Текст книги "Conspirator"

Chapter 1

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Spring was coming. Frost still touched the window glass of the Bujavid and whitened the roof tiles of Shejidan at sunrise, but it left daily by mid-morning. This was a sign.

So was the letter, delivered by morning post, discreetly received by staff, and, understood to be important, delivered with Bren Cameron’s morning tea.

The little message cylinder hadn’t come by the automated systems. It had most certainly traveled the old-fashioned way, by rail, knowing the bent of the sender.

It bore the seal of Lord Tatiseigi of the Atageini of the Padi Valley. It was silver and sea-ivory, with carved lilies.

When opened, its exquisite calligraphy, in green as well as black ink, written on modern vellum, nicely paid courtesies due the paidhi-aiji, the human interpreter for the ruler of three quarters of the planet; the paidhi-aiji, the Lord of the Heavens, etc., etcc

Tatiseigi was being extraordinarily polite, and that, in itself, was an ominous sign, since Bren was currently, and for the last several months, sitting in the old man’s city apartment.

Foreboding settled in before his glance skipped past the ornately flowing salutation to the text of the letter.

The paidhi will rejoice to know that repairs here at Tirnamardi have gone extremely well and we have greatly enjoyed this winter sojourn watching the restoration. However, with the legislative session imminent and with business in the capital pressing upon this house, one must regretfully quit these rural pleasures and return to the Bujavid as of the new moonc

Two days from now. God!

One most fervently hopes that this will not greatly inconvenience the paidhi-aiji. A separate letter exhorts our staff to assist the paidhi-aiji in whatever arrangements the paidhi-aiji may desire for his comfort and expeditionc

Expedition, hell! Two days was extreme gall, never mind that he hadn’t a leg to stand onc nor any place else to go. The man could have phoned. He could well have phoned instead of taking up a whole day of grace using the trains and the whole message process.

One naturally hopes that the difficulties attending the paidhi-aiji’s own residence have now been settledc

Tatiseigi’s current house guest in his country retreat was the aiji-dowager, who absolutely knew everything going on in the capital, including the paidhi’s situation. So the old man knew damned well the paidhi-aiji’s apartment difficulties were notin fact settled in the least, that Tabini-aiji’s apartments were not yet repaired, either—which meant Tabini was still residing in the dowager’s apartment while the dowager sojourned in Tirnamardi with Lord Tatiseigi.

God, one only imagined whether Tabini might not be in receipt of a similar letter from his grandmotherc requesting herapartment vacated.

He somehow doubted Ilisidi would be that abrupt—or share the roof with her grandson for long. She likely would be off for the distant east, on the other side of the continent, where she had her estate.

He himself might, however, be sitting in the hotel at the foot of the hill in two days. This historic apartment, which he had occupied since Tabini’s return to power—and his own return from space—had served him very well through the winter; and, thanks to politics, there had been no delicate way to get him back into his own apartment, not as yet. Scions of a Southern clan, the Farai, were camped out in it, and for various reasons Tabini-aiji could not or would not pitch them out and get it back.

He moved himself and his teacup from the sunny morning room to the less sunny, and chillier, office. There he sat down at the desk, laid out a sheet of vellum, and framed a reply which would notgo by train, or it never would reach Tatiseigi before the lord left for the capital.

To the Lord of the Lilies, Tatiseigi of the Atageini, Master of Tirnamardi, Jewel of the Padi Valley, and its great associations of the townships of...

He had the letter for a guide through that maze of relationships, all of which had, in properly formal phrases, to be stated. He refrained from colored ink, even given its availability in the desk supplies.

From the Lord of the Heavens, Bren Cameron of Mospheira, honored to serve the aiji as paidhi-aiji,

Words cannot convey the gratitude of my household to have been housed in such historic and kabiu premises this recent season.

One most earnestly rejoices in the anticipated return of the Lord of the Atageini to his ancestral residence, and further rejoices at the news that the beautiful and historic estate of Tirnamardi again shines as a light to the region.

They’d wait a few years before the hedge out front had grown back. Not to mention the scars on the lawn. The collapse of one historic bedroom into another.

