“We have had a dearth of information, Rama-ji—information coming to us, and information coming from us. It seems perhaps the village has felt abandoned in my absence.”

“No such thing, nandi. They have known you were about important business.”

“Nevertheless—it seems I should be more concerned with Najida’s business. One hopes to speak to the village councillors about the general situation—about Kajiminda. About what has gone on in my absence, and during the Troubles. One wishes to address the council courteously and ask its advice.”

The young man on the ladder had had his head up above the ceiling. He had looked down, and now descended the ladder, casting a look at Ramaso and giving a little bow.

“This is Osi, nandi,” Ramaso said. “He is from the village, the council senior’s grandson.”

A bow to Bren. “One would be glad to carry a message, nandi.”

Council senior was a woman. That was generally the case in the countryside, in any village. Council senior was everybody’sgrandmother; but this was a blood relationship.

“Tell your honored grandmother, tell all the council, Osi-nadi, that Najida will not accept Kajiminda falling into the hands of the Marid; it will not accept Marid presence on this coast. The lord of Najida estate wishes to meet with the council, in the council’s premises, and asks to be invited to speak, at a time not to interfere with their session.”

“Nandi!” A deep bow from the dusty young man. “Certainly they will be honored.”

“Nevertheless,” Bren said, “Osi-nadi, make the request for me. One wishes to listen to advice as much as to give it. One requests, Osi-nadi. And advice. Please say that, exactly.”

“Nandi.” Another bow.

“Go, Osi-ji,” Ramaso said. “The lord’s commission outweighs mine.”

“I have my measurements,” the young man said, tapping his head, and made a third bow. “Ramaso-nadi. Bren-nandi. I shall, one shall, as fast as I can.”

The young man was off like a shot, back toward the main doors, not the nearest, which were probably still secured. His footsteps echoed on the retreat.

“It is a great risk to go down to the village, nandi,” Ramaso said, “a risk for you to leave these premises.”

“Not from them.”

“No, nandi! Of course not!”

Honest distress. They let him run into danger. They didn’t know how to stop him without unraveling everything. He began to see that. No danger fromthe village. But the village couldn’t feel safe. Nobody could, as things stood.

“My guard will keep me safe, I have no doubt. My worry is my attracting attack into the village, Rama-ji, and I know what I ask. Guide me in this. If one asks protection from the aiji in Shejidan, it will be counter to all I hope to achieve. One does not wish to see Najida village dragged into politics with the South.”

“With the South, nandi?”

“The Marid will seek to divide Maschi from Edi, Edi from Korali—wherever they can find a weakness. One believes— one sincerely believes, Rama-ji, that in the aishidi’tat is the best association for all the Western clans. But this needs to be proved—to the Western clans. And it cannot be proved by bringing central clan Guild in here to settle things by force. It was never the power of the aiji in Shejidan that protected this coast. It was the people.”

Ramaso himself was Korali. And Ramaso nodded solemnly and slowly. “The absence of both the paidhi-aiji and the Lord Geigi has been a weakness on this coast. Our isolation from politics protected us. But Najida welcomesyour return, nandi. I am, at least by birth, an outsider, though my wife is from Najida. But I believe the village will heartily welcome your close involvement.”

“One regrets extremely the necessity of my service in space. Najida has deserved better.”

“Najida could not find better than you, nandi. That is your staff’s sentiment. You are—if the paidhi will forgive a political opinion—outside the regional rivalries. You are not Edi. But you are not Ragi. There was a reason your Bujavid staff fled here; there was a reason Najida welcomed them and hoped for your return; there was a reason the Marid found it inconvenient to attempt to take this coast, and the reason was exactly as you say. The resistance in Dalaigi relied on this house to reach Dur; and so we did; and Dur reached the Island, and from Dur we acquired direction and advice at need; and we gave each other assurances that there wouldbe a rising against the new regime. We were not idle in your absence, nandi, even though we counted on no help from Kajiminda—and less from the center of the continent. One must ask the paidhi’s forgiveness—his great forgiveness—for notwarning the paidhi about the situation with Kajiminda, which we did notknow. We did not know Guild had come from the South. We were unwarned.”

“The grass was not mown on the road, Rama-ji. There were so many signs. One laid them all to a decline in trade.”

Ramaso bowed his head, shaking it slowly. “We thought it irresponsibility. We thought it—perhaps—that the house couldnot pay its debts. We thought perhaps the presence of the Lord of the Heavens would bring Lord Geigi’s nephew to a better frame of mind. One feels personally at fault, nandi. Should you wish it—one is prepared to be dismissed from this post of responsibility.”

“Do not consider it. The aiji’s own information failed.”

Ramaso’s face showed rare emotion, a soul greatly disturbed. “This I can say, nandi. I have been in touch with—with the activities of the village council, in matters here and—those things I spoke of—the contacts with the North. And if my knowledge will serve you, nandi, I shall answer to you. Not to the aiji, nor even the paidhi’s distinguished guests. I answer to you.”

He was stunned. He had corresponded with Ramaso before and after his return. He had exchanged observations with Ramaso, and trusted this man, in happier days, to bear with his family, at a close range that would have worried him—were it not level-headed Ramaso. He had not had the least inkling what this man had been, or done, during the Troubles.

“Rama-ji. What can one say?”

The impassive mask resumed, and, with a little quirk of the lips: “Say little, to the aiji, nandi. And little to any of your staff who might report to him. But our records—will be open to you.”

His bodyguard. Who were extremely closely tied to the aiji’s house.

And it wasNajidama Bay he was dealing with, which had had a local tradition of smuggling, and even of wrecking; and there had historically been business enterprises Najida village might not want to have told to the aiji, and there was a time a light up by the Sisters had lured the aiji’s shipping to ruin—

Butc not to tell his bodyguardc

“One even asks, nandi, didthe aiji send his son here, so conveniently?”

“No, Rama-ji. On that point, one is relatively certain, there was no planning in that.”

“No desire, nandi, forgive me, for an excuseto send Guild to the coast?”

“No, Rama-ji. The young gentleman is entirely what he seems. Fluent—in Mosphei’, at least as the ship-folk speak it. He is many things, but not—not orthodox Ragi, nor ever will be. He has associates among human folk. He has a great attachment to the aiji-dowager.”

“One detected that attachment,” Ramaso said, and nodded slowly. “One has readily detected that.” And then Ramaso added: “This coast, up and down, has always respected the grandmothers.”

The same little chill ran through that statement, a chill of antiquity, ancient belief, ancient connections. The people of the coast had owned Mospheira once—the Edi, and the Gan, up in the Northern Isles, were the aboriginal peoples of the island.

The treaty that separated humans onto the island enclave, and atevi to the mainland, where the Ragi ruledc had made those two peoples homeless, refugees on this coast. It had been expedient. It had saved thousands of lives—assured the survival of the human species on the planet.

But it had left the former Mospheirans separated from their sacred sites. Their monuments had gone to museums. Their traditions had been swallowed up.

There had been two particular reasons that Tabini-aiji had appointed the paidhi as lord of Najida, when the clan that had had it went extinct. One reason: that a Marid clan, the Farai, had claimed to succeed the Maladesi, and Tabini didn’t want a Marid clan to get its fingers on Najida—and the otherc

The other reason had been that no central lord could have been accepted on this coast, no more than this coast would accept anyone from the Marid.

“Ramaso-nadi,” he said, “I will notdiscuss inappropriate things with the aiji; you have my word on that. My aishid may be Ragi—but they are in my man’chi, Rama-ji, and as they will not betray me, I will not betray them. I find myself connected here. I had no notion of the indebtedness I would come to feel toward this place. I am far more foreign. I do not feel in the same way, but I feel deeply. I shall become, at whatever time I speak for you, partisan forthis regionc and I shall keep its secrets, whatever of them I learn. And so, if you will forgive me, will that young man under this roof. He is not one who forgets a kindness. And he learns. Enlist him by means of your good qualities; enlist the aiji-dowager, who remembers favors done her great-grandson. These are not inconsequential allies, Ramaso. Tell thatto the village, if you will speak for me. I shall always be a foreigner. But not so much so here, one hopes. One earnestly hopes so.”

“You are alsoan exile from Mospheira, nandi. In that sense, you are one of us.”

True—if not in the same bitter sense as the Old Ones.

“Nadi-ji,” he said to Ramaso, with a little bow. Ramaso bowed. And he walked away, disturbed to the core.

Homeless on this earth. Except—here. Except one warm spot that—of all cold things it could possibly do to him—questioned Banichi’s man’chi, of all people.

Hedidn’t question it. True that Banichi still reported to Tabini, and came and went more easily with Tabini-aiji than some of Tabini’s own new bodyguard. But it never meant that Banichi or Jago would betray him.

It occurred to him to ask himself—if he took a stance for the people of the coast—did he, in fact, betray Banichi’sman’chi, in a way that would put Banichi in an untenable position?

He didn’t feel that. He had no such intention. If he found a limit he could not cross in that regard—he thought—he would stop at it. Banichi would never betray him, he would never betray Banichi, nor Jago, nor Tano, nor Algini.

He was what he was. Maybe Tabini had understood enough about him when he’d given him Najida, and maybe Tabini hadn’t.

He hoped Tabini had.

But he couldn’t turn his back on these people. Couldn’t go back to Shejidan, in the legislature, and sell out these people’s lands, or be in Tabini’s inner councils, and have the consideration of peace or war come down to the edge, and sell out these people’s interests. Last week—he might not have felt it that personally.

Since dodging bullets under his neighbor’s portico, it had become just a little—

The front door opened, making the dowager’s guards, who were stationed there, react. But it was just one of the youngest staff, out of breath and windblown.

Whose eyes darted to the leveled guns in alarm, and then went to him, large and desperate.

“Nandi! Nand’ Toby is coming in!”

“Sailing into dock?”

A bow, and the young man caught his breath, hands on knees. “Forgive me, nandi. Yes. Sailing in. The boat—nand’ Toby’s boat—is damaged, low in the water, and pumping hardc”

Damn, he thought, in a cold chill. “Come,” he said, and led the way into the study.

There he sat down while the servant waited, and wrote a quick note.

TobyI’m delighted you’re all right but concerned you’re back here, which is not safe. We came under attack last night, we lost two on the dowager’s staff and have one man shot. We got what we went in after, all of them, and I hope you and Barb are both all right and will forgive me for not coming down there. My staff is getting medical treatment and we’re shorthanded. The way up and down the hill is exposed and snipers are a possibility, so be extremely quick and careful if you decide to make the run up here. Leave the baggage. You may be safer just to stay on the boat offshore. If you do come up here, you will have the safety of the house, but we’re in fortress mode at the moment and we can’t say this will be the last shooting that goes on. Staff will give you every possible assistance and get you up here if you choose to come. Stay well.

Love to you,

Bren.”

He folded the note, didn’t even use the wax seal, just handed it to the boy.

“Forgive my asking this of you, nadi, but go back down; and if there should be gunfire, fall down, get under the bushes and stay there. Someone will come to rescue you. The letter inquires into nand’ Toby’s situation and says he is welcome under this roof, but the situation up here is still hazardous and I personally cannot come down to the dock. He may be safer to remain in the harbor, possibly offshore. There may still be snipers. If he chooses to come up here, he will have the safety of the house. Advise persons guarding the dock exactly what I have said, and wait for a written reply from nand’ Toby if he chooses.”

“Yes, nandi!”

“Samandi is your name, is it not?”

“Yes, nandi!” A second bow, a bright, so-innocent look. “Thank you, nandi.”

“Please. Please be careful.”

“Yes, nandi.”

The boy was off like a shot.

And twice damn!

No calling the law in the district. He wasthe law in the district.

The two that attacked had been high-level Guild, no question, and on the highest levels, the Guild all knew one another. Algini in particular, who had served the last Guildmaster, likely knew their affiliations, and probably there was a host of other questions about the attack that his bodyguard would be discussing in detail. It was a discussion in which no non-Guild was welcome, not even the aiji.

Meanwhile his brother might be on his way up, most likely, with Barb; and God knew what “damage” meant. Or how incurred. Toby was a good sailor. A very good sailor.

He went out to the hall, down into the dining room, and went to the kitchens himself, or nearly soc he had reached midway in the serving hall before he met a servant, and he had only reached midway to the turn to the kitchen before the cook came hurrying out.

“Nandi! We are nearly ready to serve. One has your message, your staff and the dowager’s men—”

“There is more, Suba-ji. My brother and his lady have just put into dock. He may or may not come up to the house—be warned that there could be two more. At very least we shall need to send supper down to them.”

A bow. Suba carried a towel, and wiped his floury hands with that, looking somewhat satisfied. “Nandi, we have cooked enough for a seige. Every dish can be reheated, saved, served, or added to—nothing grand, but nothing to disgrace the house.”

“Every credit to the house, in your forethought, Suba-ji. One should never have been concerned. Excellent.”

“We shall be serving momentarily. We have rung the bells.”

Up and down the servants’ halls, that was: staff was advised of breakfast in the offing.

