“At my expense, nandi. Though I have no shortage of funds, it should not be embarrassingly extravagant. I am not of his rank. And one wishes to keep these pieces attainable in trade.”
“Understated,” Machigi suggested with a circular wave of his hand.
“Of that nature, yes. Tasteful. And understated.”
“You are a scoundrel,paidhi-aiji. One would like to hear your description of a proposed assassination. We hope to bribethe head of the opposition.”
“We hope to adjust his view of the south, nandi. As I think will happen if he begins to concentrate on the cultural opportunities in the agreement.”
“Diri-ji, can you arrange it? Price will be no object. Quality is paramount. Deliver it with the other to the paidhi’s bus.”
“Yes,” Gediri said, making a note in a small book. “Would the paidhi wish to examine the items before they are crated?”
“One would by no means doubt the quality of your selection, nandi,” Bren said. “I shall utterly trust your choice, since the lord of the Marid entrusts the matter to you.”
“So we please the lord of the Atageini,” Machigi said with an airy gesture. “We cast our collective lives on the willingness of the aiji-dowager to turn up from her holiday in due season. We cast our reputations, nand’ paidhi, on yourpromise for an exchange of votes between us and the Edi. One had as soon expect the sun to rise in the west, but you have a gift for turning things on their head, so I should not wager on that event, either, if you had a finger in it. Now on what date, nand’ paidhi, may I expect the Guild to begin to obey my orders?”
Change of line. A very dangerous one. Fast thinking and, very carefully, no change in expression. “Again, nandi—”
“Upon signature on the line, do I take it? Or at some future date?”
“One cannot speak for the Guild, nandi. What my aishid would tell me, I know: make a request through your own aishid, and you should find that the Guild responds now, through them. Each of you who have Guild protecting them should feel no hesitation in making requests. And this will be the case with allthe Guilds. Your local Guild members should represent you.Always.”
That drew at least a thoughtful stare from Lord Machigi, and attention from the others.
“One urges, once the master document is signed,” Bren said, venturing further, “that the Tasaigin Marid become signatory with allGuilds of the aishidi’tat. The same with the other Marid clans. If Dojisigi and Senji had accepted the Guilds before Murini’s coup, they would have gotten much better advice. If they had taken a proper cue from the Guild in Shejidan, nandiin, and understood that they were not gaining recruits, but harboring an outlaw splinter of the Guild, they would have asked for help and gotten it. But they were otherwise inclined. Which is why Lord Machigi—” He paid a little nod of respect toward Machigi, who sat stone-faced. “—is now in authority over the whole of the Marid. And why he will remain so.”
“The East does not bow to the Guild,” Trade said grimly.
“The Dowager does not bowto the Guild. But she has them at her right hand. Now so do two of her neighbors, to their benefit. Others are considering it. The Marid is ahead of the East, in that regard. And will profit from it. She envisions the Marid as having the same status as the East: signatory, but a separate district.”
Machigi had his chin on his fist. Extended two fingers, intent to speak. “This is new.”
“It is in line with the dowager’s proposal, nandi. I have no hesitation to say it. Her district has not entirely trusted the aishidi’tat as it was first constituted. But the independence of the East has kept the aishidi’tat honest. She sees in your regional strength reinforcement for the independence of the East. She has kept it from becoming an entirely Ragi institution. You are not Ragi. And if you both employ the Guilds and put your own young people into the Guilds, you gain a voice in the Guilds, forming policy and enforcing the law in the aishidi’tat.”
“Interesting,” Machigi said, and dropped the hand and leaned back.
Bren said, quietly, “I represent the dowager’s proposals, nandi. And I have never known her to go back on what she said she would do.”
“More than can be said of her husband when he ruled,” Machigi said in a low voice. “But then, there are rumors, are there not, regarding his demise?”
“One could not comment, nandi.”
“We shall sign her agreement,” Machigi said with a glance at the others. “We shall sign it in Shejidan. And you may now partake of the brandy you have been pretending to drink, paidhi. You have won our agreement. We shall see how it goes. Lighter topics, if you will. What about these porcelains?”
Bren risked an actual sip. Two and three. The rest of the session was brief, more about trade, and porcelains, and the Isles.
It was a vast relief when Machigi signaled the end of the session, and Trade and Gediri took their leave.
A guest of the house routinely left last; Machigi stepped between Bren and the doorway, not threateningly, but definitively.
“You will be at breakfast,” Machigi said.
“One would be honored, nandi,” Bren said.
And still Machigi did not clear his path.
“You are not pressed for time tomorrow, are you?”
A test? A challenge? Reminding him that he left the premises when Machigi was willing to let him leave?
“I shall be in no haste, nandi. I shall not call for a plane until I am on the road, and it will still make it to the airport before I do. I shall leave at your convenience.”
Machigi nodded. “Well enough,” Machigi said, and let him pass.
It was curious, Machigi’s last actioncthe insistence on making a personal impression, part threat, part—whatever it was. Banichi and Jago had not seemed alarmed. Tema and his partner had not been.
Bren thought about it on the way up to the suite, in company only with Banichi and Jago. He likedthe man, that deadliest and most mistaken of human reactions toward atevi, who had their own attaching emotion, man’chi, quite as strong—strong as life and death—but notquite what humans called love or even liking, and it was a basic mistake ever to start using that word with atevi, in any degree. Machigi was potentially a scoundrel himself, aiming at whatever he could get in excess of the agreement, but who, in Machigi’s place, would not have to be, if only for the sake of those with man’chi to him? Machigi was as alone as an ateva ever tended to be, for one thing. Machigi’s relatives were mostly dead, his attachments all fallen to assassination, his immediate circle disrupted. His clan was around him, but members of his immediate family had been casualties of the feud with Dojisigi clan—a fact Machigi had been pragmatically ignoring in order to work with Dojisigi clan, to survive and keep Dojisigi from moving in and taking over Taisigi.
That indicated that Machigi knew how to make critical compromises. He feltman’chi to no one. That was characteristic of an aiji, a leader, and there was a reciprocal emotion, which, oddly enough, atevi rarely discussed or attempted to define. He receivedman’chi from two clans besides his own, and it stayed with him through gunfire and threat. That indicated he had character and attractiveness. And he reciprocated adequately, making the best of the best of his people stand by him, for the sake of theirconnections.
But things had changed. Machigi potentially had power over the Dojisigi, who had made his life hell, and over everything and everybody in the Marid. The Guild wasn’t going to give up its position of advantage and let things swing back to normal for the Marid. No, they were going to be at the shoulder of every minister andMachigi himself. And thatwas going to be interesting: Machigi’s face had shown just a little emotion when he’d made that remark about Machigi’s own bodyguard being his best link to the Guild proper.