Deceiver

  Then Great-grandmother lifted her hand and crooked her forefinger. Just that. There was no escape, and there were very many ways to go wrong.

  Cajeiri moved. Jegari hesitated a heartbeat, and moved with him. Cajeiri came right in front of Great-grandmother and bowed deeply, without a single notion of what he was going to say, except that he had better not start with a question, which often enough annoyed mani. Mani was clearly not in a mood to be annoyed right now.

  He kept his voice low. “You have not yet come down to safety, mani, and we are—” No regal airs with mani. Not now. “One is concerned. There is blood on the hall floor.”

  Great-grandmother fixed him with a stare he had rarely gotten, not even from his father. But it seemed not quite to focus on him, rather on the general surrounds, and on a host of general problems.

  “Barbaric ideas,” she said darkly, “this kidnapping, from a region which has long flouted Guild rules. We are old-fashioned, Great-grandson. But we are not barbaric! We in the East have long viewed the aishidi’tat with suspicion, and to this day the Guild has been scant in the East—but we are civilized, all on our own. We have needed no Guild to enforce basic civility. We had laws before the Guild arrived, and before we were signatory to the Association! The Marid, however, has a piratical history long before humans ever landed on this world and before the Edi ever came to this shore, so they cannot claim they were provoked into bad behavior!”

  “What have they done, mani?”

  “Done? They have set traps on a public road and like the meanest of cowards have kidnapped an Edi child, a common citizen, from the camp at Kajiminda. Your father’s Guildsmen were on the way back from recovering the child when they met an infernal device, and two are dead and relatives of the child are injured. The child, fortunately, was not in that vehicle.”

  Appalling. Worse than Antaro had said. Barb-daja was kidnapped, an Edi child was kidnapped—it was one thing to kidnap a lord’s son, who had protections, and who was political—but one just was not supposed ever to involve commoners, who were immune from that sort of thing, even if there was a Filing. And he had two members of his aishid missing so long that one was obliged to wonder if they were still alive.

  He said nothing. Mani said:

  “Our staff has recovered the child and executed justice on these pirates! More, we have identified the pair responsible. They are most certainly employed by a Marid clan whose man’chi is to Machigi, in Tanaja. The Guild is meeting at this hour, for a bill of outlawry.”

  It was scary. He had heard all of it from Antaro. He imagined the Guild, the loyal Guild, who had been subject to this sort of thing during Murini’s administration, was going to hand back the same treatment to the Marid, which had supported Murini. They were out for revenge. And he murmured, because it popped into his head, and he was not good at holding back questions: “Just Machigi, mani, or the whole Marid?”

  Mani’s hand came down smack! on the chair arm. “There! Just exactly so! Why should you ask that, Great-grandson? Favor us with your opinion!”

  “It was stupid. It was stupid for Machigi to do and you said once he was not stupid, mani.”

  “And?”

  He thought fast. “Someone else could have done it to get Machigi in trouble.”

  “Who then?”

  “A rival. Some rival.”

  “Why?”

  “If my father takes out Machigi, they win. So it would either be somebody in the Guild or one of Machigi’s neighbors. There is no fortunate third.”

  “Ha! There is nothing fortunate in this entire situation, except our presence here! And how old are you, Great-grandson?”

  Everybody knew how old he was, particularly Great-grandmother, but when Great-grandmother asked, one answered, and answered smartly:

  “We are two months short of fortunate nine, mani.”

  “Ha! I say! Ha! And quite impertinent, to be plural at your age, young gentleman!”

  “One deeply apologizes, Great-grandmother.”