“Thank you. Thank you, Suba-ji,” he said, and walked out into the dining room, down the hall. He got no further than the intersection when the dowager emerged from her quarters with a grim-faced Cenedi in attendance, and the young gentleman and his two attendantsc the dowager disconcertingly resplendent in morning-dress, and from some source—possibly clothes the dowager had picked up in Shejidan when she refueled—the heir was himself kitted out in an impeccable blue coat. The paidhi was far less elegant.

“Aiji-ma,” Bren said, encountering them, and gave a little bow.

The dowager said, with a little inclination of her head: “The paidhi’s house is set in disarray this morning. One hears the lost are found. How are your people?”

“Well enough, aiji-ma, with thanks for the attendance of the physician.”

“One regrets the situation, nand’ paidhi.”

“On the other hand, aiji-ma, the stir did thoroughly beat the bushes. We know now things we had not known. One only deeply regrets the cost of it.”

“Indeed,” Ilisidi said grimly. “And my grandson has work to do, a great deal of work to do.”

“Our staffs should consult, aiji-ma.”

“Our staffs will consult,” she said. “Meanwhile my grandson will be making inquiries in Dalaigi. But enough business. We are here. We are alive this morning. Things might have gone differently.”

They had reached the door of the dining room. Bren stood just to the side to let the dowager and her escort, and Cajeiri and his, enter.

In that moment he caught a motion from the tail of his eye, Koharu and Supani coming fast.

He could not forbear a smile. Staff would not let him be caught at disadvantage. Supani whisked his day-coat off, Koharu helped him on with the jacket, just that fast, and he entered the dining room with the honor of the household assuaged, before his guests had more than reached their chairs.

He had noted a tableful of place settings. It turned out to be sufficient for all present, Cook’s sense of protocols, including their guests’ personal staffs. Suba thoughtfully stood in the service doorway to receive initial compliments, thus signaling he expected no further formal notice for this informal breakfast: only serving staff would interrupt them.

So Cenedi sat by the dowager. Therefore the Taibeni might sit with Cajeiri, Bren sat to himself, and there was hardly a word exchanged, while the initial serving—eggs—diminished.

“A bit of news. My brother has returned to dock,” Bren informed the dowager. “The report is that his boat has suffered damage. He may elect to come up the hill. One has advised him of hazard up here.”

“Damage,” the dowager said.

“One has no idea, aiji-ma, of extent or nature. One is concerned. But there is no word as yet.”

“The paidhi should remain here,” Ilisidi said firmly, “and let staff ascertain this.”

“One has sent a note down. We may hear during breakfast, aiji-ma.”

Tano and Algini might agree to go down: they could communicate. Most of the staff could not. But they might elect not to leave him. And Ilisidi was right: he had become a target.

Trust staff. Believe that his staff would not leave Toby and Barb unattended or their needs unguessed.

“Well, well, one hopes the damage is slight. No injuries?”

“Not that I have heard, aiji-ma.”

“Good, good.”

After that, and properly so, not a word of business else. The dowager put away a healthy breakfast, drank three cups of tea—Bren managed one helping and a half.

“We need not wait for removal of the dishes,” Ilisidi said. “We have business to undertake. Young gentleman, you may retire.”

Cajeiri’s mouth opened in dismay.

And silently shut. The head bowed. The young lord rose. His companions rose, and they all bowed in near-unison. “Yes, mani,” Cajeiri said.

That, perhaps, won redemptive points for the young gentleman. Bren sat still as the youngest left the table together. He did suffer a second’s concern, that it meant Cajeiri and his companions were now loose and unwatched, but there was a sort of rhythm to the young gentleman’s bursts of energy, and the youngsters this morning looked to be at a low ebb.

“One has heard from the dockside, nandiin,” Cenedi said, with a little tap at his ear and a glance toward Bren. “Nand’ Toby’s boat has suffered some hull damage. He and his companion are uninjured, but he and his companion are pumping some volume of water and continue to do so, while seeking a way to pull the boat up on skids. Local fishermen are assisting. Nand’ Toby has asked regarding your safety and the young gentleman’s, and has been reassured. Meanwhile Jago-nadi has been in contact with them by radio. They have indicated they came under attack, meeting hostile presence further down the peninsula, but that boat sank. The village has been alerted. So have other Guild.”

Other Guild. That would be the aiji’s forces. And a boat sunk. He was appalled.

“Did he say how it sank, nadi?” Bren asked.

“Apparently there are submerged rocks. The other ship hit the rocks.”

The old cottage industry of the area. The wreckers’ point. Fake lights, and natural currents that ran ships into trouble. “The Sisters. A little off the point of the peninsula, on this side. They turned short.” His heart had picked up a beat. He wantedto go down the hill and help—but there was too much going on. He wanted even more to haul Toby and Barb up to the house for safety, but if Toby’s boat had taken a scrape from the Sisters, it was lucky to be afloat, and the fight to save it could be desperate.

Most of all, he wanted to hear what had happened out there. Toby had charts. “Toby knows these waters, nadi. He would have known about the rocks.”

“Evidently the other boat did not,” Cenedi said. “It pursued, firing. And ran aground. Nand’ Toby came on in, as soon as he had made emergency repairs.”

God. What a mess! “One is grateful for the report,” he said. “My bodyguard is in debriefing and breakfast. One is sure you have heard from Nawari and Kasari, but mine will surely want to consult with you, Cenedi-ji, before all else.”

“Indeed,” Cenedi said. “As I understand it, nand’ Geigi’s yacht was still at its mooring when Banichi turned the situation at the estate over to the aiji’s menc so we are relatively certain that Lord Geigi’s is not the boat at the bottom of the bay. We suspect the boat may have been acting in concert with the incursion here, and launched much earlier—perhaps up from Dalaigi. We are attempting to learn. We are attempting to find any survivors.”

One got the picture: a two-pronged assault, one on the house, one to mop up if they had attempted to get out to sea. Toby had run right into the ambush.

“It was more than luck,” the dowager said, beginning to take a sip of tea. She did, then asked: “Do you, nand’ paidhic ?”

But then she set the cup down. It missed the table edge, fell onto the carpet, a soft thump. “Cenedi,” the dowager said quietly.

“The physician,” Cenedi said, dropping to one knee by Ilisidi’s chair. “Nand’ paidhi, may one beg you—”

“I can find him,” Bren said, and sprang up and went to the door, hailing a passing servant. “Mata-ji! Run to my aishid’s suite and if the physician is still there, bring him here, immediately!” He went looking for other servants, and sent them below, to find Siegi wherever he was and advise him to hurry.

But by the time he had gotten back to the dining room, Siegi was there, indeed, having come from down the hall. The physician was in the process of taking the dowager’s pulse—the cup, unbroken, had been set back on the table.

Bren stopped at the door and bowed, standing there quietly.

“Nand’ paidhi?” Ilisidi asked. “Come in. Come in.”

He did so. “Aiji-ma.”

“You were speaking of the Edi, paidhi. What did you intend to say?”

“It can wait, aiji-ma. May one suggest, a little restc”

“Pish! What observation, paidhi-aiji?”

Bren cast a desperate look at Cenedi, who gave him a distressed look back again, then bowed slightly. “One hopes,” Cenedi said, “that the paidhi having stated his opinion will lead to nand’ ’Sidi retiring for a few hours, since she did not sleep last night.”

Thump! went the cane on the carpet. “One hopes this report will lead to truth, ’Nedi-ji! And do not carry on conversation above our head! Paidhi, report!”

“One has had a thought, aiji-ma,” Bren said, “that Lord Geigi could get truth from the Edi staff, which the aiji’s men may not as easily come by. One proposes a phone call to the station, which I am prepared to make at a convenient hour. Geigi may well be abed.”

“Geigi can drag his bones out of bed at whatever hour things are afoot,” Ilisidi said. Her color was not, one observed, good. But her eyes flashed. “So can we! High time we did rattle our old associate out of his complacency. He relied upon this worthless nephew, and we are entirely out of sorts with him!”

Bren paid a second and apologetic glance toward Cenedi.

“At least,” Cenedi said unhappily, “it does not entail a trip overland.”

“One will make the call,” Bren said, “But—” He took such liberties with Tabini. He hesitated, with the dowager, but as the physician had stood up, he dropped to one knee by her chair, at intimate range. “Aiji-ma. A request. Once we speak to Geigi, you will retire for a few hours and get some rest. The dowager has been halfway across the continent and back, and camped out in a cold and unreasonably uncomfortable bus for hours and then suffered a ride which has all her young men and the paidhi nursing bruises. One by no means even mentions crashing through the garden shed. One begs the dowager, most earnestly, to take the opportunity to rest today while subordinates sort out the situation. We all may need the dowager’s very sage—”

“Paidhi-ji, you risk annoying us!”

“— advice, aiji-ma, and those of us who serve you would gladly risk your extreme displeasure to urge you to go to bed.”

“I concur,” Cenedi muttered. “Listen to the paidhi. You take his advice at other times. Take it now.”

A lengthy sigh, and a glittering sidelong pass of gold eyes beneath weary, slitted lids. “You are both a great annoyance.”

“But I am right,” Bren said. “And the dowager, being wise, knows it. Be angry with me. But one begs you rest while doing it.”

“Shameless,” Ilisidi muttered, and scowled at nothing in particular. “Well, well, let us call Geigi. And while we are about it, let us rouse out that scoundrel Baiji to the phone, and see what Geigi will say to his nephew. If that fails to enliven the hour, perhaps we shallgo to bed for a few hours.”

“Immediately, aiji-ma,” Bren said, and got up and headed out to his study, alone, scattering a trio of young male servants who had gathered in the main hall. “Bring Baiji to the study,” he said, “nadiin-ji, and you are instructed to use force should he object. Siton him, should he attempt to escape.”

“Nandi,” they said, astonished, and hurried off on their mission.

He entered the study, sat down, and immediately took up the phone.

Getting through to Mogari-nai offices took authorizations. Ramaso couldn’t do it without going through Shejidan; but he could. And when he had:

“This is the paidhi-aiji. Put me through to the space station.”

Nandi,” the answer came, a little delayed. “ Yes.”

And a few moments after that:

This is Station Central. Mogari-nai, transmit your message.

“Live message, Station Central. Give me the atevi operator. This is Bren Cameron, key code under my file, BC27arq.”

A pause.

Confirmed, sir.

The next voice spoke Ragi, and his request to that station roused out, if not Geigi himself, one of his personal guard, probably out of a sound sleep.

Is there an emergency?” the deep atevi voice asked in Mosphei’, and he answered in Ragi.

“This is the paidhi-aiji. This call is with the concurrence and imminent presence of the aiji-dowager. With apologies for the hour, we request Lord Geigi’s immediate response. The matter is of dire importance.”

We shall hurry, nandi,” the answer came, just that, and the speaker left the phone.

There was, now, a small stir at the door. It opened, and Bren punched the call onto speaker phone as the stir outside proved to be a scowling and unhappy Baiji, in the company of the three young servants.

“Nandi, we have had no breakfast, we have been subjected to—”

“Take a seat, nadi. That one will do.”

“Nandi!” Baiji protested. “We are by no means your enemy! We protest this treatment!”

“What you are, nadi, will be for others to judge,” Bren said, and noted a further presence in the hall, past the still-open door. “On the other hand, you may as well remain standing. The aiji-dowager is here.”

“Aiji-ma!” Baiji turned in evident dismay, and bowed, however briefly, as Ilisidi, not relying on Cenedi’s arm, appeared at Cenedi’s side in the doorway, walked to the nearest hard chair and sat down unaided, leaning on her cane. Cenedi took his usual post behind her.

“Aiji-ma, one protestsc”

“Silence!” Bang! went the cane. “Fool.”

Aiji-ma!

Nand’ Geigi is present,” a voice said on speaker, and a moment later: “ Nand’ Bren. This is Geigi.”

“One rejoices at the sound of your voice, nandi,” Bren said. “The aiji-dowager is here with me. One regrets, however, to inform you of a very unfortunate situation: my life was attempted under the portico of your house, which is now, intact, except the portico, in the hands of Guild in the aiji’s employ. Among other distressing matters, I saw none of the Edi that I knew when I was there. More, your nephew has had certain communications with the Marid—”

“I am innocent!” Baiji cried. “ I am unjustly accused!

“He is at my estate, under close guard, nandi, considering a negotiation regarding a Southern marriage, and the suspected importation of Guild of the Marid man’chi, and the ominous disappearance of staff loyal to you, nandi. One cannot adequately express the personal regret one feels at bearing such news.”

I rescued the aiji’s son at sea!” Baiji cried. “If I were of hostile mind, I would have delivered him to these alleged Southerners!”

“One might point out,” Bren said, “that I personally, aboard my boat, followed your nephew’s indication to locate and pick up the heir, who was at no time actually in your nephew’s hands. What he would have done had he been the one to intercept the aiji’s son is a matter of dispute.”

“Unfair!” Baiji protested. “Unfair, nandi!”

Ilisidi signaled she wanted the handset. Immediately. He picked it up, passed it over, and it reverted to handset mode, silent to the rest of the room.

“Nandi,” she said. “Geigi? Your nephew has become a scandal. Your estate reverts to yourcapable hands. Settle whom you wish in charge, exceptthis young disgrace! The connivance of the Marid to take this coast has continued and your nephew continues to temporize with the South as he did during Murini’s tenure. There was excuse, while Murini sat in charge, but this flirtation has continued into inappropriate folly and a reluctance to go to court. One cannot imagine what this young fool hopes to gain, except to extend the Marid into northern waters and settle himself in luxury funded by my grandson’s enemies!”

