There was utter silence. The music played. The conversation continued around them.
“Impudent, I say.”
“For the dowager’s sake, I give you my advice unasked.”
“For her sake I consider it and not the source.” Tatiseigi let him go and stared at him. He stared back, having to look up to do it.
Then he became aware, to his utter consternation, that Tabini was and had been behind him.
“I also counsel you do so, lord Tatiseigi,” Tabini said. “Your niece will stand beside you. So will the ship-paidhi.”
In support of her uncle. A thunderbolt. Perhaps made necessary by what Jase had done. But a solution, all the same.
He looked for Jase, who occupied the same corner beside the door as before, with his security, but with a small cluster of guests near him. He asked his leave, and went over to Jase and explained the situation.
Jase didn’t say much, except, in Mosphei’, “I thought he was in danger. What do they wantfrom me?”
“A good appearance,” he said. “The lord is willing.”
“I can’t do this,” Jase said in a tone of panic.
“Yes, you will,” Bren said. “You will, Jase. You have to.”
“No,” Jase said quietly, and at that moment Jagocaught his attention.
“Nand’ paidhi,” Jago said, attracting his attention, and he went aside, next to the porcelain lilies’ most extravagant display, the north wall, one of those sections that had remained largely untouched, and where a large potted plant afforded a buffer from the crowd and a quiet place for whispers. “Nand’ paidhi, I dislike to bring another matter to you, but the boy from Dur has come a second time into the subway.”
“Oh, damn!” He’d spoken in Mosphei’, having done it with Jase, and for a moment went blank.
“The boy,” Jago said, “is in very serious trouble with the Bu-javid guards. He was warned. He saw the news coverage, apparently from a hotel down the hill. He has checked into three.”
“What, hotels?”
“His behavior, nand’ paidhi, has been entirely suspicious. The boy has checked into three hotels to throw security off his track.”
“A boy that young—”
“I have not met him. He is not Guild. The moves he is making are provocative of very serious consequences.”
“How serious?”
“There was gunfire, nand’ paidhi. He did stop when ordered, for which one is very grateful. I understand he was hit by a masonry chip and that blood was drawn. Damage was done to the ceramics in the station and to a subway car, for which he will be held accountable. I haven’t been down there. But I have asked them not to charge him yet, knowing your involvement. What do you order us to do?”
“Am I qualified to judge? Have I causedthis boy’s reckless behavior, Jago-ji?”
“Nand’ paidhi, I think the fault is, as Banichi is wont to say, fartoo much television. The boy is ashamed to go home without the plane and without your release from feud. To him, at his age, this is great tragedy. To his father, this latest incident will be a disgrace that willindeed harm him in his dealings. The boy is coming to realize this and, being young, is now trulydesperate.”
“If I write the boy a card, with a ribbon, will he go home?”
“I hesitate to reward such foolishness but, if you will write it, nand’ paidhi, I will send it down with one of the juniors. I will not have this boy’s death attached to your name, nadi-ji, and some of the guards imagine him as Guild. Three hotels, paidhi-ji.”
“But you know definitively he isn’t.”
“Not in remotest possibility.”
“I’ll sign the card.” The lady’s office had the more traditional wax-jack. The security office had a highspeed device that didn’t require live flame. He started toward the door.
And missed Jase. Who was not where he’d been.
“Has Jase gone to the interview area?” he asked Jago, who talked to her pocket com.
“The lady’s office. He’s attempted to use the phone, nadi.”
He stopped cold, at a place where an ateva lady felt free to brush close and say, “nand’ paidhi, suchan interesting party, isn’t it? The paidhiin were verybrave.”
For a moment he couldn’t think, not where he was, not where he was going, in a room otherwise filled with people all towering head and shoulders above his head, through a doorway blocked by such people. He wanted air and a sane space for thought, and knew that Jago was following him. He found a gap and went through it and out the door.
“Be careful, nadi-ji,” Jago said, overtaking him in the quieter, cooler air of the hall; she had the pocket com in hand.
“Who is he talking to, Jago-ji?”
“To the station at Mogari-nai. To the ship. But the call didn’t go through. Our office stopped it.”
He was less alarmed. He could use the wax-jack in the little office. The device had a lighter. He could talk sense to Jase in private.
“He’s hung up,” Jago said before they reached the door.
And when they reached the door and walked in, there were blowing white curtains, past the tapestry and needlework side panels that curtained the balcony and the dark.
But no Jase.
Jago moved. He thrust out a hand and prevented her, knowing, he decided in the next heartbeat, that Jase was in a mood, and that atevi intervention might gain compliance, but not a lot of information,
“I’ll get him in,” he said to Jago, and approached the balcony carefully, as Jago would.
From that vantage he could see Jase, in the dark, hands on the balcony rim, gazing up at the sky. And he knewit wasn’t a situation into which Jago should venture. He said to her, “Nadi-ji, please find the card I need,” hoping that Jase would think their intrusion wasn’t directed at him. And he ventured into the dark, knowing Jago wasn’t liking his being near that window, or even near Jase.
Jase gave him only a scant glance, and looked again out over the city.
Jase, who hadn’t done well under the daytime sky. It was, as far as he knew, the first time Jase had stood under the sky since he’d arrived.
The balcony where the party was spilled light and music into the night.
“No stars,” Jase said after a moment of them standing there.
“City lights. It’s getting worse in Shejidan.”
“What is?”
“Haze of smoke. Lights burning at night. Neon lights. Light scatters in the atmosphere till it blots out the stars.”
“You can’t see them on the ship, either,” Jase said.
“I suppose that’s true.” He’d never really reckoned it. He was vaguely disappointed.
“I just—know my ship is up there. And I can’t see it.”
“I have. But it was in the country. No lights out there.”
“From the ocean can one see the stars?”
“I think one could.”
“I want to go there.”
“Come inside. You’re in danger. You knowyou’re in danger. Get inside, dammit.”
There was a long silence. He expected Jase to say he didn’t care, or some such emotional outburst. But Jase instead left the rail and walked with him back into the light of the office, where Jago had the wax-jack burning and the card ready.
“I have to make out a card,” Bren said, and sat down at the desk. He welcomed the chance to do something extraneous to the worst problem, namely Jase’s state of mind. He was glad to offer Jase and himself alike a chance to calm down before they did talk. He wrote, for the boy from Dur,
Please accept my assurances of good will toward you and your house, and my hopes that the paidhiin will enjoy yours. I will remember your earnest wishes for good relations to the aiji himself, with my recommendation for his consideration. From the hand of,