Conspirator

Space travel.

Upsetting the balance of power in the aishidi’tat.

Contact with aliens that could still come down on themc

The aiji had been staunchly supportive of his human advisor in his return to power; but time—time and politics—could reorder all sorts of priorities.

“The paidhi could File,” Jago said with a sigh, “but then we would all be busy for years.”

“The paidhi’s generosity in withdrawing to the country,” Tano said, “if backed by adequate strength, can only trouble the troublemakers.”

“Backed by strength,” Banichi said. “ Andthe aiji. One month. Let the Farai hear that, and take another thought about inconveniencing the paidhi-aiji.”

Inconveniencing was one way to put it.

“Do you, nadiin-ji,” Bren asked very quietly, “do you think the aiji doeswish the paidhi to take a moderate course, or am I putting you in danger by my reluctance to File on this clan?”

A small silence. Opaque stares. Yes-no. Maybe. Then Jago, whose stare was generally the most direct, glanced down. No answer.

“See what the aijiwill do,” Algini said, then, “whether he will permit this trip—or not.”

Scary enough advice. Tabini coulddecide out of pure pique to throw the Farai out of his apartment, the hell with the South, collectively known as the Marid, which had caused the aiji so much trouble.

That would toss the oil-pot in the fire, for sure.

Or Tabini could use the month to maneuverc and temporize further with the Marid.

And the paidhi could come back and conspicuously set up in the hotel at the foot of the hill, posing a security nightmare for his staff, inconveniencing all the legislators who did nothave apartments in the Bujavid, and who relied on that hotel during the upcoming session—

And waiting for the Farai to feel the heat enough to do something overt, either against him, or against Tabini himself. Thatwould put Tabini in the right.

He’d personally bet the Farai would do neither, counting on all the paidhi’s other enemies to take him out of the way.

And there were certainly sufficient of those. As Jago said, they could become very, very busy, just keeping him alive, if they had to move into exposed circumstances. It was a risk to them, as much as him.

“It is a very uncomfortable position to be in, nadiin-ji,” he said. “Likeliest the aiji will give me at least my month, however—whatever we have to do for the session. And in any case, we know we have to pack. We can hardly share the premises with Uncle Tatiseigi.”

That produced a little laugh all around.

“Where will the dowagerlodge?” Tano wondered then, the second good question of the situation: the aiji was lodging in herapartment, part of the whole chain of inconvenience. And while it had been mildly titillating to have the aiji-dowager staying under Tatiseigi’s roof at Tirnamardi, in that very large estate, it escalated to salacious rumor to consider the dowager sharing the Atageini lord’s apartment in the Bujavid, at a very slight remove from her grandson the aiji.

Not that salacious rumor ever displeased the aiji-dowager.

“I suppose she will stay with the aiji and his household,” Bren said. That would set the nuclear fuse ticking: give that about a week before the dowager and the aiji were ready to File on each other. “But let us hope we shall be on the coast, safe from all events. For at least the next month.”

Nand’ Bren was leaving. Cajeiri heard it from Great-grandmother’s major domo, Madiri, who had heard it from Cajeiri’s father the aiji. Great-uncle Tatiseigi was coming back, Great-grandmother was also coming back, but Great-uncle was pushing nand’ Bren out of Great-uncle’s apartment, and nand’ Bren was going off to live on the coast, which was entirely unreasonable. And even worse, even worse, Great-uncle was going to be living down the hall.

That was what Cajeiri heard; and being a year short of fortunate nine, and already as bored with his existence in the Bujavid as a young lord could be—his father and mother let him do nothingexcept his studies, and his chosen aishi was up on the station probably forgetting all about him and growing up without him—he saw nothing brighter ahead. He had been back to ordinary, boring life in his father’s household for three whole monthssince the set-to with Great-grandmother’s neighbors in Malguri.

He had so looked forward to spring, and summer, and maybe, maybebeing able to go visit the wilderness of Taiben, or even go out to Great-uncle’s estate at Tirnamardi, where he would mostly have to behave (but Great-grandmother never watched him as closely as his parents, and out there, she would be ru

But now—

Now Great-grandmother was going away, and Great-uncle was coming hereand throwing nand’ Bren out.

It was just unfair.

And he had nobody left to talk to. Antaro and Jegari, even, his two companions from Taiben, who were almost his bodyguard, were off enlisting in the Assassins’ Guild and training most every day. They did at least show him what they learned that day, or every so-many days, when they were held at the Guild house for overnight. That was where they were today, so he couldn’t even tell them the bad news.

If Jegari and Antaro had their Guild status, Cajeiri said to himself, he might set themon the nasty Farai and scare them right out of nand’ Bren’s apartment and solve everything.

But they had no such license, and the Farai had their own Assassins, and besides, his father would find out about it and thatwould stop that.

He should suggest it to Banichi and Jago. Theycould do it. They could scare the Farai all the way back to the Marid, and show them up for the scoundrels they were.

But you had to File Intent to be legal to go after someone. And that took time.

And probably Bren’s guard would never listen to him. Even Banichi. Banichi had used to build cars with him, but no longer. He’d had Casimi and Seimaji, that Great-grandmother had set to guard him; but he had not even had them now for days, because they’d both gone back to Great-grandmother. So besides that, he had those two old sticks, Kaidin and Temein, that Great-uncle Tatiseigi had sent to watch over him and spy on his father: and Kaidin and Temein had never been happy at all with him, since they had gotten in trouble for losing him once—

And for the rest of his resources, he just had his father and his mother’s guard standing around, and theywere never under his orders. If he asked them to do something, it was always, “Ask your own guard, young gentleman.”

Even worse, mother’s sister was visiting for the last three days; hertwo servants were flirting with his father’s guards, hanging about the kitchen and being obnoxious. The guards were distracted, being stupid, and nobody even cared what he thought.

There was an advantage, however, to nobody caring what he thought, and to his aunt’s maids acting like fools, which was that people grew busy and forgot to pay attention to him. He had not gotten in trouble in at least half a month, which meant that he was not under active restriction at the moment.

So he went down the hall and searched up boring old Kaidin and Temein. They were finishing the day’s reports when he found them; and he said:

“Nand’ Bren has a book I need for my studies.”

A sour look. “We can get it, young lord.”

He thought fast. “This is a very old book, and I have to convince nand’ Bren I can take care of it. No farther than just down the hall. I need to talk to him. I can go by myself or you can take me there.”

“We should ask the aiji’s staff,” Temein said. He was not the most enterprising of men; and Kaiden thought they should clear the order, too—to Cajeiri’s disgust.