“I never did such things!” Baiji cried.

“And he is a liar!” Ilisidi snapped. Then she smiled sweetly, and extended the phone toward Baiji. “Your uncle wishes to speak to you, nadi.”

The servants who surrounded Baiji still did so, and Cenedi would not let Baiji touch the dowager, even indirectly: Cenedi transferred the phone to a servant, who gave it to Baiji, who put the receiver to his ear with the expression of a man handling something poisonous. His skin had acquired a gray cast, his face had acquired a rigid expression of dismay, and as he answered, “Yes, uncle?” and listened to what Geigi had to say, he seemed to shrink in size, his shoulders rounded, his head inclined, his occasional attempts to speak instantly cut off.

“Yes, uncle,” he said, “yes, uncle, yes, one understan—” A bow, a deeper bow, to the absent lord of his small clan. “Yes, uncle. One assures—uncle, one in no way—Yes, uncle.” And then: “They just left, uncle. One has no idea why. One did nothing to—” Baiji was sweating. Visibly. And Ilisidi sat there with the smile of a guardian demon, staring straight at him, with Cenedi standing by her side.

Bren—just sat listening, until a movement in the doorway caught his eye.

Cajeiri had shown up, his two companions barely visible in the hallc Cajeiri in an oversized bathrobe, hugging it around him and drinking everything in with large eyes and two very good ears. He didn’t create a stir, didn’t say a thing.

And, silent, like two black ghosts, Banichi and Jago turned up behind Cajeiri, likewise listening.

Bren found he himself had dropped a couple of stitches in the moment of noticing that arrival: Baiji was handing the phone back to one of his servant-guards, who offered it back to Cenedi, who offered it to Ilisidi.

“Yes?” she saidc and looked fiercely satisfied. “Excellent. We shall see he does, Geigi-ji. We shall try to learn the whereabouts of staff. And we shall expect you.”

“Expect you.” So Lord Geigiwas coming down from the station, on—Bren found he had lost track of the launch schedule and had no idea of the date of the next shuttle flight; but it was weekly. It would not be long, likely, before Baiji found himself accounting to his uncle in meticulous detail.

Ilisidi handed the phone to Bren. “Lord Geigi has signed off, nand’ paidhi. But he wishes you well.”

“Indeed.” He set the handset back in its cradle. “And you, neighbor?” LordBaiji, he did notsay: Ilisidi had removed that title with that simple, deliberate nadi, and he didn’t argue.

Baiji clasped his hands between his knees and compressed his lips to a thin line as he bowed to the dowager and to him. “One apologizes,” he said. “One so profoundly apologizes, nandiin.”

Whack! went the cane.

“About time!” Ilisidi said. “Confess, wretch, or we shall lose all patience! What began your unfortunate association with these notorious troublemakers? Name their names, each one!”

Baiji stammered something. Bang! went the cane a second time.

“You have this single chance to redeem yourself,” Ilisidi snapped. “Your uncle will ask us what your subsequent behavior may have been, and we assure you we shallanswer him. As things stand, we cannot construe a use for you. As things may become, we mayconsider a quiet settlement that may let you recover some respectability. Choose, and choose now!”

“With greatest appreciation, aiji-ma, with greatest appreciation for your intercession—”

“You bore us. Talk! Give us your account!”

The dowager did nothing to steady Baiji’s nerves. His mouth opened and closed. He mopped his face with his sleeve, and he said: “Aiji-ma. My fault began with the Troubles, when the whole world was going toward Murini. The Marid supported him in everything. But the lords of the Marid—after supporting Murini in his—in his ill-considered enterprise—”

“Attacking my grandson and murdering his staff. Let us be specific.”

“Attacking—attacking the aiji, yes, aiji-ma. Once Murini had done that, once he had taken over the central clans, the Marid would, one is quite sure, have replaced him if they could. One saw them manuevering for power, in the old way.”

“A reasonable assessment,” Ilisidi said mildly.

“And in their maneuevers, aiji-ma, in the nature of their manuevers, one feared they wished to extend their power up from the South without challenging Murini up in Shejidan. It was no profit to them to go eastward. All the economic profit lay in their going westward and north, along the coast, which is a kind of enterprise—fishing, and all—that they understand. They were sending out emissaries and promising extravagant things in their own name, saying that they were Murini’s allies and that favor and economic union with them would gain great profit. The alternative—the alternative—was down in Pura, where they assassinated—assassinated Lord Kaien and his whole household.”

“A disgrace.”

“It was so tiny a house. It threatened no one, but it suggested independence and no one could protect it. That was the point, aiji-ma. From where we stood it was very clear. And houses capitulated, one after the other, the Udiri, the Wori, the Maisi and the others, right up the coast. Even Dalaigi wasc was growing quite chancy: Southerners openly walked the streets, and there were assassinations of small people, even shopowners, for refusing to deal with them. The Edi were not able to withstand these assaults. The little villages—these people could by no means pack up and go into the hills, and there was no safety in the inland, nor any aiji to hear their request for help. There was nothing for them to do, aiji-ma. I had no support—I could no longer contact my uncle! I could no longer protect Kajiminda!”

“Go on. Omit nothing.”

“Aiji-ma, a letter from the South was by no means unexpected. Murini was by then in Shejidan. Receiving this letter— one might have appealed to Shejidan and voiced one’s opinion that the Marid was only supporting Murini as a convenience, and that they meant to assassinate him once the center of the aishidi’tat was in any sense stable under his rule. One thought of this act. But from a coastal lord and a relative of Lord Geigi— one had no confidence that Murini-aiji would hear such an opinion with any understanding or gratitude. He would be just as likely to report all I said to the Lord of the Marid, and then where would I stand? I would be dead. I believed I would be dead in short order did I attempt to reason with Murini or divide him from his Southern allies.”

“Not badly reckoned,” Ilisidi said more mildly. “You begin to interest usc even to make some sense. Name names and recall that we have been out of the current of Southern politics for three years.”

A soft movement brought Cajeiri to the back of his great-grandmother’s chair, beside Cenedi. That space in the doorway having cleared, Banichi and Jago entered the room and stood against the wall, grimly listening.

“The Dojisigi district of the Marid,” Baiji said, “the lord of Amarja, Toric he sent to me, offering his granddaughter, Tiajo—promising support for this whole district if I made this alliance.”

“Tori,” Ilisidi said, “son of Badissuni.”

“The one, yes, aiji-ma. The proposal said—that the western coast—that I—had the choice of falling by force and assassination to the Kadigidi aiji and the North—or I could join with the Marid, by a close alliance that would respect the existing Associations of the coast. And one knows—one knows, aiji-ma, and knew then—”

“Out with it!”

“One suspected Lord Tori lied about respecting the coastal Associations. The Edi and the Marid are old enemies. But it has always been the position of the Maschi to protect the Edi of this coast—which we have always done, aiji-ma!”

“Then where are they?”

“Aiji-ma, one asks understanding! This was my thinking— that if one started to form new alliances, if you were lost, if the Marid and Murini of the Kadagidi were going to divide the world between them—at least one could save something. I could not contact my uncle. If one began to negotiate with the Marid at least with a starting agreement that the existing associations should persist, then one at least had a basis on which to negotiate for better things. One was no longer negotiating for things as they were—that was lost. One was trying to save what could be saved. The wars of the Edi with the Marid, the piracy, the raids—all these the Maschi had been able to calm. Could one not do this best in a new age by making an association withthe Marid, rather than fall to the Kadagidi and become a target when the Marid ultimately moved to assassinate Murini and seize the aijinate? If I had attempted to fight either of them, this whole coast would be under assault—and all the ancient agreements would be trampled down. All the old grudges would be paid off, Contracts would be issued on every handc the very living of the people would become impossible if the coast came under blockade, in a struggle between Murini and the Marid, and the humans would—” Baiji’s eyes shifted anxiously to Bren. “One has no idea what the humans might do if the Kadagidi and Marid started fighting in the strait, off their very shores. If humans invaded, and we had no association to protect us—we would become a battlefield.”

“Humans would not have invaded on their own behalf,” Bren said, hoping he believed it. “One strongly doubts your scenario for an invasion, nadi. Mospheira was aiding the Northern Isles to remain independent. Had you appealed to the Presidenta, you might have joined the Northern Isles and theymight have interdicted the Marid. Their navy might have saved you.”

“But it was an association we have never made, nandi,” Baiji protested.

“The Edi have close connections with the Isles,” Ilisidi said. “You might have asked themc if they had not already seen in you a policy and a future they would not tolerate.”

That panicked Baiji for a moment. His eyes shifted from one to the other of them, wildly. “So. But—with a successor, me being a young man, my honored mother having diedc”

“Another interesting point. Howdid she die?”

“You cannot think, aiji-ma! You cannot, you cannotthink—”

“She was in ill health, we understand. And whendid your flirtation with the Marid begin?”

“Aiji-ma, no! That had nothing to do with it! One never— neverwould have tolerated such a thing.”

“Back to the Edi. Whydid you not use their good offices to reach the north? Was it possibly too great an exertion for a young man? Or did the Edi already question your dealings?”

“They—they were upset by the death of my honored mother. One was in shock, aiji-ma—one hardly knew when—one day there were no servants. There were just no servants.”

“Indeed.”

“One was overwhelmed, nand’ dowager! One had no means to ask Uncle what to do. There was—there was this offer of marriage. This offer of alliance. If I refused it—it might be fatal. There might be no time for such maneuvers. So I thought, I thought—being new to my post, aiji-ma, and without your sage advice—”

Bang! “Do not annoy me, wretch! Your mother was dead, unfortunate dotingwoman, and you, still more unfortunate for the region, were alive. Go on!”

“I was stalling, aiji-ma. I was continually pretending to agree. One hoped—one hoped, aiji-ma, that your ship would any day reappear in the heavens with the true aiji’s heir, and that would solve everything. And if one could play for timec”

He had looked to Ilisidi a second time, and his voice faltered.

Bang! went the cane. “Go on. We are listening.”

“So I protested I had favored a lady of the district, and I lied, aiji-ma, that I had spoken to the daughter of the Hesi. But—” A tremor entered his voice. “This unfortunate girl—this entirely innocent girl, whom I had only met socially—she died within the month. At her own father’s table.” Baiji’s lips trembled. “And I knew—I knew surely it was my fault. It was because I used her name. They removed—removed her from consideration. And now—now I have the gravest doubt whether my mother’s death was from her illnessc I had not thought that. I never had thought that, aiji-ma.”

For the first time Bren felt a twinge of sympathy for the man who had harbored assassinsc not overmuch, since they had shot one of his people, killed two of Ilisidi’s, and attempted to kill him and Banichi and Jago. But the young man was a fool. Possibly he hadtried to match wits with the Marid.

“Go on,” Ilisidi said.

“Within two days I received a letter expressing condolence and renewing the offer. I have this letter. I have saved everything, aiji-ma—if you wish to have these things.”

“We shall expect it. Say on.”

“So—I could not call my uncle, I had the fate of the young lady of the Hesi on my conscience. One had the estate to protect—”

One noted he never said “my people.” And that he reverted to the remote formal when speaking of them.

“—so one hoped to temporize, never naming names: one pleaded grief for my mother, grief for the young lady. One asked questions, pretending not to understand clauses in the agreement. One conjured every remote provision of treaties and agreements which I wished specifically to be preserved—I have the list, aiji-ma. I have all those papers.”

“On, I say! You were grieving. And you saved the papers, as any reasonably careful accountant might do. What more?”

“Then—they wished me to visit the Marid, aiji-ma, but—but then you came back from the heavens, and Murini was about to fall, and I—one feared to travel in those days in the first place, and then my bodyguard left me, just like the servants. I thought they had gone to fight for you, aiji-ma, but I never saw them again.”

“Where did you acquire the ones you had?” Banichi asked from the side of the room.

“They came from the Guild. They gave me regards from my own guard and said they had taken their place.”

When the Guild itself had been suspect, in those last days of Murini’s administration.

“One fears you may never see your bodyguard again,” Bren murmured.

“The replacements,” Banichi said, unasked, “are dead.”

Baiji looked from one to the other of them, and his jaw trembled. “I was afraid of them, nandiin. I knew—I knew they reported elsewhere.”

“My grandson’s men,” Ilisidi said, “have taken the estate in hand until your uncle’s return. In himwe have confidence, and there will be questions and an accounting, a rendering of the books and records, a task in which he will have your assistance, if you wish to regain anything.”

“Aiji-ma.” A seated bow. “One longs to be of service.”

“We hold this notion for consideration,” Ilisidi said, “since we have not heard how you continued this dalliance with the Marid afterour return from space and aftermy grandson took Shejidan and drove Murini in retreat. Nowpresent us your excuse! Was there some unreported difficulty with the phones, that would prevent your calling Shejidan or sending a messenger covertly?”

“I was afraid, aiji-ma! My very guard was sending secret messages! I had no idea whether they were reporting to the aiji or—or to the Marid! How could I move in any regard without them knowing?”

