Intruder

Since the coup, since very recent events in the Marid, one began to understand that certain things had run exactlythe way they would run in human society—or close enough that the paidhi should have paid closer attention to that circumscribed area of no-information. Whoever ran the Guild currently was a shadow, but he or she hadan opinion. Whoever backed that Guild leader had opinions.

Algini himself had an opinion—and had finally declared man’chi for the paidhi-aiji only recently. Watching and waiting for years, Algini had finally declared a point of view and a loyalty.

Did it indicate that the paidhi had moved much closer to the Guild’s position?

Had the Guild’s new or renewed leadership now moved closer to him?

Or—third possibility—had the Guild now determined to act on him directly, to be surehe moved in the Guild’s direction?

He had seen the folly in the cell phone bill, for one major instance. He had already firmly put the brakes on the advent of war machines landed from orbit. Geigi, working with the space station during the coup, had started dropping what amounted to robotic communications centers and war machines about the continent and had unilaterally supplied Mospheira with cell phones and communications that had already changed the Island profoundly. Technology that had seemed in balance between humans on earth and the atevi now seemed sorely out of balance. At least atevi had come out of the event feeling that such might be the case, and they were worried about their future. What until recently had seemed like a stable and predictable future had started looking otherwise.

There was so, so much of the set of circumstances that had perched on his doorstep, in the Guild’s view of things. Could one doubt whythe Guild had moved heaven and earth to get an agent into his household?

And now Algini was talking to him, warning him, advising him directly, and making suggestions. Did one take that onlyfor Algini’s personal opinion? He wasn’t sure he did.

And there was one question he had to ask, that he dreaded asking, and he asked it when they got back to the apartment. He gave Jago a look that said, I want to talk to you,and the two of them went to the hall outside the guest quarters.

He knew a very few Guild signals, the ones that didn’t change with every mission. And he used just one, quietly, where only she could see.

Trust?The rest of the gesture went toward the rear of the apartment, where Tano and Algini happened to be at the moment.

She took in a breath, and simply nodded, adding the sign that meant, Aishid.

So she and Banichi had no misgivings about their partners. And therefore he should have none.

That was worth its weight in gold. To him, it was.

It didn’t answer the question what a human was doing, blind and deaf to man’chi, wandering in the mix of atevi motivations and loyaltiesc

Well, yes, it did. It did answer it, from the time a batch of humans had planted themselves in atevi territory, messed up the contact, and somebodyhad to be assigned to make the situation work.

It was gratifying that atevi at very high levels thought he had common sense enough to be warned about the ground he was treading. Maybe the Assassins’ Guild was the guild most apt to understand existence in that peculiar outland, between two loyalties.

And how damned scary it was to make decisions in that territory, trying to save both sides.

11

  “He mustbe here,” Antaro said, out of breath. “The door has not been open.”

Cajeiri had looked absolutely everywhere and had Eisi and Liedi bring lunch in; and anyone going in or out was careful with the door, and was watched, carefully, and guarded at every step.

Boji had been missing from before lunch, and they had looked and looked and looked.

Antaro and Jegari knew Boji’s habits and where a little creature might take refuge, which was in small places. “He will come out for food and water,” they said, which made sense, so one of them sat guard over the cage, where food and water was, but far enough away not to frighten Boji.

Veijico and Lucasi had looked, and they were real Guild, who were good at finding hidden little things.

But bugs, they said, did not move when about to be discovered, and so one of them looked at one angle of the underside of a table, and the other watched the other side. They searched absolutely every piece of furniture and even behind the mattress, where it was up against the headboard, which was not easy to do, and behind every drawer of the bureau, which was not easy either.

The first thought was that Boji would not be far from food or water. The offer of water had not turned him up. The second thought was that a fresh egg or two might bring him, since he had not had an egg today.

It did not.

And one began to think over every trip they had made outside the doors last night and began to wonder uneasily if Boji had gotten out earlier, or if—worst of all—he had gotten to the front door or the servants’ doors and just slipped out far, far beyond their search, maybe down into the lower halls, in which case he could be anywhere. Anywhere. Even down to the train station, for all they knew.

Cajeiri feared so. He very greatly feared so, and told Eisi, one of the servants who had collaborated with them, bringing food and taking out soiled sand. “Be on the alert to any sign, anywhere in the premises. One believes he could even have gotten out into the servants’ halls, nadi-ji. Please look for him! Search little places! But ask no one! Do not tell anyone!”

It was a disaster. If Boji got out into the Bujavid halls, he would embarrass his father and his father’s security and the whole thing would be notorious, worse even than the mechieta and Uncle’s new driveway, which already was told about him far more often than he would like. His parents would wishthey would have a new baby who caused less trouble. They would send him off to learn responsibility.

Maybe they would send him to mani.

Mani would not be very patient with him losing Boji in her household, but at least she would just thwack his ear and forget it in an hour or so. His father and mother never forgot anything, and every time he did something in the least wrong the whole history came up again.

It was just wretched.

And he did not want to think of poor scared Boji getting out in the halls. Boji could find his way clear out of the Bujavid, out on the hill, down to the streets. He would be in the middle of Shejidan, where he could get into more trouble, and where he would find no food. He imagined the outside of the hill, where, as best he knew, there was no water, just rocks, and trees, and shrubbery. There were probably creepers, so there might be eggs, but only very little ones.

And all the traffic of the hotels racketed about below the hill: streetcars, and shops, and the people coming and goingcBoji could get into really, really bad trouble if he had gotten out. He could be killed.

Or he could be living down in the tu

Where in the apartment was like that little bag?

His aishid was still searching. They were all in the girls’ room now, taking apart the beds and searching in little spaces.

He started looking for places they might not think of. He started thinking of things like a bag. He started thinking about cloth-covered, dark places, and he looked at the hangings, and he looked even inside a big vase. And then he got down and looked under a table in a dark corner and sawc