"Nand' paidhi," Damiri said, offering a hand, and Bren began to struggle back to his feet, the very least of courtesy he owed his hostess and Tabini's official guest.
"No, no, please, stay seated, nand' paidhi. I'm so pleased you accepted my invitation. Has Saidin made you comfortable?"
"Quite, nai-ma. Thank you ever so much. I'm overwhelmed at such courtesy."
"An honor," she said, offering her hand, and taking it, he stayed entirely on his guard — at social disadvantage, of course, because he hadn't gotten up; which left her free to be gracious. The lady whom Tabini approved — the atevi expression — was neither ingenue nor scatterwit, and shedefined the meeting, shespoke for herself, and not coincidentally for the Atigeini, whose consent or lack of it in the hospitality he had not a clue.
"I hope to be minimal bother to your gracious staff, daja-ma. It's an extraordinary courtesy you've extended to the paidhi's office." He was very careful about that word "office," notattributing the hospitality to anything personal, an instinctively diplomatic distinction which seemed to touch the lady's fancy.
"The aiji's guest is my guest," she said, and made a little bow to him, to Tabini, and left with some quiet word to Eidi.
"Assure her, please," Bren said. "I'm utterly in awe of the apartment. I swear to be careful."
"She's very curious about you," Tabini said, giving no cue whatsoever how much Damiri had just tried Tabini's patience, or added opposition support to his questions, or acted in any wise by his consent. "Quite in touch with her staff, I warn you. But only from curiosity."
Possibly a signal of the situation. Certainly a warning. "Then I hope they report well of me."
"I've no doubts. Is it chill for you? A front moved through this afternoon. One could easily light the heater."
"No. Not at all. It's quite pleasant. Thank you, aiji-ma."
"Is there pain?"
"Some. Fever. I think that's normal."
"I'm very glad to see you safe, nadi. How glad you cannot imagine."
"I should have stayed in Shejidan, aiji-ma. I'd no idea anything was in imminent motion. I earnestly wish you'd told me. I'd have stayed and talked to the hasdrawad immediately."
"I wanted you treated by your own doctors. That demanded I send you to the island. But I was extremely anxious, nadi. I swear I was anxious until I heard your plane was safely in our airspace."
"Aiji-ma." He was somewhat surprised, even touched by Tabini's expression of personal concern — and held himself mentally and emotionally still on his guard, not least because he was glad to beback and had to put the brakes on that warm little human reaction that answered noquestions whatsoever that bore on atevi motivation.
Like — whether the Western Association was holding firm around Tabini.
Like whether all hell was continuing to break loose in the eastern regions of the Association, provinces where Tabini was most politically vulnerable. There'd been bombs dropping there as late as two days ago, to which he could personally attest — bombs that had killed men he knew. He didn't know to this hour how that set-to had come out, or whether the provincial lords, reacting to a strong move by Tabini and a shift of certain lords to Tabini's side, had taken a wait-see as he hoped had happened.
The side-switching could include the Atigeini, but he had no information whether or not lady Damiri had courted assassination by her own family for siding openly with Tabini, whom her association had at first opposed and then only coolly supported; and whether her family supported her in lodging a human guest in rooms hallowed in Atigeini history — when, for all he knew, his broken shoulder owed something to Atigeini suspicions of Tabini.
And he couldn't ask. He daren't ask until he knew more. There were conventions of politeness worth one's life.
"This ship above us," Tabini began.
"Yes, aiji-ma?"
"Mospheira is carrying on conversation with it. What's the general news? Were you able to hear anything?"
"Just that, as I understand, aiji-ma, there's no doubt in anyone's mind it's the same ship that brought us here. Where it's been for a hundred and seventy-eight years — that's a serious question. Someone on Mospheira may know the answer. I don't."
"Where do you guess it might have been?"
"Aiji-ma, all I know is what I've been told since I was a child, which is that it went out looking for the auspicious guide stars to find out where we are."
"Easy question. Here is here."
"Not from their view. As I understand. There's much more to it than that, but I confess, aiji-ma, as a student I didn't study the business about the ship with anything like the attention I should have. It just wasn't expected that the ship would ever come back."
"So. And what opinions are officials debating, now, in the high offices of Mospheira?"
The questions, besides being something he didn't know, tended a step over the edge of the aiji's need-to-know. The paidhi didn't, on principle, provide information on Mospheira's internal politics or Mospheira's moment-to-moment internal debates. The paidhi wasn't officially, at least, supposed to provide such information, as the aiji wasn't, by the Treaty, supposed to ask him.
"Tabini-ma, you know I can't answer that."
Tabini took up his teacup, balanced the fragile porcelain in his fingers. Atevi eyes were gold. Tabini's were a pale shade of that color. Some called them a sign of his father's infelicity. "Bren-ji, whatever we can and can't answer, whatever promises we make, many things will change now, between you on Mospheira and us on the mainland. Is this not a realistic assumption — that change is inevitable? And I ask the paidhi, who is supposed to interpret humans to atevi, in what direction those currents are flowing."
It was so, so quiet in the room, with only the voices from the other side of the foyer carrying through. He tried to gather a breath. Just a breath. He'd not thought of these things, not to the degree he needed to. He'd been preoccupied with a great deal of pain. And flying bullets.
"Tabini-ma, the Treaty created the paidhiin to be honest brokers for either side. Didn't they?"
Tabini took a sip of tea. "And for how many sides, nadi, can you be that honest broker? Are there three conversants, now — or still two?"
"I hope to give you an answer."
"Surely the paidhi can answer that one very simple question. Try this one: do you direct that ship? Or does that ship direct you?"
Adrenaline was definitely flowing. He'd literally bet his life on Tabini in coming back to the mainland. And he knew right now that in the condition he was in, he had no business coming in here to fence with Tabini. He should have taken another pain pill, no matter the urgency, and gone to bed where he belonged.
"Nand' paidhi? It seems to me a reasonable question. Am I unreasonable?"
"I just had my shoulder broken, Tabini-ma, I just had the hell beaten out of me by people who thought they could use the paidhi or get the paidhi to say things they could use. I held out against them. I —" He had to set his cup down. He couldn't keep his hand from shaking. "I would serve you and Mospheira both very ill if I injected my own half-minded interpretation of some official's hasty and possibly uninformed opinion into what I tell you or them. Especially if I myself were as underinformed as I am right now, aiji-ma. The aiji I've dealt with is too wise a man to destroy my value."
"Ah, flattery, now, Bren-ji. Not your usual standard."
"Honesty, Tabini-ma, is my only value. I stand between. I'll carry your messages to Mospheira. I'll tell you what responsible authorities answer after they've had time to think. But I won't inform on debates in progress, theirs or yours. Or the ship's. And, Tabini-ma, consider that I've been out of the information loop for days, I've been hours under anesthetic, I've had a pain pill and I'm not clear-headed at the moment. In such circumstances I can only — only stand by the strict interpretation of the Treaty. I would be ashamed to give you less than my best advice or, worse, to misinform you."