“Ingenuity might have overcome this. A phone call, I say. A visit to your neighbors. A shopping expedition to Dalaigi. Shopkeepers would surely have acted for you at your request.”

“They would know.”

“They would know. A call to my grandson, man! A note, contained in a basket of produce, sent to your neighbor!”

“But—one thought—aiji-ma—the aiji himself was negotiating with the Marid. Things might yet change. Perhaps—perhaps I could do something favorable by marrying the girl. I could draw her house into association with the coastc”

“Marry a Dojisigi girl, part of a scheme the Tasaigi clan no longer had any motive to move forward? Draw the Dojisigi into conflict with the Tasaigi, perhaps? Bring the eastern peninsula of the Marid into conflict with the western, which has had their man’chi for seven hundred years? Gods above and below, what do you think your help is worth, man?”

“Aiji-ma— ”

“You had onevalue to them: as a foothold on the western coast, within its association, a foothold that would be shortlived, but one from which they could work to alienate the Edi from the aishidi’tat; one from which they could plan an assassination that would shake the entire world. Notmy great-grandson. Nota power for the future of the aishidi’tat. That was not their aim. The paidhi-aiji was their target, the power that connects my grandson with the Mospheirans and with the heavens and all its factions—and you agreed.”

“No, aiji-ma, by no means!”

“You ignoredthe chance my great-grandson would perish in your scheme. No, that was of no import to you and your advisors. You were set on the paidhi’s life, and have made two attempts on it!”

“Not I, aiji-ma! Not I!”

“Where is your aunt, man?”

“My—aunt.”

“Lord Geigi’s wife. Lord Geigi’s Samiusi clan wife. Did she maintain ties with your mother?”

“Not—not that I know, aiji-ma. She—”

“Once before, the Marid tried to achieve a foothold in Sarini province—attempting to impoverish your uncle, do you recall that event? They made every effort to bring him down, and Lord Geigi’s last-contracted wife, your aunt, was in frequent correspondence with her sister, who—ah! I remember—just happened to be married into the Marid! Whata grand coincidence! And Lord Geigi’s sister—”

“I cannot hear you speak ill of my mother, aiji-ma!”

“Your mother was a virtuous woman, certainly, in Lord Geigi’s confidence—ah, but how could I forget? She correspondedwith Geigi’s former wifec”

“Innocently, aiji-ma!”

“Well, well, she administered Kajiminda well enough in difficult times. I wonder where the change happened. A message from your aunt’s end of the continent, perhaps? Communication from your cousins in the Marid? One is certainyou have cousins in the Maridc”

“They are not in my man’chi, nor am I in theirs, aiji-ma. And my mother very rarely corresponded with that branch!”

“So you say. What would you have done if you had found my great-grandson at sea? Ridden him under? Or held him hostage, pending nand’ Bren’s walking into a trap?”

“I wished to rescue the boy, and to meet with the paidhi-aiji, on the boat—I would have told him—I would have asked him to rescue mefrom my predicament—I would ask to sail into Najida, and for the boy’s safety, I would be safe in his good opinion.” Baiji cast a frantic look at him, and Bren drew a deep breath. “I would have done it! I would have asked for your help, paidhi-aiji! I did so even under my own roof!”

Lost your nerve twice, Bren thought. Or did you only just think of that explanation?

One could want a bath.

“Or,” Ilisidi said, drawing Baiji’s attention back to her, “Or shall we tell you what we reallythink, Baiji-nadi? Let us favor you with our opinion! You became fearful of the new changes, yes, and you found comfortin your Marid bodyguard, who promised you their man’chi, who made you dangerous to your neighbors, who made you a threat to the whole coast—”

“Aiji-ma!”

“Can you deny you had become so?”

“One wished only peace, only to deal out the pieces as one had to, and keep the peace. My uncle was safe in space. He would not return. One would wait to see how the negotiations went between the aiji and the Marid.”

“And if well, you would be importantc and you have cousins in the Marid, part of their politics. Perhaps you would marry that girl after all.”

“One meant to straighten it all out, once the aiji in Shejidan had given some indication how all the dealings with the South might come out.”

“When it was all perfectly safe! Does it occur to you, Baiji, that it will never be perfectly safe, so long as you have any power at all? Did you have any notion where you would ever tell these people no?”

“One is uncertain what—”

“One is uncertain what atrocious thing you would stick at, if it crept up on you by degrees, Baiji son of Dumaei. Your failing came on you by degrees. Your involvement with the Marid came on you by degrees. Is there no time you have imagined when you would evercall a halt and take a stand?”

“I warned the paidhi-aiji!”

“Not in so many words,” Bren said. “No, nadi. Your behavior warned my guardc and killed your own.”

“Aiji-ma!”

“Fool,” Ilisidi said. “If you had acquired any power, if you had brought any independent power to the hands of the Dojisigi, the Tasaigi would have had you for appetitzers, and them after. It was their game, it was their game all along, and now one understands the occupation of the paidhi’s apartment in the Bujavid by the Faraic who doubtless pass along whatever tidbits of information they scavenge. The Marid, four clans of the mainland, is One, that is how the numbers of four districts work out: the One is centered at Tanaja in the hands of Machigi, who has inherited all the ambition of his predecessors Saigimi and Cosadi—Cosadi, who backed Murini in his adventure—and, ah! indeed, they have your aunt’s man’chi.”

“Not mine, aiji-ma!”

Machigi. The new aiji in Tanaja. Quiet, hitherto. Bren tried to put a face with the name, and failed.

“You surely,” Ilisidi was saying to Baiji, “have met the man.”

“We—we have never corresponded.”

Wehave been remote in space, and yet wecan comprehend the maneuverings around you. The numbers of them are not hard to parse. Why cannot you?”

“One—one begins to see, aiji-ma.”

“Oh, one begins to see! Blessed gods, man, need I say so? Machigi backed his cousin Murini of the Kadagidi so long as it profited him. We have wondered whether his latest moves were represented more strongly by the Farai’s approach to my grandson, their offering of man’chi—their repudiation of Murini—or exactly what they might be up to. In what more sinister direction it might manifest was notapparent, since youkept their secrets and conspired with them in actions that threatened the paidhi’s life andmy great-grandson’s.”

“No, aiji-ma, I never conspired!”

“Fool, I say! You are right in one thing: had Murini survived and my grandson perished, Murini would have lasted a scant year or two before the Tasaigi killed him—one imprudent marriage too many, one cup of tea in the wrong hands, and Murini would have been out of the question altogether, and I have no doubt Machigi of the Tasaigi would by then have positioned himself with the help of your alliance with that Dojisigi child. Machigi would kill you the moment you produced an heir, foolish boy. The Dojisigi relatives would move in with your heir. And they would have the coast, and Machigi would have them!”

“One never—never—” Baiji’s eyes were wide and astonished. “One never saw such an outcome. Aiji-ma, one begs forgiveness.”

“Of me you do not have it. I do not say beg it of the paidhi-aiji: he is too gentle! Obtain your uncle’s request for clemency, and I may, maybroker you a marriage with a nice Eastern woman of good sense and more mature perspective. Live to produce children! That will be your use to the Maschi clan, if Lord Geigi fails to strangle you with his own hands!”

Marry off this fool? Bren thought, somewhat set aback.

But part of the situation was that the Maschi clan had worn away to near nothing, diminished to a single clan in Sarini province, while its privileges and influence had grown immense, enough to tempt suitors. Geigi, the aishidi’tat’s old ally, was growing no younger, had never produced an heir, and thiswas what he had to leave in charge?

It was suddenly much clearer to him what the issues were, and exactly what the dowager was offering, in brief: there was one ability Baiji had left to make himself useful, and the dowager would personally make his choice for him, as a favor to Lord Geigi—thus providing the fading Maschi clan a sure link to a clan on herside of the continent, lacing up the aishidi’tat into a safe, tight unity.

“Aiji-ma.” It was a very quiet voice, a very shaken one.

“Oh, come now. You like your soft, safe life, do you not, boy? You enjoybeing called nandi, you enjoygood food, good wine, and a dearth of responsibilities. You scarcely have to appeal to the Marid for a marriage. We can arrange that—and a younger daughter of a middling-strong house of the East. You can have all of this and live a long life, so long as you stay out of politics and hire strong-minded tutors we approve for your offspring. This is your chance. Take it!”

“Aiji-ma.” Increasingly shaken, but with eyes utterly fixed on Ilisidi. “One would be grateful. One would be very grateful for your speaking to my uncle on this matter.”

“Have you any other thing to tell us? Be forward in helping us!”

“Only—only that there are papers in my office. Behind the desk, a panel in the wall, nand’ dowager. You would find these of interest. One has kept every incriminating thing.”

Covering all possible directions he might ever go, Bren thought with distaste, and whoever he might need to blackmail. He didn’t believe this reform. He didn’t in the least believe it. And in the way of atevi power marriages, it was very little likely Baiji would have charge of any offspring. An heir. Any heir—and his responsibility was accomplished.

“Then you may retire and have your breakfast,” Ilisidi said. “You may have saved your future.”

“Aiji-ma.” Baiji rose and bowed, and bowed to Bren as well, as the three servants came alert—so, before that, had Cenedi and Banichi and Jago.

“But you do know,” Ilisidi added casually, “that you will not survive long, resident in this district, so close to the South. You have no resources to take on Guild of sufficient level to save your life.”

“Aiji-ma!”

“We do, in the East. Perhaps that would be a safer haven for youc far, far from the lords you have betrayed. You would be a great fool to contemplate going to them. You understand this. Now that you have assured weshall not kill you, you have assured that they will. Within our shadow is the only safety for you, from henceforward.”

Baiji was certainly not the most intelligent soul on the continent, Bren thought. But the facts of the situation did apparently come through to Baiji at that point.

“You will stay to meet your uncle,” Ilisidi said, “and then fly east. Far east. Where you may havea future.”

Snow and ice was the reputation of the East. It was far, far from the sunny harbors of the western coast. But Baiji bowed profoundly, murmured his parting courtesies and left the room with his escort.

“He will turn any way convenient, aiji-ma,” Cenedi said.

“A hiltless knife,” Ilisidi agreed. “Great-grandson, I daresay you have not met as great a fool as Baiji.”

“No, mani. I am only one short of nine and Iknow better than he does.”

“And what are you doing here in your bathrobe?”

“Mani, protecting you from that man.”

Ilisidi laughed gently, and set her cane so she might use it. Cenedi quietly offered his hand, and she rose. So did Bren, with a bow.

“Aiji-ma.”

“We are improved,” Ilisidi said. “We are much improved, nand’ paidhi. We have a solution to that fool, and we shall have a solution to the South. Cenedi, communicate with my grandson’s forces and have these alleged papers at Lord Geigi’s estate found and brought. Nand’ paidhi, we shall keep our promise and retire for a few hours. Perhaps until dinner. Great-grandson?”

“Mani?”

“Do notdo anything that requires you to leave this roof.”

“Yes, mani.”

There was not even any resistance about it. Everyone looked exhausted, and the company departed its separate ways.

All but him. All but Banichi and Jago, who stood to the side.

“My brother and Barb-daja?” he asked of them.

“They have come up to the house, Bren-ji,” Banichi said, “for their breakfast. House staff is attending the repair of their boat—which has numerous bullet holes. It was a very narrow escape they had. If not for the pump, the boat would have gone down, so nand’ Toby says. It was still running when staff brought them up to the house.”

Bren let go a long sigh and came around the chair—he took each by an arm briefly, atevi custom be damned. “One has you back and safe, nadiin-ji,” he said. “Forgive me. Words cannot express—how glad, personally, how glad I am.” He let them go. “Now that a foolish human has said so, I shall stop being rude.”

Banichi made a sound in his throat, half a laugh, and Jago tilted her head and gave him a down-the-nose look that said she had things to say on that rudeness, but wouldn’t until later.

“Tano and Algini report,” Banichi said, “that they believe the enemy penetrated house defenses here while they were absent with you, nandi. Even past the dowager’s protections here—they got throughc to a grievous mistake on the part of the two who died.”

“Algini knew the intruders,” Jago said. “They were high in the Guild under Gegini.” That was to say, the Guild leadership during the overthrow. “Nochidi and Keigan, senior Guild, within the Guild itself. They survived the service of both Sarini and Cosadi.”

Previousbids to unseat Tabini: Sarini was dead. Cosadi, now deceased, had been another problem out of the Marid, and an elder cousin to the current one. Now they had a new problem. Machigi. Who had come damned close to doing what the others had failed to do.

That the two intruders Algini and Tano had done for had been senior Guild, good enough to get past Ilisidi’s guard—that sent a chill down the backbone. They’d gotten far enough, deep enough into house defenses to have taken any of them outc except Tano and Algini, except Cenedi and Nawari. Close call. Very. The Marid didn’t spend its elite teams lightly.

It was of a par with Ilisidi saying that the paidhi-aiji had become the primary target.

Leave the coast, go back to the Bujavid? That was a worsesituation, with the Farai right in their midst, with their secretaries, their guards, their staffc their access to install anything from listening devices to a bomb in his apartment—or against Tabini’s apartment wall.

“Not a comfortable thought,” he said. “One surmises this will not be the end of it, nadiin-ji. One assumesthe aiji will now move against the Marid.”

