Protector

“Aseida is taking his advice from Haikuti, and Haikuti cannot benefit from making a move toward Tirnamardi. With the aiji’s son and grandmother at issue, Tabini-aiji would have absolute justification to act without Filing. Once they do find out the nature of Lord Tatiseigi’s guests, they should worry that we are setting up exactly such a situation.”

He felt a chill. Algini rarely looked anyone straight in the eyes. Algini didn’t, at the moment, head down, as he kept the conversation very, very low. And Algini just didn’t blurt out extraneous information. He had to ask. “Would Haikuti be right?”

“Say that we have already hardened the defenses at Tirnamardi,” Algini said. “And are about to assume an outward posture of alert, which should warn the Kadagidi that we are completelyserious, and that the openness of Tirnamardi to their threat is ended. More, that preparedness will not go away when we do. Weare not attempting to provoke a situation with either clan, Bren-ji.” A slight hesitation, a shift of the eyes, gesturing toward Ilisidi. “One does not, however, knowthat that statement extends to all of us.”

Cenedi? More, the dowager.

Did he mean—?

Damn.The cold feeling hadn’t gone away. It grew, with a fast mental sort through prior discussions of the Kadagidi, and Ajuri, and a very prime target they were going to deal with one of these days. Eliminating Murini had just been clipping the head off a poisonous weed. The roots remained—buried deeply, they believed, in the Kadagidi.

And they had, on this train, the highest-value targets in current politics, except Tabini himself.

Ilisidi was capable of a dice-roll like that. She was entirelycapable, if the stakes were high enough.

“One understands,” he said, and as Algini got up and went back to Tano, down the aisle:

“Jase, did you follow that?”

“Most of it,” Jase said, and then, after a deep breath, and very quietly: “Geigi and I had a conversation.”

Geigi. Whose aishid had had a personalbriefing before he went back to space.

“What did Geigi tell you?”

“I know the Kadagidi, from my own experience. I know that relationship. I know there’s some trouble in the aiji’s household. I know about the grandfather. And I know there’s a problem inside the Guild that’s ongoing, and that it’s a matter of great concern. Geigi asked me—personally—to advise the captains this is going on.”

Geigi would not have done that uninstructed. There were two people who could give Geigi that kind of instruction. “What did they say about it?”

“The conclusion was that you could handle it. Go ahead with the visit. Bring my own protection. They know your bodyguards prioritize.”

“I’m glad of their confidence, but—”

“In their view, there’s a risk if this isn’t dealt with. In their view, Tabini, and you, and the dowager, and the boy—are irreplaceable. I agree with that.”

He workedwith risks. He dealt with cold equations day in, day out, and the concept that an eight-year-old boy could be a target was a given.

But there were bits and pieces of this he began to think were missing.

“You could have postponed this and let us handle it.”

“We had an invitation,” Jase said. “An excuse to have a look down here. To talk, as we’re doing. Tabini got caught by surprise once. Not twice, we think. But we don’t intend to end up with another situation as bad as Murini in charge down here.”

“You hadan invitation. I’ve asked you down here. Fishing, I said. If you think it’s all going to hell down here, you could have kept the kids and just sent us reinforcements!”

“We have our reasons, Bren. Internal reasons, which really don’t affect the situation Algini was talking about. The kids are here because it suits our purposes. I’m here to show the Reunioners we care about those kids, enough to put one of the four captains at risk . . . should there be a risk.” A tilt of Jase’s head. “Seriously, Bren, I’m here to assess the situation. Wehave communications methods that don’t need to go through Mogari-nai. If you really need Geigi to drop one of his relay stations onto the Kadagidi’s doorstep, he’s prepared to do it.”

And scare hell out of the general population. My God. “That’s a joke.”

A faint smile. “Of course it’s a joke. But not the fact we’re serious about your survival. If we sent a force down here—Geigi didn’t have to tell me it would upset things. Upset a lot of people. Kids, however. Not so threatening. A ship-captain? Of course I have a bodyguard.”

It made a sort of sense. It apparently made sense enough that even Tatiseigi hadn’t been that upset.

It didn’t reassure him, however, about the underlying situation.