Boji untucked and ran out on his arm as if it were the limb of a tree, staring at the mirror, and bristling up and chattering at it in no welcoming way.
“Silly creature,” he said, and gathered Boji back to him, Boji still protesting, crawling over his shoulder and trying to see the other parid’ja.
Boji then decided to try to clean the spots of egg off the side of his face, licking it off with a little black tongue. It was rough and efficient, but Boji forgot about that when Lucasi brought another egg from their hiding place. He was all attentive, and when Cajeiri gave it to him, he held onto it very nicely and made a neat little hole in it and began eating it while sitting on Cajeiri’s arm, pausing to lick his lips.
Boji had gotten much quieter, then, when Eisi and Lieidi came in to find out the damage.
Boji held onto his egg and tucked tight into the crook of Cajeiri’s arm. Cajeiri found himself still being Boji’s tree—now a safe nook in a branch—but Antaro was right: Instead of running away, Boji was clinging close to him, holding onto his coat with strong little hands.
It was different than a mechieta, which was certainly not going to tuck into the crook of one’s arm, but some few of which, so he had heard, might take to following one about.
He had, from being the heir of the aishidi’tat, become Boji’s tree, that was what.
And mani was back on the ground in Shejidan.
And his father let him keep Boji andhis birthday party. And his father, seeming in a good humor, knew about parid’ji, and knew what kind of creatures they were, and thought it funny, perhaps, that he was going to have that experience, which was probably not going to be easy.
It was all right, then, that his father had laughed.
He remembered how he had looked in the mirror and decided he really had looked somewhat funny.
He just preferred not to look funny when he showed up at mani’s apartment tonight.
12
Lord Geigi made it into the Bujavid half an hour after Ilisidi made it upstairs with her two elevator-loads of staff.
And, somewhat out of breath, Lord Geigi turned up at Bren’s apartment door, with only his bodyguard and a small set of baggage beside the wardrobe crate—particularly greeting the staff as well as Bren, who came from his office to meet him there. “Narani-nadi, Jeladi-nadi, such an additional pleasure! Thank you, thank you, nandi, for putting up with me! One will miss so your company, and one will miss your hospitality, Rani-ji, my neighbor on the station. Nand’ Bren, your staff on station has been so solicitous of me and so closely associated to my staff—they have been my associates, too, my consolation and advice, on whom I have not hesitated to rely in the darkest of times. One was so glad to be invited here, for an opportunity to bid them a proper farewell—so, so delighted to see all of you and to have another of Bindanda’s dinners—what an unanticipated treat! I shall personally mourn your departure from the station. Nand’ Bren, my esteemed associate, you must send others of your staff up to the station, and where my staff is of any avail in special training, we will be beside ourselves with delight.”
“One has grandnephews,” Narani volunteered, “at Najida, growing far too idle, one supposes—as they never shall here in the Bujavid.”
“One would rejoice,” Bren said, “to send more staff up, if you are willing to recommend, Rani-ji. Knowing they would have a contribution to make to Lord Geigi’s staff, one would not hesitate to restaff the premises. Nor would I take it amiss if any Najida youngsters felt man’chi drawing them toward my esteemed neighbor—what are we, if not two eggs in the same shell, nand’ Geigi at Kajiminda and myself at Najida? I would support them without hesitation. But warn them to guard their feelings and be advised—he is the most attractive of lords, but his service is not for those with ties to the earth.”
“You are so good, neighbor of mine! Ah, I had looked forward to a stay in a hotel, an outlying one at best, and this is beyond expectation.”
“You come with so little baggage, Geigi-ji! One recalls you had far more!”
“Destined for the spaceport,” Geigi said. “One has given it over to the baggage office, and they will send it over to the space agency, to be gone through and packed. It is such a relief, Bren-ji. I have left my valets at Kajiminda, to come on a later shuttle. I am destitute of assistance, besides the loyalty of my aishid. One had no wish to impose on your gracious hospitality, and one has absolutely no need of too many things, if one may rely on your staff for wardrobe care.”
“Of course they will be pleased to do it! Avail yourself of all we have, Geigi-ji. There is, you are well aware, dinner at the formal hour, and likely the dowager’s staff has been working since yesterday.”
“I shall be ready within the hour,” Lord Geigi said.
“Please. Join me for a cocktail in the sitting room, and then we shall go together.”
“Honored,” Geigi said, bowed, and went off to take possession of the guest quarters, a most auspicious first guest in the premises, while Bren hurried to use the bath in time to let staff have it pristine again for Lord Geigic
The bath, the dress—the most formal of court clothes. There was, fortunately, ample time for Geigi to dress for dinner, and most of an hour left to sit for a preliminary cocktail in the sitting room, going over the latest news from Kajiminda—construction on the Edi center had started, at least as far as staking out the site, pending approval in the legislature.
The rebuilding at Najida had gotten as far as the roof, which had to be the most urgent matter—getting the difficult part done before another torrential rain; and, Geigi relayed from Ramoso, Bren’s major d’ at Najida, the news that the architect would send plans based on Bren’s sketch of what he wanted.
“One will be very anxious to see them,” Bren said. He had engaged the best in the district, and had an Edi foreman in charge of the clean-up crew, men who knew carpentry and masonry and who would, one very much hoped, get the work advanced by fall—it was approaching the summer runs of fish, and the Edi were chafing to work on their own new building.
Once all the legislative agreements went forward to give the Edi their new status—please God they went forward—there would be frustrating days of no progress on Najida Estate, during the height of the fishing season, and days when everybody was engaged on the Edi’s own building, but that was as it had to be. As it should be. He was absolutely determined to hire local folk, even if they had to have the roof of Najida estate under plastic sheeting until fall. It was a district that needed the money.
“And I shall be back on the station for it all,” Geigi said, “but one would delight to see the plans and also have views of the work going forward, if only for my curiosity. One has come dangerously close to being attached to the land again. Alas, my orchard.”
“Your staff can surely recover it. And now they will have help from Targai, surely, Geigi-ji.”
“Some trees are doomed. But indeed, that is the agreement with the new lord.” A sip of juice and vodka. “And once my nephew’s wife is pregnant, shewill take residency there. Sidi-ji assures me she is a plain and practical young woman who understands rural districts very well, and who loves an orchard.”
The girl in question was the one Ilisidi had just married to Geigi’s fool of a nephew. Baiji would not set foot in the west again, but she, an Easterner, would produce a Maschi-clan heir to replace Baiji, and until the heir reached his or her majority, she would rule over Kajiminda district. Geigi might have been lord of Maschi clan himself, had he wanted the post; but he had appointed a subclan house-head to take that honor and had permanently relinquished his own residence at Kajiminda, breaking all ties with the earth. It was not something he had done lightly.