“ Let Guild talk to Guild.”
Thatwas an actual offer—that his bodyguard could talk to Tabini’s. That was major. Bren looked at Machigi. And Machigi nodded, scarcely perceptibly.
“Lord Machigi agrees to that, aiji-ma.”
“ Good,” Tabini said, and abruptly hung up.
Click.
“He has—”
“We are aware,” Machigi said, grim-faced. A moment later he said, “Let Guild pursue it.”
“Aiji-ma.” With respect. Machigi had agreed to Tabini’s proposition. Guild channels would exchange information, with coded assurances, and inform the lords on either side. “And you may be sure my bodyguard will talk to yours.”
Machigi got up, headed for the door.
And stopped.
“I am posting a guard on this door,” Machigi said. “They will be myservants, myguards closest to you.”
Increased security-—considering the situation? Or was it diminished trust?
“Aiji-ma.” Bren gave a slight bow of appreciation. Machigi nodded shortly, gathered his guard, and left.
Bren gave a long, slow exhalation, then, as the door shut.
He hadn’t had tea. He hadn’t had breakfast. His stomach was upset—matching Machigi’s, he was quite sure.
He glanced at his bodyguard. Their expressions—impassive until that door shut, he was sure—had relaxed into grim concern.
Algini threw a look at Banichi, Banichi looked at Algini and nodded.
Algini immediately went over to the table and got a pad of paper and a pen from among the neatly stacked writing supplies and maps. He sat down, rapidly wrote, the whole room focused on him, then laid down the pen, rose, and brought it to Bren’s hand.
It said,
Nandi:
Machigi’s bodyguard believes, consequent to the exposure of a renegade base last night, that a plot is now in operation to assassinate Lord Machigi. He is, with three elderly exceptions, the last of the Ardami bloodline. Two of them, my information states, are fools incapable of governing— but very apt to be figureheads.
Machigi himself once believed agents of the Dojisigin Marid had infiltrated his operation at Kajiminda, but his aishid informs us that view has shifted overnight. Machigi now concurs with his bodyguard that Tori of Dojisigi is no longer in control of his district, from a period long predating Murini’s coup.
Predating. Longpredating. Hell! What did thatmean?
Guild sanctions and outlawry and the acceptance of the aiji’s filing against him were all screening a Guild operation to invade Taisigi territory, neutralize or remove Machigi with his guard. Guild would then have taken out renegade targets in the district, and then would use Taisigi land as a base to take out their establishment in the Dojisigin and Senjin Mari, and elsewhere.
We provided a keyword in our transmission to Cenedi that reinstated Machigi’s guard. They agree that Machigi did support Murini’s rise to power— that position protected him after the Dojisigi had assassinated his predecessor. His bodyguard does not deny that. They maintain, however, that his entire aim was the west coast— which the renegades were content to allow— while they infiltrated that operaton.
When Murini went down, however, everything changed. The renegade Guild saw the Marid as their safest refuge— and Machigi as a problem, because his guard isnot in their affiliation. The renegades could not control them, and Machigi, as you have seen, nandi, is not easily ordered.
Some of this we came in knowing. We were immediately approached by Machigi’s bodyguard, who wish to have strong assurances of Machigi’s survival if they come under central Guild direction.
Burn this note after the others have read it. These are Guild matters of extreme delicacy, predeliberation matters which I am not supposed to have revealed.
Good God, he thought, and passed the note to Banichi, who began to read it with an expressionless countenance.
It explained a lot. The renegades had penetrated the lower levels of Machigi’s guard, but his personal guard were old-school, Taisigi, out of touch with the Guild but not of the breed that had gone to the renegades.
Renegade Guild were operating nearby. There might have been records. There might have been interrogations. One had no idea what had gone on in the night.
So Machigi had just been informed, perhaps, under what doors the threads were running. But he might notknow just what deals with the devil his own bodyguard had been prepared to make to keep him alive.
Had Ilisidi known any of it? Some of itc likely.
Ask how long ago the central Guild had decided a Guildsman at a very high level should be guarding the aiji-dowager.
God, that was a cold thought. What hadthey brought back to the planet when they had arrived from space with Ilisidi’s aishid, and with those of his, who had been on the station, absorbing information but incapable of reaching the planet.
The note had gone to Jago and last of all to Tano. Tano glanced over the note, then took the deadly piece of paper to the fireplace, where it quickly became ash.
Bren moved back the chair at the table, took pen and paper himself, and wrote, with his aishid gathered at his shoulders:
One understands.
One fears that Machigi himself will turn in the hand, if used as a weapon. Whatever his real intentions at the outset of our talks, have I offered him inducement enough to consider that his best prospect actually does lie in our direction? Yet if there is a chance of peace in the Marid, the dowager is correct: it lies in this isolated young man.
That also went into the fire. Banichi bent to take a piece of paper and wrote, standing beside him:
Machigi is dangerous in his intelligence and his determination, but his aishid has found in us their only chance of saving him. He stands to win or to lose everything. The question is whether his guard has made him understand that, and whether he sees with your vision.
Bren wrote, in reply:
I have to convince him.
There were sober looks, nods. That note in its turn became ash.
Then Algini took up pen and paper again, and wrote:
I can call on the Guild, using channels available through Machigi’s guard, to protect Machigi, and to operate with immediate prejudice against Lord Tori of the Dojisigi. That will bring Tori’s son Mujita to power. Loss of Tori will drive the Farai back to man’chi with the Senji and restore the former situation, if the lord of Senji survives this.
Operate with immediate prejudice. Assassinate. Within hours.
The paidhi-aijididn’t order assassinations. He tried to stopthem.