Conspirator

“He will turn any way convenient, aiji-ma,” Cenedi said.

“A hiltless knife,” Ilisidi agreed. “Great-grandson, I daresay you have not met as great a fool as Baiji.”

“No, mani. I am only one short of nine and Iknow better than he does.”

“And what are you doing here in your bathrobe?”

“Mani, protecting you from that man.”

Ilisidi laughed gently, and set her cane so she might use it. Cenedi quietly offered his hand, and she rose. So did Bren, with a bow.

“Aiji-ma.”

“We are improved,” Ilisidi said. “We are much improved, nand’ paidhi. We have a solution to that fool, and we shall have a solution to the South. Cenedi, communicate with my grandson’s forces and have these alleged papers at Lord Geigi’s estate found and brought. Nand’ paidhi, we shall keep our promise and retire for a few hours. Perhaps until di

“Mani?”

“Do notdo anything that requires you to leave this roof.”

“Yes, mani.”

There was not even any resistance about it. Everyone looked exhausted, and the company departed its separate ways.

All but him. All but Banichi and Jago, who stood to the side.

“My brother and Barb-daja?” he asked of them.

“They have come up to the house, Bren-ji,” Banichi said, “for their breakfast. House staff is attending the repair of their boat—which has numerous bullet holes. It was a very narrow escape they had. If not for the pump, the boat would have gone down, so nand’ Toby says. It was still ru

Bren let go a long sigh and came around the chair—he took each by an arm briefly, atevi custom be damned. “One has you back and safe, nadiin-ji,” he said. “Forgive me. Words ca

Banichi made a sound in his throat, half a laugh, and Jago tilted her head and gave him a down-the-nose look that said she had things to say on that rudeness, but wouldn’t until later.

“Tano and Algini report,” Banichi said, “that they believe the enemy penetrated house defenses here while they were absent with you, nandi. Even past the dowager’s protections here—they got throughc to a grievous mistake on the part of the two who died.”

“Algini knew the intruders,” Jago said. “They were high in the Guild under Gegini.” That was to say, the Guild leadership during the overthrow. “Nochidi and Keigan, senior Guild, within the Guild itself. They survived the service of both Sarini and Cosadi.”

Previousbids to unseat Tabini: Sarini was dead. Cosadi, now deceased, had been another problem out of the Marid, and an elder cousin to the current one. Now they had a new problem. Machigi. Who had come damned close to doing what the others had failed to do.

That the two intruders Algini and Tano had done for had been senior Guild, good enough to get past Ilisidi’s guard—that sent a chill down the backbone. They’d gotten far enough, deep enough into house defenses to have taken any of them outc except Tano and Algini, except Cenedi and Nawari. Close call. Very. The Marid didn’t spend its elite teams lightly.

It was of a par with Ilisidi saying that the paidhi-aiji had become the primary target.

Leave the coast, go back to the Bujavid? That was a worsesituation, with the Farai right in their midst, with their secretaries, their guards, their staffc their access to install anything from listening devices to a bomb in his apartment—or against Tabini’s apartment wall.

“Not a comfortable thought,” he said. “One surmises this will not be the end of it, nadiin-ji. One assumesthe aiji will now move against the Marid.”

“One does assume the aiji will now dislodge the Farai from the paidhi’s apartment,” Jago said dryly, “for a start.”

It could be downright treasonous, that utterancec the implication that Tabini-aiji had been a fool.

Or perhaps Jago had meant something else. Along with the aiji’s power came the obligation to be both subtle and clever.

“He did notforce me out here to draw fire, surely.” One entertained that uncomfortable thought, momentarily. “He need only have suggested I visit my estate. One would gladly have gonec”

“The aiji at least permitted the Farai to be inconvenient to him,” Banichi said with a lift of the brow. “But one surmises he was concentrating on doings in the South when he made the decision to be patient with them, and perhaps he was testing the Farai’s intent. One by no means believes he would have allowed his son to remain here a single night, had he had the suspicion of hostile presence.”

That was true. The assassination attempt had been opportunistic, he believed that. But it led inevitably right back to the Marid and this new problem. Machigi. He had to study up on the man. Baiji’s value to the Marid had plummeted when Tabini-aiji took power back from Murini, but the value Baiji had retained was that of a staging area for a very important operationc namely removal of some of Tabini-aiji’s key assets. An heir? Grievous as that would be, rumors were that Damiri might produce another before the year was out. The dowager? A very hard target, and one that would notthoroughly or immediately disrupt the west coast—which was the arena of Marid ambitions. The East was irrelevant to them.

But the paidhi-aiji held Najida—which was a property on which the Farai had at least some legal claimc had the paidhi not come back from space. Najida—which was poised just below the Northern Isles, and right next to Kajiminda and Dalaigi—the largest town on the western coast.

Click, click, click. Things began to drop into little slots.

“Dare one wonder,” Bren asked them, “if the paidhi has been a desired target for some time? They have not appeared to relinquish their hope of setting the west coast in disarray.”

“Cenedi has requested still more reinforcements,” Banichi said. “They should be arriving by morning.”

“One is glad to know that,” Bren said. And again touched both of them. “You should take as light a duty as possible, nadiin-ji. Let Cenedi’s force manage things. Baiji poses no threat. Cenedi has men on the roof. Rest.”

Banichi looked at him as if thinking of asking when the paidhi-aiji had appointed himself to the Guild; but then he nodded. “We both shall,” Banichi said.

“Go,” he said. “Now.”

“And you, Bren-ji,” Jago said.

“As soon as I have talked to nand’ Toby,” he said. “A courtesy. No need of escort. And then I shall go straightway to my office and do a little work.”

They looked not of a mind to agree to that. They were on the last reserves, and perhaps not at their most reasonable. They just stared at him, both, in adamant silence that indicated that, orders or no orders, they would neither one be off duty until he was settled somewhere they approvedc nor would Tano and Algini.

“Then I shall do my work in your quarters,” he said, “where you all can keep an eye on me.”

Banichi looked slightly amused. “We will provide you a chair in which to work, Bren-ji. No more of this wandering the halls alone.”

“Not when people drop out of the ceiling,” Jago said.

So it was out into the slightly damaged hall, down to the dining room, where Toby and Barb, windblown and in shocking condition for the dining room, were just finishing up their breakfast.

“Bren!” Toby said, looking up.

A little bow—he’d been in atevi mode: was, still, mentally; and tried to adjust. Toby looked a little nonplussed, then said, “Oh, hell, Bren, it’s me,” and came and embraced him, hard as Barb got to her feet.

“Glad you made it back,” Bren said. “I hear you ran into trouble out there—I heard about the other boat. There should be people out now looking for any intruders on the peninsula.”

“We managed,” Toby said, standing at arm’s length. “And you got the kids back.”