Intruder

They were not that late getting in, except for the brandy, and one thought even of one more glass, which was entirely foolish. He and Geigi were both tired. They needed to go straight to bed and have their wits about them in the morning.

Bren said his goodnight to Geigi—“A success, a very great success, Geigi-ji,” and received a reciprocal courtesy, the both of them happy with the evening. Valets were waiting to put them to bed; bodyguards were headed for their own well-earned late suppers in the apartment kitchen, after their own very long evening.

And Bren delayed for one compulsive, foolish look at the message cylinders waiting in the basket.

The design of the cylinders said they came from several departments of the government and Machigi’s representative, one surmised the fifth one to be. For the morning, he said to himself, resolutely.

But Tano and Algini turned up again from the i

“This is from the dowager, Bren-ji. Cenedi’s company provided an extensive briefing.”

A slight cold chill went through him. Tano and Algini, as usual, had been door detail, Banichi and Jago standing duty in the dining room and the sitting room. It was always the door detail who talked with the resident Guild.

And learned the unofficial scuttlebutt.

“The nature of these, Tano-ji? Should one be alarmed?”

“These are in main the dowager’s final drafts of the agreement, Bren-ji. And also Cenedi’s intelligence report regarding the East. There is controversy rising regarding development on the coast, regarding the proposed rail service, regarding road building. Cenedi says these are routine matters, which can be handled with accurate information and negotiation.”

“We had a very interesting conference,” Algini said, “with the collective security details—we dodged Tatiseigi’s aishid to some minor extent, but we were very careful to give them every impression of full disclosure and full inclusion. That the two of the young lord’s bodyguard are Guild was convenient. We were able to include them, to warn them for the sake of their principal, but as juniors, with certain restrictions of information. Maneuvering around them covered our more focused talk with Cenedi. We have filled him in regarding the business already discussed. We are confident of his position. We have also passed nand’ Geigi’s guard a document not to be opened until they are on the station, and we have their undertaking to respect that.”

“However,” Algini said, and proffered another envelope, “this should be kept guarded and given to the aiji directly.”

One was not going to sleep well on that account.

The envelope was sealed without a signet seal. And Algini himself might not know its contents. One would bet it came either from Cenedi or directly from the Guild and was another bypass of Tabini’s bodyguard, who might—or might not—have been given it directly had Tabini attended the di

Giving it to Cajeiri’s earnest young guard—no. This envelope was not that sort of message.

13

  Bren opened his eyes, a little muzzy from sleep, and made space for Jago on the convenient side of the bed. She was shadow, all shadow, and settled quietly under the coverscand he suddenly became aware that it was late in the night.

That his bodyguard had been up verylate.

“One wished not to disturb you,” she said quietly.

“Is something amiss, Jago-ji?”

“Not amiss, Bren-ji,” she said. “Algini and Tano went down to the town to meet with Guild from Lady Siodi’s establishment and from elsewhere. Nawari also.”

Cenedi’s right-hand man. Bren wiped his hand across his face, rising on an elbow and thinking—the place was almost certainly bugged by Tabini’s establishment. There were midnight consultations going on between his bodyguard, Ilisidi’s, Guild leadership—and those Guild the Guild itself had attached to Machigi and his representative. He hadn’t had time yet to get the personal envelope to Tabini.

But something must already be moving in the situation in the south.

And thatrealization drove the last residue of sleep right out of his head.

“Are there things I should know, Jago-ji?”

“There is progress on several fronts, since sundown, nandi. There is now an establishment in Sungeni and in Dausigi protecting those two lords.”

Lords loyal to Machigi— not necessarily loyal to him out of deep passion, but due to the economic and political realities of the Marid. Two small, financially weak clans had long found alliance with the powerful Taisigi their only means of survival—fearing they could be swallowed up by Dojisigi.

The two clans in question mighthave taken exception to Machigi’s sudden acceptance of the northern Assassins’ Guild. Their reaction had been a great worry in the whole arrangement with Machigi. But now the Guild had moved in on them,and the last of the Marid clans without a strong Guild presencecnow had one.

“Do we know Machigi’s view on this?” he asked delicately, not to tread too closely on things on which Jago might have to preserve secrecy.

“He wrote a very helpful letter,” Jago said, “introducing the Guild delegates. The first was accepted among the Sungeni at sunset and by the Dausigi an hour later.” She turned onto her side, facing him, a darkness in the dark. “Machigi has also written a letter to Tiajo-daja, suggesting that acceptance of the Guild’s close guidance would secure her life and her father’s. And that rejection would not be a healthful decision. The Guild has provided a younger bodyguard, with close senior supervision, for the young lady,” Jago said. “Unhappily, the young lady is quarrelsome. She has already tried to enlist her new bodyguard to assassinate a list of enemies. The Guild naturally refused, and the young lady actually threw and damaged a number of atiendi itemsc” That was to say, artworks and antiquities belonging to the clan. It was shocking, uncivilized behavior. Shocking as a murder of sorts.

“One is dismayed.” What could he say? Hehad argued to safeguard Tiajo, which necessarily meant she would assume power. Such a childish act did not recommend her self-restraint.

“The Guild has made this act known in other houses where it has taken up guard. We have notified persons who were on the young lady’s list of intended targets; and we have consequently taken up guard and an advisory presence in those housescso it has all flown back in the young lady’s face with a vengeance.”

“I intervened, Jago-ji. One begins to understand this was not my best idea.”

Jago shrugged. “She is having a difficult adolescence, and if she does not improve within the month, one doubts she will remain in any influence, if she remains alive. In fact, one of the persons she finds most objectionable has just proven quite sensible regarding Guild presence, and consultation is flowing back and forth, with very valuable information forthcoming from that source, which we can pass to certain other houses at a time of our choosing. Tiajo and her father have both been warned that if this person, her third cousin, Adil, does File Intent against her, the Guild may well withdraw her bodyguard and her father’s rather than continue to defend them.”

“Did she listen?”

“She immediately flew into a temper. Her father is now considering his position in some depth and attempting, far too late, to exert his paternal influence over the young lady.” Jago shifted up on an elbow and propped her head. “We are trying to preserve her, Bren-ji, and to amend her upbringing. But it is difficult. The next step is to remove her from power and send her off with her bodyguard for the next number of years and teach her more things her education hitherto has never mentioned. She will be the better for it.”