"Aiji-ma." There was a profound bow, profound confusion from one as she rose from the table. A smile from the other that could be challenge, could be acknowledgment — the young woman was surrounded by Guild seniors, against which she wouldn't have a chance for her own survival if she even looked like making a move, and she had to know that.
There was no Filing. Which meant blame and consequences flying straight to the Atigeini head of house, which she had to know also.
Bren drew in his breath and found immediate preoccupation with the position of his glass on the table.
"Pretty," was Tabini's comment after they'd withdrawn with the prizes. "Very sharp. The one on the left is Guild. Did you know?"
He looked up. It wasn't the one he'd thought. "I guessed wrong," he said, chagrined.
"I'm not sure of the other one, either," Tabini said. "Certain things even Naidiri won't say. Damiri herself professes not to be sure. But one suspects it's a pair. I understand you'd no idea of Saidin's position."
He didn't breathe but what Tabini had a report of it.
"I'm completely embarrassed. No, aiji-ma. I hadn't."
"Retired, actually," Tabini said, "but an estimable force. If I can trust Naidiri's estimate — and I wouldn't be living with the lovely lady sharing my bed if I hadn't certain assurances passed through the Guild — she answers primarily to Damiri. Only to Damiri, in point of fact."
There were cliffs and precipices in such topics. He drew a breath and went ahead. "What of Damiri? Are you safe, personally safe, aiji-ma? I'm worried for your welfare."
"I take good care," Tabini said, and turned altogether sideways, one long leg folded against the chair arm, booted ankle on the other knee. "Concerned on behalf of the Association, Bren-ji? Or your directives from Mospheira?"
"To hell with Mospheira," he muttered, and got Tabini's attention. "Aiji-ma, I've quite well damned myself, so far as certain elements of my government are concerned."
"I take it that the message was Hanks, that it said unpleasant things, and that it was not under duress."
"It was accusatory of me, of you, as instituting a seizure of others' rights —" He was aware, as he said it, that he placed Hanks in direct danger, if Tabini were even remotely inclined to retaliatory strikes — and that, in atevi politics, Tabini might no longer have the luxury of tolerating Hanks' actions. "I apologize profoundly, aiji-ma — they're my mistakes. I spend my life trying to figure what atevi will do; I misread her. Of my own species. I have no excuse to offer. I'll give you a transcript."
Tabini waved a hand. "At your leisure. Knowing the company she's keeping enables one rather well to know the content."
"Banichi and Jago seemed to have a very good idea of the content."
"She accuses you to your government."
"Yes."
"Will this be taken seriously?"
"It — will be raised officially, I'm fairly sure. Depending on what goes on inthe government, I will or won't be able to go back to Mospheira."
"Without being arrested?"
"Possibly. That Hanks hasn't gotten a recall order — I fear indicates she still has backing."
Tabini said, "May I speak personally?"
"Yes," he said — one could hardly refuse the aiji whatever he wanted to say, and he hoped it entailed no worse mistake than Hanks
"I hear that your fiancee," Tabini said, "has reneged on her agreement."
"With me?"
"With you. I know of no other."
"There wasn't — actually a clear understanding." He'd talked about Barb with Tabini before. They'd discussed physical attractiveness and the concept of romantic love versus — mainaigi, which rather well answered to a young ateva's hormonal foolishness. "No fault on her part. She'd tried, evidently, to discuss it with me. Couldn't catch me on Mospheira long enough."
"Political pressure?" Tabini asked, frowning.
"Personal pressure, perhaps."
"One suggested before… this woman had more virtue."
He'd made claims for Barb, once upon a while. Praised her good sense, her loyalty. A lot of things he'd said to Tabini, when he'd thought better of Barb.
And if he were honest, probably that weeks-ago judgment was more rational and more on target than the one he'd used last night.
"She's stayed by me through a lot," he said. "I suppose —"
Tabini was quiet, waiting. And sometimes translation between the languages required more honesty than he found comfortable: without it, one could wander deep into definitional traps — sound like a fool… or a scoundrel.
"Did political enemies affect this decision?" Tabini asked.
"Certainly my job did. The absences. The — likelihood of further absences. Just the uncertainty."
"Of safety?"
He hesitated to get into that. Finally nodded. "There've been phone calls."
"She has, as you've said, no security?"
"No. It's not — not ordinary."
"Nor prospect of obtaining it."
"No, aiji-ma. Ordinary citizens just — don't. There's the police. But these people are hard to catch."
"A problem also for your relatives."
He had a suspicion about the integrity of his messages. And the pretense that no atevi understood the language well enough, a pretense which was wearing thinner and thinner.
"There is —" Tabini moved his foot, swung his leg over the arm of the chair. "There is the Treaty provision. We've broken it to keep Hanks here. Would Barb-daja consent to break with this new marriage and join you in residence on the mainland?"
He didn't know what to say for a moment — thought of havingBarb with him, and couldn't imagine —
"It seems," Tabini said, "that there is difficulty for your whole household, on Mospheira, which has perhaps inspired this defection. In her lack of official support, one can, perhaps, see Barb-daja's difficulty."
Or perhaps Banichi or Jago had told him a certain amount. It proved nothing absolutely. He hadtalked to Jago. He'd even talked to Ilisidi.
"This is a security risk," Tabini said. "You should not have to abide threats to your household, if a visa or two would relieve their anxiety — and yours. They would be safe here, your relatives, your wife — if you chose to have this."
His heart had gone thump, and seemed to skip a beat, and picked up again while the brain was trying to work and tell him they'd been talking about Hanks, and accusations, and Hanks' fate, and it could signal a decided chill in atevi-human relations — which he had to prevent. Somehow. "Aiji-ma, it's — a very generous gesture." But to save his life — or theirs — he couldn't see it happening — couldn't imagine his mother and Toby and Jill and the —
No. Not them. Barb. Barb might think she wanted to. Barb might even try — there was a side to Barb that wasn't afraid of mountains. He could remember that now: Barb in the snow, Barb in the sunglare… Barb outside the reality of her job, his job, the Department, the independence she had fought out for herself that didn't need a steady presence, just not some damned lunatic isolationist agitator ringing her phone in the dead of night.
"My relatives — wouldn't — couldn't — adapt here. They'd be more tolerant of the threats. — Barb…"
He couldn't say no for her. She had no special protection, no more than his family. But she couldadapt. It was — in a society she'd not feel at home in — a constant taste of the life she'd seemed to love: the parties, the fancy clothes, the glittering halls. Barb would, give her that, try to speak the language. Barb would break her neck to learn it if it got her farther up the social scale, not just the paidhi's woman, but Barb-daja; God — she'd grab it on a bet. Until she figured out it was real, and had demands and limitations of behavior.