Intruder (20 page)

He had to talk to them. He had to find out.

“One can only apologize,” he said, “for having touched on matters I should not have touched upon, and for not sending your son back the moment it became clear—”

“Nothing was clear,” Tabini said shortly. “Even to me. And in point of fact, my
son
was, again, safe with you for a few days—or should have been. It
should
not have involved his great-grandmother. It
should
not have involved that fool Baiji. It
should
not have involved what we began finding out here once my grandmother stirred the pot. Lady Damiri, about whom you have been too delicate to ask, has lately decided to set her own father, newly ascended to the lordship of Ajuri, somewhat at distance, which he is taking in high offense. In greatest confidence, I believe that there has been a loan of money from my wife to the Ajuri to cover a business failure that would have brought disgrace on the clan—a scandal that brought the untimely death of her uncle and the ascension of her father. My wife is quite distressed with the situation. Not for dissemination—she suspects another clan in the death of her uncle. She is protective of her son and of her child yet to be born. She is quite distressed with the recent risk to her son, she is put out with me, she is put out with you,
and
with my grandmother on account of the affair on the West Coast, with her deceased uncle on account of his financial dealings, and now with her father’s demands for special favor. None of this has made her happy at all in recent days. I do not repent my decision to leave my son in your hands in the midst of all these goings-on. At least he did not have to participate in the efforts of keeping my wife’s dealings with Ajuri from my grandmother’s major d’, while we were living in her apartment—and one has no doubt that would have put the cap on the matter. My confidence in you is undimmed. If ever my son arrives unexpectedly at
your door, receive him and immediately do as you did at Najida: inform me, but do not let him out of your sight for a moment.”

“Aiji-ma,” he said, dismayed. “My door will always receive him. And you will always know.”

“Your household is commendably peaceful and safe,” Tabini said. “One understands my son’s attraction to it. And we have equal confidence in the staff you are bringing down from the station.”

“One is gratified, aiji-ma.” There was one troublesome question. He greatly hesitated to say it. But the stakes were too high. “Among them is Lord Tatiseigi’s former cook, Bindanda. One hopes he will also pass scrutiny. He is a truly excellent cook. And he has been a pillar of my staff.”

Tabini gave a brief laugh. “We know Bindanda very well. He is an excellent cook. But, paidhi-ji, he is actually
my
spy.”

That was a thunderbolt. An absolute thunderbolt. “One is astonished, aiji-ma.”

“Oh, he reports now and again to Tatiseigi,” Tabini said. “But his reports come here first. And your bodyguard approves the transaction.”

He was utterly confounded. He said, somberly, “Then one is glad, aiji-ma, if he wishes to stay on my staff.”

“One believes he will do so. He is understandably an asset to your household. He improves your credit with Lord Tatiseigi. He keeps you safe from poisons. And we shall sort this matter of Ajuri out in good time. So go do the things you propose to do, paidhi-ji. We have every confidence in you—and so does my grandmother, or she would not have left you stranded without instructions. One is certain she wants you to deal with the situation and prepare the ground. One is certain she wishes you to find out my disposition, while she is not on the scene. So relay it carefully. We are officially not connected to this. But we are neighbors. Expect that my bodyguard will have talked to yours and that there will have been an interesting exchange of information, only
half of which we shall ever know, from the Guild, one is quite certain, until the whole situation has become history. Go, go, now. I have a stack of committee reports awaiting me. Escape while you can.”

“Aiji-ma.” He rose and bowed, gathering up Banichi and Jago and making his retreat with a glance back as he passed the door. His last view of Tabini, past Jago’s shoulder, was of a grim and hard-working man, not as young and reckless as he had been on that decade-ago trip to Taiben, when both of them had broken the gun regulations.

But, then, neither of them was as young, or as naive about the politics of the aishidi’tat, as even Tabini had been on that day.

It was possibly the most intensely personal conversation he had ever had with Tabini, who was not a man patient of fools or obstacles—a man who, uncommon for atevi, had had one wife for most of a decade and who now found that relationship under intense pressure, through no fault of his or hers.

