aiji-ma.”

  “He is no fool,” Tabini said, nodding slowly. “So you have presented us with the Edi, the Gan, and the Marid. Perhaps we can hold the aishidi’tat together until my grandmother deigns to show up and tell us the rest of her plan. I hope for that hour!”

  “I have written, aiji-ma, to Lord Tatiseigi, with some diffidence—but attempting to make a delicate approach to him, thinking perhaps to maintain this action of mine as a private approach. I acquired a porcelain in the South. Another, to display to the Merchants. But one for him, not in the character of a bribe. I do owe him. And I wish to let him see something I saw, that quite changed my view of the Marid as only fishing boats.”

  “Before my grandmother returns,” Tabini said. “She has left you with this problem. Left you to court Tatiseigi and the committees and guilds.”

  “One was attempting, aiji-ma, to better relations with nand’ Tatiseigi before he should take a public position against it—which one hoped would be moderated by his high regard for the dowager. But this still, at your order, aiji-ma, could be finessed.”

  “He took a position eighty years ago and has not changed it since.”

  “One still—was his guest, aiji-ma. One hoped, in that consideration—”

  “You are going to vote against the cell phone bill.”

  He drew in a breath. Total change of direction. But intimately connected to the topic of Tatiseigi, who opposed the bill. As Tabini supported it, in theory.

  He nodded. “Aiji-ma, for reasons. For reasons. Which are neither here nor there in the current matter.”

  “To him they are. He will believe he has had influence. That you have bent to that influence.”

  “If you could postpone the bill, aiji-ma—”

  Tabini muttered, then waved a deprecatory hand. “The Guild has approached me on this matter, and we are in discussions already. This may not be the year to consider the matter. But let me urge you to caution with Tatiseigi. There is the situation we have already discussed, that in the north. It is delicate.”

  The Ajuri. God.

  “It is delicate enough,” Tabini said, “and this I say in confidence—that my wife is being put in a difficult position. Her father wants influence through her. And if she chooses to become a vessel for Ajuri influence—she and I may not continue this marriage.”

  “Aiji-ma.”

  “Say nothing of it to my son.”

  “Of course not, aiji-ma.”

  “One expects the lord of Ajuri will object to anything that promotes Lord Tatiseigi’s interests. The jealousy involved there is extreme.”

  “Regrettably, —aiji-ma, I have already sent the porcelain to Lord Tatiseigi and asked for a meeting with him. And he is a key ally of the aiji-dowager. I regret not having waited for her, however. Now I greatly regret it.”

  “Finesse it. Finesse it. That is all I will say, if you must meet with him. Busine
ss of the aishidi’tat cannot stop because Ajuri threatens. One is not sanguine about your chances of converting Lord Tatisiegi to a regard for Lord Machigi, however.”

  “One felt the need to try to approach him, aiji-ma, for fear he would take offense to be put off by her absence.”

  “Nand’ paidhi, between Geigi’s feud with him and Ajuri’s feud with him, one fears you are stepping into deep water, but go to it, go to it. But do not attempt to convert him to a regard for Lord Ajuri. That is due, one fears, to get worse very quickly.”

  “Aiji-ma, if one is accidentally stepping into a private situation, one can delay—”

  “The one in the most delicate position in this matter is my son, paidhi-ji. My son is not to be informed of this situation with his mother’s clan. And one is certain you will respect that.”

  “Absolutely, aiji-ma.”

  “Baji-naji, fortune and chance, where it regards Lord Tatiseigi. Understand, the Ajuri may be a small clan, but they are very influential in the collection of small clans that constitutes the north, and they have long had a certain influence in the Guild. Their marriage to my house once made sense. Now it makes them a far greater problem than their size would indicate, and the impending birth of a second child has the old rivalry between Ajuri and Atageini quite—lively at the moment. Ajuri seeks every opportunity to find fault with the Atageini”

  One could not ask where Damiri stood on the matter. She was the one in the worst position, with man’chi to her clan at issue. Pregnant to boot. And the whole thing having blown up into a Guild crisis, with little Ajuri clan wielding a hidden influence in that body—or having had influence; who knew what was going on within that body, or how much antihuman sentiment within that guild his own bodyguard was trying to shield him from either knowing—or meeting head-on, disastrously…

  He had to talk to them. He had to find out.

