“And of course she would never encourage that situation.”
“Not, aiji-ma, notwhen the situation is entangled with the problem I have named.”
“The dowager has a reputation, paidhi. She takes what she wants.”
“Yet she has never taken so much as a village, aiji-ma. Territorially, she is not ambitiousc
not in her own district, where other lords view her as a good neighbor.”
“She collects man’chi as some people collect minatures!”
Bren said with a little bow: “Indeed, she has drawn uncommonly diverse man’chi to her. But she does notas a rule offer alliances.”
There was a reason the legislature had feared to make her aiji.
The fist was back under the chin, Machigi’s favorite contemplative pose. The gold eyes were calculating, estimating him, since he was the only available target. Machigi said nothing for a moment.
But the muscles around the eyes held a little quirk of something that had not been there before. Intense concentration.
“You are different from my reports,” Machigi said, “and difficult to read. One understands a human has no man’chi. Yet you dofavor her side of the table.”
“We have another quality,” he said, “something akin. We arecapable of loyalty. We are even capable of dualloyalty.”
Quirk of the eyebrow. He’d said it with forethought—in utter honesty. Which Machigi probably had not expected but ought to recognize.
“Divided loyalties,” Machigi said.
“Dual loyalties, aiji-ma. She knows it. I am advising you with yourinterests foremost at the moment.”
Machigi gave a small disparaging laugh. “She has learned to wield your two-edged talents to her advantage, has she? How well do humans lie?”
“Some better than others,” Bren said. “I have lived a long time on the continent, and everything I have done has a record. I have reserved truth when it served. I have notbased a negotiation on a lie. Ever.”
That was a smile. A small one, almost a laugh, and this one lighter than before. Machigi was either letting his emotions show now, or while talking about lying, he waslying and had turned very deliberately deceptive.
“We have broken with the Farai today,” Machigi said. “My uncle moved too much to the Farai side of the balances: so my bodyguard informs me. We also understand divided loyalties, nand’ paidhi. But you know that. Baji-naji, all things adjust. Balance matters. My uncle played both sides of the board. That hadbeen his value.”
“One very much takes the warning, aiji-ma.”
“Well played, paidhi.” The hand fell to the chair arm. “You have proposals for me, do you?
Let us hear them. I will listen.”
Machigi had dropped the mask, then, a little. And was not in a good mood today: was genuinely sorrowing after the uncle, it might be. Had quarreled with his aishid, it might be or taken a long look forward and backward.
One needed to keep it succinct and direct. “The documents I have given you have names, aiji-ma, specifics of the eastern seacoast, small towns—several promising areas for a port, and in my estimation, the dowager’s backing would carry weight. Local rail could be established, with negotiation: the Eastern lords are highly traditional, reluctant to see modernization go through their lands.”
“Nothing to match mine.”
“Yet villages will be reluctant to see economic advantage flow to their neighbors and not to them. Rail is a way to spread the benefit. When seen in that light—”
“You were an advocate for the railroad.”
“Far less disruptive than roads, aiji-ma.”
“You are building a railroad, paidhi, and we have not yet built a port.”
“Or yet sailed a ship there, aiji-ma, true,” Bren said with a shrug. “But I believe this can work.”
“We build your town. Sooner or later Shejidan will push a rail connection all the way to the east coast—to take business from our ships.”
“Ah, but, aiji-ma, they cannot gain right of way through eastern lands if the eastern lords object. And if these lords profit, youwill have allies, because they have held themselves stubbornly independent of Shejidan. Ports grow into cities. And this port will have industry of its own, and fisheries, and it will thrive. The undeveloped land of the East one day will greatly resemble the view out that window.”
“You dream, paidhi. The East is a rocky coast with treacherous currents and storms.”
“Your ship captains will grow expert, and the orbiting station can warn you of weather with an accuracy unavailable to your ancestors.”
Back went the chin onto the fist. “You dream, paidhi.”
“The potential and the energy I see out that window is huge. You thrive, in relative isolation from outside ports, only with a limited trade to the north. Your industry and your inventiveness are evident. But the west coast is locked in a balance difficult to move, between Mospheiran interests across the strait and the sensitivity of the straits between. Let Shejidan manage that problem. You now have a far better offer on the table. Let your shippers hear of new ports, new markets, and they will race to get there. The Senji and the Dojisigi will doubt, at first. They will scoff. They will suspect you are up to something. And then they will be up in arms because advantage is coming to youand not them. And thatis the point where your own force and leadership can bring the Marid under one clan, one authority.”
An index finger lifted from beside the mouth. “The easier for the ‘one clan, one authority’ in Shejidanto snap up and swallow.”
“Ah, but you will be an associate of the aiji-dowager. The East may be within the aishidi’tat, but the aishidi’tat is notwithin the East. The aiji-dowager hammered out that distinction to the displeasure of the Guilds in Shejidan. There is no Assassins’ Guild there, except what surrounds her. There is limited rail therec”
“Which you mean to change.”
“What is notimposed by Shejidan meets much more interest in the East. You will find you and the aiji-dowager, aiji-ma, have a great deal you could discuss.”
Tap-tap-tap went the finger beside the mouth. And a frown gathered on the brow. “You are quick, paidhi. But are you accurate? Can you deliver these things?”
“One knows these resources and the situation, aiji-ma. And I have some influence of my own, at least that of my office.”
“The white ribbon.”
“I take my office seriously, aiji-ma. I am of no clan, of no region. I have displeased every lord I have dealt with at some point or another, but to the lasting displeasure of none that I have served.”
“I shall personally read your proposals,” Machigi said with that same level stare. “I shall see for myself what you ask—and what you give. And then we shall estimate whether these proposals of yours will possibly appeal to me—or to the dowager.”
“I ask no more than that, aiji-ma.”
“You costme, understand,” Machigi said sharply. “You have already cost me certain assets that may not be easy to replace!”
“One understands that without needing the details. I have disrupted the peace here.”
“Peace.” A dour laugh. Machigi propelled himself out of the chair and looked down as Bren got up more slowly—painfully.
And stuck, half way, his back locked up.
Banichi moved. Machigi’s guard moved. Jago moved, one step, her hand on her gun.
Bren held up a hand. Fast. “I can stand. I am perfectly well. A moment. Please.”
He gave a shove at the chair arm with the other hand and straightened. He had to. He drew himself up to his full height— about to Machigi’s shoulder—and got a breath. The situation among the bodyguards slowly relaxed.