Intruder (6 page)

“You mean your neighbors and allies are still inclined to shoot Taisigi on sight.”

“The Edi, indeed, nandi. One by no means denies the old enmity poses a problem. Yet once the agreement is signed, once you are an ally of the Edi’s ally, everything will change.”

“So you assure us.”

“When the agreement is made and signed, nandi, and I am working toward that.”

“You are heading off to Shejidan.
She
is heading for the opposite end of the continent—”

“One would expect she has arrangements to make in the East, particularly involving the agreement. As the highest lord of the East, she will not wish to proceed without at least consulting with her brother lords. She will be quite busy. As will I in Shejidan. And before the legislative session opens, one hopes that there will be a signing.”

“And will she come here? Will she come to Tanaja to sign this agreement?”

“If it is signed here, there will be side issues. Signing in Shejidan will have the full attention of all the provinces; it will have the smell of something the aiji at least countenances, and
that
will be valuable in negotiating our way further.”

“So you are asking me to leave my people in a crisis, occupied by foreigners, and go off to Shejidan for a holiday, in hope the aiji-dowager will see fit to arrive and honor her promises?”

“You will not have to wait that long, nandi. And a face-to-face agreement, with access to the news media in Shejidan, will be seen in every village throughout the aishidi’tat, with the status of fact, not rumor. Television is very powerful in Ragi lands, where most people have access. It is, for situations like this, extremely useful. People will see you. People will see you and the dowager at one place, acting with one accord, and they will watch your expressions and hear your voices, and then they will believe it is a real agreement.”

“I repeat: I have foreign Guild walking the streets of Tanaja. I have country folk afraid to go out into their own fields, believing they may be shot. I have inbound ships querying us about the safety of the ports. Not to mention I have lost two ministers to assassination and have their departments in completely disarray. I cannot leave my capitol to be seen attending the Ragi aiji in festivities in Shejidan.”

“This agreement does not involve the aiji in Shejidan, and absent your request to speak to him, there will be no meeting. But before you arrive, send a proxy to set up an office, manage Marid affairs and arrange things to your satisfaction; come to Shejidan only when he indicates he is satisfied about the situation. You can then return to the Marid as soon as the ink is dry—or stay as long as pleases you. The aiji-dowager is staking her reputation and her political influence on the success of this agreement, far from putting it at a low priority; and in the coming session she means to put this alliance directly in the minds of legislators who will vote to reshape policy in various directions. It
will
affect perceptions. It will change the Ragi perception of the Marid. You are young, you are well-favored, and you will televise very, very well. It
is
important you go…and it will be useful, should someone ask, that you personally support the dowager’s plan for the West Coast.”

“Oh,
now
we get to it! My appearance assists her cause, confirms the Edi claim and what does it do for the Marid? I shall be seen as ceding the West Coast, to no profit to my people at all!”

“If you, of all people, back this state for the Edi, then it will pass the legislature despite the central clans’ objection—and there will be some objection, one is sure of it, persons who want to keep the status quo. Your appearance and agreement will shock them into rethinking what they believe of the west and south. Once the west coast plan passes, that will strengthen the dowager’s credit when she puts forward the rest of her program—which directly involves her trade agreement with you, nandi.”

“So far, the advantage and the gain are all hers, since our ships are in this port, a long way from hers, and if I agree,
she
has the entire West Coast in her pocket!”

“Hear me out, nandi. Let me say that Lord Dur has guaranteed support on both parts of her proposal, that for the West Coast, and that regarding the Marid. And so has Lord Geigi.”

“
Geigi,
do you say?”

“I have his very solemn word on it. For the dowager’s sake, and for mine, he
will
support you and deal with you. He is her firm ally, and mine, and he will not pursue any possible bloodfeud. Let all that business at Kajiminda recede into the past. As he will. The West Coast will have two new lords in the tribal states, and
they
will also support you if you support them: I have the word of the Grandmother of the Edi, and Her of the Gan, that if you do support the West Coast plan, and if they get their seats in the legislature, they will vote for the dowager’s agenda despite their past relationships with the Marid.”

