Cajeiri’s feet swung. He stopped them, but his eyes moved from Geigi to Tatiseigi. The boy understood. He’d been there when Tatiseigi’s antiquated systems had nearly gotten them all killed. Cajeiri knew everyone’s opinions. Hehad his opinions on his great-uncle’s feelings about the Taibeni. He knew all about his great-grandmother’s plan and the situation on the coast. And one hoped to God he knew he shouldn’t say a thing at the moment. Not a thing.
Lips went taut with restraint.
In a very long silence.
“I have avoided war all my life,” Tatisiegi said. “This is consistency on my part.” A nod, then. “The Atageini accept the proposal. We will back this program, specifically on your recommendation, Sidi-ji.”
They’d doneit, Bren thought.
And he asked himself how much of Lord Tatiseigi’s movement in their direction had to do with the ongoing situation Tabini had warned him about, the situation with Lady Damiri’s other relatives, who were fighting to remove Tatiseigi’s influence from the ruling house in Shejidan and bring in their own to stand near Tabini-aiji.
Not to mention the situation within the Guild—the recent situation, and the prior situation, and the fact they were not likely to have eliminated every vestige of the shadow Guild. If there was a place the shadow Guild was supposedto have been eliminated—it was from the house of the Kadigidi, Murini’s clan, Lord Tatisiegi’s neighbor to the east. Tatiseigi had forever the Taibeni on one side and the Kadagidi on the other, and he had the most uncertain security on the continent.
So now Tatiseigi found a way to accept Ilisidi’s offer, at one stroke getting past the Kadagidi.
He found a way to accept a gift porcelain and had the paidhi-aiji advancing him as an expert in the collector trade.
He even found a way to agree with Lord Geigi, however indirectly, and patch up a quarrel that had ceased to be of any social or political benefit.
Damned right, Tatiseigi was aware of a danger to him and to his clan.
There was an interesting letter among Baiji’s little stash of blackmail material, one half line of which suggested the Kadagidiwould favor Baiji’s proposed alliance with the Dojisigin Marid.
The interesting bit was the date, which was afterMurini’s fall from power, afterMurini had allegedly become anathema among the Kadagidi and the Kadagidi had become innocent as the driven snow. The associations in that letter nailed the Kadagidi as possibly complicit in the assassination of Geigi’s sister—and as backing a shadow Guild power grab as recently as current history.
If push came to shove, Tatiseigi might well know what to do with that letter.
Ilisidi had her own copy of that little store of documents, and when it came to interclan gossip, Ilisidi knew things. She collected things. Remembered things.
And delivered little tidbits of information when they most suited her.
Had that letter gone to Tatiseigi—along with the supper invitation?
One wondered. One did indeed.
Following Lord Tatiseigi’s agreement—and an unprecedented exchange of bows and courtesies of reconciliation with Lord Geigi—there was perhaps just a bit more brandy than was judicious. But it was an occasion, and the mood was optimistic, at least for the hour. Cajeiri, as a minor, went home earliest with his young aishid, without having committed a single indiscretion—exemplary behavior, and one the dowager noted with a deeper than usual nod in parting. They all left at once, Lord Tatiseigi down the hall to his residence, and Bren and Lord Geigi off to Bren’s apartment, on Cajeiri’s track.
They were not that late getting in, except for the brandy, and one thought even of one more glass, which was entirely foolish. He and Geigi were both tired. They needed to go straight to bed and have their wits about them in the morning.
Bren said his goodnight to Geigi—“A success, a very great success, Geigi-ji,” and received a reciprocal courtesy, the both of them happy with the evening. Valets were waiting to put them to bed; bodyguards were headed for their own well-earned late suppers in the apartment kitchen, after their own very long evening.
And Bren delayed for one compulsive, foolish look at the message cylinders waiting in the basket.
The design of the cylinders said they came from several departments of the government and Machigi’s representative, one surmised the fifth one to be. For the morning, he said to himself, resolutely.
But Tano and Algini turned up again from the inner hall, and Tano pulled a very thick envelope out of the front of his uniform jacket.
“This is from the dowager, Bren-ji. Cenedi’s company provided an extensive briefing.”
A slight cold chill went through him. Tano and Algini, as usual, had been door detail, Banichi and Jago standing duty in the dining room and the sitting room. It was always the door detail who talked with the resident Guild.
And learned the unofficial scuttlebutt.
“The nature of these, Tano-ji? Should one be alarmed?”
“These are in main the dowager’s final drafts of the agreement, Bren-ji. And also Cenedi’s intelligence report regarding the East. There is controversy rising regarding development on the coast, regarding the proposed rail service, regarding road building. Cenedi says these are routine matters, which can be handled with accurate information and negotiation.”
“We had a very interesting conference,” Algini said, “with the collective security details—we dodged Tatiseigi’s aishid to some minor extent, but we were very careful to give them every impression of full disclosure and full inclusion. That the two of the young lord’s bodyguard are Guild was convenient. We were able to include them, to warn them for the sake of their principal, but as juniors, with certain restrictions of information. Maneuvering around them covered our more focused talk with Cenedi. We have filled him in regarding the business already discussed. We are confident of his position. We have also passed nand’ Geigi’s guard a document not to be opened until they are on the station, and we have their undertaking to respect that.”
“However,” Algini said, and proffered another envelope, “this should be kept guarded and given to the aiji directly.”
One was not going to sleep well on that account.
The envelope was sealed without a signet seal. And Algini himself might not know its contents. One would bet it came either from Cenedi or directly from the Guild and was another bypass of Tabini’s bodyguard, who might—or might not—have been given it directly had Tabini attended the dinner.
Giving it to Cajeiri’s earnest young guard—no. This envelope was not that sort of message.
13
Bren opened his eyes, a little muzzy from sleep, and made space for Jago on the convenient side of the bed. She was shadow, all shadow, and settled quietly under the coverscand he suddenly became aware that it was late in the night.
That his bodyguard had been up verylate.
“One wished not to disturb you,” she said quietly.
“Is something amiss, Jago-ji?”
“Not amiss, Bren-ji,” she said. “Algini and Tano went down to the town to meet with Guild from Lady Siodi’s establishment and from elsewhere. Nawari also.”
Cenedi’s right-hand man. Bren wiped his hand across his face, rising on an elbow and thinking—the place was almost certainly bugged by Tabini’s establishment. There were midnight consultations going on between his bodyguard, Ilisidi’s, Guild leadership—and those Guild the Guild itself had attached to Machigi and his representative. He hadn’t had time yet to get the personal envelope to Tabini.
But something must already be moving in the situation in the south.