Inheritor (46 page)

He felt his heart beating faster and faster.

"To be rid of me?" he asked in the silence the dowager left for a sip of tea.

"The action would at one stroke have embarrassed the Atageini, whom Saigimi saw as dangerous, and if it had eliminated you, who were seen as in my grandson's man'chi, it would have elevated the value of the human woman. They were planning an attack on nand' Jase at the landing site, and would thus have all the paidhiin, a situation which looked quite impressive.

"At this point I approached them to contest with Direiso — as Direiso privately thought — to try to take leadership of her movement, and sent Geigi as my emissary, having myself paid his debts not an hour before.

"But the transfer of funds had not reached Saigimi, who was, of course, out of his district, being involved with the lily matter. So he didn't know, need I say, that Geigi was free, and in
my
debt, and gave no warning when Geigi showed up to see whether the way was clear for me. Silly man, he thought Geigi had come to see his cousin, who was there for, well,
safe-keeping
in Direiso's care.

"It was quite a little conference. And, not wholly relying on Geigi's inexperienced judgment, why, I showed up at the door and asked admittance before Geigi had even made his report to me. The foolish woman was distracted from the back entry. I always
said
Direiso had no qualifications for high office. And
she
said she was electable as I am not. Well, well, she probably was electable, being
of
the Padi Valley and a westerner. If she didn't look a fool."

Now he knew why Ilisidi had spoken freely in front of the boy from Dur, who was probably terrified of hearing so much detail of conspiracy against the aiji.

Twice the national legislature had voted against Ilisidi becoming aiji in Shejidan, the story was, because she was believed apt to take bloody revenge on enemies
in
the legislature; twice that he
knew
of, now, Ilisidi had been involved in conspiracy that might have led to Tabini's overthrow, and this time had made a thorough fool of Direiso. If she had ever admitted what she had said in others' hearing, his security hadn't reported it and Tabini had professed to him not to know.

As Tabini might
not
know. Ilisidi would delight in putting Tabini in a place where he had to rely on her simply because maneuvering the aiji of Shejidan into such a position exercised muscles and gave the dowager pleasure, damned if not. The plague of my life, Tabini called her; and never, that he knew,
never
made a move against his grandmother.

"Dowager-ji," he said softly, "you
are
amazing."

"Ah, but I should have shot that woman."

"As seems now," Cenedi said, "but then — who knew what would come from the sky?"

Hedging her bets against the ship keeping its word. Cenedi hadn't revealed that, either, without the dowager's implied permission, but far fewer in this company would understand it in all its meaning.

"One needs ultimately," Ilisidi said, "to draw all these elements together. But this distasteful human woman, one takes it,
with
the help of the
President
of Mospheira, is continuing her meddling. She knew contacts. She knew where to send such messages to have them fall on willing ears. She evidently gathered such information quite freely while she was dealing with Saigimi — whose demise was timely. I dare say, timely."

What does
that
mean? he wondered in some distress, but consciously didn't frown.

The rags of cloud had flown over them. There was thunder, definitely, in the distance. The sky flickered over their heads, reminding one of metal tent frames and their situation at the crest of the promontory — save the knoll behind the tents.

"It was well done," Ilisidi said, and chuckled softly. "So was Badissuni's indigestion."

"Nand' dowager," Jago said as if she had received a compliment.

He at least had suspected. He
was
at least keeping up with situations. Badissuni might have joined Direiso in her adventurism in the north. Badissuni was in the hospital — but alive — and Ajresi still had Badissuni to worry about, so
he
was out of the game.

"Time for bed," Ilisidi said, and the woman who used a cane to get about and who had complained for years that she was dying used it now to lever herself up with smoother grace than a much younger human whose muscles had stiffened from sitting on the ground. "Early to rise," the dowager proclaimed, looked up, and smiled at the lightning. "Lovely weather. A new year.
Spring
on the coast." xl

«
^
»

"W
hat was she saying?"
Jase asked in a whisper as they went toward the tent. Jase caught his arm. "What was going on?"