“One does assume the aiji will now dislodge the Farai from the paidhi’s apartment,” Jago said dryly, “for a start.”

It could be downright treasonous, that utterancec the implication that Tabini-aiji had been a fool.

Or perhaps Jago had meant something else. Along with the aiji’s power came the obligation to be both subtle and clever.

“He did notforce me out here to draw fire, surely.” One entertained that uncomfortable thought, momentarily. “He need only have suggested I visit my estate. One would gladly have gonec”

“The aiji at least permitted the Farai to be inconvenient to him,” Banichi said with a lift of the brow. “But one surmises he was concentrating on doings in the South when he made the decision to be patient with them, and perhaps he was testing the Farai’s intent. One by no means believes he would have allowed his son to remain here a single night, had he had the suspicion of hostile presence.”

That was true. The assassination attempt had been opportunistic, he believed that. But it led inevitably right back to the Marid and this new problem. Machigi. He had to study up on the man. Baiji’s value to the Marid had plummeted when Tabini-aiji took power back from Murini, but the value Baiji had retained was that of a staging area for a very important operationc namely removal of some of Tabini-aiji’s key assets. An heir? Grievous as that would be, rumors were that Damiri might produce another before the year was out. The dowager? A very hard target, and one that would notthoroughly or immediately disrupt the west coast—which was the arena of Marid ambitions. The East was irrelevant to them.

But the paidhi-aiji held Najida—which was a property on which the Farai had at least some legal claimc had the paidhi not come back from space. Najida—which was poised just below the Northern Isles, and right next to Kajiminda and Dalaigi—the largest town on the western coast.

Click, click, click. Things began to drop into little slots.

“Dare one wonder,” Bren asked them, “if the paidhi has been a desired target for some time? They have not appeared to relinquish their hope of setting the west coast in disarray.”

“Cenedi has requested still more reinforcements,” Banichi said. “They should be arriving by morning.”

“One is glad to know that,” Bren said. And again touched both of them. “You should take as light a duty as possible, nadiin-ji. Let Cenedi’s force manage things. Baiji poses no threat. Cenedi has men on the roof. Rest.”

Banichi looked at him as if thinking of asking when the paidhi-aiji had appointed himself to the Guild; but then he nodded. “We both shall,” Banichi said.

“Go,” he said. “Now.”

“And you, Bren-ji,” Jago said.

“As soon as I have talked to nand’ Toby,” he said. “A courtesy. No need of escort. And then I shall go straightway to my office and do a little work.”

They looked not of a mind to agree to that. They were on the last reserves, and perhaps not at their most reasonable. They just stared at him, both, in adamant silence that indicated that, orders or no orders, they would neither one be off duty until he was settled somewhere they approvedc nor would Tano and Algini.

“Then I shall do my work in your quarters,” he said, “where you all can keep an eye on me.”

Banichi looked slightly amused. “We will provide you a chair in which to work, Bren-ji. No more of this wandering the halls alone.”

“Not when people drop out of the ceiling,” Jago said.

So it was out into the slightly damaged hall, down to the dining room, where Toby and Barb, windblown and in shocking condition for the dining room, were just finishing up their breakfast.

“Bren!” Toby said, looking up.

A little bow—he’d been in atevi mode: was, still, mentally; and tried to adjust. Toby looked a little nonplussed, then said, “Oh, hell, Bren, it’s me,” and came and embraced him, hard as Barb got to her feet.

“Glad you made it back,” Bren said. “I hear you ran into trouble out there—I heard about the other boat. There should be people out now looking for any intruders on the peninsula.”

“We managed,” Toby said, standing at arm’s length. “And you got the kids back.”

“They got themselves out,” he said. “The aiji’s men are mopping up over there, and the dowager’s dealing with the details. How close is your boat to seaworthy?”

“My own estimate?” Toby said. “With luck, about two days.”

“I’d send you off in mine,” Bren said, “but you met a good reason not to be out at sea at the moment. This is a major operation. There’s a good likelihood the boat that tried to sink you came out of the township to the south, and that means either the opposition stole it or they have allies there with assets. The aiji will be calling in naval forces, probably from up in the Islands, but it’s going to be a few days. You’re better off here.”

“Are we safehere?” Barb asked.

“Safe as anybody can be with Guild on the hunt,” Bren said. “The whole region is going to be dangerous. There could very easily be another boat out there, trying to make a run in here. The village is on the alert, watchers up and down the coast, so we hope we will get a warning. Figure that any move that’s easy to see could be a diversion. The enemy lost a senior Guild team trying to get at me. And they damned near made it—might have, if we hadn’t scrambled who was in what room.”

“At you,” Toby said, “specifically? Twice?”

“Very possibly. Sounds a little egotistical on my part, but my security seems to read it that way. They’ll take other targets if they can get them, no question. But the operation probably started when they knew I was coming in. They’re making a play to get at their old enemies the Edi, and to own the southwest coast—the Marid is a maritime power; they have no assets in the central regions. But they do have ships. They’ve got more ships than the aiji’s navy does, if it comes to that: they can convert their island traders and become real damned difficult to deal with if they can get a few ports to use unchallenged, up on this coast.”

“This is the same bunch that supported Murini.”

“And that made the trouble in the aishidi’tat before that,” Bren said, “when Cosadi made a try to link up with the Kadagidi. We’ve got that one troublesome clan up in the Padi Valleyc”

“The Kadagidi, you mean.”

Bren nodded. “That lot has been conniving with the Marid from the time the Ragi set up the Western Association. They’re Ragi—skin deep. But they have Southern ties and they tried to stop the Association getting organized in the first place. They were the holdouts. They were trying to form an association with themselvesat the center—at the same time the Marid was trying to pull out of the Ragi Association. That’s the history of it. But the rest of the Padi Valley Ragi were so relieved to find somebody knocking the Kadagidi in the head, they came right into the new Association and turned on the Kadagidi—then helped the Association organize the west coast. Then the Marid came into the Association—before they got forced in—and immediately demanded special privileges—which they didn’t get; demanded to run the Southern trade—which they did get, in return for giving up some of their navy. They’d started to try to form an alliance with the East, when the aiji—Tabini’s grandfather—knocked the pins out from under them by bringing Ilisidi in.”

“This Ilisidi.”

“There’s only one,” Bren said. “The Marid would like to see her deadc for old time’s sake, if nothing else. Murini and the Kadagidi made their recent try at overthrowing Tabini—Murini went down. The Kadagidi are in disarray. The Marid has the space station over their heads now, they have Tabini back in power, they have the Western Association more united than they’ve ever been, and the weakest spot they can reach is their old enemies the Edi, up and down the southwestern coast. The Edi have never had a strong central authority. They’re inclined to go their own way, village by village, house by house. They were always on the losing side with the Ragi, until they linked up with the Maschi, who understood the Ragi and understood them—Lord Geigi’s house. Tiny clan. Big influence. Lord Geigi’s in space, indispensible up there. But he’s going to have to come back to deal with the mess in his affairs down herec his nephew’s been a fool, playing politics with the Marid during Murini’s administration. He thought he was being smart. Now he’s got bedfellows, and Geigi’s house, the house that holds the Edi together—the house that has the Edi man’chi, if Baiji hasn’t lost it—is just damned close to disintegrating. That’s what’s going on, brother. If the Edi fragment and start fighting among themselves again, the Marid can start gnawing away at them, piece by piece, village by village, right up the coast. The Marid has got the ships; Tabini doesn’t. If the Marid can find some handful of Edi willing to make deals, they’ll createsome figurehead to be another Geigi. I’m getting the impression the new aiji in that region was using Murini—and Murini would have been dead the first time he disappointed the Marid. Now this new fellow—remember his name for Shawn—” Toby was not unacquainted with the President of Mospheira. “Machigi.”

“Machigi.”

“Out of the Tasaigi district, Tanji clan, aiji in Tanaja. Bad news. Reallybad news, if this whole thing is his planning. Apparently he’s got the Senji and the Dojisigi districts and probably the Dausigi district of the Marid working with him. Meanwhile the Farai, out of the Senji district, are sitting in myapartment in the Bujavaid, right next to Tabini’s—claiming, incidentally, kinship with the Maladesi, who used to hold this peninsula, besides that apartment. The Maladesi no longer exist as a clan. Their last generation married into the Farai’s adjunct clan, the Morigi, and the Farai consequently have a claim on the Maladesi prerogatives and territory, because now the Morigi are extinct and the Farai claim all they had. The Farai, of the Senjin Marid, claimedmy apartment under Murini’s occupation; they then turned coat again and opened the doors of the Bujavid to Tabini’s forces when he came back. Supposedly they’ve been trying all winter to broker an agreement between Tabini and the Marid to settle all the old bad politics, which is why I’ve been living in Tatiseigi’s apartment and not bothering the Farai. The hell they’re brokering a peace deal! They’re in this Tasaigi move up to their ears, and unless they prove to have secretly informed the aiji and set up Machigi for a fall, they’re going down, and I’mgetting my apartment back.”

Toby blinked. Barb looked totally puzzled.

“It’s quite simple,” Bren said. “I get my apartment. And very bad news for the Marid that I’m still alive and even more that the Edi are going to be massively upset if they aren’t already. Geigi hasto get down here and take the reins in person—kick Baiji out officially and probably stay here, patching up what’s been disturbed. That means he’llbecome the main target, and the aiji’s going to have to take special measures to protect him. Tell Shawn that, too. This coast’s become a powder keg and my coming here lit the fuse just a little prematurely.”

“You’re not safe here.”

“I’m on a peninsula—well, at the head of it—with a loyal village at my back, a harbor where I can see trouble coming, and the aiji’s forces occupying the neighboring estate and township, with help from the dowager besides. This is as safe as I could be, for now, granted there isn’t a landing party from that wrecked boat working its way in this direction. You’re both safer here than trying to run for it until the aiji is in firm control of the sea approach. Trust me in that.”

“Trust you,” Toby said, “no question. How can we help?”

“Stay in the harbor. Get that boat of yours patched and fit to sail. You may have to take out of here before you get her beautified. There’s a guard on my boat: but just keep an eye on things in the harbor, be my eyes on the shoreline, and keep radio contact with the house if you see any movement. If something comes at us overland, protect yourselves and get out when you can. There’s no way you can go up against a Guild operation. All right?”

“We’ll be out there,” Toby said.

“Stay under cover as much as possible. Don’t present a target. If you need anything, get one of the staff or the villagers to run up to the house. Don’t expose yourselves to snipers—or a kidnapping.”

“Got it,” Toby said. “We’ll be going back down there. You take care.”

“I intend to,” he said, and hugged Toby—and Barb. “Stay alive. If we can get you a navy escort to calmer waters—”

“Don’t distract anybody from necessary business,” Toby said. “Just—you be careful, Bren.”

“I intend to be,” he said, and walked them out of the dining room and on toward the main hall—Banichi and Jago joining them as soon as they exited the dining room.

Another and scandalous public exchange of hugs as he sent them out the door. He did it anyway, while Banichi used his communications to call the escort to the door, to be sure Toby and Barb made it down to the boat safely—and equally to be sure the dowager’s men on the roof didn’t mistake the movement of someone down the winding walk.

“See you,” Toby told him, in leaving.

“See you,” he said in turn, and the escort took Barb and Toby in hand.

Then the servants shut the doors between them, shut them, locked them, and threw the substantial bolts above and below.

“Now we rest,” he said with a deep breath. “I pick up my computer, and we all go to your room, nadiin-ji.”


Chapter 15

« ^ »

Bren-ji.” Tano turned his chair at the security console to face Bren. “A report has come from the dock. Nand’ Toby and Barb-daja are back on their boat and safely so. There has been no incident. The boat is under repair. The workmen estimate to have the hole sealed before midnight. The pumps are very adequately keeping up with the situation.”

“Thank you, Tano-ji,” Bren said fervently. He had his own place, a chair pulled up to make a workspace at the end of the counter, next to an array of equipment, and he’d been writing reports on the situation while it was fresh in memory. Banichi and Jago took a little time in their respective beds in the next room, and they spoke in low voices, so as not to disturb them.

He hadn’t realized how tightly his nerves had been wound, how anxiously he’d awaited that word from the dock, but he’d ceased to trust momentary lulls in a situation—which often simply meant the enemy had drawn back to reorganize. Getting Barb and Toby out to sea was of great importance—but not overriding their safety. “Message in reply, Tano-ji: tell nand’ Toby wait for a clearance before he sails unless things go very badly here. If you yourself can possibly ask the aiji’s forces for an escort to get nand’ Toby out to seac one would make that request.”

“Indeed,” Tano said, and turned back to his console, to busy himself in communications for some time. Bren went back to his report.

He was uneasy about asking a personal favor from Tabini— diversion of a naval vessel from a major action wasn’t exactly the sort of thing most people asked to be sure a relative got away safely, but the fact was, Toby wasn’t just Toby. He was a potentially valuable hostage. And he wasn’t just a Mospheiran citizen in the wrong waters; or even just the paidhi-aiji’s close relative: he was occasionally and perhaps currently an agent of the Mospheiran government—a spy, in plain fact; a spy who had served Tabini’s interests and hurt those of the Southern conspirators. And that meant he twice over ought to get out of here before he fell into hostile hands. Toby had personal enemies in the South: the South might not know precisely who he was beyond being the paidhi’s relative—which was enough. But once they twigged to what he had done during the Troubles, they would very quickly move to get their hands on him for very different reasons. The fact that Toby had a small operational Ragi vocabulary only put him in worse danger, in that regard.

