“Possibly he understood his situation. Possibly he did notparticipate in the prior lord’s assassination.”
“It is entirely possible. Komaji may have known from the start that he had information that could, if he dared use it, place him in Tabini-aiji’s favor—if he was absolutely sure Tabini was going to survive in office. Unfortunately for him, Damiri-daja had staff that were not only a threat to Tabini-aiji—they were watching Komaji. We suspect he was trying to gather the courage to make a definitive move toward Tabini-aiji. And when the Marid mess broke wide open, and the aiji seemed apt to make an agreement with Machigi that might bring the aiji-dowager more prominence—Komaji decided it was the time. Possibly he feared the aiji-dowager’s closeness to Tatiseigi. He was notinvited to the signing of the agreement with Machigi precisely because Tatiseigi was—and it was the aiji-dowager’s choice. This upset him—possibly because he saw his opportunity to break free of Shishoji was rapidly dwindling, and he feared he was under Shishoji’s eye. He went upstairs to the aiji’s apartment. He was refused admittance. And at this refusal, in high panic and absolute conviction Tatiseigi and the dowager meant to separate him from the aiji and from his grandson, he broke down in the hallway. His nerve failed him, he no longer trusted his own bodyguards, and when the aiji, beyond banning him from court, sent Damiri-daja’s bodyguards back to Ajuri along with him, Komaji had nowhere to go butAjuri. Once there, he remained non-communicative, secretive, and ate only the plainest food, prepared by one staff member. Then he made his last move, toward Atageini lands, with a handful of Ajuri’s guards, nothis own bodyguard. —Did anyone of that company survive, Jago-ji?”
“They are, all of them, dead, short of Atageini land.”
Algini nodded slightly, acknowledging that. “Not surprising.”
“Where was he going?” Bren asked. “What was he trying to do? Do we know?”
“We surmise that in the failure of all other options,” Banichi said, “he may have been seeking refuge here, in the house of his old enemy Tatiseigi, whose staff might get a message to the aiji-dowager, to his daughter, or to Tabini-aiji himself, offering what he had to trade. Likely he hoped that one of them would sweep him up and keep him alive in exchange for the information he had. He was not a brilliant tactician.”
One could almost find pity for the man. Almost.
“Nadiin-ji. How long has this . . . dissidence in the Guild been around? Did this Shishoji organize it?”
No one answered for a moment. Then Algini said:
“That is a very good question, Bren-ji. How long—and with what purpose? It began, we think, in opposition to the Treaty of the Landing.”
“Two hundred yearsago?”
“We think it was, at first,” Banichi said, “an organization within the newly formed Guild, a handful who were opposed to the surrender of land to humans. Originally they may have hoped to lay hands on stores of human weapons and simply to wipe every human off the earth. There were such groups in various places, and there was that sort of talk abroad. It did not happen, of course. No one found any such resource. Then, as we all know, the paidhiin were instituted. They were set up to be gatekeepers, to provide peaceful technology, not weapons. It is, perhaps, poetic, that you, of all officers of the court, have been such a personal inconvenience to the modern organization, Bren-ji. The paidhiin were, from the first human to hold the office, the primary damper on such conspiracies.”
“One rather fears that I have become their greatest hope,” Bren said, feeling a leaden weight about his heart, “and a great convenienceto them—in bringing atevi into space and putting the shuttles exclusively under atevi control . . . if their aim truly was to take the station.”
“No,” Jago said.
“In the station program, Bren-ji,” Algini said, “you have linked atevi with humans, economically, politically—even socially. You aretheir worst enemy. Youbrought reality home to Shishoji, we firmly believe it. You negotiated the means to put humans and atevi into association, which his philosophy called impossible. Younegotiated the agreement that put Geigi in control of weapons they are only just beginning to appreciate. The Shadow Guild planned, naively, to get into the atevi section, convince atevi living up there to wipe out all humans, overcome the armament of the station and the ship, and seize control of the world, using the station. This is, demonstrably, not going to happen. It would not have happened, even had Murini succeeded in getting teams onto the station. Shishoji knows, now, that amid all the technology the humans have given us, their most powerful weapons remain under the control of one incorruptibleateva, in the person of Lord Geigi. They could not succeed. Not on the station. Down here . . . Down here is another matter.” Algini glanced in Banichi’s direction. “I have asked myself, Nichi-ji, whether we could have seen it coming, and I do not think we could. Shishoji found changes proliferating and the world changing faster than he could adapt. He found himself in danger of irrelevancy. But there was also unease, in ordinary people both wanting and opposing the space program, at a time when there was considerable doubt as to human intentions—especially given the interim paidhi.”
Yolanda Mercheson. A disaster, who had notbeen able to convert her linguistic study into an understanding of atevi. She had tried. But she had not gotten past her own distrust of Mospheirans, let alone atevi.
Jase, meanwhile, had been with the ship.
God. Twenty/twenty hindsight . . .
“Tabini-aiji’s popularity was slipping. Lords were maneuvering to get a share of the new industry, even as public doubts arose regarding whether humans on earth or in the heavens had any intention of keeping their agreements. The conservatives and the traditionalists were gathering momentum in the aishidi’tat. And when a crisis came in the heavens, and it seemed humans might have lied to us, every pressure on the aijinate was redoubled. Tabini-aiji escaped assassination, but his bodyguards were dead, his staff was dead, Taiben had suffered losses and the Atageini were too weak to help. His attempt to reach the Guild met a second attempt on his life, and within hours it was announced Tabini-aiji was dead, that the majority of the shuttles had been grounded to protect the aishidi’tat from invasion from orbit—”
And Yolanda Mercheson had run for her life. He had heard the account before, but from a very different perspective.
“Within an hour of the announcement of Tabini’s death, six of the conservatives andthe traditionalists declared man’chi to Murini,” Algini said. It was a set of facts they all knew. But Tano and Algini had seen it all play out.
Banichi and Jago had been with him, the dowager, Cajeiri—and Jase—on the starship, headed out to try to deal with the Reunion situation.
“We do not see now,” Algini said, “that this situation will repeat itself. We have not changed our recommendation to the aiji and we have removed the one vulnerability we think gave the aiji’s enemies access to his schedule and his apartment.”
“It is the aiji’s belief, Bren-ji,” Tano said quietly, “that Damiri-daja’s staff, knowingly or unknowingly, supplied information to the conspirators. Tabini-aiji’s staff died. Certain of Damiri-daja’s escaped.”
“And returning with Komaji,” Banichi said, “came Damiri’s aunt, her cousin, and her childhood nurse. The nurse, oldest in the consort’s service, stayed on when the others went back to Ajuri. When we recovered the records from the situation on the coast, and began to peel back the layers of the Shadow Guild, when we began to realize that Murini was more figurehead than aiji, and when Komaji had behaved as he had, we bypassed the aiji’s guard to advise Tabini-aiji to discharge the consort’s staff and bodyguard immediately. We wanted them detained. Unfortunately—and we have not had a clear answer about the confusion in the order, they were simply dismissed.”