Inheritor

And that was one of those items that was going to be seething under the surface of the questions various news services wanted to ask him. The conference was supposed to be about the space program, which he desperately wanted to talk about. But atevi knew there was something very significant going on in the way the space program was being built, and in the way prosperity was being handed out to one lord and assassination used against another.

The answers whether it was a good or bad change in atevi affairs were in those baskets of letters—ordinary atevi expressing their opinions.

“There are a few items difficult of disposition, nand’ paidhi,” Nand’ Dasibi informed him. “One understands there was an untoward incident in the skies on your return. Might one inquire, will the paidhi wish this incident acknowledged if the public inquires?”

“The matter,” Banichi said, his shadow as he had walked through the room, among the desks, and now as they stopped at the head of it, “is still under staff investigation. It was minor.”

“Say,” Bren added, “that I was not hurt and never alarmed. The skill of the aiji’s pilots prevented harm. It underscores the importance of pilots observing air traffic control regulations and filing flight plans… and so forth. You know my opinions on that.”

“One does, yes, nand’ paidhi.”

“There will also be an a

Brows went up. Dasibi said not a thing.

“I’m sure,” Bren said quietly, “that there’ll be inquiries, and the event will not be open to the public. Don’t comment on the situation in the peninsula unless it’s cleared through the aiji’s staff. The official answer and the real one is that I had a successful tour, enjoyed fine hospitality, and was never threatened by the events to the south. I will forewarn you however that one should not schedule very many staff leaves of absence during the next week or so.”

“We do hope nothing is amiss.”

“One likewise hopes, nand’ Dasibi. Very sadly, one member of my household has received bad news from the ship.” Short guess who thatwas. “A death in his family. But he knew his choice to come down here to serve would separate him from his family as well as his people. Please limit public questions on this matter and assure inquirers that the ship-paidhi is a young man of great courage and resolve who shares my purpose in seeing the atevi ship built.”

“One will do so, nand’ paidhi. Please convey to him our good will.”

“With all appreciation, nadi.”

“There is—another message from lord Caratho. With maps.”

Lord Caratho saw no reason if Geigi was prospering why a space industry plant couldn’t be built in his district. That was the crux of the matter.

The problem was, neither did numerous other lords see why they shouldn’t have the same advantage. Caratho, and four others, had inundated the Economic Commission’s office with figures and proposals. But Caratho alone figured, since various regular cha

Oh, damn, was the thought. Here it comes.

“If the paidhi will allow me to frame a reply,” Dasibi said, “I believe I can create a list of honored supporters of the space program which one might send to the aiji for his information, a list which others may wish to join and include among their honors—providing a disposition for all these reports and offers of resources to the effort. I have consulted the aiji’s staff and they concur. Meanwhile—lord Caratho has no need of such a plant, in the determination of the Economic Commission. He has ample revenues. He has fourteen hundred and fifty-four persons he’s had to write onto his staff because of unemployment in the district, which is not unusual for a lord of his wealth, and these are persons who used to be employed in railway construction, when the spur was being built. Let me apply finesse, if you will trust my discretion.”

Finesse was the same word Banichi would use—biichi’ji—in a strike without side damage.

“I have all confidence in you, Dasibi-ji. Please do what you can. I am notconcerned so much for lord Caratho, but by the persons unemployed. Find out the history on that, via the staff, if you can.”

“Taking a little liberty, nandi, I have, and they are persons who would not be employed by the plant he proposes.”

“Ah. He’s seeking to diminish his obligations.”

“One believes he is collectingthem into his employ, nand’ paidhi, particularly to present appearances and make those rolls larger. I am concerned, nand’ paidhi, that he may have done so with disregard of the welfare of the individuals he claims as dependents.”

“Do you, nandi, believe this is a situation to pass to the aiji’s staff?”

“I would say so, nand’ paidhi.” This last the old man offered with downcast eyes and some trepidation: he was accusing a lord in the reach of a person of rank sufficient to do him harm.

“I would concur,” Banichi said in a low voice, and the old man looked much happier. “And I know the rascal’s reputation: you will not surprise the aiji, nadi.”

“One is very glad to think so.” The old man let go a heavy breath. “And there are two messages from one Rejiri, the son of the lord of Dur, wishing your good will. We have no idea why he sent twice—he mentions a meeting. We are unaware of any meeting with him on your schedule, nand’ paidhi.”

“The pilot of the plane. And I accept his good will. Assure him so. I have no time for a meeting.”

“If not the front door, the back,” Banichi muttered. “He isyoung, nadi.”

“Should I not accept his good will?” he asked.

“Young,” Banichi said. “And a fool. But, yes. Accept it. Nand’ Dasibi advises you very well in everything.”

“And,” Dasibi said, clearly pleased, “a message from the aiji-dowager’s staff, saying there is no need for a response, but that she will conclude her winter season with a brief visit to the capital, and that she will see you, nand’ paidhi, at your convenience.”

“Delighted,” he said, and was, from the time he’d heard it from Tabini, whose protestations about the dowager as a force in politics were frequent, half in jest and half not.

Himself, he’d been very sorry to think of Ilisidi going back to Malguri and particularly of his having no chance at all to see her, perhaps for a very long time, once she settled into the estate she best loved and once she settled deep into the local politics. The most recent turmoil around Malguri had been the dropping of bombs and the launching of shells. They were provincial lords of the eastern end of the Western Association, lords neighboring Ilisidi’s mother’s home—lords whose tangled thesis was that the paidhi, the aiji in Shejidan, andthe human President were all involved in conspiracy to deprive atevi of their rights.

They were the same nuisances who had it that Tabini and everyone involved had known the ship was about to appear.

And some diehard theorists stillmaintained there was not only a spaceship secretly already built on the island of Mospheira, but that it was constantly coming and going—which wasn’t true, but nothing including showing the lords in question the output of the radar dishes that guarded the whole maritime coast would dissuade them from their belief in conspiracy against them. First, they weren’t capable of reading the data; second, they would declare it was being falsified by some technical system so elaborate it would have made building a spaceship all but superfluous; and third, they were determinedto believe it was conspiracy, and therefore it was conspiracy even if they had to invoke secret bases on the moon or mind-warping rays sent down from the station at night. The point was, they wanted to believe in conspiracy and their own political situation was a lot better and easier to maintain if there were one.