  “But you are correct, Great-grandson! We have not wasted our efforts. You see it, you see it quite clearly, as do we! There is, depending on this infelicity of two, an infelicitous duality of possibilities for so stupid a move as this attack.” Up went the forefinger. “First, that Machigi himself did order this, in which case he is a fool, and should remain in power, since he is on the side of our enemies! But none of my spies have reported that he is ever a fool! Second of this duality—” Up went another finger. “Someone in the Marid is plotting against him, and has orchestrated these kidnappings down very traceable channels precisely to bring Machigi down! We are meant to be outraged, we are meant to react, and now, by the impending actions of our outraged Edi allies, we are placed in a very difficult position, Great-grandson, which can only delight our enemies! The Edi have just served notice that they will attack the Marid by sea in retaliation. The Gan—the Gan are in the process of being contacted, by what means the Edi have not seen fit to reveal, and are being asked to intervene in a general war against the Taisigi. And into this, we inject a decree of outlawry against all the Guildsmen employed by Machigi of the Taisigi. We are highly suspicious of this incident, which would remove the brightest of the Marid lords in favor largely of the two most stupid. We have not lived this long by taking appearances for granted. We are not for this declaration of outlawry! Cenedi and I are at extreme odds in this.” A deep breath and a calculating look. “And clearly my great-grandson agrees with me.”

  Cajeiri bowed. It was wise to bow, when Great-grandmother had an agenda. “Yes, mani-ma.”

  “Go tell Cenedi we wish to speak to him. You should find him in operations.”

  Oh, this was getting dangerous. He had never before been caught between Great-grandmother and Cenedi.

  But mani was the one more to worry about. He bowed, he left with Jegari, he went to the door of operations—it was not guarded, since it was probably the last room in the house that anybody would want to barge in on—and barged in.

  He made it in. One of Cenedi’s men leapt up from an adjacent chair and stopped Jegari.

  “Cenedi-nadi.” A respectful bow. “My great-grandmother will speak to you very urgently.”

  Jegari did not get time to be let in. Cenedi stood up from the consoles and came in his direction in grim compliance, and it seemed a good thing just to get out of the way. He followed Cenedi out into the hall and gathered up Jegari on his way.

  Back to mani’s suite. Immediately. And Nawari opened the door for Cenedi—almost started to shut it, and then did not, as Cajeiri took Jegari right on through with him.

  “Come!” mani said, beckoning Cajeiri with a look straight at him and past Cenedi, so he came. Fast but decorously. And it was time to be invisible. He quickly found something interesting about the other wall.

  “What have we found out, Nedi-ji?” mani asked Cenedi.

  “The Guild will meet,” Cenedi said darkly, and folded his arms.

  “The Guild will be locked in days of debate during which the situation will grow worse than it is. And what do they know? We are the ones in the midst of this incident. We know the persons involved. We know the likelihood that things are not as they seem. No, do not tell me otherwise! And do not tell me that certain of the Guild in service to certain lords of the aishdi’tat will not take the opportunity to politicize the involvement of Edi in our security arrangements! There will be debate, Nedi-ji. By no means deny that! There will be debate, the debate will scatter off into side issues including the Edi, and in the meanwhile we have not only nand’ Bren but also Lord Geigi placed in a very difficult situation. If there is a second provocation, it will likely aim at one of them!”

  “Then best call them back, aiji-ma.”

  “Or send the paidhi forward,” mani said; and Cenedi seldom looked taken by surprise, but he did, then.

  “To do what, aiji-ma?”

  “So do you not, Nedi-ji, think Machigi remarkably clumsy, to so flagrantly violate Guild policy with sen
iorranked, adminstrative-level Guild and myself here as witnesses? With persons who are as good as labeled Taisigi-connected? We are meant to be outraged. We are meant to have extreme difficulty reining in our irregular allies. Do not oblige them by being outraged!”

  “Do you think, aiji-ma, that Machigi has not been responsible for the situation in this district?”

  “Oh, absolutely he has been responsible, Nedi-ji. But now committed to the hilt, and threatened by our presence, he is vulnerable, and do you not think his maneuvers have alarmed his rivals? This attack was not his doing, and one now questions whether prior actions were his doing.”

  Mani never said Cenedi was wrong. And likely Cenedi was not wrong, that was the curious thing. They both were right, and Machigi really was an enemy.

  But it was very interesting: there was, mani had taught him, a wisdom in the baji-naji design. It was about flux. And change. One thing could become the other.

  Chance—and fortune.

  Randomness. And order.