Please convey felicitations also to your distinguished guest. The paidhi-aiji will of course seek his own resources and immediately remove to other premises, hoping to leave this excellent apartment ready for your return. One is sure your staff will rejoice and take great comfort in the presence of their own lord.

That was one letter. He placed it in Tatiseigi’s ivory-lily message cylinder, as the reply to the message it had contained, and dropped the cylinder into the outbound mail basket.

Then he wrote another letter, this one to Tabinic with less elegant calligraphy, and omitting the formal lines of courtesies: he and the aiji dispensed with those, when they wrote in their own hands—a very human-inspired haste and brevity.

Aiji-ma, Lord Tatiseigi has announced his intention to return in two days, in company with the dowager, necessitating my removal to other quarters. One is well aware of the difficulties which surround my former residence and expects no actions in that matter, which might be to disadvantage. One still has the hotel as a recourse, which poses considerable security concern, but if need be, one will ask more assistance with security, to augment staff, and will manage.

In the days before the legislative session, however, this situation does not arrive wholly unforeseen, and this would be an opportune time to visit my estate in Sarini province, barring some directive to the contrary, aiji-ma. One has some preparation yet to do in the month preceeding the legislative session, but the work can travel with me, and the sea air would be pleasant even in this early season. Also one has regional obligations which have long waited on opportunity, not only within the household there, but with the neighboring estate and of course the village.

Accordingly one requests a month’s leave to visit Najida, the living which the aiji’s generosity has provided me, where I intend to pay courtesies to its staff and its village, and also to pay long-delayed courtesies to the estate of Lord Geigi, which I have these several months promised him to do.

Lord Geigi was lord and administrator not only of the coastal estate of Kajiminda and all of Sarini province, but of all atevi in space, in his capacity as Tabini’s viceroy on the space station. And doing a damned fine job of it, up there. But Geigi had left his sister in charge of his estate at Kajiminda, the sister had died, leaving a young and inexperienced nephew in the post, and Geigi understandably wanted a report on affairs there aside from that which the nephew sent him.

In no way will this detract from my attention to legislative and committee matters, but it will at least provide more time to provide for a city residencec possibly even taking a house, or establishing in some secure fashion in the hotelc

Depressing thought, trekking through the city to reach what would be, were he in his own apartment, a simple trip down in the lift. And a damned great problem to be living and trying to do research in the hotel, where security was a nightmare and spying was rife—all the minor lords being in residence for the session. The Bujavid housed the legislative chambers of the Western Association, the aishidi’tat; it housed the aiji’s audience hall, and the national archives. But it also, and year round, housed the most highly-placed lords of the aishidi’tat. A centuries-old hierarchy dictated who resided on what floor, in what historic apartment: the teacup Bren used casually, for instance, was ciabeti artwork, from the Padi Valley’s kilns, probably two hundred years old—not to mention the antiquity of the desk, the carpet, and the priceless porcelain on the shelf. Who held what apartment, with what appointment, from what date—all these things meant respect, in proportion to the antiquity of the premises and their connection with or origin from potent clans and associations of clans.

And the aiji’s translator, the jumped-up human who had used to occupy the equivalent of a court secretary’s post in the garden wing next to the aiji’s cook—the human who had risen to share the same floor as the aiji’s own apartment, in the depletion of an ancient house which had left it vacant—had now lostthat lordly apartment to the same coup that had temporarily ousted Tabini from the aijinate.

In the coup, Tabini’s own apartment had been shot up, his staff murdered, and Tabini currently endured a sort of exile in status grandmother’s apartment, while his own place underwent refurbishment and his staff underwent its own problems of recruitment and security checks.

But the apartment next door to the aiji’s proper apartment, the apartment which had briefly been the paidhi’s, was now, yes, occupied by the Farai, Southerners, no less, out of the Marid—the very district that had staged the coup and murdered Tabini’s staff.

