Peacemaker

“Humans!”

“Indeed, the three i

Expression touched Lord Topari’s face, difficult to read: skepticism, one was certain.

“And this will be entered in evidence?”

“Nandi, it is to be filed with the Guild today. The confession of the two Assassins is already filed. And being informed that you are first to ask into the facts, as someone should ask—I have asked you here to see what happened, to see exactly what the Guild Council will see, should you wish to do so. I do not say you will be the last to see it—but you will be the first.”

A suspicious look.

“It will be relatively brief, nandi.”

“Television.”

“Not precisely television, nandi,” Jago said, moving forward, “but this viewer.” She pushed a button and an image flashed up on the bare wall to the left, larger than life. Algini immediately dimmed the lights, and without Lord Topari precisely consenting—the images appeared.

Bren watched Lord Topari, whose face, in the reflected light, was grim and apprehensive, not pleased by what was simply a confusion of shadow at first, then the interior of the bus. It was the moment Jase’s guards had put on their helmets.

“We are begi

On the wall, the view swung about, became the driveway, the still-distant house, the porch.

“Those are ship-folk notations superimposed on the image,” Bren said, regarding the numbers at the edge.

That drew a sharp look from Topari.

“What do they say?”

“They are a signature, indicating the name of the guard, indicating the date and time. This is from a camera inside the armor of Jase-aiji’s guard. Jase-aiji’s bodyguards were on duty, as of this point, wearing protective armor.”

Action proceeded. The bus stopped. Banichi got off and hailed the house.

“The paidhi-aiji and the ship-aiji have come to call on Lord Aseida,” Banichi’s voice said distantly, addressing the Kadagidi guard. “They are guests of your next-door neighbor the Atageini lord, and they have been personally inconvenienced by actions confessed to have originated from these grounds. These are matters far above the Guild, nadi, and regarding your lord’s status within the aishidi’tat. Advise your lord of it.”

“That is my Guild senior,” Bren said quietly, “advising the Kadagidi of our approach and our request.”

Kaplan and Polano got off, a confusion of images of the bus door and the side of the house, then a jolt resolving to a steady image of the house door, which had opened. A knot of armed Kadagidi Guild held the porch.

“This is the point at which I exited the bus,” Bren said. “I descended behind the cover of the two ship-folk bodyguards and in the company of my own aishid, hoping to speak to Lord Aseida.”

Banichi stepped again into camera view, rifle in the crook of his arm.

“Are those alive?” the other side called out; and now bright squares flicked here and there and showed shadow-figures within the walls, and one square flicked to the movement of a weapon, on the porch.

“These are the ship-aiji’s personal bodyguard,” Banichi answered. “And the ship-aiji is present on the bus. Be warned. These two ship-folk understand very little Ragi. Make no move that they might misinterpret. The paidhi-aiji and the ship-aiji have come to talk to your lord, and request he come outdoors for the meeting.”

“Our lord will protest this trespass!”

“Your lord will be free to do that at his pleasure,” Banichi retorted. “But advise him that the paidhi-aiji is here on behalf of Tabini-aiji, speaking for his minor son and for the aiji-dowager, the ship-aiji, and his son’s foreign guests, minor children, all of whom were disturbed last night by Guild Assassins who have named your estate as their route into Lord Tatiseigi’s house.”

“We will relay the matter to our lord,” the Kadagidi said. “Wait.”

A man left, through the door to the inside of the house. And thus far there was absolutely nothing wrong with the proceedings.

Except that targeting squares now flickered on shadows inside an apparently transparent building.

Another Guild unit came out onto the porch.

“Banichi!” that unit-senior shouted with no preface at all, swung his rifle up in a flicker of square brackets, and fired.

The scene froze. Stopped.

“I shall advance the image slowly at this point,” Jago said.

It was hard to watch. Banichi fired, clearly the second to fire. In a series of images, Haikuti went backward as Banichi spun and went down, bullets simultaneously hit the bus, and a flash of fire and white cloud obscured their view for a few frames.

“Grenade,” Jago said matter-of-factly. “Theirs.” A fiercer blaze of light enveloped the porch, lit by green brackets.

“Jase-aiji’s guard has fired,” Jago said.

Bren had not seen that happen. He had been on the ground, trying to pull Banichi into cover. Then everybody had poured off the bus, through the smoke still lingering. What the camera showed was appalling.

Shadows ran past the camera—his bodyguard, and the dowager’s men, headed for that porch, which was now a shattered, smoke-obscured ruin.

The image froze again, and went dark.

“This,” Bren said, a little shaken himself, recalling the shock that made the ground shake, the smell, the stinging haze . . . “This is the point of law, nandi, that everything was proceeding in an ordinary way, and the Kadagidi guard had not panicked at the appearance of the ship-folk guards. Everything was proceeding quietly except that that second unit was moving to the door, which none of my guard knew. The Guild senior of the Kadagidi unit exited the building and opened fire on me and my guard. My Guild senior took the fire and fired back. Someone on that porch threw a grenade, and at that instant Jase-aiji’s guard responded with their own weapons.”

Topari sat silent.

“We also extracted, from that house, nandi, evidence of a co

“One sees,” Topari said after a moment, and did not look happy. Then: “For whom are you speaking, nand’ paidhi?”