  “Look at this,” mani had said once, giving him a small brooch with that design on it, black and white. He had sat on the spaceship’s deck, at her feet, with the ship on its way to the stars; with this round brooch of black onyx and ivory in his hand, and mani had asked him which was more important, the black or the white. And neither had been greater. “This governs outcomes,” mani had told him. “When we say baji-naji, it does not mean ‘accident.’ It means two powers at work: without flux in the universe, this ship could not move, and we would be like statues, always the same.” She had closed his hand on the piece, saying: “Keep it. Remember.” And he had. It was in his baggage that he had brought down from the ship. It had gone through the fight to put his father back in Shejidan, and it was safe in his room in the Bujavid, now, in the capital of the whole world.

  That moment with Great-grandmother flashed into memory, when she said, “He is vulnerable.”

  Poised between the black and the white. The tipping point. The scary point.

  A person could be really smart, and really clever, but ultimately that person could end up between the black and the white. And he had to make a move.

  If somebody was really smart, he understood that.

  Cenedi had that look on his face that said he had just this moment understood Great-grandmother. Cajeiri thought he just had, and kept very quiet about it.

  “When you want to take an enemy in your hand, Great-grandson,” mani said slowly and softly, “provide him an exit. And continue to control it. This young man, Machigi, is not a fool, but being young, he has moved too fast, too confidently. He has been high-handed with the other, older lords of the Marid. He has planned everything. He has done everything. These older lords have not been consulted. So they have consulted among themselves, have they not?”

  “Yes,” Cenedi said thoughtfully, and one could see a spark in Cenedi’s eyes. “We are not speaking of a punitive action, then. We cannot divert ourselves to attack some other part of the Marid, Sidi-ji. The Marid Association has five aijiin. This act is, whatever its origin, from the Marid.”

  “Oh, indeed. But we need not attack,” Great-grandmother said. “We are thinking of something much more interesting. And something much more challenging to the Marid—baji-naji. Perhaps there should be one aiji in the Marid, and we can cease this endless shifting of blame.”

  A small silence followed. Cenedi gave mani a sidelong look. “If you are thinking what I think you mean, aiji-ma, this is a shift not only in plan, but in policy. In your grandson the aiji’s policy, as laid down before the hasdrawad and the tashrid.”

  “Pish. If we fail, he can easily disown us and our entire venture,” Great-grandmother said with a dismissive waggle of her fingers, “a matter the Edi should well consider before they take any action to jeopardize our operation or force our hand. But our solution, if we succeed, will not cost lives in the aishidi’tat. If we succeed, the change in this coast will proceed like a landslide. All things we have set in motion will proceed, and my grandson need do nothing but claim the credit. We are determined, Nedi-ji. Have you a secure contact with the paidhi-aiji?”

  Cenedi drew a deep breath and let it go slowly. “Yes, aiji-ma,” he said. “We do, that.”

  “Delay the Guild deliberation. Say that we have a contribution to make and information which must be considered. Let them make a certain amount of fuss so Machigi’s bodyguard knows it is under debate. But we shall be late getting essential papers before them. This will work soon or it will not work at all. At very least they will have a more accurate target for their decree of outlawry. At best—they can save themselves the paperwork.”

  Mani then fixed Cajeiri with a direct and terrible look. “Neither you nor your aishid will have a word to say about this where you can possibly be overheard. Your two remaining bodyguard we consider trustworthy. Beyond this—no one. Not even nand’ Toby, should he ask about nand’ Bren. Especially nand’ Toby.”

  “Yes, mani.” Cajeiri gathered a deeper breath. “But—”

  “No but, young gentleman! If you wish to know secrets, then consider the lives at stake and keep them closer than your own breath!”

  He gave a bow, as deep and as solemn as he could. “Mani. We will not make a mistake.”

  “Go,” mani said then, with a snap of her fingers, and Cajeiri gathered Jegari and left, fast.

  Likely, he thought, she had specific things to say to Cenedi that young ears were not meant to hear.

  And he wished he knew what was going on, and he wished Great-grandmother would come downstairs where it was safer, but he did not think either was likely to happen soon at all.

  20

  The aiji-dowager, to the paidhi-aiji, salutations.

  The kidnapping of a child and the mining of the Kajiminda road with consequent injury to civilians has brought the Assassins’ Guild Council into session to debate outlawry for Guild members responsible, for all Guild employed by the responsible clan, and for the clan leadership—for which there is physical evidence. There is a strong possibility that other Guilds, notably the Transportation Guild and the Messengers’ Guild, may follow suit.

