Intruder

  “You will not offend him,” Ilisidi. “Nor, one hopes, Tati-ji, will our efforts to have peace in the south displease you. You know how very long we have desired a settlement, we do know that you hold opposing views in the interest of your region, and, fortunate third, we do hope to satisfy all your objections, because we have had them particularly in mind while arranging the agreements. You have been our instructor and our constant thought while we were working these things out. Do kindly hear us out before you frame an opinion.”

  Neatly managed, Bren thought. A magnificent segue, delivered almost while the old man was drawing breath to object.

  “Well, well,” Tatiseigi said, frowning, “but understand—” He used the all-inclusive plural. “—our objections reside in our concern for the aishidi’tat, which is an irreplaceable structure.”

  “To that we heartily agree, nandi,” Geigi said. “And, speaking as one who has sometimes been at odds, but no longer, one hopes—we greatly appreciate your position. The aiji-dowager has often cited your opinions, and one now greatly appreciates the wisdom of your position, nandi. When one was young, one was far more reckless, but time and events are persuasive. Your objections are wisely made, and must be respected.”

  Tatiseigi blinked. Twice, parsing that for traps, and Bren parsed it a second time himself, in some little admiration. God, Geigi had grown in office. Ilisidi looked on that with her usual calm demeanor and smiled a sweet little smile.

  “So we do,” she said, “always consult with Lord Tatiseigi.”

  The paidhi-aiji could hardly top that opening statement. He sat there sipping his brandy very cautiously, saying only, “One absolutely concurs, aiji-ma. Nandiin.”

  “Well, well, well,” Tatiseigi said, a little flustered, and took a sip of his own glass. “Let me then advise you of my concern that any improved rail link will immediately become a conduit for spies and mayhem. That any increased trade with the South will upset the economy by competing against northern industry.”

  “On the latter, we rely on your excellent knowledge of the northern economy to advise us,” Ilisidi said. “It will be extremely easy at this stage to make provisions to protect these northern enterprises, whether by making them more competitive or by managing import from the south. Not forgetting there will be export from the north, which may offer profit.”

  “Export. These bare-elbowed folk in the south can hardly afford our goods.”

  “Indeed,” Geigi said, “but an improved economy in the south will mean they can, and will want them, in increasing numbers. This is a major new market once it has elevated its standard of living.”

  “They are a lazy, contentious lot,” Tatiseigi said, “who had rather waste their substance in war than improve their own living. The black market dominates their economy.”

  “This has not been their choice,” Bren felt obliged to say. “Nandiin, they have maintained leaders whose warlike nature has made them feel safer—not that it has made them safe, but the reputation for violence has in fact defended them from the other clans in the Marid. That is the sort of choice the aiji-dowager has undertaken to change. She has identified one warlord with a vision exceeding his predecessors, and in consequence of his talent, he has become a target of his neighbors—with a good result for the aishidi’tat, because it has necessitated his accepting the guilds into the Marid to a degree that will profoundly change the politics of the district. But the guilds cannot effect a beneficial change without direction applied from the north and the east.”

  “Setting up a massive clan structure in that district to rival the Ragi,” Tatiseigi muttered, “is dangerous. Destabilizing to the entire aishdi’tat.”

  “For all his days, Tati-ji,” Ilisidi said, “Lord Machigi will be engaged in building up his merchants and his shippers and enriching the people of the Marid. He will have no time for adventures of a political nature, and once he has wealthy merchants under his roof, he will have the same constraints as does my grandson. Wealthy merchants, save those selling munitions, do not like war in their own region of operation, and we shall have the Marid trading in porcelains and textiles, wood products, foodstuffs—anything but munitions.”

  “For now, Sidi-ji. But the next leader—”

  “Should any future leader of the Marid step out of those bounds, the Guilds will be quite sure he does not step far…just as the Guilds constrain us in Shejidan. That is the profound difference in this agreement, Tati-ji. Machigi has taken the Guilds to bed, and now he is wed to them. So will his successors be.”

