That was just scary. He’d left nand’ Bren. He had just lost all common sense and shied off awayfrom the bus, and thatwas when everything had gone crazy.
What had he thought he was doing?
He had confused Jegari and Antaro, who had probably bumped into each other, what he had done was so crazy. And a half a second later Banichi had been going without them and after that he had no idea. He was worried that either Jegari or Antaro had consequently gotten in Banichi’s way, all because of him, which was so embarrassing he could not even think about it right now. It was just humiliating; and he hoped with all he had that Banichi and Jago had gotten nand’ Bren out all right.
Everythingdepended on that bus getting back to the house, one hoped with nand’ Bren and Banichi and Jago both—or everything was going to be running very late, and people at the house might not knowwhat had happened here.
Mani herself was hard to fool. He was very sure of that.
So somebody wouldcome. Eventually.
And they sat. Silent. It was very uncomfortable where they were, in a little space that looked like a grand fortress tower, but which inside was dusty and crowded with canisters of fertilizer and rusty old tools and hose, besides. Some of the garden claws could be nasty weapons. But trying to use something like that to threaten real Guild—that was outright suicide. He had no illusions. Hand-to-hand with those would get Jegari and Antaro killed in short order. So those were no good.
He had his slingshota. He had taken that along as a very precious thing: he had no wish to have some overzealous maid, cleaning, decide it was a dirty old stick and toss it out.
It was their only good weapon. But it needed rocks.
The plan had been to wait until dark and then climb down from the wall. If they hung by their hands, or maybe by a loop of that brittle hose, it was not too far a drop to the outside, to run through the small woods and then open land, trusting to speed and luck to get away.
But the closer dusk came, the more he began to think that that was going to be a very chancy thing to do, because that man on the roof might spot them. That outward window of the tower made it a scary bit further drop than it was from the landing outside the tower, from this one window where there was cover.
And the closer they got to dusk, the darker and scarier the woods got, and they knewthese towers held this perimeter equipment that would spot somebody moving in the woods.
Not, however, if they kept right up close to the wall—unless there was a system they had not spotted.
Still—if they left, and mani came in looking for them—
It was getting scary as it got closer to dark, was what.
It was going to be real scary, either way, trying to go crosscountry in the open, or waiting.
They could head for the train station instead of Najida. That might surprise the hunters. But the train station was farther, and might be watched, too, if there were Guild hunters out.
And, again, if nand’ Bren came hunting them here, being therewould be a problem.
The enemy had not searched the patio and tower. He had no idea why, except Antaro had been very clever, spotting that trap and getting them over the garden gate.
Or maybe these big Guildsmen were thinking of only hiding places on an adult scale. It was a very, very small tower, so small they sat all tucked up together inside it, with knees and elbows so cramped up together, they had occasionally to apologize to each other and shift around to relieve really painful cramps.
Small places had worked on the starship. Sometimes searchers would go right by them and never think to look where they had hidden, because it was too small to be useful.
He tried to think of other things they could do, being here, which was sneak down to the house after dark and see if they could talk to the Edi servants, and see if the servants, given direction and a plan, could lock the Guildsmen into a room. Or poison them. That would be a plan, too. Mani would do that. But trying and missing could get the Edi killed. And he was not sure how he would tell who was Edi and who was not.
He was thinking about that.
And then they saw one of the Assassins come out the back door, and down into the orchard, and start looking around. He came close to the patio. And instead of looking up at the tower— Cajeiri watched him through the crack below the window—he kept looking back at the house and up at the roof.
They were starting to do another search, though: he doubted this would be the last. It was getting dark, and they would probably get out the night scopes, which could actually spot them better by dark.
Cajeiri wriggled a little to see better. The slingshota poked him in the ribs.
It was what they had.
If they had rocks. Which had made it useless.
Antaro and Jegari had no idea what was going on. But he could hear that man moving around on the patio pavings.
That was that. The men inside the house were getting curious. They had to get out of here.
“Toby,” Bren said, entering the suite. He was still in bloody clothes. There was going to be no time to change, he feared. Toby stood there by the table; Barb came in, both of them quite sober. “Toby, I’m sorry. This would probably be a good time for you to go back to the boat and just get out of the bay while you can, way clear of the coast.”
“What are you going to do?” Toby asked, worried-looking, slipping an arm around Barb.
“I’m going after the boy,” Bren said, “in about ten minutes, if that long. We want to get into position, get in there around dark—and take the place.”
Barb put her arms around Toby. They looked like two figures in a cold wind. She looked at Toby, looked at him, and Toby patted her shoulder.
“Bren,” Toby said, “can we help? Is there any way we can help?”
“Not in this,” he said. “This is going to get wider. It’s a Guild operation. This wasn’t the neighbor’s idea. This was the South behind what happened. An attack on this house isn’t impossible, and it may already be underway. They’d like to lay hands on my relatives. They wouldn’t as likely take after the staff as hostages—at least I hope not. But it’s definitely going to be a lot safer for you two to get out of the bay.”
“Look,” Toby said, “Bren, we can’t just cut and run. You’re in trouble. The boy’s in trouble.”
“You can get yourself out of harm’s way and relieve me of one worry.”
“We can manage,” Toby said. “If you’re worried about the house—”
“Don’t argue with me, brother. This is no time or place. You don’t know the rules. Tabini-aiji’s involved, no question in my mind. His men will be here. The dowager’s men are going in. So is she. This isn’t going to be small-scale, much as we’re trying to finesse getting Cajeiri out in one piece. We’re hoping he hid. But we don’t know that. I’m frankly real upset right now.”
“We can help,” Barb said. “Bren, don’t be stubborn. We can take care of ourselves. We can help here.”
“Not a thing you can do,” he said. He didn’t even say, to Toby, Go back to Jackson and take care of that kid of yours. He didn’t want another Barb incident. “Just get out of here.”
“We’ve got a radio,” Toby said. “We’ve got communications with the mainland, hell, we can radio Shejidan if you have phone troubles. We can radio Jackson and get you air support if it’s that bad.”
The Brighter Days, with its radio, was, in fact, an asset. “You’d be a target. There are those that would want to shut you down.”
“We dodged them for months on end while you were gone,” Toby said. “Trust me. This is an old game for us.”
“Get out of the bay. Get out at sea. The bay is a trap made to order. I’ll accept your running communications if you just get out into open water.”