"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
* * *
CHAPTER 20
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"What 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."
"Ah, but not necessarily bad. Once you wished her to come to Dalaigi, which Tabini's actions against
Saigimi had made unwise — she was free to suggest Taiben. Which Tabini expected. But she wished you to go to Saduri, and now we know why: Deana Hanks is coming to the mainland and the aiji-dowager already knew it."
"To the mainland!"
"We don't know how. Boat or small plane. It could be anywhere on the coast."
"Why, nadi-ji?"
"One would ask the paidhi that question. But this information is since last night, Bren-ji. Tabini didn't know, and Ilisidi may yet know more than we do."
"To ally with Direiso. A second establishment — to challenge Tabini's government. That's what Deana's up to. God! But where's Ilisidi in this?"
"With the aiji. We hope."
He had recently realized there were new players in the game. Dangerous ones. He recalled the controversy with the pilots forming a Guild. The opposition of the Messengers. "And the Messengers' Guild? The Guilds in general?"
"The Guilds in general stand with the aiji. We expressed that fact in the Marid, when we carried out our commission. Meanwhile Hanks is coming to the mainland for reasons we don't know; but we do know that Direiso has not yet explained to her that she has much less support than previously. Now Hanks is an asset which Direiso must have to demonstrate to her wavering followers that she has the resources to deal with Mospheira; and we think that is exactly what she intends. Mospheira seems weak, lacking in resources — its ship will not fly in advance of ours. And could Direiso secure her own position by dealing with Mospheira, she would do so. That she dislikes humans would only make it sweeter to her."
"That Hanks' faction dislikes atevi wouldn't stop them, either. She's coming here to make a deal for resources Mospheira can't get without those rail lines and the northern shipping ports. Where Direiso is strong right now."
"It would accord well with our suspicions."
"Dur wouldn't support this — would it?"
"The boy? Completely innocent. And aware of far more than young ears should hear. His father wished to keep the island out of difficulty, I suspect. Or told the boy that wiser heads would settle it. Dur is not reckless. It's an island that used to live by smuggling and now wants tourism. They're far too small to matter in most accounts. But the boy — is a boy. He stole the plane, and with a map six years out of date, he flew out of Dur at night and followed the railroads to Shejidan, which brought him over the rail terminal. And right across your approach route."
Rain suddenly hit, rattling hard on the canvas.
On the edge of that downpour a shadow appeared in the doorway. Bren's heart jumped.
"Nadiin." Banichi squeezed into the dark, dripping wet. "Have you explained everything, Jago-ji? Made clear the universe?"
"Almost," Jago said. "And given him the gun. Which you will use, Bren-ji, at your discretion."
"I hope not to need it."
"Traceable only to me," Banichi said. "But such details matter very little in the scope of this situation."
"How did she get me to ask her to come here?" He still struggled with that thought. "Am I so transparent?"
"Immaterial that you asked her. One believes the aiji would have packed you up and sent you, all the same," Jago said. "She didn't need you to ask her. She came back to Shejidan to get you. The party was the excuse. She was feeling out Tabini, feeling out your position — and observing Jase."
He had a sinking feeling. "Tatiseigi. Where is he in this?"
"Ah," Banichi said. "Uncle Tatiseigi. Bets are being laid. Very high ones."
Thinking what he'd been meddling with, in that crazed business with the blown lightbulb, he felt cold all the way to the pit of his stomach.
"You still don't know where he is in this."
"Bren-ji," Jago said quietly, "Saigimi didn't know where he was. Even we make mistakes of man'chi. It is not always logical."
"And he can't find the television set," Banichi said somberly. "One hopes."
He laughed. He had to laugh.
"I shall sleep with Jase," Banichi said. "Just — be prudent, nadiin. Keep the noise low."
"Banichi," he began to say. But it was too late. Banichi was out the door into the rain, headed for his tent, his roommate, and leaving him nowhere else to be for the night.
He was in the dark. In utter silence. And there might be more briefing for Jago to do. "So what else is there to ask?" he inquired of her.
"I've said all I can, Bren-ji."
A silence ensued.
"We should rest," Jago said.
"Jago," he began, and had to clear his throat.
"One is not obliged, nadi-ji. Banichi has a vile sense of humor."
"Jago —" He reached for her hand in the dark, found what he thought was her knee, instead, and knew how he'd possibly rejected her and embarrassed her, last night, after what seemed a set-up. He didn't know, that was the eternal difficulty, even what signals he sent now, and he thought about her, he thought about her in his unguarded moments in ways that made this touch in the dark the most desirable and the most reprehensible thing he could do.
Her hand found his with far more accuracy, and rested atop his, warm and strong and its gentle movement occupying all the circuits he was trying to use to frame an objection of common sense.
"Jago," he began again, and Jago's hand slid across to his knee. "I'm really not sure this is a good idea."
And stopped.
To his vast distress. And disappointment. But he was
able then to find her hand and hold it. "Jago," he said for the third time. "Jago-ji. I am concerned —" Her fingers curled about his thumb, completely throwing his logic off course. "Propriety," he managed to say. "Banichi. The dowager. I want you, but —"
"She is outside your man'chi. Not far. But outside. And it's safer, tonight, if you're here and Banichi is with Jase, if anything untoward should happen."
"What might happen?"
"Anything. Anything might happen. Whatever pleases you. I would be inclined to please both of us."
He could feel the warmth from her. The lightning showed him her shadow, close to him. "Then should we —" he began, in the glimmer of a self-protective thought.
"We should be careful of the guns," she said with what he was sure was humor, and her fingers searched the front of his jacket.
He felt a rush of warmth, shifted position and took hold of her to defend himself from her exploration in search of the firearm. "Is this a good idea?" he asked, reason sinking fast. "Jago-ji, if you do that, we may both scandalize the company."
"Not this company," she said, and somehow they were past each other's defenses and he was no longer thinking with complete clarity of purpose, just exploring a territory he'd not seen and didn't see, alone and not alone for the first time in his life. She was doing the same with him, finding sensitive spots, and presenting others he might have missed. Clothes went, on the somewhat bouncy and thin mattress —"We have to look presentable," was Jago's prudent warning, and with clothing laid carefully to the side, caution went. He moved his hand along smooth expanses in the darkness, to curves that began to make sense to his hands, as her hands were traveling lightly over him, searching for reactions, finding them.
God! Finding them. He brought his hands up in the shock of common sense that said danger, harm, pain — and at that moment Jago's mouth found his and began a kiss both explorative and incredibly sensual.
He had never known atevi did that. She tasted foreign; that was odd; but matters now reached a point of no-thought and no-sense. They were in the dark, neither knowing in the least what hurt and what didn't, but efforts to consummate what was underway began to be a rapid and frustrating comedy of errors that at first frustrated and embarrassed him and finally started her laughing.
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