  Tatiseigi was quiet for a moment, head tilted to one side. “And these foreigners in the heavens the paidhi-aiji warns us of? What when they appear? What when they play one region against the other? Or incite the humans against us? We cannot be divided.”

  “Precisely,” Ilisidi said, “we cannot be divided. Nor shall we be. The Guild will see to that.”

  The Guild, Bren thought, was not the argument he would have picked—given what he had learned from Tabini.

  But Tatiseigi sat still, the brandy in his hand, and then he emptied it at a gulp and held out his glass for another.

  Servants moved. No one else did, except Cajeiri was swinging his feet. And stopped in the general hush.

  Tatiseigi took another sip. “You believe this as fact.”

  “We believe it,” Ilisidi said, and for a dizzy, strange moment, Bren thought, Could she be behind what’s been going on in the Guild? At least…the current upheaval?

  “You believe you have the means to restrain this wild southerner, Sidi-ji.”

  “We have the means to remove this wild southerner, should he prove unwise. And he knows it.”

  “One will concede to you, Sidi-ji.”

  Feet swung. Abruptly stopped. Cajeiri piped up: “My father will back Great-grandmother. One is quite sure.”

  There was a moment of surprise, a little shock, that Cajeiri had an opinion.

  “The renegades shot at us,” Cajeiri continued doggedly. “They blew up a truck. They attacked everybody and tried to get them to fight. But we stopped them. They wanted to set Lord Machigi’s enemy in Dojisigi and assassinate Lord Machigi, so Lord Machigi has had to ally with mani. And she will not let him go.” Feet swung again, and stopped. “My father is keeping quiet because of politics. But we think he backs mani.”

  “So do we back your great-grandmother, nandi,” Geigi said. “So does the entire West, and that is another district that has been, until now, too unsettled to unify. If we take this course, Lord of the Atageini, with the solidity of your great prestige, the whole West agrees to fight our legal battles in the legislature and in court and accept the results…and this agreement now includes those peoples now called tribal districts. We have also gained the Lord of Dur in agreement, bringing in his region. We have Maschi clan agreed, and, for once, the whole Marid is under one authority, who sees nothing more profitable for him than agreement. Should Machigi break this alliance, we here will maintain our association and deal with it, but more, for the first time the Guild will be in place to deal with it. So Machigi will no longer be able to think that he is out of reach of consequences. He is now as vulnerable to the Guild as any other lord. It is a new situation, nandi. I put by all quarrels in the interests of having this agreement work.”

  “Even abandoning the matter of your sister,” Tatiseigi said bluntly.

  “If I do, she will have died to some higher purpose, nandi, than the usual regional dispute. She will have died for something worth dying for. In order for us to deliver the conditions in which the agreement of Machigi and Sidi-ji can work, the tribal districts have to be at peace, and to put them at peace, the legislature has to approve their admission to the aishidi’tat and remove them from dependency on my clan. I back that proposal. One hopes, nandi, one extravagantly hopes for your vote in support.”

  “One asks,” Ilisidi said, “Tati-ji. Try our way. We have ample recourse if it fails. We have built in precautions such as your objections have suggested, no
tably Guild action. We need you, Tati-ji.”

  There was a moment of stark silence. Then a nod from Tatiseigi. “We shall agree,” Tatiseigi said, jaw clamped as if he were forcing the words. “You know, Sidi-ji, the political cost of this will be heavy.”

  “You will gain, Tati-ji, and you may suffer the jealousy of your neighbors for that. We know the risk—and we know some of your neighbors, as do you. We ask you not visit Tirnamardi at any time in the coming weeks. We offer personnel to secure and protect Tirnamardi.”

  “They will not be Taibeni, Sidi-ji!”

  “They will not be Taibeni.”

  God—inserting more bodyguards onto Tatiseigi’s staff? Maybe somebody who could wade in, replace several antiquated and overly expensive security systems, and get decisions made. That was his first thought: Tatiseigi assassinated and his vital succession over Atageini Clan coming down to Cajeiri would be monumental.