And whyshould Tabini thus favor a Southern clan, by letting them remain there? The Farai were natives of the northern part of the Marid, the Saijin district, specifically Morigi-dar– they were part of a foursome of power in the South, and they claimed high credit for turning coat one more time, opening the doors of the Bujavid and (so they claimed) enabling the aiji to retake the capital—while the rest of the Marid, namely the Tasaigin and the Dojisigin and Dausigin districts of the Marid, currently teetered somewhere between loyalty and renewed rebellion.

If the Farai were telling the truth about a change of loyalty, they were owed some reward for it—and to put a gloss of legitimacy on their seizure of that precious apartment, they claimed inheritance from the Maladesi, the west coast clan that had once owned the apartment in question. It seemed the last living member of that defunct clan had married into the Farai’s adjunct clan, the Morigi. Tabini maintained the Maladesi lands had reverted; they claimed inheritance. It was at least a serious claim.

So their seizure of that apartment actually had some justification. Tabini’s tossing them out of it might make his own future north apartment wall more secure—having a Southern clan there was a huge security problemc but tossing the Farai out of it in favor of the human paidhi, after their very public switch to the aiji’s side, would be counted an insultc a very strong insultc that might damage the Farai’s status in the still unstable South. And whether or not the Farai were sincere in their switching allegiances, they werechallenging the Taisigi clan and seeking to rise in status in the South. Swatting the Farai down might help the Taisigi, who were notTabini’s allies in any sense.

So the paidhi had no wish to upset that delicate balance. And certainly no other clan wanted to be relocated from theirhistoric premises, the rights to which went back hundreds of years, to give the paidhi theirspace. They had their rights, the Bujavid had allotted all its upstairs room, and outside of booting out legislative offices in the public floors and starting a new scramble for available apartments below, there was nothing to be done for the paidhi.

All of which boiled down to an uncomfortable situation. They had a clan out of the Marid taking up residence next to Tabini, where it wasn’t wantedc and for various reasons, it might stay a while. It was quite likely that one of the delays in Tabini getting into his apartment was his security reinforcing, and probably heavily bugging, that wall between him and the Farai.

All of that meant the paidhi was borrowing Lord Tatiseigi’s historic apartment—vacant so long as Tatiseigi of the Atageini had been out repairing his own manor, which had been likewise shot up in the coup. The work was nearly finished, the legislature was about to meet—

And the paidhi now had nowhere to go butthe hotel or the country.

There was, however, a bright spot of coincidence in the current situationc should he go to his coastal estate.

His brother Toby had just put out of Jackson, out of the human enclave of Mospheira—Toby fairly well lived on his boat, and plied the waters mostly in the strait between Mospheira and the mainland. He might have to hopscotch a call from here to Mogari-nai and Jackson, but however they got it through, unless Toby was on some specific business, Toby could easily divert over to the mainland, just about as fast as he himself could get to the coast, and they might manage to have that long-delayed visit.

Permission to leave the capital, however, was not certain until Tabini had answered his letter and agreed that he might take that temporary solution and go out to the coast. If Tabini was differently minded, there would be no visit, and he had no idea what he would do: he and his security would have to show up at the hotel tomorrow afternoon with baggage in hand, he supposedc but Tabini might think of something he hadn’t thought of. There was that possibility, too. So he would call Toby only after he had spoken to Tabini.

He drank the last of the tea, sealed and cylindered the letter to Tabini, then stood up and rang for Madam Saidin, major domo of this extravagant apartment. He gave instructions for both messages to be delivered, the one by courier, within the halls, the otherc

One of the staff would run the lily cylinder down to the mail centerc which would fax the content to the post office in the township neighboring Tatiseigi’s estate, and have it run up the hill, express, by local truck, to reach the old gentlemanc while the lily cylinder, itself ancient and precious, came back upstairs to Saidin’s keeping, to wait for Tatiseigi’s arrival. Proprieties, proprieties, and the motions they went through, to preserve the appearance of the old ways.

Tatiseigi have his own fax? Hell would freeze solid before that modern contraption found a place in Tatiseigi’s house. Or here.

“Lord Tatiseigi is coming back, nadi-ji,” he told Saidin, in giving her the message.