So he wanted Toby the hell out of the bay and out much, much closer to the Mospheiran coast, just as soon as they could be sure that by sending the Brighter Daysout toward open ocean they wouldn’t be sending Toby straight into the jaws of some force coming intothe bay to launch a sea assault on Najida. A naval escort from Tabini’s side of the mess was the only sure answer.

That, and being sure that repair to the hull was going to hold up under whatever conditions Toby ran into out there once he left his naval escort, whether he had to run hard or dodge fire, or just bear up under the usual spring weather on his way to Port Jackson.

It was, however, the solution to one problem on his hands.

Having his old associate Geigi’s nephew locked in his basement, however—that was not going to be tidied up in one stroke.

Damn, he did not look forward to—

Ramaso himself came in, very somberly, with an underlying tension, and bowed.

“The village, nandi—the elders of the village—one has presented your sentiments. They have requested you come to speak to them in person, in a session of the council, tonight.”

That was a surprise—a disturbing surprise, since he was unprepared: he had no speech, he had no notes, only an untidy situation to report; but an honor—he wasn’t sure a lord of Najida had ever been asked to a village meeting.

“Tonight,” he echoed.

“At sunset, nandi.”

“I shall need to dress,” he said. The protocols of the situation were unprecedented. “In whatever would be appropriate, Rama-ji. I leave it to your discretion.”

“They have also invited the aiji-dowager and her great-grandson.”

For about a heartbeat he was astonished, and could not imagine what the dynamics of that situation werec and then he thought. Edi. With ties to Mospheira before the Landing. The Edi, who traced their descent through their mothers, and especially the grandmothers—the foremothers, guardian spirits, deities to the Edi. The aiji dowager. The aiji’s grandmother, great-grandmother to an aiji-to-come.

It wasn’t just a meeting. It was a precedent-setting Event, this meeting, and it didn’t, perhaps, only have to do with Najida.

“Convey the message to the dowager and ask her, from me, if she would decide about the young gentleman. Say that it may have an interesting relevance to the disappearance of the Edi from Lord Geigi’s household.”

She would go, he judged. Visit Baiji? She’d had conscious reason not to, well-taken, as it turned out. But an Edi village might pique her curiosity, if nothing else. Curiosity was a potent inducement to Ilisidi.

“Yes, nandi,” Ramaso said, and went off to do that.

He sat down and took another note—more, he started pulling up data from his computer, historical notes, geography, a list of names, all in the data files. The Edi ancestors had come down from the north coast, up from the south in ancient times, coastward somewhat when the Ragi Association formed: there had been fighting. And notably, the large group of associated clans had come across from Mospheira, having been forced out by the War of the Landing and subsequently dispossessed by the Treaty of the Landing that ceded the whole island of Mospheira to human rule.

The data listed clans, where each was thought to have been, where they were thought to have moved, what names were common in each. Descent through the mother.

Put upon for two centuries and before: the Edi had been at odds with the Ragi Association, and the Southern Association,and when the Ragi Association had become the Western Association, the aishidi’tat, and made it known they were going to knock some Southern heads, the Edi had found a needful buffer in Geigi’s clan, the Maschi, who were on good terms with the Ragi—smartest move they’d made in a long while. But then the holder of Najida, the last of the Maladesi, had married into the Farai of the Morigi clan in the South— thatlittle piece of business had linked the northern finger of the coast into the Southern Associationc simultaneously betraying the Maladesi’s village, which was mostly Edi, mostly related to the Edi all down the coast.

Thatwas the pleasant little winter home Tabini-aiji had bestowed on him some years back, and he knew Tabini had never meant him to have to cope with a mess like this—Tabini had only intended to signal the Ragi weren’t going to tolerate a Southern Association foothold on the Edi coast, which had made the Edi happy, he gathered, as better than the alternative. The paidhi was not Ragi, not Maschi, certainly not Southern— the Southerners would have cheered en masse if he’d been assassinated. And he and the village had gotten along tolerably well during the period in which the Ragi grew stronger—not a plus for the Edi—but also more peaceful. Prosperity had come to the coast, largely thanks to Lord Geigi and the aerospace plant. Everything had just gone swimmingly right for the Edi during that period.

Until the paidhi became a very absentee landlord and conspiracy threw Tabini out of office for a year. During that time the Southerners had been very active, had stuffed their pockets and gotten people in power here and there—not to mention the damned Farai had taken over the paidhi’s apartment as if the paidhi would never return. Baiji had started playing courtship games with the South, Geigi hadn’t been able to communicate with the world to find out what was going on, and the Edi serving Baiji had—one hoped—just walked out. One hoped there was no worse answerc but he might get a clue to it tonight.

He read and made notes.

And Ramaso came back to inform him the dowager andthe young gentleman would be attending.

Security problem, was his first thought, and he had been hoping halfheartedly that the dowager would decline the invitation. But so was he a security problem, as far as that went. Banichi and Jago were going to need their rest. They’d have a full complement of the dowager’s guard. That was considerable. And the dowager and the next Ragi aiji meeting with that assembly might have political reverberations far outweighing—

Another intervention. Saidarocame in from the hall, Ramaso’s second-in-command, a little ruffled, for that steady, reasonable man. He bowed.

“Couriers from the aiji’s forces have come to the door, nandi, with the papers you requested. And more. They bring two persons to be assigned to the young gentleman. Cenedi-nadi has gone to verify their credentials.”

That had the attention of both Tano and Algini, for certain. And that could be a problem. Counting the long-running insistance on the part of Uncle Tatiseigi of the Atageini to provide security for hisgrand-nephew and the several times Uncle Tatiseigi’s security had failed to keep track of the boy—it had been a problem. Counting the importance of the Atageini in keeping the central region stable—it was an ongoing problem. Counting the dowager, who was an old lover of Uncle Tatiseigi, providing the boy her ownsecurity when she was at hand—and threatening to provide it permanently—that was a problem. And counting the fact the boy’s father, Tabini, had hadinternal security problems that had come within a hair of getting him assassinated on the floor of the legislature— thathad been a problem.

The latest arrangement with Tabini’s security, who were generally Ragi in ethnicity—itself a noisily controversial reliance on his own clan—had seemed at least to be an improvement on the security front.

But now Tabini was going to step in and have the final say in the ongoing battle—that was going to ruffle the Atageini and the boy’s mother’s Ajuri clan, at minimum.

And to have the boy acquire Ragi-ethnicity Guildsmen just as he accepted the invitation from the Edi to go meet with them—bad timing. It could have been done when the boy got back to the capital.

Except Tabini was understandably a little disturbed to have known his son had taken unauthorized leave on a freight train, stolen a boat, and developed independent notions that had gotten him stranded in the middle of a firefight. He certainly could not blame Tabini for concluding that his son needed specifically-attached adult security. Two Taibeni teenagers were clearly not enough to exert authority. And Tabini wasthe boy’s father.

He got up from the console to go meet the aiji’s men, and, of the two, it was Algini that got up to go with him, though Tano had started to do so, until the two exchanged a glance. That was unusual: Algini was not the one who dealt with social situations; but Algini had been, until his apparent resignation from the post, very high in the Guild. In a personnel question, Algini knew faces, knew names, knew the current man’chi of individuals in the Guild in a way even Banichi did not.

He didn’t question, just headed down the straight central hall to the group at the front door, a cluster of black uniforms like an incoming storm front, contrasted against the lighter colors of staff—Ramaso among the latter group. Among the Guild who had arrived, there was luggage, presumably belonging to the ones who were now assigned here.

Bren approached. The visiting Guildsmen, four of them, were standing with Cenedi and Nawari. They bowed, and the seniormost visitor handed him a folder.

“Nand’ paidhi,” Cenedi said, “these are close associates of Jaidiri-nadi: Elidari and Nadrasi, of the Guild.”

Jaidiri was Tabini’s chief of security: these two were the highest level currently in the field, very likely.

“Nadiin,” Bren said with a courteous nod, “the house is honored.”

“Nand’ paidhi—” The one who spoke would be the senior of the elder set, and also the one Cenedi would have named first. Elidari: a man of about middle years, smallish as Taibeni tended to be, quick-eyed and all business. “The aiji sends two persons whose man’chi is in no doubt: Vejico and Lucasi, sister and brother, of the Guild. They will attach to the heir.”

No ifs, ands, buts, or “if the dowager pleases.” Damned sure the paidhi-aiji wasn’t in a position to object, even if Algini should give him some sign in the negative.

The other pair, the younger set, bowed. They looked typical young Guild: athletic, slim, the both of them, bright-eyed, early twenties, Bren judged.

“The young gentleman is resting,” Bren said, “but staff will direct you to his quarters, which he shares with two others. Be welcome to this house.”

“Nandi.” A third bow, in exact unison, somewhat disconcerting. And they picked up their luggage, each bringing two heavy bags.

“Ramaso,” Bren said, indicating that the major domo should see to that matter, and that group moved off about their business.

“Nandi.” A bow from the senior pair.

The Guild did not expect tea and ceremony. They did what they did and they departed. The door shut.

“This team is,” Algini said, “good. One had no idea they had attached to a house.”

Cenedi regarded him somberly. “Not Taibeni.”

“From the mountains. Their training continued during the Troubles, under Ajien.”

Clearly Cenedi knew the name, and was suitably impressed.

He thought of the various hand-picked tutors and several security arrangements that had gone over the horizon already.

It didn’t mean the young gentleman would be grateful.

Or polite.

“Let us hope,” Bren said, “things go smoothly.”

“Let us hope,” Cenedi said with a dour expression.

They allknew how that might go.


Chapter 16

« ^

Nandi,” Jegari said, or Cajeiri thought he said, and pulled his head off the pillow to find out.

In fact it was Jegari, looking anxious. And Jegari would not waken him on a whim. It was still daylight out, though the room was dark, what staff called the storm shutters were still in place, only admitting slits of daylight. But he could see, all the same.

“We have notoverslept,” he said. He was sure of that. And then anxiety crowded after: “Mani is all right?”

“The dowager is asleep, one believes, nandi,” Jegari said, “but your father the aiji has sent two guards to stay with us. One believes they have been assigned.”

His fatherhad sent guards.

He pulled himself up to a sitting position. “When are they coming?”

“They are here, nandi. Nand’ Bren sent them in.”

He could deal with Uncle Tatiseigi’s men. He had been threatened with his Ajuri-clan grandfather’s gift of guards, which mani had said were fartoo little skilled. He had mani’s guards sometimes, Nawari and Casari and others, and they were all right: he greatly favored Nawari, who let him do things.

But somebody from his father?

He got up. “Assist, ’Gari-ji.” He could call servants to help him muster a decent appearance, but all that would have to go past whoever was waiting out there, and would indicate that he had been found withouta decent appearance. He helped Jegari find an unrumpled shirt, and he put that on, and his morning trousers were acceptable. He got into those, and put his boots on, while Jegari took out the rust-brown coat he had been wearing for breakfast, which he had not spilled anything on. It was good. He used that, and sat down and let Jegari braid his queue and tie on a fresh ribbon, the Ragi red and black.

The mirror showed him a fair figure of authority. He trusted in it and walked out to confront the latest offering from adults in charge of his life.

They were young. Not too much older than Jegari and Antaro, and one was a girl, kind of nice-looking in Guild black. But he didn’t want appearances to get past his guard. They bowed. He bowed.

“Nandi,” the girl said, “my name is Vejico. My brother is Lucasi. You are entitled to know: we are fifth-level Guild.”

Impressive. He knew that much; and was not supposed to talk about it.

“Your father the aiji has sent us, expressing the hope that you may find our service acceptable.”

No one had ever asked his opinion. That was a definite improvement.

And clearly now, in their silence, his opinion was called for. “Vejico and Lucasi, this is Jegari, and this is Antaro, out of Taiben.”

Bows all around, Jegari’s and Antaro’s that degree deeper that acknowledged authority.

“You may know,” Cajeiri said, in his father’s tones, and his great-grandmother’s, “this house is the house of Lord Bren, the paidhi-aiji, who is our closest associate, and we came under attack last night by Southerners who have taken over the neighboring estate, which belongs to Lord Geigi, who is Lord Bren’s and my great-grandmother’s close associate. Lord Geigi’s nephew Baiji is at fault for his associations, and Lord Bren and my great-grandmother have him locked in the basement, and weare supposed to visit Najida village tonight to ask the Edi where the Edi are who used to serve Lord Geigi. Baiji—my great-grandmother says he is not to be given any title—says the Edi just went away, but Baiji has lied even to my great-grandmother, so he is not to be believed.”

He left off there, not to be seen to run on with his sentences, which Great-grandmother said was a sign of poor self-control and afterthoughts. But it was a fair account. He thought he had given it well.

And he was gratified to see two deep and solemn bows.

