Inheritor

“I agree.”

“It lastingly troubles me that I did not shoot that woman.”

Direiso was a possibility. But he knew that womanhad one meaning to Ilisidi. “Hanks-paidhi, aiji-ma?”

“Hanks.” Definitely a sour taste. “Melon-headed, my ally, did I tell you?”

Jase had to wonder about his vocabulary.

“Lord Geigi?” Bren asked.

“One had an excellent chance to shoot Hanks-paidhi,” Cenedi interposed. “And Geigi protected her.”

“Melon-head,” Ilisidi said.

“So what didhappen, aiji-ma?” It was a point of his extreme curiosity. “One hears that there was breakage of small objects.”

“Nothing of taste,” Ilisidi said. “Oh, it was easy for Geigi to gain admittance to Direiso’s estate. Direiso had offered Geigi money to pay off a certain”—a waggle of Ilisidi’s fingers—“oil investment gone bad. Saigimi had the extreme impatience to call it due immediately. Saigimi’s wife is, you may have heard, Geigi’s cousin. And sheheld the financial note on the house at Dalaigi. She had no idea that Geigi dared come to me with the matter.” By now a smile was tugging at Ilisidi’s lips. “Silly mistake. And of course Direiso had involved herself with that detestable human woman who had embarrassed them all. Saigimi had taken her from the capital, so my sources say, and brought her to Direiso’s estate somewhat against his will.”

One hadto be aware of the lord of Dur’s son, who was sitting still as a stone. And themselves, Tabini’s for certain, when Tabini himself had not been able to discover the things Ilisidi was saying.

Ilisidi held out her cup, and more tea arrived in it.

“Well, well, and having taken her from the capital before she spoke any more such foolishness and proposed death rays coming from the station,” Ilisidi said, “he was of a notion to take her to his house in the Marid, from which she would only speak at his permission. Covering his embarrassment over the faster-than-light notion, as happened. When you were able to explain the paradox, it was clear that houses would topple, and notGeigi’s. Meanwhile Direiso had gained Hanks as her guest. She called Geigi’s cousin, Saigimi’s wife, up to her house in the Padi Hills, and things were moving very rapidly. Murini, Direiso’s heir, had gone to the Atageini— hisnerve was weakening when it came to such an outrageous provocation of the aiji; but Tatiseigi locked him in a storeroom and refused to deal with him. Tatiseigi phoned mesaying he had apprehended vermin in his cellar, meaning that he had some prisoner, of course, and was notifying me, and thatwas when that fool Saigimi shot up the lilies.”

He felt his heart beating faster and faster.

“To be rid of me?” he asked in the silence the dowager left for a sip of tea.

“The action would at one stroke have embarrassed the Atageini, whom Saigimi saw as dangerous, and if it had eliminated you, who were seen as in my grandson’s man’chi, it would have elevated the value of the human woman. They were pla

“At this point I approached them to contest with Direiso—as Direiso privately thought—to try to take leadership of her movement, and sent Geigi as my emissary, having myself paid his debts not an hour before.

“But the transfer of funds had not reached Saigimi, who was, of course, out of his district, being involved with the lily matter. So he didn’t know, need I say, that Geigi was free, and in mydebt, and gave no warning when Geigi showed up to see whether the way was clear for me. Silly man, he thought Geigi had come to see his cousin, who was there for, well, safe-keepingin Direiso’s care.

“It was quite a little conference. And, not wholly relying on Geigi’s inexperienced judgment, why, I showed up at the door and asked admittance before Geigi had even made his report to me. The foolish woman was distracted from the back entry. I always saidDireiso had no qualifications for high office. And shesaid she was electable as I am not. Well, well, she probably was electable, being ofthe Padi Valley and a westerner. If she didn’t look a fool.”

Now he knew why Ilisidi had spoken freely in front of the boy from Dur, who was probably terrified of hearing so much detail of conspiracy against the aiji.

Twice the national legislature had voted against Ilisidi becoming aiji in Shejidan, the story was, because she was believed apt to take bloody revenge on enemies inthe legislature; twice that he knewof, now, Ilisidi had been involved in conspiracy that might have led to Tabini’s overthrow, and this time had made a thorough fool of Direiso. If she had ever admitted what she had said in others’ hearing, his security hadn’t reported it and Tabini had professed to him not to know.

As Tabini might notknow. Ilisidi would delight in putting Tabini in a place where he had to rely on her simply because maneuvering the aiji of Shejidan into such a position exercised muscles and gave the dowager pleasure, damned if not. The plague of my life, Tabini called her; and never, that he knew, nevermade a move against his grandmother.

“Dowager-ji,” he said softly, “you areamazing.”

“Ah, but I should have shot that woman.”

“As seems now,” Cenedi said, “but then—who knew what would come from the sky?”

Hedging her bets against the ship keeping its word. Cenedi hadn’t revealed that, either, without the dowager’s implied permission, but far fewer in this company would understand it in all its meaning.

“One needs ultimately,” Ilisidi said, “to draw all these elements together. But this distasteful human woman, one takes it, withthe help of the Presidentof Mospheira, is continuing her meddling. She knew contacts. She knew where to send such messages to have them fall on willing ears. She evidently gathered such information quite freely while she was dealing with Saigimi—whose demise was timely. I dare say, timely.”

What does thatmean? he wondered in some distress, but consciously didn’t frown.

The rags of cloud had flown over them. There was thunder, definitely, in the distance. The sky flickered over their heads, reminding one of metal tent frames and their situation at the crest of the promontory—save the knoll behind the tents.

“It was well done,” Ilisidi said, and chuckled softly. “So was Badissuni’s indigestion.”

“Nand’ dowager,” Jago said as if she had received a compliment.

He at least had suspected. He wasat least keeping up with situations. Badissuni might have joined Direiso in her adventurism in the north. Badissuni was in the hospital—but alive—and Ajresi still had Badissuni to worry about, so hewas out of the game.

“Time for bed,” Ilisidi said, and the woman who used a cane to get about and who had complained for years that she was dying used it now to lever herself up with smoother grace than a much younger human whose muscles had stiffened from sitting on the ground. “Early to rise,” the dowager proclaimed, looked up, and smiled at the lightning. “Lovely weather. A new year. Springon the coast.”

20

What was she saying?” Jase asked in a whisper as they went toward the tent. Jase caught his arm. “What was going on?”

“A little information,” Bren said. Thunder rumbled above them, and he could feel Jase flinch. He saw Banichi and Jago in converse a little distance away, and guessed that they had heard detail they had never heard, the same as he had. “Banichi and Jago killed lord Saigimi,” he said to Jase, “at Tabini’s order. But the dowager said she took Deana Hanks away from Direiso when Direiso kidnapped her last year. That dispute was what you parachuted into.”