  Second thought: Under ordinary circumstances, Tatiseigi would have set his feet and demanded favors or outright refused; but the old man was not stupid. By backing the agreement, he had great reason to worry about his next-door neighbors and strongest rivals, the Kadagidi, who were trying to regain their political power and would use it for capital…but by opposing Ilisidi, he set himself aside as useless, because he assuredly would never back the Kadagidi.

  Cajeiri’s feet swung. He stopped them, but his eyes moved from Geigi to Tatiseigi. The boy understood. He’d been there when Tatiseigi’s antiquated systems had nearly gotten them all killed. Cajeiri knew everyone’s opinions. He had his opinions on his great-uncle’s feelings about the Taibeni. He knew all about his great-grandmother’s plan and the situation on the coast. And one hoped to God he knew he shouldn’t say a thing at the moment. Not a thing.

  Lips went taut with restraint.

  In a very long silence.

  “I have avoided war all my life,” Tatisiegi said. “This is consistency on my part.” A nod, then. “The Atageini accept the proposal. We will back this program, specifically on your recommendation, Sidi-ji.”

  They’d done it, Bren thought.

  And he asked himself how much of Lord Tatiseigi’s movement in their direction had to do with the ongoing situation Tabini had warned him about, the situation with Lady Damiri’s other relatives, who were fighting to remove Tatiseigi’s influence from the ruling house in Shejidan and bring in their own to stand near Tabini-aiji.

  Not to mention the situation within the Guild—the recent situation, and the prior situation, and the fact they were not likely to have eliminated every vestige of the shadow Guild. If there was a place the shadow Guild was supposed to have been eliminated—it was from the house of the Kadigidi, Murini’s clan, Lord Tatisiegi’s neighbor to the east. Tatiseigi had forever the Taibeni on one side and the Kadagidi on the other, and he had the most uncertain security on the continent.

  So now Tatiseigi found a way to accept Ilisidi’s offer, at one stroke getting past the Kadagidi.

  He found a way to accept a gift porcelain and had the paidhi-aiji advancing him as an expert in the collector trade.

  He even found a way to agree with Lord Geigi, however indirectly, and patch up a quarrel that had ceased to be of any social or political benefit.

  Damned right, Tatiseigi was aware of a danger to him and to his clan.

  There was an interesting letter among Baiji’s little stash of blackmail material, one half line of which suggested the Kadagidi would favor Baiji’s proposed alliance with the Dojisigin Marid.

  The interesting bit was the date, which was after Murini’s fall from power, after Murini had allegedly become anathema among the Kadagidi and the Kadagidi had become innocent as the driven snow. The associations in that letter nailed the Kadagidi as possibly complicit in the assassination of Geigi’s sister—and as backing a shadow Guild power grab as recently as current history.

  If push came to shove, Tatiseigi might well know what to do with that letter.

  Ilisidi had her own copy of that little store of documents, and when it came to interclan gossip, Ilisidi knew things. She collected things. Remembered things.

  And delivered little tidbits of information when they most suited her.

  Had that letter gone to Tatiseigi—along with the supper invitation?

  One wondered. One did indeed.

  Following Lord Tatiseigi’s agreement—and an unprecedented exchange of bows and courtesies of reconciliation with Lord Geigi—there was perhaps just a bit more brandy than was judicious. But it was an occasion, and the mood was optimistic, at least for the hour. Cajeiri, as a minor, went home earliest with his young aishid, without having committed a single indiscretion—exemplary behavior, and one the dowager noted with a deeper than usual nod in parting. They all left at once, Lord Tatiseigi down the hall to his residence, and Bren and Lord Geigi off to Bren’s apartment, on Cajeiri’s track.

  They were not that late getting in, except for the brandy, and one thought even of one more glass, which was entirely foolish. He and Geigi were both tired. They needed to go straight to bed and have their wits about them in the morning.

  Bren said his goodnight to Geigi—“A success, a very great success, Geigi-ji,” and received a reciprocal courtesy, the both of them happy with the evening. Valets were waiting to put them to bed; bodyguards were headed for their own well-earned late suppers in the apartment kitchen, after their own very long evening.