  “One can only apologize,” he said, “for having touched on matters I should not have touched upon, and for not sending your son back the moment it became clear—”

  “Nothing was clear,” Tabini said shortly. “Even to me. And in point of fact, my son was, again, safe with you for a few days—or should have been. It should not have involved his great-grandmother. It should not have involved that fool Baiji. It should not have involved what we began finding out here once my grandmother stirred the pot. Lady Damiri, about whom you have been too delicate to ask, has lately decided to set her own father, newly ascended to the lordship of Ajuri, somewhat at distance, which he is taking in high offense. In greatest confidence, I believe that there has been a loan of money from my wife to the Ajuri to cover a business failure that would have brought disgrace on the clan—a scandal that brought the untimely death of her uncle and the ascension of her father. My wife is quite distressed with the situation. Not for dissemination—she suspects another clan in the death of her uncle. She is protective of her son and of her child yet to be born. She is quite distressed with the recent risk to her son, she is put out with me, she is put out with you, and with my grandmother on account of the affair on the West Coast, with her deceased uncle on account of his financial dealings, and now with her father’s demands for special favor. None of this has made her happy at all in recent days. I do not repent my decision to leave my son in your hands in the midst of all these goings-on. At least he did not have to participate in the efforts of keeping my wife’s dealings with Ajuri from my grandmother’s major d’, while we were living in her apartment—and one has no doubt that would have put the cap on the matter. My confidence in you is undimmed. If ever my son arrives unexpectedly at your door, receive him and immediately do as you did at Najida: inform me, but do not let him out of your sight for a moment.”

  “Aiji-ma,” he said, dismayed. “My door will always receive him. And you will always know.”

  “Your household is commendably peaceful and safe,” Tabini said. “One understands my son’s attraction to it. And we have equal confidence in the staff you are bringing down from the station.”

  “One is gratified, aiji-ma.” There was one troublesome question. He greatly hesitated to say it. But the stakes were too high. “Among them is Lord Tatiseigi’s former cook, Bindanda. One hopes he will also pass scrutiny. He is a truly excellent cook. And he has been a pillar of my staff.”

  Tabini gave a brief laugh. “We know Bindanda very well. He is an excellent cook. But, paidhi-ji, he is actually my spy.”

  That was a thunderbolt. An absolute thunderbolt. “One is astonished, aiji-ma.”

  “Oh, he reports now and again to Tatiseigi,” Tabini said. “But his reports come here first. And your bodyguard approves the transaction.”

  He was utterly confounded. He said, somberly, “Then one is glad, aiji-ma, if he wishes to stay on my staff.”

  “One believes he will do so. He is understandably an asset to your household. He improves your credit with Lord Tatiseigi. He keeps you safe from poisons. And we shall sort this matter of Ajuri out in good time. So go do the things you propose to do, paidhi-ji. We have every confidence in you—and so does my grandmother, or she would not have left you stranded without instructions. One is certain she wants you to deal with the situation and prepare the ground. One is certain she wishes you to find out my disposition, while she is not on the scene. So relay it carefully. We are officially not connected to this. But we are neighbors. Expect that my bodyguard will have talked to yours and that there will have been an interesting exchange of information, only half of which we shall ever know, from the Guild, one is quite certain, until the whole situation has become history. Go, go, now. I have a stack of committee reports awaiting me. Escape while you can.”

  “Aiji-ma.” He rose and bowed, gathering up Banichi and Jago and making his retreat with a glance back as he passed the door. His last view of Tabini, past Jago’s shoulder, was of a grim and hard-working man, not as young and reckless as he had been on that decade-ago trip to Taiben, when both of them had broken the gun regulations.

  But, then, neither of them was as young, or as naive about the politics of the aishidi’tat, as even Tabini had been on that day.

  It was possibly the most intensely personal conversation he had ever had with Tabini, who was not a man patient of fools or obstacles—a man who, uncommon for atevi, had had one wife for most of a decade and who now found that relationship under intense pressure, through no fault of his or hers.

  And whose heir had relatives who were developing very serious drawbacks.

  But Tabini was intelligent. Very.

  And Tabini had told him exactly as much of the truth as he needed to know to prevent another problem.

  Handle Tatiseigi and don’t let him take a position. Don’t get Ajuri stirred up.

  He’d gotten that clue, too.

