Intruder

The Guild, Bren thought, was not the argument he would have picked—given what he had learned from Tabini.

But Tatiseigi sat still, the brandy in his hand, and then he emptied it at a gulp and held out his glass for another.

Servants moved. No one else did, except Cajeiri was swinging his feet. And stopped in the general hush.

Tatiseigi took another sip. “You believe this as fact.”

“We believe it,” Ilisidi said, and for a dizzy, strange moment, Bren thought, Couldshe be behind what’s been going on in the Guild? At leastcthe current upheaval?

“You believe you have the means to restrain this wild southerner, Sidi-ji.”

“We have the means to remove this wild southerner, should he prove unwise. And he knows it.”

“One will concede to you,Sidi-ji.”

Feet swung. Abruptly stopped. Cajeiri piped up: “My father will back Great-grandmother. One is quite sure.”

There was a moment of surprise, a little shock, that Cajeiri had an opinion.

“The renegades shot at us,” Cajeiri continued doggedly. “They blew up a truck. They attacked everybody and tried to get them to fight. But we stoppedthem. They wanted to set Lord Machigi’s enemy in Dojisigi and assassinate Lord Machigi, so Lord Machigi has hadto ally with mani. And she will not let him go.” Feet swung again, and stopped. “My father is keeping quiet because of politics. But we think he backs mani.”

“So do we back your great-grandmother, nandi,” Geigi said. “So does the entire West, and that is another district that has been, until now, too unsettled to unify. If we take this course, Lord of the Atageini, with the solidity of your great prestige, the whole West agrees to fight our legal battles in the legislature and in court and accept the resultscand this agreement now includes those peoples now called tribal districts. We have also gained the Lord of Dur in agreement, bringing in his region. We have Maschi clan agreed, and, for once, the whole Marid is under one authority, who sees nothing more profitable for him than agreement. Should Machigi break this alliance, we here will maintain our association and deal with it, but more, for the first time the Guildwill be in place to deal with it. So Machigi will no longer be able to think that he is out of reach of consequences. He is now as vulnerable to the Guild as any other lord. It is a new situation, nandi. I put by all quarrels in the interests of having this agreement work.”

“Even abandoning the matter of your sister,” Tatiseigi said bluntly.

“If I do, she will have died to some higher purpose, nandi, than the usual regional dispute. She will have died for something worth dying for. In order for us to deliver the conditions in which the agreement of Machigi and Sidi-ji can work, the tribal districts have to be at peace, and to put them at peace, the legislature has to approve their admission to the aishidi’tat and remove them from dependency on my clan. I back that proposal. One hopes, nandi, one extravagantly hopes for your vote in support.”

“One asks,” Ilisidi said, “Tati-ji. Tryour way. We have ample recourse if it fails. We have built in precautions such as your objections have suggested, notably Guild action. We need you, Tati-ji.”

There was a moment of stark silence. Then a nod from Tatiseigi. “We shall agree,” Tatiseigi said, jaw clamped as if he were forcing the words. “You know, Sidi-ji, the political cost of this will be heavy.”

“You will gain, Tati-ji, and you may suffer the jealousy of your neighbors for that. We know the risk—and we know some of your neighbors, as do you. We ask you not visit Tirnamardi at any time in the coming weeks. We offer perso

“They will notbe Taibeni, Sidi-ji!”

“They will not be Taibeni.”

God—inserting more bodyguards onto Tatiseigi’s staff? Maybesomebody who could wade in, replace several antiquated and overly expensive security systems, and get decisions made. That was his first thought: Tatiseigi assassinated and his vital succession over Atageini Clan coming down to Cajeiri would be monumental.

Second thought: Under ordinary circumstances, Tatiseigi would have set his feet and demanded favors or outright refused; but the old man was not stupid. By backing the agreement, he had great reason to worry about his next-door neighbors and strongest rivals, the Kadagidi, who were trying to regain their political power and would use it for capitalcbut by opposing Ilisidi, he set himself aside as useless, because he assuredly would never back the Kadagidi.

Cajeiri’s feet swung. He stopped them, but his eyes moved from Geigi to Tatiseigi. The boy understood. He’d been there when Tatiseigi’s antiquated systems had nearly gotten them all killed. Cajeiri knew everyone’s opinions. Hehad his opinions on his great-uncle’s feelings about the Taibeni. He knew all about his great-grandmother’s plan and the situation on the coast. And one hoped to God he knew he shouldn’t say a thing at the moment. Not a thing.

Lips went taut with restraint.

In a very long silence.

“I have avoided war all my life,” Tatisiegi said. “This is consistency on my part.” A nod, then. “The Atageini accept the proposal. We will back this program, specifically on your recommendation, Sidi-ji.”

They’d doneit, Bren thought.

And he asked himself how much of Lord Tatiseigi’s movement in their direction had to do with the ongoing situation Tabini had warned him about, the situation with Lady Damiri’s other relatives, who were fighting to remove Tatiseigi’s influence from the ruling house in Shejidan and bring in their own to stand near Tabini-aiji.

Not to mention the situation within the Guild—the recent situation, and the prior situation, and the fact they were not likely to have eliminated every vestige of the shadow Guild. If there was a place the shadow Guild was supposedto have been eliminated—it was from the house of the Kadigidi, Murini’s clan, Lord Tatisiegi’s neighbor to the east. Tatiseigi had forever the Taibeni on one side and the Kadagidi on the other, and he had the most uncertain security on the continent.

So now Tatiseigi found a way to accept Ilisidi’s offer, at one stroke getting past the Kadagidi.

He found a way to accept a gift porcelain and had the paidhi-aiji advancing him as an expert in the collector trade.

He even found a way to agree with Lord Geigi, however indirectly, and patch up a quarrel that had ceased to be of any social or political benefit.

Damned right, Tatiseigi was aware of a danger to him and to his clan.

There was an interesting letter among Baiji’s little stash of blackmail material, one half line of which suggested the Kadagidiwould favor Baiji’s proposed alliance with the Dojisigin Marid.

The interesting bit was the date, which was afterMurini’s fall from power, afterMurini had allegedly become anathema among the Kadagidi and the Kadagidi had become i

If push came to shove, Tatiseigi might well know what to do with that letter.

Ilisidi had her own copy of that little store of documents, and when it came to interclan gossip, Ilisidi knew things. She collected things. Remembered things.

And delivered little tidbits of information when they most suited her.

Had that letter gone to Tatiseigi—along with the supper invitation?

One wondered. One did indeed.

Following Lord Tatiseigi’s agreement—and an unprecedented exchange of bows and courtesies of reconciliation with Lord Geigi—there was perhaps just a bit more brandy than was judicious. But it was an occasion, and the mood was optimistic, at least for the hour. Cajeiri, as a minor, went home earliest with his young aishid, without having committed a single indiscretion—exemplary behavior, and one the dowager noted with a deeper than usual nod in parting. They all left at once, Lord Tatiseigi down the hall to his residence, and Bren and Lord Geigi off to Bren’s apartment, on Cajeiri’s track.