  This is the Guild view. It is our judgement that Machigi would have been a fool to have ordered these acts, and we do not believe Lord Machigi is a fool. It is our belief that someone within the Marid itself, older lords offended by his assumption of power, have moved to focus the wrath of the Guild on Lord Machigi and his guard. Their motive would be to overthrow him, bring war on his section of the Marid, and make the Assassins’ Guild and the aiji our grandson the agents of his destruction, with little loss to them.

  We alone hold this suspicion as of this hour, and now communicate it to the paidhi-aiji. We consider that if Lord Machigi will consider his own best interests he can be a force for stability in this whole region.

  Therefore as the Guild meets to consider outlawry for the persons responsible for two illicit attacks, we direct the paidhi-aiji to go to Tanaja and work out an understanding between us and Lord Machigi, for the best interests of this district and of the aishidi’tat.”

  Bren read it twice. A third time. Banichi, who had given it to him, stood in the aisle of the moving bus. Jago sat with a curious look on her face. Tano and Algini, across the aisle, had similar expressions.

  It was Banichi’s handwriting. Banichi was the one through whom the message had come, in a brief trip to the rear of the bus, where the aiji’s men had their communications gear.

  “Do they know about this?” Bren asked, first, with a shift of his eyes toward the rear, and the aiji’s men.

  “No,” Banichi said. “But we are obliged to inform them unless you decide to put them off the bus. We cannot operate at diverse purposes.”

  “Jago-ji.” Bren handed the note to Jago, who lost no time reading it. She immediately passed it across the aisle to Tano and Algini.

  “We cannot afford a disturbance in our ranks this close to our objective,” Bren said. “I shall speak to the aiji’s men
, ‘Nichi-ji, on your advisement. I hope I can make them understand the situation.” Banichi said nothing. Bren sighed and got up from his seat. “Nadiin-ji, baji-naji.”

  “Baji-naji, indeed,” Banichi muttered, and when Bren left his seat to go back to Tabini’s senior officers, Banichi went with him. So did Jago. Lucasi got half out of his seat as Bren passed, his face troubled, but he sank right back again, probably at a cautioning signal from Banichi or Jago.

  Bren went all the way to the rear. Damadi, senior of Tabini’s twelve, with his partner, rose to their feet to meet them, clearly understanding something momentous was afoot.

  “A message has come, nadiin,” Bren said, “from the aiji-dowager and from Cenedi at Najida. Some Guild operatives near Najida, traced to the Taisigin Marid, kidnapped a local child, then set a mine in a civilian road. The dowager and Cenedi have appealed to the Guild Council, and a motion of outlawry is afoot in the Guild Council at this moment.”

  Others rose, a looming wall of dark, aggrieved countenances.

  “The dowager and Cenedi have a strong suspicion that this action does not in fact emanate from Tanaja nor from Lord Machigi’s orders. He is young. He has offended other Marid lords. We suspect he is being set up for an attack by internal Guild forces, which will then mean a power struggle in the Marid, a situation not in the aiji’s interests. We have an answer as to why that truck we are trying to find has proceeded so deliberately.”

  There were very, very somber looks at that statement. And he was not done.

  “It is not in the aiji’s interest to have the Marid end up a headless district, under worse leadership. More, in my judgement, you will not well serve the aiji by informing him of our action. Officially informed, he will have an official involvement, which will invoke a storm of regional interests, none of help to this situation. The aiji-dowager, again without officially informing her grandson, has asked me to go to Tanaja and confront Lord Machigi personally with this theory. In her name, and in mine, we will let him deal with the individuals responsible for this situation and stabilize the Marid. The situation is beyond delicate. What we are doing will not be public knowledge unless it succeeds. Should we fail, Tabini-aiji’s administration will not be in the least involved, except to declare that we were lost in a hotpursuit effort to retrieve my brother’s wife, and let him take what action he will take. So this places you, nadiin, in a very delicate position, considering your man’chi, and we are no longer on the mission on which we started. I ask you to disembark the bus and go back to Targai to protect Lord Geigi, or to Najida to protect the dowager and the heir, but not to go back to Shejidan—the aiji himself must not seem to be party to this. My respects to you, nadiin, and I shall order the driver to stop at your request.”