It was of a par with Ilisidi saying that the paidhi-aiji had become the primary target.
Leave the coast, go back to the Bujavid? That was a worsesituation, with the Farai right in their midst, with their secretaries, their guards, their staffc their access to install anything from listening devices to a bomb in his apartment—or against Tabini’s apartment wall.
“Not a comfortable thought,” he said. “One surmises this will not be the end of it, nadiin-ji. One assumesthe aiji will now move against the Marid.”
“One does assume the aiji will now dislodge the Farai from the paidhi’s apartment,” Jago said dryly, “for a start.”
It could be downright treasonous, that utterancec the implication that Tabini-aiji had been a fool.
Or perhaps Jago had meant something else. Along with the aiji’s power came the obligation to be both subtle and clever.
“He did notforce me out here to draw fire, surely.” One entertained that uncomfortable thought, momentarily. “He need only have suggested I visit my estate. One would gladly have gonec”
“The aiji at least permitted the Farai to be inconvenient to him,” Banichi said with a lift of the brow. “But one surmises he was concentrating on doings in the South when he made the decision to be patient with them, and perhaps he was testing the Farai’s intent. One by no means believes he would have allowed his son to remain here a single night, had he had the suspicion of hostile presence.”
That was true. The assassination attempt had been opportunistic, he believed that. But it led inevitably right back to the Marid and this new problem. Machigi. He had to study up on the man. Baiji’s value to the Marid had plummeted when Tabini-aiji took power back from Murini, but the value Baiji had retained was that of a staging area for a very important operationc namely removal of some of Tabini-aiji’s key assets. An heir? Grievous as that would be, rumors were that Damiri might produce another before the year was out. The dowager? A very hard target, and one that would notthoroughly or immediately disrupt the west coast—which was the arena of Marid ambitions. The East was irrelevant to them.
But the paidhi-aiji held Najida—which was a property on which the Farai had at least some legal claimc had the paidhi not come back from space. Najida—which was poised just below the Northern Isles, and right next to Kajiminda and Dalaigi—the largest town on the western coast.
Click, click, click. Things began to drop into little slots.
“Dare one wonder,” Bren asked them, “if the paidhi has been a desired target for some time? They have not appeared to relinquish their hope of setting the west coast in disarray.”
“Cenedi has requested still more reinforcements,” Banichi said. “They should be arriving by morning.”
“One is glad to know that,” Bren said. And again touched both of them. “You should take as light a duty as possible, nadiin-ji. Let Cenedi’s force manage things. Baiji poses no threat. Cenedi has men on the roof. Rest.”
Banichi looked at him as if thinking of asking when the paidhi-aiji had appointed himself to the Guild; but then he nodded. “We both shall,” Banichi said.
“Go,” he said. “Now.”
“And you, Bren-ji,” Jago said.
“As soon as I have talked to nand’ Toby,” he said. “A courtesy. No need of escort. And then I shall go straightway to my office and do a little work.”
They looked not of a mind to agree to that. They were on the last reserves, and perhaps not at their most reasonable. They just stared at him, both, in adamant silence that indicated that, orders or no orders, they would neither one be off duty until he was settled somewhere they approvedc nor would Tano and Algini.
“Then I shall do my work in your quarters,” he said, “where you all can keep an eye on me.”
Banichi looked slightly amused. “We will provide you a chair in which to work, Bren-ji. No more of this wandering the halls alone.”
“Not when people drop out of the ceiling,” Jago said.
So it was out into the slightly damaged hall, down to the dining room, where Toby and Barb, windblown and in shocking condition for the dining room, were just finishing up their breakfast.
“Bren!” Toby said, looking up.
A little bow—he’d been in atevi mode: was, still, mentally; and tried to adjust. Toby looked a little nonplussed, then said, “Oh, hell, Bren, it’s me,” and came and embraced him, hard as Barb got to her feet.
“Glad you made it back,” Bren said. “I hear you ran into trouble out there—I heard about the other boat. There should be people out now looking for any intruders on the peninsula.”
“We managed,” Toby said, standing at arm’s length. “And you got the kids back.”
“They got themselves out,” he said. “The aiji’s men are mopping up over there, and the dowager’s dealing with the details. How close is your boat to seaworthy?”
“My own estimate?” Toby said. “With luck, about two days.”
“I’d send you off in mine,” Bren said, “but you met a good reason not to be out at sea at the moment. This is a major operation. There’s a good likelihood the boat that tried to sink you came out of the township to the south, and that means either the opposition stole it or they have allies there with assets. The aiji will be calling in naval forces, probably from up in the Islands, but it’s going to be a few days. You’re better off here.”
“Are we safehere?” Barb asked.
“Safe as anybody can be with Guild on the hunt,” Bren said. “The whole region is going to be dangerous. There could very easily be another boat out there, trying to make a run in here. The village is on the alert, watchers up and down the coast, so we hope we will get a warning. Figure that any move that’s easy to see could be a diversion. The enemy lost a senior Guild team trying to get at me. And they damned near made it—might have, if we hadn’t scrambled who was in what room.”
“At you,” Toby said, “specifically? Twice?”
“Very possibly. Sounds a little egotistical on my part, but my security seems to read it that way. They’ll take other targets if they can get them, no question. But the operation probably started when they knew I was coming in. They’re making a play to get at their old enemies the Edi, and to own the southwest coast—the Marid is a maritime power; they have no assets in the central regions. But they do have ships. They’ve got more ships than the aiji’s navy does, if it comes to that: they can convert their island traders and become real damned difficult to deal with if they can get a few ports to use unchallenged, up on this coast.”
“This is the same bunch that supported Murini.”
“And that made the trouble in the aishidi’tat before that,” Bren said, “when Cosadi made a try to link up with the Kadagidi. We’ve got that one troublesome clan up in the Padi Valleyc”
“The Kadagidi, you mean.”
Bren nodded. “That lot has been conniving with the Marid from the time the Ragi set up the Western Association. They’re Ragi—skin deep. But they have Southern ties and they tried to stop the Association getting organized in the first place. They were the holdouts. They were trying to form an association with themselvesat the center—at the same time the Marid was trying to pull out of the Ragi Association. That’s the history of it. But the rest of the Padi Valley Ragi were so relieved to find somebody knocking the Kadagidi in the head, they came right into the new Association and turned on the Kadagidi—then helped the Association organize the west coast. Then the Marid came into the Association—before they got forced in—and immediately demanded special privileges—which they didn’t get; demanded to run the Southern trade—which they did get, in return for giving up some of their navy. They’d started to try to form an alliance with the East, when the aiji—Tabini’s grandfather—knocked the pins out from under them by bringing Ilisidi in.”