He looked up to do it. That esteemed lady stood a head taller than he did: skin the color of ink, eyes of molten amber, black hair well-salted with her years—he had no idea how many years. She was, like many of the great houses’ highest staff, a member of the Assassins’ Guildc but she bowed with such graceful sweetness, as she said, “He has sent also to us, nandi. We so regret the short notice.”

He would very much miss Saidin. He had stayed here before, never expected to do so again, and fate had surprised him. He laid no bets now, when he departed, whether he would ever be back under her care. “We by no means question it,” he said quietly. “My first message felicitates his arrival and the other advises the aiji of the situation. One has requested to take a short vacation in the country.”

“The coastal estate at Najida, nandi?” Those golden eyes sparked. “One had intended to suggest that.”

So she had thought about his welfare. It was a warm notion, considering their long though intermittent history.

“An excellent notion,” he said, “and in that case, I shall count it your good advice. Thank you for the thought, nadi-ji.”

“The staff’s very earnest wishes, nandi,” she said. “We shall miss you.”

“Nadi-ji.” It was worth a bow, as that worthy lady left on her mission.

Tatiseigi’s staff would miss him, that was to say. His own staff, many of them on more or less permanent loan from Tatiseigi or the dowager, or from Tabini himself, were scattered from the space station to the coast, surviving, in the disarrangement of his housec so in going to Najida, he simply exchanged one set of observing eyes for another. Spying was just a method of keeping informed about one’s allies—in the thinking of the great houses. One knew—and accepted such loans. And his own staff’s knowledge of him was consequently disruptedc and the persons they reported to—notably Tabini, or the dowager—might be less well informed on his business than, say, at the moment, the Atageini—

Except for one thing. His four bodyguards, his aishid—who knew most everything that went on, and who never left him– they kept information flowing properly, right up the lines of man’chi, of personal attachment, to the aiji himself; and they took care, too, that certain things stayed outsideAtageini knowledge, or anyone else’s, for that matter.

His bodyguard, his caretakers, his advisors—Banichi and Jago were the seniors, Tano and Algini his second-senior, and nobody on earth stood closer to him.

Nobody else had shared as many of his various disasters.

He located them, all of them, in the security station down the main hall—his four best friends, although “friend” was one of those words officially forbidden in the human-atevi interface. Sometimes he thought that way. Sometimes he was sane, and considerate of them, and didn’t.

This morning he just leaned into the doorway, sighed massively, and said, “A letter has come from Tatiseigi, nadiin-ji.”

“We are aware of it, Bren-ji,” Banichi said. Little reached the staff that his security didn’t learn fast.

“The coast, nadiin-ji,” he said. “Granted we get permission from Tabini.”

“The only solution,” Jago said with a shrug. His lover, Jago– lover: another of those forbidden words, and a word the deeper implications of which would just confuse everyone, including Jago. They’d tried now and again to parse it, and only ended up with Jago concluding “association” was quite sensibly adequate to describe them, and that the human sense of involved attachment was very odd.

Tano and Algini didn’t say anything, but didn’t look overly disturbed about the prospect of a fast move. The aishid was all together again, in a number of senses, and if “love” didn’t describe it, it was close enough to it to warm a human heart.

Not enough to make him foolish enough to hug anyone in appreciation, however.

His security team, all of them members of the Assassins’ Guild, wore the uniform, the black leather and silver, had the look, had the armament generally in evidence, and traveled with enough gear to outfit a small army: if he moved, they would. They had kept him safe—and his safety having required quite a lot of keeping in the last number of years, he owed them all extravagantly.

He owed them, among other things, a stable household, not a moving target.

He owed them a staff that could support not only his needs in comfort, but theirs. Saidin and her staff had certainly done very well for them—Saidin ran a tight ship; but because she wasn’t theirs, she was Tatiseigi’s, her attentions were always just a little worrisome. Tatiseigi, that conniving old gentleman had political ambitions that hadn’t stopped with getting a niece married to Tabini and a grand-nephew within a heartbeat of the aiji himself. There was that. Tatiseigi didn’ttrust human influence near his grand-nephew: Tatiseigi didn’t favor human gadgets, human ideas, or human newfangled inventions, and said grand-nephew had been much too infatuated with humans. And bet that Tatiseigi would want to know every detail of the paidhi-aiji’s residence here and all his dealings with Tabini’s household.