  And Bren delayed for one compulsive, foolish look at the message cylinders waiting in the basket.

  The design of the cylinders said they came from several departments of the government and Machigi’s representative, one surmised the fifth one to be. For the morning, he said to himself, resolutely.

  But Tano and Algini turned up again from the inner hall, and Tano pulled a very thick envelope out of the front of his uniform jacket.

  “This is from the dowager, Bren-ji. Cenedi’s company provided an extensive briefing.”

  A slight cold chill went through him. Tano and Algini, as usual, had been door detail, Banichi and Jago standing duty in the dining room and the sitting room. It was always the door detail who talked with the resident Guild.

  And learned the unofficial scuttlebutt.

  “The nature of these, Tano-ji? Should one be alarmed?”

  “These are in main the dowager’s final drafts of the agreement, Bren-ji. And also Cenedi’s intelligence report regarding the East. There is controversy rising regarding development on the coast, regarding the proposed rail service, regarding road building. Cenedi says these are routine matters, which can be handled with accurate information and negotiation.”

  “We had a very interesting conference,” Algini said, “with the collective security details—we dodged Tatiseigi’s aishid to some minor extent, but we were very careful to give them every impression of full disclosure and full inclusion. That the two of the young lord’s bodyguard are Guild was convenient. We were able to include them, to warn them for the sake of their principal, but as juniors, with certain restrictions of information. Maneuvering around them covered our more focused talk with Cenedi. We have filled him in regarding the business already discussed. We are confident of his position. We have also passed nand’ Geigi’s guard a document not to be opened until they are on the station, and we have their undertaking to respect that.”

  “However,” Algini said, and proffered another envelope, “this should be kept guarded and given to the aiji directly.”

  One was not going to sleep well on that account.

  The envelope was sealed without a signet seal. And Algini himself might not know its contents. One would bet it came either from Cenedi or directly from the Guild and was another bypass of Tabini’s bodyguard, who might—or might not—have been given it directly had Tabini attended the dinner.

  Giving it to Cajeiri’s earnest young guard—no. This envelope was not that sort of message.

  13

  Bren opened his eyes, a little muzzy from sleep, and made s
pace for Jago on the convenient side of the bed. She was shadow, all shadow, and settled quietly under the covers…and he suddenly became aware that it was late in the night.

  That his bodyguard had been up very late.

  “One wished not to disturb you,” she said quietly.

  “Is something amiss, Jago-ji?”

  “Not amiss, Bren-ji,” she said. “Algini and Tano went down to the town to meet with Guild from Lady Siodi’s establishment and from elsewhere. Nawari also.”

  Cenedi’s right-hand man. Bren wiped his hand across his face, rising on an elbow and thinking—the place was almost certainly bugged by Tabini’s establishment. There were midnight consultations going on between his bodyguard, Ilisidi’s, Guild leadership—and those Guild the Guild itself had attached to Machigi and his representative. He hadn’t had time yet to get the personal envelope to Tabini.

  But something must already be moving in the situation in the south.

  And that realization drove the last residue of sleep right out of his head.

  “Are there things I should know, Jago-ji?”

  “There is progress on several fronts, since sundown, nandi. There is now an establishment in Sungeni and in Dausigi protecting those two lords.”

  Lords loyal to Machigi— not necessarily loyal to him out of deep passion, but due to the economic and political realities of the Marid. Two small, financially weak clans had long found alliance with the powerful Taisigi their only means of survival—fearing they could be swallowed up by Dojisigi.

  The two clans in question might have taken exception to Machigi’s sudden acceptance of the northern Assassins’ Guild. Their reaction had been a great worry in the whole arrangement with Machigi. But now the Guild had moved in on them, and the last of the Marid clans without a strong Guild presence…now had one.

  “Do we know Machigi’s view on this?” he asked delicately, not to tread too closely on things on which Jago might have to preserve secrecy.