Divergence

by C. J. Cherryh

  Bren resisted the temptation to go to the one tiny patch of sky he could see, a remaining little glass-covered vent. Curious as he was about the weather, staff was trying to plan and rest as much as they could manage, and he had no wish to distract them or pose a question. He would, he told himself, manage someday to see the world through ordinary windows, in some year when they would have brought peace to the region. It was certain to be grand, the vistas outside, except the blizzard, if it continued. They were supposed to descend into comparative warmth, sea winds and much kinder weather, about a third of the way down.

  He had not asked. It was not relevant to them, except that snow might provide cover. Or problems.

  Then . . . the click of the rails grew slower. And slower. His heartbeat correspondingly picked up pace.

  They were, Jeladi had informed him, a slightly longer train than usually made this descent, though they were not as heavy. There might be, if one let one’s imagination run, a little more risk than usual.

  Not to mention the switchbacks and the tunnels, all places where an enemy might arrange problems. The Guild had taken precautions. Certain unfortunate personnel had been set out to camp with winter gear, weapons and equipment precisely to be sure there were no problems, so his aishid assured him . . . a white and quiet vigil, masked today in weather which could be an ally of either side.

  If Tiajo and the Shadow Guild continued to be a problem, the realization was quite clear from this precarious perspective, there could be no rail link operating safely in this region. The Shadow Guild obeyed no civilized rules. No honor, no limits, no restricted targets. They had made that clear over on the coast.

  From that circumstance it became clear the dowager was pushing more than a railroad and more than her trade agreement with Lord Machigi. If this was going to be done, if the Marid was to be linked to the rest of the aishidi’tat, the dowager’s offer of a sea link had only been a quiet opening of operations, a project some believed was only a cover for the dowager’s backing opposition to the Dojisigi—a project, never to be fulfilled, that served to annoy the Dojisigi, and just awaiting a provocation.

  Ilisidi’s opening move, the trade agreement, the prospect of an Eastern port, had gotten Machigi connections to the north, opened the south to certain of the northern guilds. Now, inevitably with the guilds, intelligence flowed, so that the north had a more accurate picture of Marid resources, and alliances. The move to decentralize the various guilds to gain support in the Marid had stirred heat in the north. At the opposite end of the map, the move to permit the full range of guilds to operate in the Marid had upset certain townships in the south, townships such as Separti, on the west coast, who had, though technically in the aishidi’tat, also refused the Guild system—even including the Transportation Guild, which everyone else on the continent had accepted.

  There had been—was still—a quieter way to go about constructing Machigi’s rail link with far less provocation to Tiajo’s regime: they could have gone the long way around—routing trains in from the west coast with no greater obstacle than getting up and over the plateau that rose midway, the normal and easy route from Najida to Koperna and back. Even once the new rail link was built and operating, the route lying along that plateau was still the sane way most freight had to go, on any truly commercial scale. What did descend the mountain wall from Hasjuran was usually Transportation Guild freight, for their own operations in Koperna, or the same guild repositioning empty cars to the lowland routes, or, occasionally, carrying down goods from Hasjuran itself.

  In that regard, what Ilisidi was doing by negotiating everything in Hasjuran was making the greatest possible noise about her arrangements. In effect, she was delivering a personal challenge to the Dojisigin, advising them they were going to have to move against her—or stay out of the way while she dealt with their last Marid ally.

  The dowager was known for subtle moves. Tiajo was known for doing stupid things.

  Ironically—that meant Ilisidi was relying on the Shadow Guild to control Tiajo, possibly goading them to replace Tiajo to calm the situation, but nothing would change the Shadow Guild’s character, or reconcile the Guild in Shejidan with the Shadow Guild itself.

