“Lord Dur is loyal, of clans in the northwest. The Gan certainly will be. There is lord Geigi’s surrogate in Targai, in the southwest, not to mention the Edi. They are firm beyond any doubt. And there is the Eastc”
“Where my grandmother proposes to create another raging controversy. One has no doubt she is out there in Malguri at this moment doing far more than marrying off that fool Baiji to that ambitious relative of hers! One is quite certain she is also meeting with the Eastern lords and proposing to overturn order there!It is no guarantee the villages of the coast will be grateful to have Marid foreigners sailing into their fishing grounds, if such ships ever survive the southern seas to get there.”
“Yet—if she can cure Marid poverty—and eastern poverty—with one stroke, then the things prosperity can buy, the technology, all of that comes from the central clans and from the trade with the space station. Such things come from alliance with you,aiji-ma, and while Machigi seems worried that you may choose to embarrass him during his visit, one believes he sees exactly where this mustgo, which is toward full participation in the aishidi’tat, or toward his eventual demise as a minor lord in a divided Marid. One believes he hovers between fear this is all a plot to kill him and take over the Marid—and the hope that what the dowager has presented him might work, because it would certainly be hard for Shejidan to rule the Marid. This is a young man who, offered a ship to go to safety during the action down there, instead went overland to confront what was happening on Taisigi land, for the protection of his people. This was not the act of a coward. Or a selfish ruler.”
Tabini listened to him, thoughts flickering in those pale gold eyes. “You hold a good opinion of him.”
“I did, aiji-ma—at least until I read that letter.”
“The letter is interesting. And you say he agreed to my seeing it.”
“One believes he intended you see it, aiji-ma.”
“He is no fool,” Tabini said, nodding slowly. “So you have presented us with the Edi, the Gan, and the Marid. Perhaps we can hold the aishidi’tat together until my grandmother deigns to show up and tell us the rest of her plan. I hope for that hour!”
“I have written, aiji-ma, to Lord Tatiseigi, with some diffidence—but attempting to make a delicate approach to him, thinking perhaps to maintain this action of mine as a private approach. I acquired a porcelain in the South. Another, to display to the Merchants. But one for him, not in the character of a bribe. I do owe him. And I wish to let him see something I saw, that quite changed my view of the Marid as only fishing boats.”
“Before my grandmother returns,” Tabini said. “She has left you with this problem. Left youto court Tatiseigi and the committees and guilds.”
“One was attempting, aiji-ma, to better relations with nand’ Tatiseigi before he should take a public position against it—which one hoped would be moderated by his high regard for the dowager. But this still, at your order, aiji-ma, could be finessed.”
“He took a position eighty years ago and has not changed it since.”
“One still—was his guest, aiji-ma. One hoped, in that consideration—”
“You are going to vote againstthe cell phone bill.”
He drew in a breath. Total change of direction. But intimately connected to the topic of Tatiseigi, who opposed the bill. As Tabini supported it, in theory.
He nodded. “Aiji-ma, for reasons. For reasons. Which are neither here nor there in the current matter.”
“To him they are. He will believe he has had influence. That you have bent to that influence.”
“If you could postpone the bill, aiji-ma—”
Tabini muttered, then waved a deprecatory hand. “The Guild has approached me on this matter, and we are in discussions already. This may not be the year to consider the matter. But let me urge you to caution with Tatiseigi. There isthe situation we have already discussed, that in the north. It is delicate.”
The Ajuri. God.
“It is delicate enough,” Tabini said, “and this I say in confidence—that my wife is being put in a difficult position. Her father wants influence through her. And if she chooses to become a vessel for Ajuri influence—she and I may not continue this marriage.”
“Aiji-ma.”
“Say nothing of it to my son.”
“Of course not, aiji-ma.”
“One expects the lord of Ajuri will object to anythingthat promotes Lord Tatiseigi’s interests. The jealousy involved there is extreme.”
“Regrettably, —aiji-ma, I have already sent the porcelain to Lord Tatiseigi and asked for a meeting with him. And he isa key ally of the aiji-dowager. I regret not having waited for her, however. Now I greatlyregret it.”
“Finesse it. Finesse it. That is all I will say, if you must meet with him. Business of the aishidi’tat cannot stop because Ajuri threatens. One is not sanguine about your chances of converting Lord Tatisiegi to a regard for Lord Machigi, however.”
“One felt the need to try to approach him, aiji-ma, for fear he would take offense to be put off by her absence.”
“Nand’ paidhi, between Geigi’s feud with him and Ajuri’s feud with him, one fears you are stepping into deep water, but go to it, go to it. But do not attempt to convert him to a regard for Lord Ajuri. Thatis due, one fears, to get worse very quickly.”
“Aiji-ma, if one is accidentally stepping into a private situation, one can delay—”
“The one in the most delicate position in this matter is my son,paidhi-ji. My son is not to be informed of this situation with his mother’s clan. And one is certain you will respect that.”
“Absolutely, aiji-ma.”
“Baji-naji, fortune and chance, where it regards Lord Tatiseigi. Understand, the Ajuri may be a small clan, but they are very influential in the collection of small clans that constitutes the north, and they have long had a certain influence in the Guild. Their marriage to my house once made sense. Now it makes them a far greater problem than their size would indicate, and the impending birth of a second child has the old rivalry between Ajuri and Atageini quite—lively at the moment. Ajuri seeks every opportunity to find fault with the Atageini”
One could notask where Damiri stood on the matter. She was the one in the worst position, with man’chi to her clan at issue. Pregnant to boot. And the whole thing having blown up into a Guild crisis, with little Ajuri clan wielding a hidden influence in that body—or having had influence; who knewwhat was going on within that body, or how much antihuman sentiment within that guild his own bodyguard was trying to shield him from either knowing—or meeting head-on, disastrouslyc
He had to talk to them. He had to find out.
“One can only apologize,” he said, “for having touched on matters I should not have touched upon, and for not sending your son back the moment it became clear—”