“Nandi,” the girl said, evidently the older of the pair, “we would be honored to provide security tonight, respecting the efforts of Jegari-nadi and Antaro-nadi.”

Oh, that was nicely phrased, and polite to Jegari and Antaro, who did not have the credentials even to let them wear the Guild uniform.

“We shall see,” he said. Ultimately, he knew he was going to have to have more than Jegari and Antaro. But hehad planned to pick them, and notto have spies that would stop him from everything—especially very goodspies.

“Your father says, nandi,” Lucaso said with a little bow, “that a sense of humor is requisite for this post. And we are not to report small irregularities, only to be sure nothing is broken, no one is hurt, and that you are not locked in somebody’s basement.”

He stared at Lucaso in consternation, astonished that he had just heard anything so outrageous.

“Should you, for instance, nandi,” Vejico said, “take out on such an adventure, we shall have to report you have left the capital, but we would stay with you. We will not, however, use Guild tactics, except defensively, in abetting your escape. Your father says you should rely on your own ingenuity and do nothing in excess of what you can do successfully on your own.”

He became aware his mouth was open—and shut it. He had suspected his father of many things, but a sense of humor was not one of them.

He supposed he blushed. And then he scowled—became aware he was scowling, and decided it was what mani would do, but then he recalled something else mani had told him: when someone surprises you, rethink what you know about that person until it is not a surprise.

Mani had said his father had been difficult.

“Well,” he said as if he had always had it figured out, “one should not be surprised. We may get along. And that will make mani mad, and Great-uncle mad, and Grandfather. Everything I do makes somebody mad. So you should get used to it.”

They looked a little surprised, themselves. Antaro and Jegari were standing over against the door and met his glance with a little handsign from Jegari. All right, that meant. Jegariwas fine. Probably Antaro was.

So.

There had been no explosions from the young gentleman’s quarters. The dowager was asleep, beneficially so, Bren hoped, and no one wished to disturb her.

The arrival was, however, worrisome—not least because he wanted the meeting tonight to go well, and wanted no cause of suspicion in the interference of Ragi-directed Guild inside Najida—never mind Banichi and Jago had come from Tabini’s household: that was years past, and this was current, while Ragi Guild sat in what had been the key holding on the peninsula, namely Kajiminda. Double-crossed a dozen times in recent history, the Edi had been very specific in their invitations, were probably very upset at the fate of Lord Geigi’s estate, and he wanted to calm that situation down, and get the Edi back, not drive them further away.

Banichi and Jago had slept through the mild commotion, or at least declined to stir forth, relying on Algini and Tano to keep him out of trouble. And when they did wake, in late afternoon, their only comment on the business of the two arrivals was, from Banichi, a “Good choice.”

Well, he thought. That was encouraging. That there was still total silence from the young gentleman’s premises—that was encouraging.

“One hesitates to observe,” Tano said mildly, “that the young gentleman may now have Guild assistance in his mischief.”

Bren looked his way. Algini remained fixed on his boards, taking some sort of note, and speaking to someone, and Tano did not elaborate. Banichi and Jago had opted for an off-schedule lunch, and had gone out to see to that. So he had no word from them, either. But he gathered that the two newcomers had a certain reputation, and Algini did not bestir himself to deny it, only to say that they were very good.

Interesting, Bren thought.

Word from the dock was, currently, that repairs had a bit to go. The Brighter Daysmight be fit for sea tomorrow, not tonight. They had her hauled over so they could come at an underwater patch, and that was still in progress—besides which the disorder that made inside the boat despite closed lockers and tight storage he could only imagine.

It also meant there was no safe quarters for Toby and Barb aboard the boat.

“Get Toby,” he said, and it took a while, but Toby himself came on with:

“Hello, brother. What’s up?”

“Nothing, I hope, but I understand you’re boatless for the night and we’re bedding people in the hallways up here. Can I ask you and Barb to bed aboard my boat for the night and report up to the house for breakfast in the morning?”

“Sounds like a good plan.” Toby sounded cheerful: work on the boat did that for him. “If I get any phone calls, you’ll tell me.”

“Certainly I will. I imagine the kid’s fine by now. They bounce, at that age. But I’ll call you at whatever hour if there’s any emergency.”

“You take care up there tonight. You think there’s any chance those guys are coming back for another try?”

“Never can tell. But we’ve gotten everything fixed that has to be and we’re fine with that.” He didn’t mention to Toby about going down to the village. It was a phone, it wasn’t that secure, and he didn’t want to advertise his movements in any degree. “Things are settling. I just want to be sure you and Barb are comfortable.”

“Couldn’t be better. We’re all over glue and paint. Happy as we can be.”

He grinned. “Great. Come up for a sendoff tomorrow, all right?”

“Deal,” Toby said, and signed off.

On any other day, he’d figure he’d had a day at that point, and take to his study—which was occupied at the moment— and sip tea and do his correspondence.

On this particular day he hadn’t even started his day’s work, which entailed kitting up in something suitable and—

“Are we taking the truck to the village, Tano-ji?”

“The bus is beyond repair, nandi.”

“One would prefer a healthful walk,” he said with a sigh, “but probably the truck is the better idea.”

“We shall insist on it,” Tano said.

He was quite sure they would. And considering the dowager’s state of exhaustion—it was an even better idea.

“Get some rest yourselves,” he said. “All of you. I shall take Koharu and Supani and figure out my wardrobe for the evening—we shall have supper as we can, and then we shall be needing the truck, Tano-ji. I leave it to you.”

“It will be there,” Tano said, not objecting to his leaving in search of Koharu and Supani—no, Tano went withhim to the hall, and, once he had passed orders for the pair he wanted, to his suite. Tano stood by, pleasant and affable, while he and his dressers took account of the wardrobe; and while those two consulted with Ramaso, and Ramaso himself came to fuss over the problem.

Simple beige coat, little lace, but enough to be respectful: a country gentleman, with the paidhi-aiji’s white ribbon for his queue, not the grandiose black with stars.

And when he turned out for dinner, to meet Ilisidi and the young gentleman and his enlarged company, the dowager had chosen simple black with a great deal of lace, and the young gentleman was nicely turned out in a brown coat with his hair done up with a smallish black-and-red ribbon, the colors of his father’s house, but not extravagantly displayed. Ramaso had been behind that, he would almost bet. The dowager had her own sense of proprieties.

And she was, Bren was glad to see, energetic and bright-eyed, perfectly herself, plying her cane as she entered the dining room with Cenedi, taking her place at one end of the table, while Bren with Tano and Algini in attendance—Banichi and Jago were taking their ease at the console in quarters, and doubtless doing a little touchup on the evening’s arrangements—took the other end of the table, and settled with minimal flourish and fuss.

A small dinner, he had ordered, and a single glass of wine, followed by water. Mental acuity would be a very good idea this evening.

The young gentleman settled in, with his entourage attending, the two newcomers quite stiff and proper.

And: “The paidhi may have noticed the addition to my great-grandson’s company,” the dowager said. “Do you approve, paidhi-aiji?”

“My approval is neither here nor there, aiji-ma.”

“Ha!” Ilisidi said, and picked up her water glass. “My interfering grandson.”

“He has, however, assured that your staff will be protecting you, aiji-ma, which pleases all of us who—”

“Shameless,” the dowager said. “We shall watch this carefully,” she added with a sharp look toward the nearer of the pair in question, who affected not to have heard a thing. “And we starve ourselves this evening, one trusts, with the promise of a small offering before we retire.”

“If the dowager is in appetite for a sweet and a cup of tea when we return, one is very certain the kitchen will be delighted.”

“Oh, give us an argument, nand’ paidhi. Everyone is agreeing and dodging. Probably these two are a politic choice and we shall have some of those cream pastries, shall we?”

“Granted a felicitous outcome tonight, aiji-ma, one will be extremely delighted to argue with you over pastries.”

Dinner consisted of a good chowder and whole grain crackers, a small glass of wine, and a fruit compotec by no means up to the dowager’s usual standard, except she had a second bowl of chowder.

And by then it was toward dark, and they had only time to gather up essentials and to go out to the portico, where the village truck had pulled up to take them down to the village.

But not just the village truck. Someone had wired substantial iron sheets to the wooden sides. It was the cab that was the more exposed to fire; and consequently their security proposed to put their principals on a small bench roped in place within the truck bed, and to have Nawari drive, with Cenedi and Banichi up front, and the rest all behind, under cover.

“This is ridiculous!” was the dowager’s protest. “We shall be bruised from head to foot.”

“We shall sit by you, mani,” Cajeiri said. “We shall not let you fall.”

“Impudent youngster! We do not fall off a mecheita going cross-country. We hardly plan to fall off a bench on a graded road!”

Cenedi had climbed aboard, and, standing over the small iron ladder that was welded to the back bumper, offered his hands. Ilisidi climbed gamely up, pulled aboard, and, cane in hand, stalked over to take her seat on the wooden bench, while Cajeiri scrambled up, with a shove from Jegari from below.

“Just wait until your bones carry a certain number of years, great-grandson! You will appreciate the discomfort of a bare bench and truck springs!”

“One is certain, mani. But one is certain Nawari will be careful.”

Bren climbed up, just behind Jago, who reached down to haul him aboard. He took the end of the bench, where, indeed, he could assist the dowager if they did hit a pothole.

Cenedi climbed back down, and the rest of the dowager’s men and Cajeiri’s young contingent climbed up. They settled in, most of the company sitting on the truck bed, the engine started up, and they moved fairly sedately around the arc of the cobbled drive and onto the unpaved country road.

It didn’t stay a sedate pace. Security concerns, Bren was certain, had them picking up speed. But the road, though winding a bit downhill and alongside a small and ominous woods, was well-maintained, and lacking potholesc that, or Nawari was to credit for missing them.

It was with a sigh of relief that they entered the central (and only major) street of Najida village. Twilight showed very few lights at all, the habit of mainland country folk: nobody burned lights to keep away crime, since there was none to speak ofc just the occasional rowdy youngster. There were no police, just the local constable, who was in charge of talking people out of quarrels, and officiating at the occasional marriage, supervising the village clerk, and the village—Mosphei’ had no exact word for it except commissioner, but there was no commission, just a woman and three aides who scheduled the bus and the truck, and oversaw the procurement of some supplies held in common, such as the village nurse’s needs, the grading equipment, the school, and public sewers and sanitation.

And all such persons had their offices in the village hall, along with the unelected but empowered council of elders, the heads of families, who met when they decided to meet, and once a month met to review the doings of the regular officials.

c or in this case, to receive the Lord of Najida and his guests the aiji-dowager and the heir of the aishidi’tat, to which they belonged mostly in name. The doings of the aishidi’tat rarely touched the doings of the village, or rarely did so in any official way; and no member of the aiji’s household, including the paidhi-aiji, had ever darkened the door of the village hall, not in all the time it had stood.

They were here to change that.

People of the village—mostly women, young folk and children—were standing about the entry, and came to watch as they disembarked, an immediate flood of Guild in black leather uniforms, and then, with great solicitude, the dowager, who did not take kindly to being lifted down from the truck bed in the arms of her young men, and wanted to climb down, but that itself was an undignified process, and a very chancy little thin-runged ladder, so down she came, and set her feet on the ground immediately with a solid whack of her cane.

Cajeiri scrambled down on his own, steadied at the last by Jegari and Antaro, his new guards standing by in commendable deference.

And Bren climbed down and met up with Jago at the bottom, Banichi appearing almost immediately and making shift to get them all inside and under at least the cover of a roof.

So in they came, in a surrounding flood of black uniforms and with a distressing lot of firepower, but there was reason for it, and he by no means protested Guild precautions. They walked down a broad hallway, wooden-floored, and into open double doors at the end, where the village dignitaries waited somewhat informally, standing among their orderly tables.

There were bows, not as deep as country folk might ordinarily make in meeting the aiji-dowager or even the paidhi-aiji, but it was not a discourtesy, rather the situation, that they were in the place of their own authority.

“Nand’ dowager.” The speaker was an old woman, a seam-faced and weathered woman wearing her go-to-meeting best, a black shawl with years of service, but it was an excellent garment, no matter the era, beautifully embroidered with vines. A deep bow, then. “Nand’ paidhi. I am Aieso, eldest of Najida village.”

“We have come to listen, Aieso-daja. In all courtesy, I shall speak briefly. But in the main, considering the situation, we believe we should be advised before giving advice. We have come to ask.”

The old woman nodded, bowed again, all around, including to Cajeiri, then walked to the head table and rapped on the wood with her gnarled knuckles.

A silence gradually fell. People sought chairs, and two young men came offering chairs at the head table to the dowager, Cajeiri, and him.

They took those places. It was no polished historic conference table, but it had its own history, evident in the scratches and digs and occasional wounds in the rough-finished surface. The chairs likewise were age-smoothed, neither stained nor polished.

“Nand’ Bren says he and the dowager and the young gentleman have come to listen tonight,” Aieso said. “But he has a few words of his own, nadiin. Listen to him.”

A little final settling, a last couple of people in place. Guild stood about the walls, bristling with weapons. But the assembly they watched were all old men and women, the business owners and tradesmen of the town, people of local substance and excellent reputation—well, as much as went with long politics in a village.