  The prospect of conflict was the worst kind of action—Guild taking the field against former Guild, the ultimate violence atevi practiced. Generally atevi left conflict to those with the disposition to lead, to professionals, and to technology. There would be deaths. There were quarrels that could not be reconciled, but civilians had to find a way to make peace, or at very least, the Guild had to take down the party least willing to abide by a directed solution. And for renegade Guild, who had murdered, and threatened, and planted bombs on public roads, there was no negotiated peace.

  But one sincerely hoped the Shadow Guild in Senjin, beset by a Guild force inserted into the capital, and with a second force about to arrive, would decide discretion was the better part of valor, and retreat to the Dojisigin. Not that it would eliminate them, but it would keep their damage contained, where time, mortality and slow degradation of supply and information might do the work of a pitched battle.

  Slower and slower. The first part of the descent was the steepest grade in the whole system, before they hit the switchbacks. The weather might be both an ally masking them—and an enemy masking other movements.

  If—

  “Bren-ji.” Banichi was back, having gone out into the passageway for a moment. “The dowager wishes a conference. She has asked Machigi and Lord Bregani to come and wishes your attendance immediately.”

  So, well, Bren thought, they would be hours on this slow, difficult stretch of track. The dowager might even have caught up on her own interrupted sleep, even if no one else had, considering the prospects before them. And now the dowager would be nailing down specifics, where it came to performance and her agreements.

  She would also want to locate some common interests between two men who, a few days ago, would never have sat in each other’s company. How the dowager would get a light and social conversation out of Machigi was a question.

  So . . . someone had to fill the potential silences, while it was very possible there was death and damage still threatening in Koperna. They had word that the city was secure, but that there was trouble at the port. And God knew where the train from this morning was, and what it intended.

  * * *

  • • •

  Geometry did not hold as deep a fascination as one could wish. Cajeiri found himself staring at triangles and polyhedrons and thinking about patterns not described in straight lines.

  Then his aishid reacted subtly, a simultaneous slight move from all of them, seated at the table, that said some signal had reached them.

  He looked at them. They looked toward him.

  “Rieni-nadi is back,” Antaro said. “They have answered. They are back from wherever they were.”

  Cajeiri stood up. “Call them. And guard the inner door.”

  Which was to say, guard against the servant staff, even Eisi and Liedi, coming within hearing. It was not to say that his young aishid, stationed outside the doors, would not hear the exchange. But they were Guild.

  “Yes,” Antaro said, and said, to those absent, “Nadiin, nand’ Cajeiri, the sitting room, now.”

  They came in, Rieni and Haniri, Janachi and Onami, gray-haired, extremely senior, large men, dangerous men, and all under his orders, which was a scary responsibility, except, Cajeiri thought, they would surely judge his reasoning and not do anything stupid. He wanted them to trust him with information. He wanted them to take him seriously, as a sensible person; and not to have them have to go to Father when he asked them questions he perhaps was not supposed to ask.

  “Tell me no if you should tell me no,” Cajeiri said, having thought long and hard on that opening. “But I am very worried and I want to know what is going on. Has there been a courier? Have we news from my great-
grandmother or nand’ Bren? What is going on in Hasjuran?”

  “Nandi.” Rieni folded his arms and leaned informally against the door-frame. “We are secure in this room, are we?” This, with a nod at the inner door, on the other side of which Antaro and Jegari had taken up station, with Lucasi and Veijico present and listening.

  “As secure as you have made us, nadiin-ji. My other unit is there, but staff is not. And I want to know what you know. I promise I shall not do anything stupid and I shall go nowhere without you. But if there is any news, tell me.”

  It was on Rieni, Guild senior, to answer or not, and Rieni considered a moment. Then: “What we know, aiji-meni, is not being told to general staff, or at lower levels within several other guilds, notably Transportation and the Messengers. Nor is the lord of Hasjuran informed. We have been advised by indirect means of a plot to assassinate your great-grandmother, and we have very limited means to advise her that will not equally go where we do not want it to go. She has left Hasjuran.”

  “Coming back?”

  “No, aiji-meni. Going down to Koperna, in Senjin, with Lord Machigi.”