And whose heir had relatives who were developing very serious drawbacks.

But Tabini was intelligent. Very.

And Tabini had told him exactly as much of the truth as he needed to know to prevent another problem.

Handle Tatiseigi and don’t let him take a position. Don’t get Ajuri stirred up.

He’d gotten that clue, too.

Do everything he could possibly do to lay the table before Ilisidi got back. Nobody was going to pay half as much attention to what the paidhi-aiji did as they would to the aiji-dowager when she arrived, and things had to run smoothly at her beck and call. There
were
things he could do, people he could talk to, impressions he could leave with people—things he could say that the dowager could readily deny if they turned out to be a mistake.

The relationship with Machigi—he
still,
after all that, hadn’t gotten a clear idea how Tabini read the man, and he had wanted Tabini’s opinion
more than any other. If there was a man alive who would have an instinctive grasp of that young man’s thinking, it would be Tabini, who was quite as ruthless, quite as capable of turning on the instant and astonishing his court.

What had Tabini said about Machigi?
He is no fool,
and that was about
all
Tabini had said, on the one thing he had most wanted to know from Tabini. And about Tatiseigi? It had amounted to
Good luck with him. You’re going to need it.

They picked up Tano and Algini. He didn’t say a word to his bodyguard until they had gotten the short distance back to his apartment, they had shut the door, and he had surrendered his court coat to Koharu, checked the message bowl for anything from Tatiseigi—there was nothing—and put on his day coat.

“The security station would be a good place,” Banichi said, and without a word, he went with his bodyguard down the hall to the quiet back of the apartment, and the small instrument-crowded station where his bodyguard was the authority…and the only ones who would hear.

“We did not know about the Ajuri difficulty, Bren-ji,” was the first thing Tano said to him.

“We did not know,” Banichi echoed that statement, “but certain things were worrisome.”

Bren sat down as they did, at one of the counters. Jago perched against the counter edge. Algini sat down, looking as grim as ever Algini could look, and looking not at him but into something invisible and not pleasant.

“What we do know,” Banichi said, “is that there had been misgiving about the youth of the aiji’s own bodyguard as well as their Taibeni-clan origin, which was used to justify the restriction of information flowing to them—temporarily, as it was supposed to be. The central authority argued that it was hard to sequence them into the information flow because they had minor connections to several unqualified individuals and several indiscretions that needed to be cleared up. Taibeni have been married into
several northern clans that have been outside certain security situations.”

“This was the ongoing argument,” Tano said. “But when it became known that
Cenedi
had been restricted from information on grounds of his principal’s connection to
Tabini-aiji,
that shone a light into the situation, and it no longer looked like administrative process. It looked like partisanship and possibly worse.”

“It took three hours, nandi,” Algini said darkly, “for the former Guildmaster to come out of retirement and reconstitute his own bodyguard, also from their retirement. There were immediate arrests. The head of the Guild Council who was in charge of the Machigi affair is not believed to have connections to the renegades—quite the opposite, by appearances, this person having personal reasons against the Taisigi; but it seems neither extreme of bias is reliable, when one allows personal opinion to sway a vote. Guild seniors who had sworn that they had permanently stepped aside are now returning, almost to a man. The urging of some members that the Guild needed new leadership to deal with technological changes in the world, and the willingness of some seniors to step down with the Guildmaster, more than put a very biased viewpoint into office: it set a very dangerous precedent to interdict more moderate members from the information flow. And that realization, and the return of former officers, Bren-ji,
that
was the start of the shift that abruptly stopped the action against Machigi and that moved in force against the renegades, this shadow Guild, as you call it. There had already been unprecedented bloodletting within Guild premises when the coup was reversed. It has now happened twice, this time when the elder officers moved back in. Retirements have been almost universally reversed. In the background of all this turmoil, some time back, Ajuri clan had gained strong influence. But due to financial improprieties, the former Lord Ajuri, who had relatives newly elevated in power and influence within the Guild as reconstituted after Tabini-aiji’s
return to power—and much preceding this current incident—had suffered in reputation and lost credit, in every sense. He had died. Lady Damiri lent her personal fortune to her father to cover the debts of her uncle, who was said—said—to have committed suicide. The officers at the head of the Guild continued from Tabini-aiji’s return until the day Tabini-aiji and the aiji-dowager found themselves dangerously underinformed on Guild matters, and they appealed for key officers to retake their power immediately. The investigation that followed, it now makes it seem that certain of the former Lord Ajuri’s papers are missing…within Guild offices. There is a strong suspicion that the money paid by the current Lord Ajuri, Damiri-daja’s father, was to prevent an unnamed clan bringing certain communications public. Blackmail, in other words.”