"A little information," Bren said. Thunder rumbled above them, and he could feel Jase flinch. He saw Banichi and Jago in converse a little distance away, and guessed that they had heard detail they had never heard, the same as he had. "Banichi and Jago killed lord Saigimi," he said to Jase, "at Tabini's order. But the dowager said she took Deana Hanks away from Direiso when Direiso kidnapped her last year. That dispute was what you parachuted into."

"Factions." Jase knew that word.

"Factions. She's saying that Saigimi's wife was trying to get lord Geigi's land and title, and she prevented it. So Geigi helped
her
get Deana away from lady Direiso. Tabini let Deana go. Now Deana's behind some radio broadcasts to Direiso's followers, talking against Tabini. And I wouldn't be surprised if, sometime during our trip, we don't go up to Mogari-nai and express the aiji's
and
the dowager's discontent with them losing our mail and not acting aggressively to prevent those broadcasts. That's a huge electronics installation. If it's letting some little handheld radio communicate with the mainland —" Thunder cracked and Jase jumped, his face stark and scared in the lightning flash. "— it's not doing its job very well."

"Will they shoot?"

"Mogari-nai? No. That's not their job. The Messengers' Guild holds Mogari-nai. The Assassins' Guild is with Tabini. Open conflict isn't going to benefit the Messengers' Guild, I can tell you that. Better get inside." He'd seen Banichi leave the brief conversation and go out into the dark, possibly for nothing more than call of nature; but he wasn't sure. "I'll be there in a minute. Don't worry about the thunder. Lightning's the threat. But it hits the tallest thing around. Keep lower than the tent roof and you're fine."

It wasn't true. But the mechieti were in more danger.

"Where are you going?"

"To talk to our security, nadi. Go inside. Don't worry about it." Wind was battering them, ruffling and snapping the canvas. A fat, cold drop splashed down on him as he went to that endmost tent.

Jago had seen him coming. She waited for him in the pelting early drops of rain.

"Is everything all right?" he asked, fearful, despite the assurances he'd given Jase, that there might be more going on than he knew about.

"Yes," Jago said, and caught his arm, pulling him toward the inside of the tent. "Come in out of the rain, Bren-ji."

It was their tent. Hers and Banichi's, compact for atevi, affording her no room to stand. It was warmer, instantly. Softer than the ground, insulated by an inflated bottom fabric. Black as night. He couldn't see a thing. Possibly she could.

"You did very well," Jago said in a hushed tone. "You did
very
well, Bren-ji."

"One hoped," he said.

"She wished to say such things in the boy's hearing, and you afforded her the audience she needed. You asked about Deana's kidnapping. Did it occur to you to ask about your own?"

The thought had crossed the depths of his mind, while Ilisidi was confessing to things Tabini's security had worked hard to learn. "I feared it might divert us. I take it that it
is
a second matter."

Lightning showed her shadow against the dim fabric of the tent. Something hard and dangerous and metal met his hand. His hand closed on a pistol grip. "This is yours, Bren-ji. I took it from your luggage. Keep it inside your coat."

His heart was beating fast enough to get his attention now. "Are we in such danger?"

"Do you remember the getting of this gun?"

"Tabini gave it to me."

"No.
Banichi
gave it to you."

It was true. He couldn't tell one from the other. On holiday at Taiben, he and Tabini had shot at melons and broken Treaty law — before he'd ever met Ilisidi.

Tabini had given him a gun he shouldn't have, by Treaty law; and he'd been anxious when he returned to Shejidan. He'd not known what to do with it in his little garden apartment, with two servants who were
not
— he understood such things far better now — reliably within his man'chi. He'd tucked it beneath his mattress.

He'd fired it at an intruder that had appeared at his curtained door, in lightning flashes, on such a night as this.

Banichi and Jago had replaced his security that night. Banichi had replaced the gun — in case, Banichi had said, an investigation should link it to Tabini.

Banichi and Jago had taken over his apartment, wired his door, replaced his servants, and brought in Tano and Algini, whom at that time he hadn't trusted.

