Peacemaker

Tabini swung his chair to face him fully, hands clasped. “We have this documented?”

“We have the Assassins themselves, aiji-ma, who have made a full and willing report to the aiji-dowager.”

A brow lifted. “Go on, nand’ paidhi.”

“Persons coming from the Kadagidi estate, aiji-ma, presented a lethal threat, as happened, to foreign guests and to minor children. Jase-aiji and I went this morning to that estate to make it clear to them what persons they had accidentally offended and to ask for an apology. Instead of bringing their lord to confer, Lord Aseida’s bodyguard fired on us. Banichi and Jase-aiji’s bodyguard returned fire. In a second incident, from an upper story, fire came at Jase-aiji and myself, and Jase-aiji’s guard responded, to the ruin of a window, one regrets to say, aiji-ma. We were not the first to fire.”

“Did you arrest these persons?”

“None survived, aiji-ma. We dismissed Kadagidi domestic staff to the township. None were in a position to witness the exchange on the steps.”

“Is Asien’dalun left unoccupied?”

“Lord Tatiseigi’s allies have possession of the premises.”

“The Taibeni.”

“The Taibeni, aiji-ma. We left the estate in their hands.”

“We. I trust my son was not involved.”

“No, aiji-ma. Only myself, and Jase-aiji.”

“Your face.”

He had forgotten he had a wound crossing his cheek. His fingers found it was swollen, and a glance sharply down revealed it had dripped blood on his coat collar. He had been obsessed by the tea stain on his cuff. It had been a long morning. “One apologizes for the state of dress, aiji-ma. One considered it paramount to inform you.”

“Well that someone considered that detail,” Tabini retorted. “Were there fatalities on your side?”

“None, aiji-ma.” He tried to gather his scrambled thoughts. “Aiji-ma, the Shadow Guild down in the Dojisigin Marid took an entire village hostage, to force two Dojisigin Guild to carry out a mission against Lord Tatiseigi or see their relatives murdered. But seeing not only Lord Tatiseigi, but the aiji-dowager, in the presence of the young gentleman and foreign children—the Dojisigi surrendered and appealed to the aiji-dowager. The aiji-dowager freed their village last night.”

“Not personally, one supposes.”

That was irony. “No, aiji-ma. But not through central Guild command, one understands, which she fears may be compromised. Through her own. The action incidentally removed part of the Shadow Guild’s leadership in that district.”

“And my son? Participant in the goings-on at Tirnamardi?”

“At no point, aiji-ma. The young gentleman has been aware of the alarm in the house, but he was exemplary in keeping his guests from being involved, and in obeying instruction to stay in protected areas. He was quite safe and under guard when the two Assassins were taken in custody.”

Tabini lifted a brow.

“I omit nothing,” Bren said. “He was at no time in danger.”

“But you did kindly think of us, that we should be made aware that the aishidi’tat is missing a clan this evening.”

One could only nod quietly. And one also had to recall: “The Ajuri also lost Lord Komaji yesterday. One does not know whether you may have heard.”

“Of that, we are aware. Our staff tells us some things. We have made adjustments.”

The sarcasm and the a

“And where is my son at the moment?”

“In the Bujavid, aiji-ma. In Lord Tatiseigi’s apartment. With his guests.”

“Gods moderately fortunate. We are grateful our son has not stayed behind to direct the mop-up. Are we missing anything else you deem of interest?”

“No, aiji-ma.” He drew a breath. “But one does advise the aiji that security precautions in the Bujavid should be tightened. The opposition is stirred up, not only in the Marid, but likely here in the capital.”

“One would rather think they would be. Of course, we have our entire apartment staffed by my grandmother’s men. One expects to be told something soon.” There were light, quick steps in the hall. A woman’s steps. From deep inside the apartment. Tabini’s eyes darted aside and back. “One does not believe you will escape, paidhi.”

A knock came at the door, and with no pause at all, Lady Damiri swept in—a woman in her last days of pregnancy, a woman whose father had just been reported assassinated on a journey that might have taken him close to her son, at Tirnamardi, and who now, probably from security staff, found her son and company had arrived in the Bujavid and not told her they were coming back. “My son,” she said, as Bren respectfully rose and bowed.

“Safe,” he said quickly, and felt Damiri-daja’s glance travel up and down his bedraggled and blood-stained self. “He is well, quite well, daja-ma. He was not with me when I acquired this. He is here in the Bujavid. He was kept far from any incident.” Not quite the truth, if the opposition had had their way. “He has come back with his guests, and the ship-aiji who accompanied them—you remember Jase Graham, surely, daja-ma. Jase-aiji used the foreign weapons of his own bodyguard in his own protection and mine, and your son was at no point near the altercation with the neighbors.”

“Lord Aseida is under arrest at the moment,” Tabini said smoothly, never having risen from his desk. “Asien’dalun is missing a window. Our son and his guests are safely lodged with Lord Tatiseigi for the night.”

Damiri greeted that astonishing information with raised eyebrows, but no greater pleasure. She was Cajeiri’s link to Tatiseigi, who was her uncle. And her distaste for Lord Tatiseigi’s well-known conservatism had sent her back to Ajuri clan. “Indeed.”

“The paidhi-aiji,” Tabini said, “witnessed the Kadagidi situation first-hand. He has hurried here directly to reassure us. They clearly traveled quickly and silently, to get here with no noise.”

“Indeed,” Bren said.

“There was an assassination attempt,” Tabini said, “as we understand it, launched by the dissidents in the Dojisigin Marid, aided by the Kadagidi as a staging point, and aimed at Lord Tatiseigi.”

“At my uncle, specifically?”

With her father just assassinated.

Her maternal great-uncle, Tatiseigi, had come under threat—with the added choice of her son and her husband’s grandmother on the premises. One could see what her focus might be, in trying to parse that equation.

“Daja-ma,” Bren ventured to say, “the mission was launched specifically at Lord Tatiseigi—set for his return, whenever it might happen. The Assassins had no foreknowledge that he would arrive with such guests. The Assassins themselves were caught in a bind. They surrendered, confessed the situation—and we—Jase-aiji and I, went by bus to the Kadagidi estate to protest the action and receive an apology. But Lord Aseida’s bodyguard did not bring Lord Aseida to the conversation. They fired on us.”

“Which we are sure is not what the Kadagidi will say,” Tabini muttered.

“But we,” Bren said, “have a record of the event, aiji-ma. Jase-aiji’s men recorded the action in video and sound, with every movement, every word leading up to the exchange of fire.”

“Recorded.” Tabini was more than interested. “Will this recording be in our hands?”

“It will be by tomorrow, aiji-ma. Jase-aiji promises it, for whatever use we wish to make of it. He can process it for our machines. One cautions—one has not seen the record yet. But so far as my memory is accurate, and Banichi says the same, Lord Aseida’s Guild senior fired first.”

“Haikuti,” Tabini said with distaste.

“Haikuti is dead, aiji-ma. Along with two Guild units besides, and whoever fired from the window at Asien’dalun’s upper corner. We then took tactical positions in the house and grounds. My bodyguard and the aiji-dowager’s prevented servants from destroying records. We arrested certain persons we believe are plain-clothes Guild, and we dismissed the rest of the domestic servants to the township, everything by Guild regulations. It was a legitimate Guild operation, taken in a legitimate action on my part, and their firing initiated our response.”