  Lord Machigi was an ally of mani, and an enemy of Senjin. “Why?” was the only question he could think of.

  “We have no other information, except that the Shadow Guild may have moved an asset up to Hasjuran. The Shadow Guild has assets both in Koperna and Lusi’ei, but there is also a Guild force in Koperna, and Lord Bregani has authorized it to deploy against the Shadow Guild. There has been fighting.”

  “Lord Bregani. Of Senjin.” He knew. He had memorized imports, exports, lords, agreements, alliances, notables, famous buildings.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?” His tone was sharper than he meant. A lesson was much more vivid than he had ever wanted it to be.

  “Information is coded, and limited.”

  “Because of the Shadow Guild. In the Dojisigin. And not all in the Dojisigin.”

  “Exactly, aiji-meni. We trust we have cleared the highest levels of the Guild of problems, but we cannot risk lives by trusting too far. Coded messages say prearranged things. We can construe that Lord Bregani is somehow requesting Guild aid in Koperna, and we know of a certainty that your great-grandmother had two trains under her command, the one she is on, and another she had sent ahead of her to test the track. It went down to Koperna, where it appeared to break down. It carried a large number of Guild, with equipment. Lord Bregani’s request saw that force deployed in the city. There is a third train, which was launched two days after the Red Train left the station.”

  “Also mani’s?”

  “The Guild Council will not say. I am telling you the only fact at our disposal. And we must keep this entirely quiet. The situation is still developing, and Guild Council has advised us to minimize all lines of communication especially regarding that region. Your general staff is not to know. You have discriminated correctly in that. We trust you will personally instruct Antaro-nadi and her unit not to discuss it even among themselves. The question involves lives, locations, and critical assets.”

  He knew that last was code for something more than he understood. Darker than he understood.

  “May the others come in?”

  “Yes,” Rieni said.

  “Then they should,” Cajeiri said, and Onami went to the door and opened it. Antaro came in, with the rest of them, and they collectively and solemnly made a little nod of acknowledgment.

  “You heard,” Rieni said.

  “Nadi, yes,” Antaro said. “We understand the order. Silence, even among ourselves, and with our principal.”

  “The room is not now under guard,” Rieni said. “Stay by the door. Continue to listen. But you may ask. I do not say we will answer.”

  “Do we know what the dowager’s objective is, nadiin,” Veijico, asked cautiously, “in going there?”

  “We believe it is precisely to secure Bregani,” Rieni said. “But all three trains are currently beyond the reach of secure communications. We are having to send messages through the Transportation Guild, aiji-meni, and in Hasjuran, we have no idea whether that office is secure. The lord of Hasjuran does not have a Guild bodyguard. It is local. They have never hosted any presence such as the dowager’s.”

  “Is Father worried?” Cajeiri asked. That was the surest indicator he knew.

  “He is extremely worried. He says a recall is impossible, and one gathers it is impossible both because of her location, and, forgive the disrespect, given her inclination to defy threat.”

  “True,” Cajeiri said very quietly. Mani when things were going well could not be moved, and when things were going badly, she was not likely to move either.

  “The sum of things is that a series of orders have committed units to Koperna and that the dowager is taking the Red Train to that destination. A precautionary Guild presence in Senjin has gone from observer to offensive status, apparently by a request from the lord of Senjin.”

  “Bregani’s man’chi is to Tiajo. He is her cousin. Or uncle. Or something.”

  “He now is an ally of your great-grandmother, apparently, since he has asked the Guild to move into his capital.”

  “What is Tiajo saying, then, nadi-ji? Or does she know?”

  “We have no information from the Council. But if your great-grandmother truly has moved to take Senjin, the Shadow Guild will act, and Hasjuran has no defenses but its mountains and hunting rifles. The dowager has tended to move quickly and to strike first when threatened. She has now moved herself, as the most attractive target, out of Hasjuran and down toward Koperna, thus protecting Hasjuran, which is an inconvenient target. She is directly threatening the Dojisigin. That is the situation, young gentleman, and it is very serious.”

