Conspirator

She stood upright, however, and planted the cane firmly.

“We are an Easterner,” she said in that incisive, absolute voice, “and we comprehend the position of the Edi people. We of the East have Malguri and those in its man’chi. Where is the house of the Edi lord? There shouldbe a house of the Edi, and one of the Gan.” Those were the other aboriginal people, the latter, like the Edi, dispossessed from Mospheira. “We think so. We have not expressed this thought to our grandson. But it is our opinion.”

My God, Bren thought. She was proposing two new provinces.

The young man stood there, just stood for a moment.

“We would not expect,” Ilisidi said, “that representatives of the Edi and of the Gan would bring such proposals to the aiji in Shejidan.”

The proposal of an Edi and a Gan estate had thorns all over it. The Edi and the Gan had neverofficially joined the aishidi’tat, because the Edi and the Gan were both inside other provinces.

“You have suffered,” Ilisidi said, “as have other peoples of this coast, from the chaff of the quarrel between the South and the Ragi of the central districts. This is a case that should be made. The aishidi’tat is not weaker because it contains the intact East. The aishidi’tat would be stronger if it contained an intact West. Right now you are the majority on this coast. And you have no lordship. Take my encouragement to pursue it, and set up your own defenses.”

The young man still stood. The dowager sat down again, and Bren drew a breath, finding the silence begi

“The dowager’s opinion,” he said, “will carry weight. You have a potential ally.”

The young man finally came alive to give a sketchy bow.

“One is by no means instructed on a reply, nandiin. One will carry the message.”

Cajeiristood up. Bren took in a breath, starting to signal the boy to the contrary, but Cajeiri was unstoppable in the best of circumstances.

“Listen to my great-grandmother, nadi,” Cajeiri’s young voice rang out. And, God, he could not have done better, with the matrilineal Edi, if he had targeted it. “My father does.”

There was a stir in the room. Everybody reacted.

And Cajeiri promptly sat down, leaving Bren alone to deal with the assembly.

“The young gentleman has many virtues,” Bren said, “including forthrightness. He says what he thinks, and what he thinks will one day be the policy of the aishidi’tat.”

There was a pause, a murmur, and then the stamp of a foot. Which became many feet, until the room thundered.

Bren bowed, and sat down, as the young Edi sat down, and all around the room security stood just a little easier.

It wasn’t going to be the safe direction. It was going to kick up one hell of a storm in Shejidan. But the coast had the backing of the East, and it was a natural ally against the South, a back and forth piratical war that had gone on for centuries.

Policy had just shifted. The thing once named had the power to exist, and once it existed, it would change the aishidi’tat.

Policy had just shifted and the wind had begun to blow, a sea wind, into the heart of the continent. The dowager, who had once bid to become aiji herself, had just tilted policy and directed the future course of politics.

And the paidhi hadn’t the least clue how he was going to explain it to Tabini.

—«»—«»—«»—

An Excerpt from

Bren Cameron’s notes.

The House of the Maschi

The Maschi clan has declined over centuries to a handful of the name, resident within the Sulesi clan, the inland limit of Sarini Province.

Within the Maschi clan:

The Marid, subdivided into the Tasaigin Marid, the Senji Marid, and the Dojisigi and Dausigi Marid—the four major districts that, with their clans and septs, rule the South. There are also the Sungeni, the local islands, ruled by the Tasaigi.

The Tasaigin Marid has been the most persistent problem to Tabini, but the other three districts, jealous of the power of the Tasaigi, have been laying their own plots.

One of the first indicators of trouble to come was the stir the Marid tried to make over the space program. They attempted to ruin Lord Geigi, who was a major supporter, and who had an aerospace plant in his district. They had subverted his Samiusi clan wife—who then fled to the Marid, married again, and had three children with Coidinje of the Tasaigi.

Badissuni was a previous problem to Tabini-aijic he appeared in the early accounts of Marid troubles: he was very much against the space program, mostly because it gave him an issue to use against Tabini. He came to consult with Tabini after the assassination of Lord Sagaimi of the Tasaigi, on a notable occasion of a visit from Lord Tatiseigi to the Bujavid, and that didn’t go well.

Here’s how the Sagaimi of the Tasaigin Marid’s descent runs:

Ardami ruled the Tasaigi after the death of Sagaimi, Sarini, and then Cosadi. His marriage to Mada of the Farai has produced a union between the Senji Marid and the Tasaigin Marid, and he has produced Tula, a daughter, and Machigi. Ardami was assassinated, and Machigi is now aiji of the Tasaigin Marid.

This Machigi, a son, is troublec first as a threat to the independence of the Senjin Marid.

The Senjin Marid is the one that has been courting Baijic through Baiji’s ex-aunt, and his cousins, because they have old relations with the Samiusi, part of Sarini province, which is notpart of the Marid, but part of Geigi’s association. They have been helped in this by Badissuni’s clan, the Dojisigi.

If the Senjin Marid, through marriage and assassination, could get control of the west coast, Najida and Kajiminda, they would challenge the powerful Machigi of the Tasaigin Marid for control of southern politics. But they are very likely being egged on and encouraged by Machigi himself, who sees advantage in their actions. Machigi is very likely to double-cross them the moment they gain any territory.

And meanwhile the Dojisigin Marid, home of the daughter being offered by the Senjin, is looking for any advantage and feeling itself threatened by the rise of this powerful Tasaigin aiji.

There are two other Marid districts of much less power: the Sungeni Marid (the islands) and the Dausigin Marid, the lower east side of the Marid, which has never been strong enough to contend with the others.

Within the Tasaigin Marid, there is one powerful district: Sarini’s district of Tanji.

Within the Dojisigin Marid, there is Badissuni’s Amarja.

Within the Senjin Marid, there is Morigi-dar, stronghold of the Farai.

The Dojisigin Marid is sparsely populated, and usually bows to the Dojisigi or the Tasaigi, whichever they fear most at the time.

The Marid as a whole was all once a separate nation from the aishidi’tat, but a succession of skirmishes and assassinations brought it into the fold in Valasi-aiji’s time. Tabini has inherited the situation, and has had several times to bring the Marid back into line. But it remains a district in constant turmoil.

History of the Marid

The Marid used to claim the whole west coast of the continent, from the peninsula of Dalaigi down to their modern territory in the central South.

But after the War of the Landing, the north coast territory was given to the displaced Gan, the southwestern coast to the Edi, and the Samiusi and Maschi clans were set in authority over the district, definitively freed of the domination of the Marid.

The Edi, seafarers and fishermen, took up their occupation out of the several bays of the continental west and began to shove the Marid ships out of their area—piracy was what the Marid called it. Certain districts, notably Najida, profited by luring passing Marid ships onto the rocks and looting them.