His going to the coast would cut off that source of information—and put Tatiseigi in immediate reach of Tabini’s household. Tatiseigi became Tabini’s problem, not his.

“Shall we assume, Bren-ji,” Jago said, “and pack?”

“One hardly sees what Tabini can do, else, but agree I should go. Take everything, nadiin-ji: we clearly must go somewhere. My belongings can easily go into storage, in favor of your gearc”

“No such thing,” Jago said. “All of it will move.”

Probably it was wise, after all, not to leave any remnant of his belongings exposed to tampering in storage—or subject to further controversy, should any clerk go nosing about into his bits of gear and his books.

“One assumes,” Tano said, “that the aiji will at least advantage himself of the time before the legislature meetsc to find a solution to the Farai.”

“If not, nadiin-ji,” Bren said, “one fears we may end up taking a house in the town.”

“The paidhi could File on this Southerner,” Banichi said, meaning the head of the Farai clan, and as long as Bren had heard Banichi’s humor and his serious suggestions, he wasn’t sure if that was dry humor at the moment.

“The paidhi has had cause,” Algini added, which made him think Banichi might have just offered a sensible and workable suggestion. Filing Intent: serving legal notice of application to the Assassins’ Guild, official Intent to assassinate the person in question—well, he supposed appropriating a lord’s apartment would be a legal grievance, if he were an atevi lord with historic standing.

Continuing the insult by continuing to occupy said apartment affected not just his pride, but his staff’s honor. There was that.

And for a heartbeat he asked himself if perhaps, just perhaps, that suggestion didn’t originate with Banichi—if perhaps it had come from Tabini himself, to whose staff Banichi and Jago still retained some minor ties.

A hint? Relieve me of this troublesome Southerner? The aiji himself had absolute right to remove an obstacle to the association, but politically speaking, had some obligation to prove the Farai were in fact an obstacle. The aiji could decree that they were—but since the aiji had to rule on a Filing, it was somewhat of a case of judge, jury, and executionerc an unpopular sort of situation.

The paidhi, however, actually had a legitimate grievance, an exacerbated grievance. The way it worked, in practicality—he could File Intent with the Assassins’ Guild, and once the Filing was accepted, it freed his staff to go after the head of that family. The Farai clan would simultaneously counterfile, freeing Assassins in their association to go after him. Both sides had legal right, both sides agreed to exempt noninvolved persons from personal harm, and it would all work itself out, probably in his favor, since he’d personally trust his bodyguard to take out the head of the Farai clan with considerable speed and efficiency. It would all be according to law.

Which would end the counterfiling; and a re-Filing would not be viewed with favor in the aiji’s court, meaning the Farai’s wider associations could not then all take after the paidhi’s life.

It didn’t mean they wouldn’t, however, in all practicality. They’d politic left and right with the aiji to allow a Filing, and of course he’d politic with the aiji not to allow it.

And at that point it would all devolve down to who was of more value, the entire southern coast of the aishidi’tat, or the human the aiji had listened to when he’d done some of the more controversial things he had to his credit.

Space travel.

Upsetting the balance of power in the aishidi’tat.

Contact with aliens that could still come down on themc

The aiji had been staunchly supportive of his human advisor in his return to power; but time—time and politics—could reorder all sorts of priorities.

“The paidhi could File,” Jago said with a sigh, “but then we would all be busy for years.”

“The paidhi’s generosity in withdrawing to the country,” Tano said, “if backed by adequate strength, can only trouble the troublemakers.”

“Backed by strength,” Banichi said. “ Andthe aiji. One month. Let the Farai hear that, and take another thought about inconveniencing the paidhi-aiji.”

Inconveniencing was one way to put it.

“Do you, nadiin-ji,” Bren asked very quietly, “do you think the aiji doeswish the paidhi to take a moderate course, or am I putting you in danger by my reluctance to File on this clan?”

A small silence. Opaque stares. Yes-no. Maybe. Then Jago, whose stare was generally the most direct, glanced down. No answer.

