Intruder

The underside of the chair next to the table was cloth. Cloth chairs with cloth bottoms. He went from room to room looking under chairs. He looked behind the tapestry. And then he looked behind the doors, and even tipped over the very tall brass vase, just in case.

Boji was nowhere to be found. Nowhere. His aishid had by then put the girls’ beds together again and put all the drawers back in.

Soc

He looked under hisbed. In case. And under the ornate chair in the corner.

There was, under its bottom, a dark spot that looked odd. He investigated with his fingers and there was a hole.

Thatwas not the sort of thing the gentleman in charge of furnishings would like or would ever have let out unrepaired. And theyhad not put a hole in it in searching. It was just Boji’s size, and Boji had those very clever fingers.

He sat back on his heels and thought about it. If they made a big fuss and scared Boji, then the next time he got out, Boji would pick someplace harder to find. He could figure that. And he knew about this hole.

So he quietly got up, figuring to go get one of the eggs they had for bait. And on his way he put his head into the boys’ room, where they were starting to take apart Lucasi’s bed.

“One believes one may have found him. Be very quiet, nadiin-

ji! And stay here and do not make any noise!”

He ran and got an egg. And a writing pen.

And he went and sat down on the floor by the chair and used the metal pen nib to punch a hole in the end of the egg.

He sat very still with his back turned to the chair. Eggs had a smell. Boji always knew when one was offered.

Suddenly he heard movement, the sound of claws on fabric. A startling weight landed on his shoulder and headed straight down his arm to the egg.

Boji was back. He let Boji eat the egg but not take it from his hand, and with his other hand he got a grip on Boji’s harness.

Just then someone knocked at the front door, and Boji exploded, flinging egg every which way. Boji might have bitten him in his twisting and fighting to get free, except his hold on the harness was in the middle of Boji’s back, and Boji just fought and spat and yowled as he got up.

Eisi and Lieidi knew not to knock, but someone came into the sitting room, probably one of the other servants, who were notpermitted, and Cajeiri was prepared to tell them so—if he had not his arms full. He gathered himself up to his feet, shoved Boji into the hollow of his other arm and tried to calm Boji’s struggles and chittering, soothing that had some effect, at least enough that Boji stopped fighting.

Antaro had gone down the i

“Aiji-ma,”he heard Antaro say, and Cajeiri’s stomach sank.

“Tell my son I shall see him,” was the answer.

Boji’s cage was in that room with the door open. Cajeiri headed for the other, i

“What was that?” he heard his father ask, and Antaro said, out in the sitting room, with admirable presence of mind, “One will ask, aiji-ma.”

But there was nothing for it. His hands, his face, and his good clothes were spattered with egg yolk, Boji was chattering and spitting in fright, ripping the threads of his coat in frantic attempts to escape, and his father was not going to be in a better humor at being lied to by a trainee Guildswoman under his orders.

He took a deep breath, kept a firm grip on Boji, who was clawing frantically all the while, and went out into the sitting room. His father was standing there alone, Antaro having headed for the back of the suite. He met in Antaro the doorway and caught her eyes in passing, on his way into the sitting room. He dared not say a thing but just kept going.

“Honored father,” he said, and bowed, which made Boji grab his coat with both hands, for safety.

“Son of mine,” his father said in that deep, ominous voice. “ Whatis that?”

“A pariid’ja, honored Father.”

“One can detect that basic fact. Let us amend the question. Whyis it here?”

It was not a good thing to dodge Father’s questions. He had rehearsed what he would say when he had to tell his parents about Boji. He had rehearsed it every night. But all of that was useless. “One requested him, honored Father. One had gotten the cage, and one thought—”

“Thought. One is very glad that thoughtentered somewhere into the transaction.”

“One is confined to this apartment, honored Father, and one has no chance to go out to the country, and one misses it, honored Father. On the ship at least there was the garden.”

“One sees you have fairly well started one here.”

The plants. The many plants.

“One admires plants. And one so admired the cage, which is brass,nand’ Father, and not at all breakable! One in all points remembered the rule, that I might have brass, and it is very solid. I ca

“Not for a hundred years,” his father said dryly.

So there had been a stable, once. He was almost distracted off his carefully memorized track.

He wondered where it had been.

But he faced his father, desperately shoved the existence of mechieti out of his mind, and said, calmly, refusing even to entertain the possibility that his father could take back his birthday party, “One has had him for days,honored Father. One wished to demonstrate first that he is no problem and that he does not smell at all, because we keep him very clean, and he does not eat much, and he does not make a mess on the carpetscwe have sand for him, and we have been very good about taking it out.”

His father began to laugh, slightly at first, and then really to laugh.

He was very keenly aware there wasa mess, and it was him. Egg was all over his coat, all over his hands and face. He hoped the staff could save his clothes, but the coat was a bit clawed, too, and probably ruined, and he really did not want his father to know that at the moment.

“They bite,” Father said. “They climb. They nest in strange places. They do not do well in a house.”

“But I have all the plants,” he said. “He is happy here!”

“This is a forest hunter,” Father said.

“Have you ever had one, nand’ Father?”

“I have hunted with them, yes.”

“At Taiben?”

“At Taiben,” Father said, and a glance raked him up and down. “One takes it the creature is not well trained.”

“He is only a baby.”

“He is three-quarters grown and had best learn to come to a whistle, soon, or you will not be able to control him.”

“ MayI keep him?”

A small silence. “If you can train him. Ifyou can train him. I had a good report from your tutor this morning.”

“He is an excellent tutor, honored Father. And one is trying very hard. And one will train Boji. One will! He is very quick.”

A second silence. “You understand that your mother will have concerns about the baby’s safety with this creature in the apartment. He must not bite, he must not steal, he must not escape this room, and he must, above all, learn to come to you when called.”

“ Yes,honored Father! I shall teach him! He will not be a problem! He will be clean, he will be absolutely clean! And he will not bite the baby!”

His father looked at him and laughed, outright laughed, as his father rarely did.

At his expense. But it probably wasfu