Whose young heir was locked in for the night, he supposed. They didn’t have keys for the bedrooms, but he’d about bet they’d found one for wherever they were keeping the boy.
What might be going on out there might involve calling the lord of Dur-wajran and informing him they now had a young idiot who could be reclaimed for suitable forthcoming information on the other side.
Politics. Tabini. The dowager. And those damned radio transmissions.
18
They walked out the front door and down the steps together, with the dawn coloring the sky, Ilisidi and Cenedi in the lead, and the rest of them, except the servants, all in casual hunting clothing, meaning heavy twill coats with the back button undone for riding, and trousers and boots that would withstand abuse far beyond that of the casual walk down a hallway. Jase, Bren had discovered early on, could wear his clothing and, their outing being on too short a notice for tailor-work, he’d contributed all his outdoor wardrobe to the adventure and packed for two.
Now, borrowed riding crops tucked beneath their arms, he and Jase walked down the steps in the middle of the company. Jago was walking with Banichi, just ahead of them, carrying the computer. Even in this event he didn’t leave it.
He wished that he’d had a chance this morning to speak with either of them at length—he wished this morning that he’d not bolted last night, though he was still unsure it wasn’t the wisest thing to have done—and now he wasn’t certain that Jago hadn’t intended to keep him busy and away from hearing and seeing whatever had gone on last night.
They’d not had a formal breakfast, and they’d had not a single hint what that noise had been last night. A lot of transport moving about. But no sign of it this morning. And as for breakfast—here in the open air came servants passing out cups and rolled sandwiches.
Bren took one, and when Jase didn’t think he wanted a sandwich, Bren nudged him in the arm. “Yes, you do.”
“They’re fish!”
“Eat it,” he said, and Jase took one and took the drink. So they had their breakfast standing there. Tea steamed and sent up clouds into the morning air all about the crowd at the foot of the steps.
Meanwhile he tried to catch Jago’s eye, but she didn’t look at him. On one level, probably not sensible, he feared he’d offended her last night by ducking out in such a hurry, or looked like a fool, or possibly he’d just amused or disappointed her.
But on another level common sense told him that the little business between himself and Jago last night hadhad no time to resolve the deeper questions between them, and that he’d been very sensible to be out the door before it became something else under what amounted to the dowager’s roof. At the very worst that might have happened, he could have gotten himself into an adventure he was neither emotionally nor personally quite sure of—and possibly she’d invited him in for the simple reason they needed to keep him away from information. Ironically that reassured him that his own security was involved in whatever was going on. To them he would commit his life without a question.
Maybe they didn’t know that.
Maybe they didn’t understand how he likedJago, that dreadful word, and was attracted, he began to admit it; and did wonder certain things which could only be resolved by trying them.
But last night hadn’t been that time.
He handed over his cup as the servants passed back through collecting them. He kept near Jase.
Fact: they had a young atevi in detention in their midst, an uncertain situation on their hands with Ilisidi, and somebody had been rummaging about the hilltop last night in motorized transport of which there was no sign nor acknowledgement.
So their lives just might be at some risk, not an uncommon situation in the last year but a situation that didn’t need the additional complication of his distraction with Jago.
He had caught Banichi for one fast question in the upstairs halclass="underline" “Is there a reason for this rush? What in hell was going on last night?” and Banichi had said, “None that I know, nothing I can say, but we’re going with the dowager, nadi: what darewe say?”
Banichi had been in an extreme hurry at the time. And Jago had been ahead of both of them. Banichi had only caught up to her in the downstairs hall and then they were out the door.
Bren looked around now counting heads. Tano and Algini hadn’t shown up yet, in the general flow of Ilisidi’s men outside. There were about twenty such men, in all, that he’d counted last night—doubtless a felicitous number, but one rarely saw all of Ilisidi’s men on any occasion: the activity of communications and guard that surrounded her was the same as that around Tabini, and the number of them was just not something either Ilisidi or her guards freely unfolded to view.
He did see that the boy from Dur had come out with them, no longer in handcuffs, just a silent presence in that foolish and very dangerous black clothing he’d chosen, and closely escorted by two guards.
Presumably, in this outing, this proposed ride out to look at the countryside and to take the air, it was necessary that young Rejiri come along with them. That was very curious.
But something had Tano and Algini notmeeting them out here, notalready outside, and that was also curious.
Possibly Banichi had given them a job to do. A message to run down to the airport or, silly thought, up to Mogari-nai, which not only had the earth station that had monitored the space station for decades; but was the major link in a web of electronic communication.
It had the earth station and also a set of dishes aimed all along the coast toward Mospheira, as Mospheira aimed a similar array toward the mainland.
It was a nerve center, his security had informed him, which was run by the Messengers’ Guild, which had not been outstandingly cooperative with him, or with Tabini.
Jase said, in a fit of depression over his father and the party and his own situation, I’d like to go to the ocean. He’dsaid to himself, foolish as he was, why not go to Geigi’s estate for a little fishing, and catch that fabled yellowtail? And maybe a little riding. The mechieti hadn’t gone back to Malguri for the summer.
So he’d gone to the dowager to see was she willing to back him up, with the notion shecould teach Jase what he’d learned—and she’dsaid, well, of course it had made sense to come to the government reserve just across the bay rather than to go to Geigi’s house asking hospitality—much more politically sound a move, Geigi could visit them here, by boat, an easy trip, the airport and van service lying just right on the water.
The hell! Bren thought to himself. He’d not appreciated the vertical scale, when Ilisidi had said the government site practically overlooked the airport.
He hadn’t truly appreciated at all how close it was to Mogari-nai, whose situation atop high bluffs overlooking the sea he didknow.
He hadn’t appreciated the involvement of Dur, either, and itsproximity to the illicit radio traffic in the north—saying that Dur was near the site was like saying Mospheira was. When you were on the coast there were islands, and nothing was that unreachably far from anywhere else if you wanted to derive trouble from it.
Hehadn’t expected the boy from Dur to show up last night.
But neither had Ilisidi—at least—if she had, she’d pretended well.
Traffic in the night—that his own security had expected, or not been overly dismayed by, so either it was routine and it waskitchen supplies coming up for some surprise banquet tomorrow, or it was something that lay within their man’chi—and thatcame down to very few items.
Knowing Ilisidi’s general penchant for intrigue, however, either they were being gotten out for the day so that the cooking aromas wouldn’t betray the surprise, or something was damn sure going on. He looked out past the crowd at a vast rolling grassland, gravelly ground with tough clumps of vegetation that grew in what might be quite a fragile ecology, up here on the ocean bluffs.