  Do everything he could possibly do to lay the table before Ilisidi got back. Nobody was going to pay half as much attention to what the paidhi-aiji did as they would to the aiji-dowager when she arrived, and things had to run smoothly at her beck and call. There were things he could do, people he could talk to, impressions he could leave with people—things he could say that the dowager could readily deny if they turned out to be a mistake.

  The relationship with Machigi—he still, after all that, hadn’t gotten a clear idea how Tabini read the man, and he had wanted Tabini’s opinion more than any other. If there was a man alive who would have an instinctive grasp of that young man’s thinking, it would be Tabini, who was quite as ruthless, quite as capable of turning on the instant and astonishing his court.

  What had Tabini said about Machigi? He is no fool, and that was about all Tabini had said, on the one thing he had most wanted to know from Tabini. And about Tatiseigi? It had amounted to Good luck with him. You’re going to need it.

  They picked up Tano and Algini. He didn’t say a word to his bodyguard until they had gotten the short distance back to his apartment, they had shut the door, and he had surrendered his court coat to Koharu, checked the message bowl f
or anything from Tatiseigi—there was nothing—and put on his day coat.

  “The security station would be a good place,” Banichi said, and without a word, he went with his bodyguard down the hall to the quiet back of the apartment, and the small instrument-crowded station where his bodyguard was the authority…and the only ones who would hear.

  “We did not know about the Ajuri difficulty, Bren-ji,” was the first thing Tano said to him.

  “We did not know,” Banichi echoed that statement, “but certain things were worrisome.”

  Bren sat down as they did, at one of the counters. Jago perched against the counter edge. Algini sat down, looking as grim as ever Algini could look, and looking not at him but into something invisible and not pleasant.

  “What we do know,” Banichi said, “is that there had been misgiving about the youth of the aiji’s own bodyguard as well as their Taibeni-clan origin, which was used to justify the restriction of information flowing to them—temporarily, as it was supposed to be. The central authority argued that it was hard to sequence them into the information flow because they had minor connections to several unqualified individuals and several indiscretions that needed to be cleared up. Taibeni have been married into several northern clans that have been outside certain security situations.”

  “This was the ongoing argument,” Tano said. “But when it became known that Cenedi had been restricted from information on grounds of his principal’s connection to Tabini-aiji, that shone a light into the situation, and it no longer looked like administrative process. It looked like partisanship and possibly worse.”

  “It took three hours, nandi,” Algini said darkly, “for the former Guildmaster to come out of retirement and reconstitute his own bodyguard, also from their retirement. There were immediate arrests. The head of the Guild Council who was in charge of the Machigi affair is not believed to have connections to the renegades—quite the opposite, by appearances, this person having personal reasons against the Taisigi; but it seems neither extreme of bias is reliable, when one allows personal opinion to sway a vote. Guild seniors who had sworn that they had permanently stepped aside are now returning, almost to a man. The urging of some members that the Guild needed new leadership to deal with technological changes in the world, and the willingness of some seniors to step down with the Guildmaster, more than put a very biased viewpoint into office: it set a very dangerous precedent to interdict more moderate members from the information flow. And that realization, and the return of former officers, Bren-ji, that was the start of the shift that abruptly stopped the action against Machigi and that moved in force against the renegades, this shadow Guild, as you call it. There had already been unprecedented bloodletting within Guild premises when the coup was reversed. It has now happened twice, this time when the elder officers moved back in. Retirements have been almost universally reversed. In the background of all this turmoil, some time back, Ajuri clan had gained strong influence. But due to financial improprieties, the former Lord Ajuri, who had relatives newly elevated in power and influence within the Guild as reconstituted after Tabini-aiji’s return to power—and much preceding this current incident—had suffered in reputation and lost credit, in every sense. He had died. Lady Damiri lent her personal fortune to her father to cover the debts of her uncle, who was said—said—to have committed suicide. The officers at the head of the Guild continued from Tabini-aiji’s return until the day Tabini-aiji and the aiji-dowager found themselves dangerously underinformed on Guild matters, and they appealed for key officers to retake their power immediately. The investigation that followed, it now makes it seem that certain of the former Lord Ajuri’s papers are missing…within Guild offices. There is a strong suspicion that the money paid by the current Lord Ajuri, Damiri-daja’s father, was to prevent an unnamed clan bringing certain communications public. Blackmail, in other words.”