Intruder

“One believes he will do so. He is understandably an asset to your household. He improves your credit with Lord Tatiseigi. He keeps you safe from poisons. And we shall sort this matter of Ajuri out in good time. So go do the things you propose to do, paidhi-ji. We have every confidence in you—and so does my grandmother, or she would not have left you stranded without instructions. One is certain she wants you to deal with the situation and prepare the ground. One is certain she wishes you to find out my disposition, while she is not on the scene. So relay it carefully. We are officially not co

“Aiji-ma.” He rose and bowed, gathering up Banichi and Jago and making his retreat with a glance back as he passed the door. His last view of Tabini, past Jago’s shoulder, was of a grim and hard-working man, not as young and reckless as he had been on that decade-ago trip to Taiben, when both of them had broken the gun regulations.

But, then, neither of them was as young, or as naive about the politics of the aishidi’tat, as even Tabini had been on that day.

It was possibly the most intensely personal conversation he had ever had with Tabini, who was not a man patient of fools or obstacles—a man who, uncommon for atevi, had had one wife for most of a decade and who now found that relationship under intense pressure, through no fault of his or hers.

And whose heir had relatives who were developing very serious drawbacks.

But Tabini was intelligent. Very.

And Tabini had told him exactly as much of the truth as he needed to know to prevent another problem.

Handle Tatiseigi and don’t let him take a position. Don’t get Ajuri stirred up.

He’d gotten that clue, too.

Do everything he could possibly do to lay the table before Ilisidi got back. Nobody was going to pay half as much attention to what the paidhi-aiji did as they would to the aiji-dowager when she arrived, and things had to run smoothly at her beck and call. There werethings he could do, people he could talk to, impressions he could leave with people—things he could say that the dowager could readily deny if they turned out to be a mistake.

The relationship with Machigi—he still,after all that, hadn’t gotten a clear idea how Tabini read the man, and he had wanted Tabini’s opinion more than any other. If there was a man alive who would have an instinctive grasp of that young man’s thinking, it would be Tabini, who was quite as ruthless, quite as capable of turning on the instant and astonishing his court.

What had Tabini said about Machigi? He is no fool,and that was about allTabini had said, on the one thing he had most wanted to know from Tabini. And about Tatiseigi? It had amounted to Good luck with him. You’re going to need it.

They picked up Tano and Algini. He didn’t say a word to his bodyguard until they had gotten the short distance back to his apartment, they had shut the door, and he had surrendered his court coat to Koharu, checked the message bowl for anything from Tatiseigi—there was nothing—and put on his day coat.

“The security station would be a good place,” Banichi said, and without a word, he went with his bodyguard down the hall to the quiet back of the apartment, and the small instrument-crowded station where his bodyguard was the authoritycand the only ones who would hear.

“We did not know about the Ajuri difficulty, Bren-ji,” was the first thing Tano said to him.

“We did not know,” Banichi echoed that statement, “but certain things were worrisome.”

Bren sat down as they did, at one of the counters. Jago perched against the counter edge. Algini sat down, looking as grim as ever Algini could look, and looking not at him but into something invisible and not pleasant.

“What we do know,” Banichi said, “is that there had been misgiving about the youth of the aiji’s own bodyguard as well as their Taibeni-clan origin, which was used to justify the restriction of information flowing to them—temporarily, as it was supposed to be. The central authority argued that it was hard to sequence them into the information flow because they had minor co

“This was the ongoing argument,” Tano said. “But when it became known that Cenedihad been restricted from information on grounds of his principal’s co

“It took three hours, nandi,” Algini said darkly, “for the former Guildmaster to come out of retirement and reconstitute his own bodyguard, also from their retirement. There were immediate arrests. The head of the Guild Council who was in charge of the Machigi affair is not believed to have co

“May one ask—is there any indication which clan?”

“Nandi, the suspicion is—the Kadagidi.”

The clan alleged to be behind the coup, the murders of Tabini’s staff. The enemies of Lord Tatiseigi.

“Incredible.”

“Unfortunately,” Algini said, “credible. The Ajuri, like many smaller clans, took shelter. Their great strength was within Guild clericaladministration. When an upheaval came in the Guild—say that certain members of Ajuri clan were visiting the Kadagidi. One is not certain if Lady Damiri herself knows it. But she is due to find out, since the aiji is disposed to doubt her father’s leadership of Ajuri clan as he has always doubted her uncle’s. You will note, of resources the aiji used when in exile and being hunted by his enemies—the aiji did not appeal to Ajuri Clan. Nor did Damiri-daja ever breach security to do so, so far as we have learned.”