Intruder

It was shocking. It was more shocking to think the Guild had been that far in disarray.

“You would think,” Tabini said, “that it was simple incompetence. But that is not the Guild hallmark, is it, paidhi?”

Thatbecame ominous. “You think—there was ill intent in that decision, aiji-ma?”

“Having your bodyguard andthe aiji-dowager’s in one place at one time, comparing notes freely with my bodyguard out in Najida districtcturned up things we were none of us apt to learn otherwise. And having access to ranking Guild with contrary opinions that certain biases could notattribute to Taibeni politics within my staff, frankly, has been a revelation.”

He did not understand—except—

“Someone,” Tabini said quietly, “prevented both my aishid and yours andthe dowager’s from getting critical information. Someone put the secrecy of a Guild operation and perhaps the exercise of a personal pique above the safety of my household—the excuse being that my guard is not senior in Guild rank, and that they are Taibeni, a clan that has never figured in internal Guild committee politics. Myguard was not taken into confidence. Well, I knew that their clan was an issue when I appointed them past the recommendation of the Guild and jumped them two ranks doing it. I am stillsafer, and I sleep better at night. I was, let me assure you, paidhi-ji, right!—and recent events have proven it.”

“Aiji-ma,” Bren said in dismay.

“More than the aishidi’tat fractured when they attempted to assassinate me and my house, paidhi. And I tell you this in utmost confidence, and in the presence of Guild witnesses. There have been, paidhi-ji, fourfactions in the Guild, nota fortunate number of opinions. The first is what one may call the elder Guild, who have not involved themselves in political opinion and who have managed the Guild honorably for decades. The second is of course the renegades, who, far from following politics of the clans, rose up inside the Guild, overthrew the elder Guild, attempted to assassinate me, and, finding I do not die easily—were driven from power. They set up their rival Guild authority—the shadow Guild, as you have aptly called them—in the Marid. We found them. And now a new, younger leadership in the Guild has moved to strike down the Shadow Guild, but they do nottake advice from the elder Guild. They are the ones who were ru

“No, aiji-ma. Not in such detail. Not with such co

“Algini is himself, one believes, aligned with the elder Guild, which has its iron traditions, and that element of the Guild has a dilemma on its hands. First of all rules is that they do notinvolve themselves in politics. But in this case, the politics exist within the Guild itself—some honest younger Guild have gone against the elder Guild as too conservative and blind to what they conceive as a drift toward human influence.”

“One has perceived that undercurrent in the general politics, aiji-ma, and one bitterly regrets it.”

“ Theseelements,” Tabini said, “are a problem. But they have their expression in legitimate politics, among them the Conservative Caucus. They do not worry me. There are those who have taken a position because of their man’chi to other Guild or to specific clans. These people, while decent enough persons morally, have seriously infracted Guild rules. Two of that sort are your old servants, who protest that their sole aim in attempting to rejoin your household was to protect you.”

“One is distressed at their situation.” Moni and Taigi attempted to return to his service, and his bodyguard had taken exception. “I refused them.” He corrected himself. “My bodyguard refused them.”

“Correctly so,” Tabini said. “Nor should you take them back.”

“May one ask—what their co

“Ajuri,” Tabini said bluntly.

Tabini’s wife’sclan. Damiri’s clan. Cajeiri’s grandfather’sclan.

That was a surprise.

“You do not ask,” Tabini observed. “Your aishid has asked. And well they might.”

Tabini had assigned Moni and Taigi to the paidhi’s house ages ago. Ajuri, trying to get a spy or two near their daughter, in Tabini’s house, had found its spies instead assigned to thecat the timecrelatively i

Thathad to have a

Now he could see how it had become useful to Ajuri to have them back in the paidhi’s household, delivering information to Ajuri. Entirely understandable.

Equally understandable—his bodyguard had very quietly routed them straight to the aiji’s attention, which had notbeen favorable.

And the Guild did have cla

“No,” Tabini said, “they are not the depth of the problem. Or the height of it. The Guildmaster’s council. This is the sum of it: after the events on the west coast, we sent the strongest possible message to the Guild. My bodyguard was recently called to a meeting about which they correctly decline to report, except to say they were satisfied and that there has been a bitterly contested retirement.”

A retirement. At high levels within the Guild, one could surmise.

“Preceding the decision to table the Guild action on Machigi,” Tabini added.

Thatfar back. He was, again, stu

A retirement. Thenthe vote had gone through.

Cenedi, head of the dowager’s bodyguard, had been in contact with the Guild in Shejidan, and someone had resigned. An office had changed hands inside the dark confines of the Assassins’ Guild, and the whole character of the Guild operation had shifted as if a switch had been thrown, from a determination to take Machigi out and use his territory as a base—to the dowager’s determination to preserve Machigi and create a new regional power in the Marid.

And some influence had been upset when Tabini chose not a bodyguard of the Guild’s choice but only Taibeni clan, his own clan, to run his household and defend him.

“And regarding Machigi,” Tabini said. “This letter.”

God. The letter. From the otherside of this confused table. “Aiji-ma.”

“How do youread Lord Machigi, paidhi-ji?”

“In all that I have just heard—one is trying to reassess, aiji-ma.”

“Personally. How do you see him?”

“An intelligent man. Young. Too young, perhaps, to be wise, but possibly headed in that direction. He has good advisors, one thinks—smart men who have maneuvered themselves into a position and decided to deal with the Guildc.but now—now one is not as certain whatone has observed.”

“Do you have any suspicion that his advisors may have contacted Cenedi in advance of the dowager’s sending you to him?”

That was another thunderbolt.

“One had not remotely suspected such a thing, aiji-ma.”

“These four Guildsmen of his are clever people,” Tabini said. “Certainly capablecbut that can go either way. And this young lord they support—is definitely a remarkable young man. One knows he is changing ships, one having begun to leak, so to speak. But what ship was he on in the first place?”