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He would have to leave half his bodyguard to stay in his apartment, and then he would have to lie, and then his bodyguard would, and it would just be damned difficultc
Orche could take Boji to see mani. Mani might be amused by Boji. She had strongly protected all sorts of wild creatures on Malguri land, and she had been very fierce about telling lords they should not declare any wild creature to be vermin, which had prompted no few arguments with her neighbors and, on several occasions, shooting.
She would definitely think Boji was interesting. Boji’s kind lived on the western side of the mountains, and she might never have seen one close up. She mightbe his ally in keeping Boji. If she got back before his mother and father found out he was here.
He just sat, watching Boji clean his fur, plotting how to get allies on the matter of Boji.
And the shuttle was coming down. He would get to see Narani, and Asicho, who had used to treat him very specially. They were both coming back to nand’ Bren’s service. Bindanda was coming, too. Bindanda had used to make him special desserts. He could almost taste them.
And his tutor was not boring, which was a great surprise.
Suddenly everything in the world was going as right as it could go.
Well, except for the baby coming.
9
Letters and committee meetings.
Committee meetings, and more committee meetings, and a reasonable forecast of arguments and squabbles between regions that had to be headed off once the details of the Machigi alliance became public. Jealousies existed between clans within regions, and between provinces and regions, where it came to prerogatives and agreements with the government in Shejidan. Philosophical disputes existed between the modernists and the traditionalists and the Rational Determinists, a philosophical quagmire that the paidhi-aiji didn’t remotely wish to navigate. When it came to philosophy, one could let Geigi, a Rational Determinist, use his influence, from a safe remove at Kajiminda to make headway on that front. Let Tatiseigi, a staunch traditionalist, have at the rest of his associates in Shejidan, in favorof the paidhi-aiji’s position. Therewas a novelty.
The whisper was getting out regarding the new proposals for the disposition of the coast and the tribal Gan and Edi. Rumors were also getting out about the treaty settling the Marid and about the paidhi-aiji’s position on cell phones.
Three issues. One could not have shouted fire in the halls of the Bujavid and stirred up any more passionate reaction than that combination of news. There were increasing rustlings of alarm from every political entity in the aishidi’tat.
Jago reported that Tabini was getting questions, too. Tabini was letting supporters of the cell phone issue down by stages, saying that the matter was complex and under renewed study, not quite mentioning yet, for the benefit of those opposed to cell phones, the possibility of some device still more technical in the offing.
And the irony of it all was that, for all the furor the agreement between Ilisidi and Machigi was causing, there was no point at which the various clans, districts, industries, associations, organizations, and philosophical groups—could actually get to vote on whether or not there would be an association between Malguri and the Taisigin Marid. An association was purely—and traditionally—a matter between or among the participants, and it was, to a certain extent—nobody else’s business until it was signed.
Thenthe implementation was going to rattle every door in the aishidi’tat.
Atevi politics at its finest.
The aiji-dowager sent word she was winging her way here—or was about to. The time was flexible. The shuttle was comingcthat took time, but gravity was notflexible. And Machigi’s representative would be coming in; the train would be on a commercial schedule, not being a special.
As for Ilisidi’s timing, it was a toss-up as to whether it was news about the shuttle, news about the representative, a personal letter from Tatiseigi, or the fear that Lord Geigi would be coming in to have a potential encounter with Tatiseigi that had gotten the dowager moving—but moving she was, possibly to fling herself between her two rivalrous associates.
Adding to the stir, the porcelain exhibit had just opened its doors to the Merchant’s Guild, as a “gift from the lord of the Marid,” and the word had now gone from the paidhi’s office to the Merchant’s Guild that this exhibit represented an opportunity for a trade that had not been available for a very long time. The first merchants to set up agreements in Tanaja naturally stood to profit most, and to get their hands on a currently limited number of itemscoh, they understood that part very well.
That bid fair to start a feeding frenzy, and the feeding frenzy was almost certain to cross party lines and to upset just about every vested interest who couldn’t see a way to profit.
The Marid representative, too, was going to get a great deal of attention once she arrived—dangerous attention, in some quarters. And the Guild knew it.
Bren sent, by means of the Guild, a welcoming message for the representative when she arrived, along with a bouquet of suitable and auspicious flowers of the season, and a card marking the occasion.
One understands you have had a long trip and may wish to rest,he said in the letter, so one hesitates to call in the midst of your arrival. My office and my personal staff stand ready to assist or to answer any questions, and please have your staff contact mine without hesitation if there is regard way in which I personally can assist you.
The paidhi-aiji wishes you the most felicitous of begi
That handled the question of the representative with a certain grace. Holding the rank he did, he was hardly obliged to run down to the hotel district to attend the mere representative of another lord while she unpacked, but he had made gestures of welcome, offered help, and invited contact through cha
Looming over the schedule was the face-to-face meeting with the Merchants’ Guild Council, all of whom were supposed to have been invited to view the porcelain exhibit downstairs today.
That meant the reports had to be ready, not only for that Guild, but for Transport, for the Messengers, and for the Assassins—the last as a courtesy, the first as intimately involved in the arrangements the dowager pla
Daisibi and his staff had their work cut out for them.
The flower arrangement on the committee room conference table suggested calm and felicity as well as prosperity—that touch, arranged by Daisibi, was always good with the merchants. It was a low arrangement, appropriate for such a gathering. Bren, far shorter than the rest, could still see the faces above it.
And the Guildmaster of the Merchants, a lean, thoughtful man whose name was Marchien, sat at the broad end of the table, flanked by his own chief officers.
Bren, paidhi-aiji, and, in this meeting, the representative of the aiji-dowager, sat at the other alone—in what convention called a mirrored arrangement. Higher members of the Guild sat toward Marchien, and lower officers of the Guild sat next to Bren. It was a big table, the largest conference room in the Bujavid, with microphones inconspicuously set at each place.
There were the opening courtesies. Then came the initial statement, not from Marchien, but from the Junior Guildmaster at Marchien’s right.
“We have seen the exhibit downstairs, nand’ paidhi. We take it this arrival from the Marid, in light of other events, represents somewhat more than a gesture of good will. But are we to take this level of artistry as an earnest of the sort of trade they intend, since your letter suggests the whole porcelain industry as a starting point, nandi? Such craftsmanship and costliness hardly seems an article of common trade, which could be economically meaningful. And this of course supposes that this agreement with the Marid goes forward.”