“And the moon will turn green. This is a house of glass, paidhi! Every piece of it is poised on spit and promises.”

“It has been difficult to build, nandi, but it stands because the benefit to all parties is clear. Foremost of these promises are yours and the dowager’s. She has staked a great deal on this. And on
their
firmness and fairness, all other things rest.”

“I have staked my
life,
paidhi, and the lives of my officials—as you well understand. I cannot do more.”

“As do I,” Bren said, “in coming here, considering the feelings in this region. But I judge the risk of your
life
is not what troubles you, nandi. I do not think you can be frightened by threats. What is at stake is one’s power and reputation. I lay mine on it. The dowager has laid hers on it, no less difficult of recovery, at her age, than is yours, given your region’s situation. We are all at risk. But you are not the man to retreat from a challenge, nandi: I saw that from the first. And I would have advised both sides of this agreement far differently if I in the least doubted your courage or your good sense. By allying with the renegades from the Guild, your neighbors to the north fell into a trap that you were smart enough to avoid. And you have the vision they lacked. Spend a handful of days in Shejidan and sign this agreement, nandi, and you can do more good for the people of the Marid than any leader has done for them in two hundred years. They will protest at first—”

“I shall be lucky if I am not assassinated forthwith!”

“You have now allied with the Guild proper and have their advice and protection. They will defend you with all their resources, nandi, and that includes the law itself. More, I have brought more with me than distant promises. I have brought proposals of a very specific nature, which may help your people understand the safety in this agreement and the prosperity right behind it; I have brought a letter of committment which the aiji-dowager has signed. I have brought a signed statement from Lord Geigi, and a detailed proposal of my own, which the dowager has heard with favor but not yet signed. I have them with me, and I will give them into your possession, for legal record of what we say and do here.”

Machigi regarded him thoughtfully for a moment, then suddenly nodded. “We shall hear them.” He snapped his fingers, and Tema, the head of Machigi’s bodyguard, took a step forward. “The ministers should hear this, Tema-ji.”

“Aiji-ma,” Tema said, and Machigi said to the waiting servants, “More tea.”

Talk was ceremonially ended for a space. Any organization of thoughts had to be suspended in favor of reflection and calm for the space of a pot or two of tea.

Bren drew a slow breath and revised his own notions of how to proceed—calmly, securely, within a hospitality proven reasonable and reasonably generous. Machigi was, he thought, as worried as a man should be with his region fallen into the hands of its longtime adversary, the northern Guild, and someone proposing, as a condition for solving his difficulty, that he come to a city he did not trust, commit himself to the hospitality of the man who had lately Filed Intent on him, and trust that it was not an elaborate plot the aiji-dowager had contrived to embarrass him and his clan in the view of millions.

Hardly surprising that Machigi was perturbed. But Machigi was also in a serious bind, and might have been dead by now, by decree of the same Guild Council, if not for the aiji-dowager’s offer. Instead—the dowager offered him power over the whole district and Guild backing in holding it. Damned right Machigi was perturbed. But he was also keenly interested in the proposition.

Words passed through Guild channels, and, not too surprisingly, the ministers in question had not been far from Machigi’s summons. The doors to the audience hall opened again, and five officials entered, at which Bren rose politely, and bowed. Servants brought up chairs from the sides of the room, more bodyguards took their places at the edges of the room, and more servants hastened to remove the priceless blue tea service and bring in a new service, this one of figured porcelain in high relief, with seven cups.

The five officials took their places, and of the lot, Bren recognized only one, Gediri, Machigi’s personal advisor.

“Nand’ Gediri you know,” Machigi said, after the first sip of tea. “The minister of war, nand’ Kaordi; the minister of trade and commerce, nand’ Disidri. The minister of agriculture, nand’ Maisuno. The
minister of public works, nand’ Laudri. These are the full council as it stands. Nandiin, the paidhi represents the aiji-dowager of the aishidit’tat.”

“Nandiin,” Bren said with a polite nod all around. And not a word of business would pass before the round of tea was done.

“We have brought out the sun,” Machigi said, indicating the window to their side, and indeed, a hole in the storm clouds let in a ray of sun that shafted down toward the rainy harborside. Light sparkled off the iron-gray water and picked out an old freighter’s bow.