  It was unbearable. “We should call her back to Shejidan. Father should call her back.”

  “Young gentleman,” Rieni said, and did not continue.

  Politics. And mani. He knew the situation in the northern Marid, not just as memorizations. Shadow Guild ran the Dojisigin and he had thought it ran Senjin, too. So, likely, the Shadow Guild had thought it did. He also knew Lord Machigi was involved with Great-grandmother, which was well and good.

  But Machigi was no ally of Senjin. Even if now Senjin was asking for Guild help, which had to mean something huge had changed, Machigi was still dangerous; and the Shadow Guild was going to be unhappy, whether it was a willing change or a forced one Senjin was making. Rieni knew it and he knew it, and there was no way mani would back up.

  “I should be with her,” Cajeiri said quietly, with this terrible pressure about his heart. “I have always been with her. And do not say, nadiin, that I am a child and stupid. If I were with her—she would be careful. Nand’ Bren can argue with her. Cenedi-nadi can. But I have always been with her. And she is more careful when I am there.”

  “One does not doubt it, aji-meni. But she will have the advice of her Guild senior and of the paidhi and his aishid. This is no light decision she has taken. She has planned this carefully. She ordered uncommon Guild attendance and weaponry when she ordered the Guild to precede the train. On the record, aiji-meni, and I am telling you something we know, but you must not share—the train that preceded her was officially destined for Malguri in the records of the Transportation Guild. That destination changed to Hasjuran after it was halfway to that junction. It proceeded. It went to Koperna, where it claims to have broken down. Again—here we must ask your discretion, nandi, since a Guild mission was changed en route as a subterfuge—only two entities could order the Guild to take such action involving, ultimately, moving an armed force into the Marid region. One is your great-grandmother.”

  “The other is Father.”

  “Exactly. As it is—with the information we now have—we know her intention is well-supported. We are sure she will not back down. Retreat at this point would have a profound effect. It would weaken the aiji
nate. And that would certainly have consequences.”

  “So if she were killed would there be consequences!”

  “And she knows it,” Rieni said. “We do not know all of it. What we are telling you now, very few know. The greatest asset your father would concede to her is the paidhi-aiji, and for whatever reason, the candidate for Ajuri. The Guild has not failed to inform your father along the way and the Council is moving in several directions to support her. She is forcing a confrontation. She has been moving in this direction for some time, in the dealings with Lord Machigi. The agreements urging the establishment of guilds in general in the Taisigin Marid and its allies—they constitute three fifths of the Marid. That is of consequence. That will worry the Dojisigi. They have been venturing very little lately, excepting Lord Tiajo’ quarrels, none of which have seemed coordinated to any end. But we do not think it constitutes a weakening of that organization. We think they are exploring actions they can take for the future.”

  His heart raced. He felt as if time had slipped out from under him. And that he could not at the moment control any least thing. He was losing his composure, and with it, the ability to give any reasonable argument.

  He asked quietly and as sensibly as he could: “And one of them threatens my great-grandmother. Can we not warn her of the people trying to attack her?”

  “One is certain, aiji-meni, that she and her aishid are fully expecting it. As for the specific, as yet we can only confirm that a credible threat has caused a warning to go through the system. It is very likely Cenedi-nadi will have heard it, or will hear it soon. Likely she will not retreat, except as a tactical move. Destabilizing Senjin was a step beyond which she will surely have calculated risks and rewards. They have threatened her. She threatens them. The question is the timing.”

  Mani was playing chess, Cajeiri thought. She had with her the best Advisor, who was nand’ Bren, and the faithful Consort, who was surely Cenedi. But on this board, the Rider, the crooked-path piece, had to be Machigi, with no assurance he would be loyal to anything but his own advantage. Nomari was just one of the People.