Intruder

“My lord will be pleased to hear it.”

“Indeed.” A nod. “It would ultimately be politic for you to meet with all the Guilds, usually in their premises. The Bujavid will offer facilities for larger gatherings, and will offer services for any social gathering you may choose to host here. Hosting all the Guilds in a social evening would be politic, let me say. They rather expect it, in due course, particularly as you open your offices to do business.”

That was one topic which the lady accepted with a clear understanding of the social intricacies—one saw the flicker of sharp intelligence in those gold eyes, the ability to estimate a situation. Machigi would not have sent a fool into this situation—by no means a fool, this lady, and likely her staff would be no fools, either.

“If my staff may assist yours in protocols in that regard,” he said, “they are certainly willing to do so. If you have any questions, staff may talk to staff.”

“One is gratified.”

“Let me be frank,” he said, with some confidence in the lady. “We wish to have the agreement signing beforethe legislature session begins, within the next few days. We are aware of the difficulties involved, and Lord Machigi has expressed reservations about his personal safety, comfort, and dignity. You are here to smooth the path, one is quite certain, to gather information and to look the situation over. We are determined that Lord Machigi should not experience any uneasiness, not regarding the commitment of the aiji-dowager to exactly the course we have laid out, and not regarding the commitment of the East to further that agreement by specific actions. Lord Machigi will notbe put in any uncomfortable position regarding relationships with the Guilds or on any other issue other than that we have already discussed. Your discussions may range into these territories, to your lord’s benefit, but they are not necessary to the agreement of association with the aiji-dowager. The agreement of association stands separate from all other issues. I am here officially to report to you that the aiji-dowager is on her way to Shejidan—I have done that—and unofficially that she wishes to meet with Lord Machigi and accomplish the signing before there can be any campaign organized against it. Within your establishment here, we are prepared to assure your lord’s safety and convenience. The dowager will, however, for publicity reasons, wish to have the signing in the Ivory Hall of the Bujavid lower floor.”

“I shall relay that information to my lord,” Siodi said with a little nod. “One is very gratified to hear it from your mouth, nand’ paidhi. In you, my lord has confidence. One begs you to maintain that confidence.”

“I have come to have a personal attachment to your lord. I would regard treacherous harm to him as a great and personal affront. I am personally committed to the prosperity of the Taisigin Marid. I believe general prosperity will come. I believe it is just. I believe it is right. I believe it is fair.”

A deeper nod. “One will most gladly convey that good sentiment, nand’ paidhi. My lord had warned me that the bright lights of Shejidan might alter a man’s thinking.”

“It does not alter mine, nandi, not in this matter.”

“Nor does proximity to Tabini-aiji?”

“Tabini-aiji is quietly watching the progress of this effort. He has some reservations, but he sees this in a favorable light, on its merits, and on his respect for his grandmother’s good efforts. He wishes your lord’s success in his venture with the aiji-dowager. He agrees that there were unfortunate choices made in the past. He shares many of the same concerns about the economy of the Marid as a past and future cause of war, and welcomes your lord’s agreement with his grandmother. He will lend his support to her ventures, and if your lord is the aiji-dowager’s associate, he will support your lord’s ventures in the process.”

That was a very carefully crafted paragraph, and he had not dropped a stitch of it. He was gratified to see it delivered to a woman who would not drop a stitch of it, either, in relaying it back to Machigi. Her face demonstrated just ever so slight relaxation, and she nodded a third time.

“Thank you, nandi. One is glad to hear so.”

“Please relay my respects to Lord Machigi and tell him that time is short to have this accomplished in good order and with a minimum of debate. Other communication will flow through the Guild, but the aiji-dowager wished me to pay this courtesy directly and to express her opinions as you have heard them.”

“Which is much appreciated, nand’ paidhi.”

It was not a long meeting. There was no second round of tea. Their relative ranks did not encourage it. But Bren emerged with an unexpected gift for the aiji-dowager: a thick portfolio, done up in courtly style, with seals and ribbons of varying houses, which represented the concurrence of various of Machigi’s lords, including, one was glad to see, the seals of the Isles and the southeast coast of the Marid.

There were notably no ribbons representing the Senji and the Dojisigi, not yet, nor could they be expected. Those two districts were being firmly sat upon by the Guild, who were not welcome guests, and neither one had its succession in orderctheir lords’ funerals had been quiet, underattended, so the report said, and there was as yet no mad scramble of various claimants to the aijinates involved. It was assumed Tiajo would become the figurehead for her father over the Dojisigi, but as yet Senji clan could not even find a claimant willing to stand in the target zone, and the Dojisigi, who ordinarily would have immediately advanced an opinion as to which Senji clansman should hold that seat, had been conspicuously silent.

Fear. A salutary fear prevailed in those districts.

All the North could ask was that neither clan should move to assassinate Machigi. And the Guild prevented that.

Possibly, too, which the representative had not said, but one suspected—possibly Machigi had taken his hint on how to use the Guild’s offices and was making quiet approaches to certain minor lords to the north, in Senji.

That was what the paidhi-aiji would suggest if he were standing at Machigi’s elbow. The paidhi-aiji had interfered in the Shadow Guild mop-up once, to plead that the child-aiji, Tiajo, not be a target. And he had asked himself more than once since, now that a spoiled child sat in authority over the other most powerful clan in the Marid, whether human sentiment had made a very, very serious mistake in that request.

He was thinking about that, all the drive back to the train station.

“Are you,” Jago asked him, once they were in the red train car, and completely secure from eavesdropping, “are you worried about the representative, Bren-ji?”

“Not about her. Not about Machigi,” he said, and shook off the doubts. “Your opinion, nadiin-ji?”

“The representative,” Banichi said, “seems quick to grasp things and is suitably reserved. She is anxious. But not fearful. She distrusts the Guild on a general level but is coming to terms with those immediately around her. This opinion we have from her bodyguard.”

“One has one’s own reservations. Nadiin, I have heard”—A moment for thought. “One has heard disturbing things from Tabini-aiji—which you know, regarding unease in the North. Before setting all this irrevocably in motion—before engaging the dowager with Lord Machigi in an agreement—is there anything I should know? Am I doing something wise—or otherwise?”

The train started into motion, a slow, slow movement, a vibration underfoot.

“One has inquired,” Algini said slowly. A pause. It was very quiet in the car. “If for some reason Tano and I are someday absent without explanation—”

Algini did not finish. He was, unheard of for Algini, visibly upset at that question.

“Gini-ji. Is there anything I can do?”