Conspirator

Run. He was hardly sure he could walk at the speed they were using.

But they had to do better, not to get caught out here.

“Yes,” he said. “Let us try it.”

They got up. His stomach hurt. But it was going to get worse.

They were going into the open. It was dangerous. But there was a reason these men were going the way they were—because it was safer for the enemy.

“Nandi,” Jegari whispered. “Nandi, if they spot us, one begs you, duck, and stay with Antaro. I run fastest. I always beat her. I shall keep going.”

And get shot, he thought, appalled. But it was what a bodyguard was supposed to do. He nodded. “Yes,” he said.

“We are going to be leaving a trail,” Jegari said. “We should at least make speed, nandi.”

With which, Jegari struck off at a run.

He ran behind Jegari, and it hurt. His boots were not sturdy for out of doors. Rocks hurt his feet. His ankles faltered, and his knees hurt. His ribs began to ache. He stumbled, and Antaro caught his arm and kept him going.

But they both were lagging back now, both were ru

“Halt!” a man said out of the dark behind them, just right behind them.

He ran harder, expecting to be shot at. But Antaro had stopped, and Jegari did, ahead of him, facing back toward him.

He stopped where Jegari stood, and looked back past Antaro.

A man rose out of the grass. He had what could be a rifle. He could have shot them, so things were not as bad as they could be—just stay alive, just keep himself and his companions alive. Mani was going to have to get them out of this one.

It was over. At least this round.

He stood still, panting hard. He could hear Jegari breathing.

He saw Antaro tamely fall in beside that man as he walked toward them, and he figured that man had threatened to shoot him and Jegari.

The man came right up to them. “Young lord,” he said, in an Eastern accent, and gave a sketchy, wary nod, and Cajeiri’s breath gusted out and didn’t come back for a moment.

The young man’s name was Heien. He was one of mani’s youngest, from Malguri.

“Come,” the young man said, “quickly.”

“There are men, nadi,” Cajeiri said, pointing, “further that way, moving northwest, toward nand’ Bren’s estate. Four men.”

“Hurry, then, young lord,” Heien said, and gathered him by the arm and dragged him into motion. “Quickly!”

Cajeiri ran, gasping as he did so, and Jegari and Antaro kept pace, but it was not far, just over a slight elevation, and there was the double track of the road through the grass, and of all things, the battered estate bus sitting in the middle of the road, where another road branched off and this one just kept going.

Had they even gotten beyond the estate road, with all their effort and their ru

Even before they got to the bus, more men were getting out—Cenedi was in charge of them. His pale hair showed, when little else did but shadows.

Cajeiri really ran, then, with all he had left.

The dowager had gotten up into the aisle and Bren deferred to her intention. “Ha!” was all she had said, when Cenedi told her that Heien had just swept up the youngsters. She had gotten up, painful as that process might be, and showed every inclination to go to the door and descend the steps. Bren, behind her, with Tano and Algini, waited in the aisle.

Some signal had passed, one of those prearranged sets of blips that the dowager’s guard used among themselves. And Bren ducked his head and asked, “Can you tell Banichi and Jago that we have them?”

“We have done so, nandi,” Tano said.

So Banichi and Jago did know the field was clear—the youngsters turning up was one of the eventualities for which they had arranged a code. Howthe youngsters had done it was something he was sure they were about to hear, in exquisite detail, once Ilisidi had given the princely ear a smart swatc

Or maybe she wouldn’t, for this one. Precocious lad. And the Taibeni kids—were Taibeni: out of their element in a state di

“Will Banichi and Jago come back now, nadiin-ji?” he asked Tano and Algini.

“They likely will not, nandi,” Tano said, and Algini:

“They are likely committed, now.”

“To what?” he asked.

“To removing these people from Lord Geigi’s estate, nandi,” Tano said. “The aiji’s men have likely moved up from the Township. The field is clear now. One doubts they will give up that advantage.”

Two of Cenedi’s men had gone with them— nottheir accustomed team—so both sets were working at personal disadvantage, and four of them were going to probe into the estate and attempt—

God. Bren bit his lip, knew he should not interfere in Guild operations, but, dammit—

“I did not approve this, nadiin-ji, this—extension of the mission.”

Algini said: “When the aiji requests it, nandic we are not his, but he can request it.”

Damn, he thought. He wantedthem back. He couldn’t bear it if he lost them. Couldn’t—couldn’t even think of it.

Cajeiri had come onto the bus to be shaken and thwacked by his great-grandmother on the bottom step—she was astonishingly mild in both. And then:

“Mani-ma, nand’ Bren, Guild is going toward the estate— nand’ Bren’s estate. They passed us.”

“On foot?” Ilisidi asked sharply, while Bren immediately thought of staff, of Ilisidi’s men—of the fact he had only half his bodyguard in a position to do anything about itc

“Yes, mani-ma,” Cajeiri said on a gasp for breath. “One is sorry. We were ru

“Cenedi, did you hear?”

“Shall we move, aiji-ma?”

“Yes,” Ilisidi said sharply. “We shall.” She gave a shove to Cajeiri. “Get back there and keep quiet, boy. You and your companions are to stay low and stay quiet.”

Bren started to move. The knob of the dreaded cane came gently against his chest. “Paidhi-ji, we have resources, but this may entail damage to your estate.”

“The staff and villagers are my concern, aiji-ma. I told my brother to leave. One trusts he has done so.”

“Good,” Ilisidi said, and the cane dropped. Bren headed back to his seat, Tano and Algini preceding him, and he knelt with one knee in that seat as he reached it, facing them.

“How much can you advise them?”

“Nandi,” Algini said, “we can signal ‘base compromised’ and ‘base open.’ That is the best we can do.”

“They need to know that much,” he said. The bus engine started, the bus started to back and turn around, and he dropped to the seat and sat down. Tano moved up with him,another of Ilisidi’s men, in the scarcity of seats, sat down with Algini.

“Bren-ji,” Tano said, “one begs you will get down to the floor. We may take fire.”

It was an eggshell of a bus. There were already bullet holes perforating the door and sniper fire was a distinct possibility. That was true; and doubtless Cenedi, who still on his feet in the aisle, leaning over the seat behind the dowager and Cajeiri, was intensively debriefing the youngsters regarding what they had seen—how far back, how long ago.

Meaning what were their chances of the bus outracing a group of attackers moving in on foot?

Quite good, if the attackers hadn’t beenmoving for several hours. He thought about his assessment of more and higher-level Guild coming into the situation.

Bren dutifully got down on his knees, elbows on the seat, not a comfortable way to ride, but safer, considerably. Algini and the man behind, meanwhile, passed a heavy blanketlike affair forward, which Tano stood up to hook into the window frame. Small wonderthe baggage they had brought had weighed considerable. Another blanket was going into place on the far side. Not bulletproof, but certainly bullet-resistant, and protecting several rows of seats, notably the dowager and the youngsters, and him.