Conspirator

Lost your nerve twice, Bren thought. Or did you only just think of that explanation?

One could want a bath.

“Or,” Ilisidi said, drawing Baiji’s attention back to her, “Or shall we tell you what we reallythink, Baiji-nadi? Let us favor you with our opinion! You became fearful of the new changes, yes, and you found comfortin your Marid bodyguard, who promised you their man’chi, who made you dangerous to your neighbors, who made you a threat to the whole coast—”

“Aiji-ma!”

“Can you deny you had become so?”

“One wished only peace, only to deal out the pieces as one had to, and keep the peace. My uncle was safe in space. He would not return. One would wait to see how the negotiations went between the aiji and the Marid.”

“And if well, you would be importantc and you have cousins in the Marid, part of their politics. Perhaps you would marry that girl after all.”

“One meant to straighten it all out, once the aiji in Shejidan had given some indication how all the dealings with the South might come out.”

“When it was all perfectly safe! Does it occur to you, Baiji, that it will never be perfectly safe, so long as you have any power at all? Did you have any notion where you would ever tell these people no?”

“One is uncertain what—”

“One is uncertain what atrocious thing you would stick at, if it crept up on you by degrees, Baiji son of Dumaei. Your failing came on you by degrees. Your involvement with the Marid came on you by degrees. Is there no time you have imagined when you would evercall a halt and take a stand?”

“I warned the paidhi-aiji!”

“Not in so many words,” Bren said. “No, nadi. Your behavior warned my guardc and killed your own.”

“Aiji-ma!”

“Fool,” Ilisidi said. “If you had acquired any power, if you had brought any independent power to the hands of the Dojisigi, the Tasaigi would have had you for appetitzers, and them after. It was their game, it was their game all along, and now one understands the occupation of the paidhi’s apartment in the Bujavid by the Faraic who doubtless pass along whatever tidbits of information they scavenge. The Marid, four clans of the mainland, is One, that is how the numbers of four districts work out: the One is centered at Tanaja in the hands of Machigi, who has inherited all the ambition of his predecessors Saigimi and Cosadi—Cosadi, who backed Murini in his adventure—and, ah! indeed, they have your aunt’s man’chi.”

“Not mine, aiji-ma!”

Machigi. The new aiji in Tanaja. Quiet, hitherto. Bren tried to put a face with the name, and failed.

“You surely,” Ilisidi was saying to Baiji, “have met the man.”

“We—we have never corresponded.”

“ Wehave been remote in space, and yet wecan comprehend the maneuverings around you. The numbers of them are not hard to parse. Why ca

“One—one begins to see, aiji-ma.”

“Oh, one begins to see! Blessed gods, man, need I say so? Machigi backed his cousin Murini of the Kadagidi so long as it profited him. We have wondered whether his latest moves were represented more strongly by the Farai’s approach to my grandson, their offering of man’chi—their repudiation of Murini—or exactly what they might be up to. In what more sinister direction it might manifest was notapparent, since youkept their secrets and conspired with them in actions that threatened the paidhi’s life andmy great-grandson’s.”

“No, aiji-ma, I never conspired!”

“Fool, I say! You are right in one thing: had Murini survived and my grandson perished, Murini would have lasted a scant year or two before the Tasaigi killed him—one imprudent marriage too many, one cup of tea in the wrong hands, and Murini would have been out of the question altogether, and I have no doubt Machigi of the Tasaigi would by then have positioned himself with the help of your alliance with that Dojisigi child. Machigi would kill you the moment you produced an heir, foolish boy. The Dojisigi relatives would move in with your heir. And they would have the coast, and Machigi would have them!”

“One never—never—” Baiji’s eyes were wide and astonished. “One never saw such an outcome. Aiji-ma, one begs forgiveness.”

“Of me you do not have it. I do not say beg it of the paidhi-aiji: he is too gentle! Obtain your uncle’s request for clemency, and I may, maybroker you a marriage with a nice Eastern woman of good sense and more mature perspective. Live to produce children! That will be your use to the Maschi clan, if Lord Geigi fails to strangle you with his own hands!”

Marry off this fool? Bren thought, somewhat set aback.

But part of the situation was that the Maschi clan had worn away to near nothing, diminished to a single clan in Sarini province, while its privileges and influence had grown immense, enough to tempt suitors. Geigi, the aishidi’tat’s old ally, was growing no younger, had never produced an heir, and thiswas what he had to leave in charge?

It was suddenly much clearer to him what the issues were, and exactly what the dowager was offering, in brief: there was one ability Baiji had left to make himself useful, and the dowager would personally make his choice for him, as a favor to Lord Geigi—thus providing the fading Maschi clan a sure link to a clan on herside of the continent, lacing up the aishidi’tat into a safe, tight unity.

“Aiji-ma.” It was a very quiet voice, a very shaken one.

“Oh, come now. You like your soft, safe life, do you not, boy? You enjoybeing called nandi, you enjoygood food, good wine, and a dearth of responsibilities. You scarcely have to appeal to the Marid for a marriage. We can arrange that—and a younger daughter of a middling-strong house of the East. You can have all of this and live a long life, so long as you stay out of politics and hire strong-minded tutors we approve for your offspring. This is your chance. Take it!”

“Aiji-ma.” Increasingly shaken, but with eyes utterly fixed on Ilisidi. “One would be grateful. One would be very grateful for your speaking to my uncle on this matter.”

“Have you any other thing to tell us? Be forward in helping us!”

“Only—only that there are papers in my office. Behind the desk, a panel in the wall, nand’ dowager. You would find these of interest. One has kept every incriminating thing.”

Covering all possible directions he might ever go, Bren thought with distaste, and whoever he might need to blackmail. He didn’t believe this reform. He didn’t in the least believe it. And in the way of atevi power marriages, it was very little likely Baiji would have charge of any offspring. An heir. Any heir—and his responsibility was accomplished.

“Then you may retire and have your breakfast,” Ilisidi said. “You may have saved your future.”

“Aiji-ma.” Baiji rose and bowed, and bowed to Bren as well, as the three servants came alert—so, before that, had Cenedi and Banichi and Jago.

“But you do know,” Ilisidi added casually, “that you will not survive long, resident in this district, so close to the South. You have no resources to take on Guild of sufficient level to save your life.”

“Aiji-ma!”

“We do, in the East. Perhaps that would be a safer haven for youc far, far from the lords you have betrayed. You would be a great fool to contemplate going to them. You understand this. Now that you have assured weshall not kill you, you have assured that they will. Within our shadow is the only safety for you, from henceforward.”

Baiji was certainly not the most intelligent soul on the continent, Bren thought. But the facts of the situation did apparently come through to Baiji at that point.

“You will stay to meet your uncle,” Ilisidi said, “and then fly east. Far east. Where you may havea future.”

Snow and ice was the reputation of the East. It was far, far from the su