“A felicitous sign,” Laudri said, “let us hope, nandiin.”

“Let us indeed,” Trade said.

Bren put on a pleasant expression for the positive sentiments, feeling somewhat better about the audience. It was not going badly—at least far as the ceremonial tea was concerned.

Now he had to engage these various interests as well as Machigi’s.
And
still talk Machigi into coming north.

Machigi coming north to sign the agreement was, for one thing, important protocol. Unspoken was the fact there was no way in hell the aiji-dowager of the aishidit’tat was going to come south to pay court to young Machigi, as the surviving warlord of the Marid.

No, Machigi had to come to her, and this proud young hothead now realized he had been pushed into a move he had never intended to make—he
knew
Ilisidi wouldn’t come here; and Najida was under repair, and Kajiminda was the seat of his longtime enemy, Lord Geigi, so both were out of the question. That left Shejidan. In full view of the media.

There was gracious discussion of the weather, the paidhi’s health…

“One is fully recovered, nandi, thank you,” Bren said.

And of the dowager’s departure from the region.

“The dowager is currently pursuing business in Malguri, to which she had been en route before affairs on the coast diverted her,” Bren said. “She will return very quickly.”

“To Shejidan,” Machigi muttered. “She is requesting a signing
in
Shejidan.”

“A brief affair,” Bren said quickly, before any of the ministers could respond, “but very public. Televised. If one is going to change the world, nandiin, best not have it done by rumor, but publicly, so that there is only
one
version of what happened, and as great a number of witnesses as possible. But I shall wait to explain that matter.”

“He wants us to support the Edi grant of a lordship,” Machigi muttered, drank all his tea at once, and set the cup down.

That drew frowns. And other cups, drunk to the last, clicked down onto side tables.

Bren set his own down carefully. There was no way he could drink it all at a gulp. They were at serious business, now. Mortally serious business.

“It is the dowager’s most dearly held plan,” he said quietly, “to see conditions in the south and the west considerably altered, for reasons of peace. That it benefits citizens of those regions is a necessary part of the plan: It is her view that prosperous people have far less reason to risk it all in conflict. It also offers you advantages. Note that once the Edi hold a seat in the legislature, they will have one vote in the hasdrawad and one in the tashrid, and they must obey the law. The Marid, as a district, will have
five
lords, and more than five seats, becoming an important bloc, even weighed against the power of the Padi Valley clans up north. You will become a bloc other interests will court, to your advantage.”

“We shall have all five votes,” Machigi said. “Is that agreed within these documents?”

“Not within the documents,” Bren said carefully. “But there having been five Marid clans, from antiquity. By my knowledge of the law of the aishidi’tat, when she says that you should be lord of all the Marid—you would hold all five votes. That is another factor in my urging that you go to Shejidan at once and
use
those votes, by signing into this session of the legislature, to make
that point. In all the other furor, that will likely go marginally noticed, with no argument prepared against it, and you will have laid down the precedent.”

“Machigi-aiji would be at risk of his life by going to Shejidan,” Gediri said. “He has hereditary enemies on the west coast and in the central regions. They will be lined up at the gates to find an opportunity.”

“He will be under
massive
Guild protection, nandi, at all hours, daylight and dark, coming and going. Likewise, every minister of your cabinet will be under heightened Guild protection. I am assured the Guild is backing this move of the dowager’s, and anyone who attempts to destabilize the situation will meet intense Guild opposition. I also have Tabini-aiji’s undertaking that he will silently back these efforts, remaining diplomatically quiet during this visit so as not to confuse the issue; this agreement is specifically between you and the aiji-dowager. Once you are her ally, then relations with the aiji in Shejidan will be on that basis, and you will have her support, as you will support her—not in an over-hasty rush to alter everything, but step by step, as trade develops. Meanwhile, you will have those five votes, nandi, and you will find yourself courted for them. One has every confidence that you will use that leverage for the betterment of your people. You will not
need
to go to war to secure more advantage for your region. You are being offered it. And supported in it.”