“May one ask—is there any indication which clan?”

“Nandi, the suspicion is—the Kadagidi.”

The clan alleged to be behind the coup, the murders of Tabini’s staff. The enemies of Lord Tatiseigi.

“Incredible.”

“Unfortunately,” Algini said, “credible. The Ajuri, like many smaller clans, took shelter. Their great strength was within Guild
clerical
administration. When an upheaval came in the Guild—say that certain members of Ajuri clan were visiting the Kadagidi. One is not certain if Lady Damiri herself knows it. But she is due to find out, since the aiji is disposed to doubt her father’s leadership of Ajuri clan as he has always doubted her uncle’s. You will note, of resources the aiji used when in exile and being hunted by his enemies—the aiji did not appeal to Ajuri Clan. Nor did Damiri-daja ever breach security to do so, so far as we have learned.”

Tano said: “The returning officers of the Guild are dealing with some difficult judgments, nandi, whether certain persons who left and are now considered outlawed did so in good conscience, to resist illicit orders. Murini was essentially a figurehead, with a new Guild leadership guiding his hands. The culpable
Guild that went south when the coup collapsed—the Ajuri that went south with them may have been guilty. Or they may only have feared partisanship. It is yet to be decided.”

“Certain ones went south,” Banichi said grimly, “but certain ones even more dangerous had covered their tracks with skill the Guild teaches—and the younger leadership of the Guild had already targeted the Marid lords for removal…without telling Tabini-aiji, without consulting senior Guild, without respect for the tradition that keeps the Guild from altering the political makeup or balance of the aishidi’tat.
That
adventurism is what we saw operating, Bren-ji—a great enthusiasm for far too much intervention without restraint. And very possibly with motives we are still unraveling.”

“If the Guild operation against Machigi had gone forward as the Guild leadership of that hour had intended,” Algini said, “the Guild would likely have created a separate administrative district—one Guild administration governing the Marid, where only the Guild would give orders. The information broke first, you may surmise, when Cenedi cracked the wall of secrecy—how he did that, best not to know. But that Guild operation is what the dowager moved instantly to prevent.”

“And she sent me to snatch Machigi back from the brink. The plan was to assassinate Machigi and then the others and rule the Marid from Tanaja, to take care of the Shadow Guild—do you think? To put the Guild itself at the top of the aishidi’tat?”

“We are still finding out,” Algini said. “Now you know far more of Guild affairs than you should, and we are all but Jago in violation of a general directive.”

“By all means, add me to it,” Jago said. “I refuse to be left out. At least, Bren-ji, we believe the Guild will now stabilize, if we do not have another upset or a revelation of more problem man’chiin. Very high officers are being eliminated. And Ajuri influence has gone from very high to ruin.”

“We are again operating clan by clan,” Banichi said, “a principle that ought not to have been abandoned by certain Shejidani
units who made a critical decision to accept central leadership and directives above those of their clans, because
certain
clans persuaded them they were acting selflessly. Machigi’s bodyguard functioned excellently—they
are
regional, and they obeyed the old rules, defending their own lord, as they should, in every respect.”

“Unfortunately,” Algini said, “no place including the Bujavid will be as safe as we would wish, for perhaps several years to come, and those who have retaken power in the Guild are not young, nor was the retaking of power without bloodletting. We have a relatively limited time to mortar these arrangements back together before we start losing key elements.”