Bren rose in place and looked over the assembly—no brilliant electrics here, just oil lamps that gave a gentle glow to the place, and not that electricity was not available in the village. It just was not here, in this place of local tradition.

“Esteemed neighbors,” he said, with a little bow, “what I have to say is brief, counting that I know less than I should. First, thank you, and the dowager and the young gentleman thank you most earnestly, for the efforts of our neighbors in rescuing the young gentleman from the coast. Had you not helped us, we might have been far slower to take the search out to sea, and the event might have had a very bad outcome. Please make known any damages incurred during the search, and I will gladly bear any expense for repairs. Thank you, personally, for your hospitality toward my brother’s lady, and most of all for your understanding. Thank you for your support during the difficulties at Lord Geigi’s estate, and the attack on my house. The aiji-dowager has spoken to Lord Geigi directly, advising him of the situation, and Lord Geigi has agreed to return very shortly and take possession of his nephew and of the estate, to attempt to set matters right.”

That created a little buzz in the room, words exchanged sotto voce and behind hands, but it seemed to be welcome news.

“Among matters of utmost concern in my own mind,” Bren said, “is the fact that when the young gentleman and I visited that house, we saw no familiar faces, none of the people we would have expected to be there. We are greatly concerned for the welfare of that staff.”

A sudden thump of Ilisidi’s cane. “The nephew neglected business in Shejidan. Evidently he had a situation he wished not to report, and the aishidi’tat has been remiss not to inquire more closely regarding this sudden change in attitude and relations. The aishidi’tat took for granted the favorable association which has long existed in this region and took an attitude of patience with this young nephew. This was a mistake. We hope it has not cost lives, nor will cost them, but we fear to the contrary. The aishidi’tat has no wish for a continuing Guild presence in this region, and forces will withdraw as soon as we are sure Southern influence does not threaten the peace of this district.”

With which, and a second thump of the cane, Ilisidi fell back into silence, leaving a ripple of whispering and disturbance in her wakec again, not hostility, but hard to read what precisely it was—except honest fishermen and craftsmen trying to read all the way to the bottom of a remark by a master of Shejidan politics. Aieso, her gnarled hands laced before her lips, sat in silence, her eyes, gold dark nearly to bronze, taking in every movement.

“Neighbors,” Bren said, with a nod to that lady, “people who have a birthright on this coast should be reassured. The Southern influence which moved into Kajiminda has been dislodged, permanently, and there will be no threat to the region from that quarter. One wishes one could claim that one’s own cleverness detected this intrusion and laid all this plan to deal with it, but, baji-naji, there has been more chance on our side and more plan on the Southern side. They thought they had caught me without allies. They were mistaken. I thank the dowager, I thank the aiji, and the brave folk of Najida that we have overturned that schemec” That drew pleased looks. “But we remain concerned for the fate of people harmed by these goings-on. If there is any help the estate can give, we would be very glad to provide it.”

A single young man stood up, a thin, shabby-looking young man in the far corner of the room; and every Guildsman around the periphery went on alert. “Nand’ paidhi.”

“Nadi?”

A bow. “My name is Teigi. I came here as the son of Paigi. This was a lie. I am Edi, from Kajiminda—a youngest, and expendable.”

His security would not be happy with this deception. But none of them were surprised by it. He simply bowed in acknowledgement.

“One rejoices to hear from Kajiminda, Teigi-nadi. Say on.”

“This is what the Edi say. Throw the Southerners out or let us do it. Let us have our lordships and our law and our land back. I am the youngest. If you arrest me, you have no one.”

“There is no question of arresting the spokesman for the Edi,” Bren said, and in the tail of his eye, saw the dowager rising to her feet, when she was, being who she was, perfectly entitled to sit to address anyone in the aishidi’tat. It was a courtesy, and it was hard for her.

She stood upright, however, and planted the cane firmly.

“We are an Easterner,” she said in that incisive, absolute voice, “and we comprehend the position of the Edi people. We of the East have Malguri and those in its man’chi. Where is the house of the Edi lord? There shouldbe a house of the Edi, and one of the Gan.” Those were the other aboriginal people, the latter, like the Edi, dispossessed from Mospheira. “We think so. We have not expressed this thought to our grandson. But it is our opinion.”

My God, Bren thought. She was proposing two new provinces.

The young man stood there, just stood for a moment.

“We would not expect,” Ilisidi said, “that representatives of the Edi and of the Gan would bring such proposals to the aiji in Shejidan.”

The proposal of an Edi and a Gan estate had thorns all over it. The Edi and the Gan had neverofficially joined the aishidi’tat, because the Edi and the Gan were both inside other provinces.

“You have suffered,” Ilisidi said, “as have other peoples of this coast, from the chaff of the quarrel between the South and the Ragi of the central districts. This is a case that should be made. The aishidi’tat is not weaker because it contains the intact East. The aishidi’tat would be stronger if it contained an intact West. Right now you are the majority on this coast. And you have no lordship. Take my encouragement to pursue it, and set up your own defenses.”

The young man still stood. The dowager sat down again, and Bren drew a breath, finding the silence beginning to fray into a mutter.

“The dowager’s opinion,” he said, “will carry weight. You have a potential ally.”

The young man finally came alive to give a sketchy bow.

“One is by no means instructed on a reply, nandiin. One will carry the message.”

Cajeiristood up. Bren took in a breath, starting to signal the boy to the contrary, but Cajeiri was unstoppable in the best of circumstances.

“Listen to my great-grandmother, nadi,” Cajeiri’s young voice rang out. And, God, he could not have done better, with the matrilineal Edi, if he had targeted it. “My father does.”

There was a stir in the room. Everybody reacted.

And Cajeiri promptly sat down, leaving Bren alone to deal with the assembly.

“The young gentleman has many virtues,” Bren said, “including forthrightness. He says what he thinks, and what he thinks will one day be the policy of the aishidi’tat.”

There was a pause, a murmur, and then the stamp of a foot. Which became many feet, until the room thundered.

Bren bowed, and sat down, as the young Edi sat down, and all around the room security stood just a little easier.

It wasn’t going to be the safe direction. It was going to kick up one hell of a storm in Shejidan. But the coast had the backing of the East, and it was a natural ally against the South, a back and forth piratical war that had gone on for centuries.

Policy had just shifted. The thing once named had the power to exist, and once it existed, it would change the aishidi’tat.

Policy had just shifted and the wind had begun to blow, a sea wind, into the heart of the continent. The dowager, who had once bid to become aiji herself, had just tilted policy and directed the future course of politics.

And the paidhi hadn’t the least clue how he was going to explain it to Tabini.

—«»—«»—«»—

An Excerpt from


Bren Cameron’s notes.

The House of the Maschi

The Maschi clan has declined over centuries to a handful of the name, resident within the Sulesi clan, the inland limit of Sarini Province.

Within the Maschi clan:


The Marid, subdivided into the Tasaigin Marid, the Senji Marid, and the Dojisigi and Dausigi Marid—the four major districts that, with their clans and septs, rule the South. There are also the Sungeni, the local islands, ruled by the Tasaigi.

The Tasaigin Marid has been the most persistent problem to Tabini, but the other three districts, jealous of the power of the Tasaigi, have been laying their own plots.

One of the first indicators of trouble to come was the stir the Marid tried to make over the space program. They attempted to ruin Lord Geigi, who was a major supporter, and who had an aerospace plant in his district. They had subverted his Samiusi clan wife—who then fled to the Marid, married again, and had three children with Coidinje of the Tasaigi.

Badissuni was a previous problem to Tabini-aijic he appeared in the early accounts of Marid troubles: he was very much against the space program, mostly because it gave him an issue to use against Tabini. He came to consult with Tabini after the assassination of Lord Sagaimi of the Tasaigi, on a notable occasion of a visit from Lord Tatiseigi to the Bujavid, and that didn’t go well.

Here’s how the Sagaimi of the Tasaigin Marid’s descent runs:


Ardami ruled the Tasaigi after the death of Sagaimi, Sarini, and then Cosadi. His marriage to Mada of the Farai has produced a union between the Senji Marid and the Tasaigin Marid, and he has produced Tula, a daughter, and Machigi. Ardami was assassinated, and Machigi is now aiji of the Tasaigin Marid.

This Machigi, a son, is troublec first as a threat to the independence of the Senjin Marid.

The Senjin Marid is the one that has been courting Baijic through Baiji’s ex-aunt, and his cousins, because they have old relations with the Samiusi, part of Sarini province, which is notpart of the Marid, but part of Geigi’s association. They have been helped in this by Badissuni’s clan, the Dojisigi.

If the Senjin Marid, through marriage and assassination, could get control of the west coast, Najida and Kajiminda, they would challenge the powerful Machigi of the Tasaigin Marid for control of southern politics. But they are very likely being egged on and encouraged by Machigi himself, who sees advantage in their actions. Machigi is very likely to double-cross them the moment they gain any territory.

And meanwhile the Dojisigin Marid, home of the daughter being offered by the Senjin, is looking for any advantage and feeling itself threatened by the rise of this powerful Tasaigin aiji.

There are two other Marid districts of much less power: the Sungeni Marid (the islands) and the Dausigin Marid, the lower east side of the Marid, which has never been strong enough to contend with the others.

Within the Tasaigin Marid, there is one powerful district: Sarini’s district of Tanji.

Within the Dojisigin Marid, there is Badissuni’s Amarja.

Within the Senjin Marid, there is Morigi-dar, stronghold of the Farai.

The Dojisigin Marid is sparsely populated, and usually bows to the Dojisigi or the Tasaigi, whichever they fear most at the time.

The Marid as a whole was all once a separate nation from the aishidi’tat, but a succession of skirmishes and assassinations brought it into the fold in Valasi-aiji’s time. Tabini has inherited the situation, and has had several times to bring the Marid back into line. But it remains a district in constant turmoil.

History of the Marid

The Marid used to claim the whole west coast of the continent, from the peninsula of Dalaigi down to their modern territory in the central South.

But after the War of the Landing, the north coast territory was given to the displaced Gan, the southwestern coast to the Edi, and the Samiusi and Maschi clans were set in authority over the district, definitively freed of the domination of the Marid.

The Edi, seafarers and fishermen, took up their occupation out of the several bays of the continental west and began to shove the Marid ships out of their area—piracy was what the Marid called it. Certain districts, notably Najida, profited by luring passing Marid ships onto the rocks and looting them.

The Gan, northerly, were more strictly fisherfolk, and mostly peaceful.

The Edi, consisting of several subgroups, mostly fought among themselves, when they were not fighting the Marid, until they agreed to accept a Maschi lord, the father of Lord Geigi of the Maschi, seated at Kajiminda.

Among the clans of the Marid, the loss of the west coast in the Resettlement after the War of the Landing was a serious blow. The Marid still has exclusive rights in the whole southern fishing grounds, but it regards the loss of the west coast, though they had few settlements there, as an ongoing wound to their pridec and Edi raids on their shipping and commerce as a grievous wrong.


Affiliations of critical groups


Major Clans that are Ragi or affiliated with the Ragi

Taiben (Tabini’s clan: Padi Valley district: historic enemies of the Atageini)

Atageini (Tatiseigi’s clan: Padi Valley district: lady Damiri’s maternal clan)

Malguri (Ilisidi’s clan: Eastern, far side of the continent)

Dur (the north coast Islands)

Ajuri (lady Damiri’s paternal clan, northern)

Samiusi/Maschi (Geigi’s clan, west coast)

The Edi clans (loosely bound to the Maschi, therefore to Tabini: an aboriginal coastal people akin to the Gan. Both Edi and Gan are matrilineal.)

The Gan clans (loosely bound to Dur, therefore to Tabini: an aboriginal Mospheiran people; matrilineal.)

The various mountain clans

The various northern clans

Clans that are not firmly Tabini’s

Kadagidi (Murini’s clan, Padi Valley district: historic allies of the Atageini: they have relatives among the Atageini and the Tasaigi)

The clans of the Marid: the Farai sept of Morigi clan; the Tasaigi; the Dojisigi; etc.

Some clans of the East (bound to Tabini through Ilisidi of Malguri clan, who is their aiji)

A Brief history of the Marid Rebellions

Saigimi and his Samiusi-clan wife, produced Sarimi, who produced Cosadi, who launched many attacks on the north, in attempts to unseat the aiji in Shejidan, the aiji of the whole aishidi’tat—currently Tabini. The whole Marid belongs to the aishidi’tat by treaty, but would like to run the association.

When Saigimi was assassinated, Badissuni of the Amarja District of the Tasaigin Marid went to Tabini hoping to gain favor and a foothold and an apartment in the Bujavid. He died, but had previously married and produced two offspring with Tori, Cosadi’s sister: a son, Mujito and a daughter, Comari. Mujito’s young daughter Tiajo is the one offered in marriage within this accountc in, just to confuse matters, a scheme led by the Senjin Marid, who have the useful tie to the Maschi (Lord Geigi’s house). They are aided by the Dojisigi Marid, where Mujito’s former wife is aijic who have the available daughter, Tiajo (who is half Tasaigi)—and they are egged on in this venture by the Tasaigin Marid, where Mujito’s blood relative, Machigi, is now aiji, and seeking power on a scale with what Sarimi once had.

This is a situation to watch.

—«»—«»—«»—

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