From that hour forward he'd been in Jago's and Banichi's care.

And immediately Tabini had sent him, with Banichi and Jago, to Malguri, to Ilisidi's venue.

He'd been in danger of his life. He believed that then. He believed it now, sitting in this tent with Banichi's gun tucked into his jacket.

And he went back to the simplest, most ground-level question he had used to ask them: he, the paidhi, the expert. "What should I know, Jago-ji?"

"That in the matter of Deana Hanks, Ilisidi did very well, and has only credit. But the night the intruder came to your bedroom, one of her faction had exceeded orders and attempted to remove you. We did find out not the name but the man'chi. And that you, yourself, bloodied this reckless person; that was a profound embarrassment to the dowager. She had refused Tabini's offer to negotiate until that happened and until, against her expectations, Tabini declined to expose the author of the attack and asked again for her to accept you in trust. But before he sent you to Mal-guri, he filed Intent against persons unnamed, which was a gesture toward the Guild, which caused the Guild to take official notice and regularize the paidhi's rank within Guild regulations. And
that
made illegal any second move against the paidhiin. It was coincidentally a situation which complicated his dealing with Deana Hanks when she arrived in the capital while you were absent at Malguri.

"Meanwhile Ilisidi was trying to determine whether she would believe Tabini's urgings that neither he nor humans had betrayed the association — or whether she could agree to lead an attempt to remove Tabini from office. Some eastern conspirators believed her assessment that you were honest — and some were convinced by questioning you."

"Was
that
what that was?"

"The matter in the cellars? Yes. We could
not
prevent it. The rebellion was going forward. A certain lord moved without the dowager, attempting to overthrow
her
, and she brought down Tabini's forces on their heads.
Here
, in the west, however, the situation was exactly as you apprehend: there was a fear
of
humans, and once that was allayed — Tabini was more popular than before with the commons, as was the prospect of even closer cooperation between humans and Shejidan, a deluge of technology from the heavens, and more centralized power to Shejidan. Direiso and others who want to sit in Tabini's place, and the peninsular lords who don't want a centralized government, all saw that if they didn't move soon, they'd never dare. So they approached Ilisidi in the theory she might have been coerced into returning you. And Ilisidi acted to rescue the paidhiin and keep them out of Direiso's hands. That much was clear. Ilisidi does not want Direiso as aiji.

But where does Ilisidi herself stand? The answer, nadi-ji, was out there tonight. I suspect Saigimi, from the peninsula, attempted to get Ilisidi to overthrow Direiso — who
is
from the Padi Valley, as Ilisidi is from the remote east."

"Can we rely on her? It pains me even to ask, Jago-ji, but dare we rely on her? Or is there some
third
choice?"

There was silence out of the dark. Lighting showed him Jago, elbow on knee, fist on chin. And a break of that pose in that flicker of an instant.

"The aiji tested
her by
sending you to her at Malguri. Now she tests
him
by demanding both paidhiin in her hands.
That
is where we sit tonight, Bren-ji. And we don't
know
the answer."

"I asked her to bring us here."

"Not as Cenedi told me the story."

It was not, he recalled now, accurate. "I asked her to go with us to Geigi's house."

"And she then suggested Saduri."

"She did."

"And Geigi had invited you to his house."

"He did. He had."

"Geigi is within her man'chi, Bren-ji. Tabini's maneuvering helped him pay his debt to Ilisidi. But she had already rescued him financially. However — you — whom the dowager favors — and who have man'chi to Tabini, as you have stated, saved his reputation. Geigi is in an interesting three-way position."

One of the things that humans had done most amiss in the days before the War was to make what they thought were friendships across lines of association that could not otherwise be associated: they'd ripped atevi society to shreds and killed people and ruined lives, never realizing what they'd done.

"Damn," he said, with a very sick feeling; but with a little inaccuracy in the dark, Jago touched his hand.

"This is not necessarily bad, Bren-ji."

"It was damned foolish on my part."