Inheritor

And thiswas the vacation spot he’d chosen.

The putative servant took several candles from the basket and lit the first from the lighted candle on the table, then carried it outside and lit another, which, as they all stood watching, doubtless with separate thoughts of the situation, the servant set in a wall-sconce.

“Nand’ Banichi, your room, and nand’ Jago’s,” the servant said, lit a candle and set it by thatdoor to relieve the darkness of this tu

On the other side of this hall, although there were doors, as best the paidhi could judge the geometry of the building he’d seen from outside there were no windows: the rooms they were not using must be little more than stone coffins with no source of light but the candle, rooms dependent on mortar imperfections or God knew what for ventilation. He supposed, since he had challenged Ilisidi to challenge Jase, they were lucky not to be lodged on that side of the hall.

And the euphemistically named accommodation? The servant opened the door on a room with cold spring daylight showing through a hole in the stone floor. With the stack of towels. And a dipper and bucket.

The servant explained, for Jase’s benefit. The paidhi well understood. He wasn’t sure Jase quite believed it was the toilet.

The one at Malguri had had indoor heat. This didn’t. It had an updraft.

Malguri had had glass windows. Fireplaces in palatial suites, however old the plumbing. The distinction between Historical Site and Oldest Continuously Occupied Site began to come through to him with a great deal more clarity.

Jase hadn’t said a word. He was probably in shock, and walked along tamely as they all retraced their steps, the supposed servant in the lead, back down the candlelit hall toward their room—their—singular room.

Their—singular—room, which to his memory had one—singular—and not very wide—bed.

It was not polite for a guest to complain of accommodations. It was just not done. One assumed one’s host knew exactly what her guests were being put into, and one smiled and made no complaint.

He’d said trustingly to Ilisidi, in a private meeting in her luxurious study, in the Bu-javid apartment she maintained, “Aiji-ma, Jase doesn’t understand atevi. You taught me. And I daren’t go so far from the capital as Malguri. Might I impose on you, aiji-ma, to linger a little at Taiben this season? Perhaps to go over to the seashore and show Jase-paidhi the land as it was? I’ve promised him the sea. I’ve undertaken to provide him that—and your help would be best of all, aiji-ma.”

There’d been one of those silences.

“What happened to ’Sidi-ji?’ ” Ilisidi had asked with a quirk of her age-seamed lips and a lift of a brow, meaning why didn’t he use that familiar, intimate address he’d a number of times dared with her.

“I think,” he’d said, knowing he was fencing with a very dangerous opponent, at a very unsettled time in the aiji’s court, “I thought I should show some decency of address in such an outrageous request of your time, nand’ dowager.”

And Ilisidi had said, after an apparent moment of thought, one thin knuckle under a still-firm though wrinkled chin: “I think—I think that if you want the seashore, nadi, why, we should goto the seashore. Why not Saduri?”

He hadn’t thoughtit was a site open to the public. He’d foolishly said so.

And: “ Weare not the public,” Ilisidi had said, in that aristocratic mode that could move mountains.

So here they were. Tano, Jago, and Algini, with a number of putative servants, came up the steps at the end of the hall with a fairly light load of baggage.

“The rest of the baggage is going to be stored downstairs,” Jago said cheerfully.

Bren didn’t feelcheerful. Tano looked bewildered, and Bren didn’t dare look at Jase, just depressed the iron latch on his door to let their personal luggage in.

“Is there a key for this door, nadi?” he asked Ilisidi’s servant.

“No, nand’ paidhi. That room has no lock. But one assures you, the entire perimeter of this site is very closely guarded, so one may be confident all the same.”

Bren rather expected Banichi or Jago to say something caustic about that situation. But by that example, and their silence, he wondered whether theirrooms had locks.

One servant took his and Jase’s baggage in. Jago handed him his computer, which was notgoing to find a recharge socket in this building, but which he on no account allowed to remain outside his immediate guard, especially in a premises occupied by uncle Tatiseigi. That servant left. He walked in, Jase walked in, and he shut the door, leaving them in the white daylight from the window and the golden glow from the candle, which had by a whisper of a flame survived that gust from the closing door.

“Nadi,” Jase began with, he thought, remarkable restraint, “what are they doing? Why are we here?”

“Well,” he said, and tried to think of words Jase knew.

“I,” Jase began again, this time in his own language. He was clearly now fighting for breath—and probably falling down that interlinguistic interface again.

Bren said sharply, “I’m sorry.”

“Where is the ocean, nadi?”

“Clearly not here. Let me explain.”

“In my language! Please!”

He’d said that in Ragi. Which said Jase was at least getting the reflexes under control.

“Five fast minutes, then, inMosphei’. You remember how dangerous I said Tatiseigi was?—Well, the aiji-dowager is the focusof every anti-Tabini dissident in the country. Shehas the legitimacy Tatiseigi doesn’t. Except for the legislature voting the other way after her husband died, she could have been aiji. Except for them voting for her grandson after her son died, she could have been aiji. She could step in tomorrow without the country falling apart, and she’s the onlyone who’d avoid an unthinkable bloodbath, but she’s also—” One was neversure a room lacked bugs. And was always playing for an audience. “She’s also fair and honorable. She’s been exceedingly moral in all her dealings with the welfare of the Association. It would have been a loteasier for her to have raised a civil war against her grandson. But she didn’t, and I’m alive to say so. So keep objections to a minimum. And for God’s sake don’t make any objections to her. I asked her to show you atevi life as it was before humans came!”

“This is it, then, this falling-down ruin?”

“You listen to me, Jase.”

Jase shoved him, hard, and he grabbed Jase’s coat to prevent a swing at him.

“I’ve beenlistening to you,” Jase said, trying to free himself, and shoved again.

“You’re being stupid, stupidis what you’re being! Stand still!”

Jase clawed at his hand and he let go. And they stood and stared at each other, Jase panting for breath, himself very much on the verge of hitting him, someone, anyone.

“All right,” Jase said. “All right, I’ll go along with this. I’ll play your rules, your game, let’s just keep smiling.”

“Let me explain, before we switch languages again. If you insult this woman, you could have a war. If you insult this woman you could be killed. I am not exaggerating. We are dealing with cultural differences here. We are dealing with people who don’t owe anything to whatever code of ethics lies in our mutual past. So whatever happens, you get a grip on that temper, Mr. Graham. You get a grip on it or I’ll suggest to our staff they feed you some tea that’ll have you throwing up your guts for three days and ship you back to the apartment before you say something to kill several million people! Do I make myself clear?”

“No guts yourself?”

“No brains, Mr. Graham? If I hit you, and I’m tempted, God! I’m tempted; they’ll see the bruises—which I’d rather not, for your reputation and future—”