Inheritor

“The staff has tried to impress the gravity of matters on him,” Tano said, “and to make clear to him that he should pay closer attention to public events.—One does take the impression that this young man lacks seriousness of purpose.”

“Why is the paidhi involved with this person, nadi?” Banichi wanted to know, and the potential rebuke to junior security was implied in that ‘nadi.’ “And what, in full, happened?”

“An ATC violation,” Tano said. The note went from Jago on to Banichi. “We aretreating it seriously, nandi, at least to be sure there was nothing more than seems. It seems to be a young island pilot—the lord of Dur’s son.”

“Ah,” Banichi said, as if that explained any folly in the world. Banichi reached for more toast and, so supplied, perused the note and looked at the seal.

“A minor thing,” Algini said. “The authorities will advise the parents.—I would advise, nadi Bren, against accepting the boy’s apology. Apology to a person of your rank should come from the lord of Dur first, then the boy.”

“I understand,” Bren said as nand’ Saidin offered him curdled eggs and pastry. Considering the necessity of meeting with Tabini, it might be one of those days mostly marked by waiting. Tabini’s day looked to be one of those unpredictable ones, with various emergencies coming in. “Thank you, nadi. The paidhi would have offended half the world by now, and all the noble houses would have filed on him, if he didn’t have staff to keep him in order.”

“This isa young fool,” Banichi said, laying the note aside. “Don’t concern yourself with him, Bren-ji. This is for other agencies to pursue. Meanwhile we will be trying to solve the other questions you posed.”

The other questions, meaning the situation among the lords, post-Saigimi: atevi politics.

Meanwhile he had a computer and a briefcase full of plain, unadorned work he had to do for the space program.

And he had to deal with Jase personally. His staff said there was no impediment they could locate at Mogari-nai with messages to which they could gain access, which ought to be everything; and they did indicate that Jase hadn’t pushed Manasi to carry his request through cha

But primarily he had to unravel what in bloody hell was going on inside the ship and why Jase had gotten a message that personal from a source who had apparently been notified by the ship in preference to Jase.

That just damn well wouldn’t do, he thought, not in that personal matter, not, by any stretch of that policy, in other matters regarding the business on which Yolanda and Jason had come down to earth. Therewas the center of the matter, not Jase’s father, however tragic it was on a personal level.

Meanwhile Banichi and Tano and Algini had fallen to discussing the state of building security and whether they were going to need to establish a service alert on the third floor (a decision which rested in the hands of Tabini’s staff, and not their own) regarding the scaffold, which rumor on the staff held was going to be dismantled tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Bren thought, pricking up his ears. What a glorious piece of news. The workmen finished. No more scaffolding.

“No more barrier to the breakfast room?” he asked. “They’re going to take that ugly door down?”

“One hopes, paidhi-ji,” Tano said.

“But,” Jago said, “there’s a Marid lord arriving today to press a claim with the aiji.”

“Or,” Banichi said, “he wishes to escape the politics of his district. Note he hasn’tapplied for an audience.”

“Who is this?” Bren asked.

“Badissuni, by name,” Algini interjected. “And one wonders, nand’ paidhi, whether it’s an honest request.”

“One hardly thinks so,” Jago said. “I vastly distrust it. I would protest that door being removed.”

Banichi had a very sober expression. So, Bren trusted, did he.

“The press says,” Tano said, “that lord Badissuni is escaping the politics of his district. I think the press was handed that information.”

“A fair guess,” Banichi said, and tapped the table with a sharp egg-knife balanced delicately over his thumb. “My bet? He wants the press to say so. But he wants them following the story so if Tabini-aiji tosses him out of his ancestral apartments in the Bu-javid he can make politics at home.”

“So will Tabini do it?” Bren asked. “Pitch him out, I mean?”

“The Hagrani of the Marid have an apartment on the floor below, at the corner,” Algini said. “Quite close, nand’ paidhi. One hopes he doesn’t ask to take up residence. But we fear he will. The balcony is standing open for the paint to dry and the room to air. This is not a good security condition. If they take down the security panel we have the same condition as before, glass doors, a balcony, no difficulty if all residents of this wing are reliable. But it’s not alone these glass doors. It’s the aiji’sapartment next door. This is a serious exposure. Saigimi did not use the apartment. He let it to lord Geigi, who is notin residence, nor will be.”

“The aiji shouldforbid his opening that apartment,” Jago said under her breath. “This man is dangerous. He should be sent home unheard. We’ll have official functions here in the building, we’ll doubtless have windows open. This is an invitation perhaps the aiji is consciously extending. But I protest it when it comes near you, Bren-ji.”

It was sensitively close to this apartment, and close to the aiji, was what Jago was saying. And the glass doors of the breakfast room had already proved a flimsy shield against bullets. That was why they were repairing the lily frieze.

“I’m here to rest,” was Banichi’s pronouncement on the situation, meaning, Bren supposed, and agreed, that they could leave that to others to decide, and enjoy their time in safety.

So Banichi had another helping. And with Banichi, Tano, and Algini at the table, all of them in their uniform black, all in shirt-sleeves so as not to scar the delicate chairs with the silver-studded coats, the paidhi had his favorite breakfast, thought over hisunavoidable problems, and, while the very large bowl of curdled eggs vanished, along with half jars of marmalade and various muffins, listened to his staff discuss in their cryptic way. He pricked up his ears again as the conversation made him absolutely certainthe Saigimi business had come as a complete shock to Tano and Algini and that the orders which had caused it had not come at all unexpected to Banichi or Jago. Banichi wouldn’t have let that much slip, he well knew, if Banichi didn’t trust the entire company, and that had to include madam Saidin.

Or they were setting something up.

Since—he realized at that instant—Saidin herself was doing all the serving.

He was sitting in a room totally occupied by the Assassins’ Guild, including madam Saidin, as shop talk went on about this and that, involving Guild policy on the recent assassination, the configuration of the apartments, and the aiji’s schedule, on the security of which the paidhi’s as well as the aiji’s life and safety depended.

Tiburi, the wife of Saigimi, andher daughter Cosadi, one also learned, had bolted for Direiso’s estate as Saigimi’s brother Ajresi seized power in the Tasigin Marid.

“Don’t count that as the final skirmish,” was Jago’s observation.

“Badissuni,” Banichi said, “may be a messenger from Ajresi to Tabini.”

Queasy thought to have with the breakfast eggs—uncommon discussion to have flowing around him, but he took his own internal temperature and decided he wasn’t nearly as shocked as he ought to be about the recent assassination.

And he’d just thought—maybe it would be a lot better if an accident befell several more people associated with Saigimi.

He wasslipping toward a certain callous view of these things; and did he losesomething by that change in himself, or gainsomething, when he envisioned the fear Tabini could strike ifhe decided to kill the first messenger of peace and by that action to signal (as in the machimi) his wish for Saigimi’s Hagrani clan to remove its own new leadership in order to have peace with the aiji? Clans apparently had done it in the past.