“Folly! A disgrace to be talking to those persons!”
“Your grandnephew quite charmed the Grandmother of the Edi and ably assisted the aiji-dowager, with impeccable manners. One would never argue with your concern for him, nandi. But he conducted himself extremely well. Your teaching, one is certain, is apparent in him.”
“You took him among traitors! Your Edi staff did notadvise you of difficulty at Kajiminda and almost cost my boy his life, a fact it is no good to conceal from me, nand’ paidhi! I am well aware of their recalcitrance, their underhandedness, their sneaking cowardice!”
“Alas, my staff feared they had touched upon a cover for a Guild operation, nandi. They at no time breached their man’chi to me, and once they understood the situation, they comported themselves bravely in the dowager’s service and mine.”
“And are they due a lordship for finally doing their minimal duty? Having a lord of the Edi is a ridiculous concept! They are not civilized!They are criminals. Pirates!”
Well, that argument pushed him to a point at which he had to plant his feet and object, which was clearly the old man’s intent.
“They have lived under a Maschi lordship that betrayed them, nandi, and they have remained on the side of the aishidi’tat with yet no direct agreement with the aishidi’tat. Every dealing was going through Baiji, now disgraced and deposed from office—yet they rallied to support the aishidi’tat through the Troubles, supporting my staff at Najida—”
“By piracy, which is their natural bent!”
“By subterfuge and direct attacks that prevented Murini from having any access to the southwest coast, nandi! They in effect defended my estate and the whole district. When the aiji-dowager—” The old man was Ilisidi’s lifelong supporter. And lover. “—asked their support, despite their recent ill-treatment by a misbehaving upstart of a lord, they gave it to her. They have signed preliminary agreements. They are now staunch allies of the aiji-dowager, they will become signatory to the aishidi’tat, and they have already come no few steps down that path, renouncing piracy and agreeing to pursue any future quarrels only through the Guild. One places one’s word and one’s reputation on this being the truth.”
“Then you are in for a great deal of trouble, paidhi, because they are liars and brigands!”
“Yet the aiji-dowager devised this settlement.”
“Ha! She has been wrong before, and she is wrong this time!”
“Yet as participant in this agreement, I must argue her case, nandi, and urge that her far-sighted actions have a purpose: to put unprecedented power into the hands of your grandnephew in his day. The world has never seen the power that your grandnephew will one day wield.”
That drew the twitch of one isolated muscle above Tatiseigi’s left brow. “Relying on barbarians and the Marid? It will never work!”
“The Edi and the Gan peoples are ruled by the seniormost women; and the aiji-dowager by her gender and rank carries a special credit with them that no male representative of the aishidi’tat has ever carried into dealings. More, your grandnephew, nandi, has questioned, and listened, and spoken to them; the Edi regard him as a living promise of the traditionalways that he has learned at the dowager’s knee and yours. They are greatly impressed by what you, nandi, would recognize as yourinfluence.”
That brought a moment of silence. Then “There are otherelements in his upbringing,” Tatiseigi muttered, and one had no doubt Tatiseigi meant human elements, and did not in the least approve.
“From human associations he has gained a certain flexibil-ty of approach, nandi, perhaps; but can you doubt what traditional values he has gained from the dowager’s teaching and his early residency at Tirnamardi? The Edi themselves have the same worries about the old values, the old traditions—”
“Traditions? Traditions of banditry!”
“The Edi andthe Taisigi andthe traditionalists of the aishidi’tat all have this in common: that human ways have trodden too heavily on those values that they believe must be preserved —and I agree, nandi! They will see youas a very important and respectable force in the legislature, and in the future politics of the aishidi’tat, you may find them allies in your battle against the headlong modernists. Time has rushed too fast. Even Ihave become your ally in this, against the proposal to widen the gates further and admit too much technology before atevi themselves have found their own answers. This is the truth: outside the eastern Padi Valley, there are few more traditional places on earth than the Marid, the Edi lands, and the Gan.”
“Tell me no such things when you advocate ruinous measures that will utterly overthrow civilization!”
“If this remotely refers to the question of cell phones, nandi, I now openly and unreservedly admit you are right.”
The old man’s mouth stuck half-open. He blinked.
“One is quite in earnest, Lord of the Atageini, and since the paidhi-aiji is about to run counter to the desires of the aiji himself, and to those of the progressives on this matter, one hopes for your staunch support in this.”
“You claim you are now opposedto the bill!”
“You are right, nandi. You are absolutely right in your arguments. If the bill passes, my office still enables me to veto it. I shall. Lord Geigi concurs: This is the right thing to do.”
“Lord Geigi!”
“Likewise,” he said carefully and emphatically, “will the new lordships of the Gan and of the Edi, if they have gained seats before the vote, and so will the entire Marid bloc—which is already seated in the legislature—”
“That scoundrel Machigi—”
“—will be voting with you, with the Gan, and the Edi, and Lord Geigi. As shall I, as lord of Najida. If I must, should it somehow pass, I swear to you I shall wield my veto, which I have not done in many, many years; and I have already informed Tabini-aiji I am now opposed. In the recent violence in the southwest, I saw what might have resulted had cell phones been available, and I have come to agree with you utterly, nandi.”
“Tea, nadiin!”
That broke the discussion off in favor of yet another round of tea, and there was, for a time, no more conversation while Lord Tatiseigi contemplated the situation. Lord Tatiseigi sat with fingers steepled and didn’t even look at him until tea was served and the servants offered more teacakes.
Bren declined the latter. So did Tatiseigi. They drank in deep and meaningful silence. And at the end of just one cup, Tatiseigi set it down.
“Machigi,” Tatiseigi said, “will use any lull in hostilities to arm the Marid with any finance and any weapons he can get his hands on. After the recent wars, there are plenty of those lying about.”
“He might have that intention, one is fully aware. But the aiji-dowager plans to keep him busy—and constantly observed. This is one reason the aiji-dowager has offered him association. The Guild is bringing him under Guild protection, and the dowager plans to keep him and his resources so entirely concentrated on the project she will share with him that he will have no time nor energy for other adventurescuntil he can see clearly that the project will pay off; and war will not. She has it admirably mapped out, nandi. I am amazed at her brilliance.”
“This is her idea, is it?”
“None of mine, nandi, one assures you. Machigi will live to rule. He will offer Guild protection to his subordinate lords and they will live to rule the other districts under his direction. The legitimate Guild will gain the leverage in the Marid it has always lacked, and in the process, the Guild will root out every last vestige of the renegades who have established themselves there, while protecting Lord Machigi’s authority. More, the aiji-dowager is strongly urging any new lord of the Edi and the Gan to acquire their own Guild protection—which will have exactly the same effect on theirdistricts. The institution of Guild centered around those three powers, Machigi, the Edi, and the Gan, will completely change the culture of feud and warfare that has characterized the two districts and their relationship to the rest of the aishidi’tat. There is, one believes, brilliant simplicity in this plan, nandi, and the guilds are the key. If the Assassins’ Guildis the channel through which feud and warfare have to move, and if theyregain the traditional rules, which they have always maintained, there has to be recourse to the Guild and to Tabini-aiji should anybody wish to come to blows. By and large, they will be far too busy building, which will engage the politics of other guilds, who will have their own interests at risk in any conflict, so they will negotiate rather than fight. Once they have built a prosperous trade, once prosperity has come to the general population—they will find themselves in quite the same situation as the rest of us. They will have fragile goods, systems, and relationships to protect. They will have incomes to protect. They will have an entirely different set of considerationsc”