“See what the aijiwill do,” Algini said, then, “whether he will permit this trip—or not.”

Scary enough advice. Tabini coulddecide out of pure pique to throw the Farai out of his apartment, the hell with the South, collectively known as the Marid, which had caused the aiji so much trouble.

That would toss the oil-pot in the fire, for sure.

Or Tabini could use the month to maneuverc and temporize further with the Marid.

And the paidhi could come back and conspicuously set up in the hotel at the foot of the hill, posing a security nightmare for his staff, inconveniencing all the legislators who did nothave apartments in the Bujavid, and who relied on that hotel during the upcoming session—

And waiting for the Farai to feel the heat enough to do something overt, either against him, or against Tabini himself. Thatwould put Tabini in the right.

He’d personally bet the Farai would do neither, counting on all the paidhi’s other enemies to take him out of the way.

And there were certainly sufficient of those. As Jago said, they could become very, very busy, just keeping him alive, if they had to move into exposed circumstances. It was a risk to them, as much as him.

“It is a very uncomfortable position to be in, nadiin-ji,” he said. “Likeliest the aiji will give me at least my month, however—whatever we have to do for the session. And in any case, we know we have to pack. We can hardly share the premises with Uncle Tatiseigi.”

That produced a little laugh all around.

“Where will the dowagerlodge?” Tano wondered then, the second good question of the situation: the aiji was lodging in herapartment, part of the whole chain of inconvenience. And while it had been mildly titillating to have the aiji-dowager staying under Tatiseigi’s roof at Tirnamardi, in that very large estate, it escalated to salacious rumor to consider the dowager sharing the Atageini lord’s apartment in the Bujavid, at a very slight remove from her grandson the aiji.

Not that salacious rumor ever displeased the aiji-dowager.

“I suppose she will stay with the aiji and his household,” Bren said. That would set the nuclear fuse ticking: give that about a week before the dowager and the aiji were ready to File on each other. “But let us hope we shall be on the coast, safe from all events. For at least the next month.”

Nand’ Bren was leaving. Cajeiri heard it from Great-grandmother’s major domo, Madiri, who had heard it from Cajeiri’s father the aiji. Great-uncle Tatiseigi was coming back, Great-grandmother was also coming back, but Great-uncle was pushing nand’ Bren out of Great-uncle’s apartment, and nand’ Bren was going off to live on the coast, which was entirely unreasonable. And even worse, even worse, Great-uncle was going to be living down the hall.

That was what Cajeiri heard; and being a year short of fortunate nine, and already as bored with his existence in the Bujavid as a young lord could be—his father and mother let him do nothingexcept his studies, and his chosen aishi was up on the station probably forgetting all about him and growing up without him—he saw nothing brighter ahead. He had been back to ordinary, boring life in his father’s household for three whole monthssince the set-to with Great-grandmother’s neighbors in Malguri.

He had so looked forward to spring, and summer, and maybe, maybebeing able to go visit the wilderness of Taiben, or even go out to Great-uncle’s estate at Tirnamardi, where he would mostly have to behave (but Great-grandmother never watched him as closely as his parents, and out there, she would be running his life, so there had been some hope.)

But now—

Now Great-grandmother was going away, and Great-uncle was coming hereand throwing nand’ Bren out.

It was just unfair.

And he had nobody left to talk to. Antaro and Jegari, even, his two companions from Taiben, who were almost his bodyguard, were off enlisting in the Assassins’ Guild and training most every day. They did at least show him what they learned that day, or every so-many days, when they were held at the Guild house for overnight. That was where they were today, so he couldn’t even tell them the bad news.

If Jegari and Antaro had their Guild status, Cajeiri said to himself, he might set themon the nasty Farai and scare them right out of nand’ Bren’s apartment and solve everything.

But they had no such license, and the Farai had their own Assassins, and besides, his father would find out about it and thatwould stop that.

He should suggest it to Banichi and Jago. Theycould do it. They could scare the Farai all the way back to the Marid, and show them up for the scoundrels they were.

But you had to File Intent to be legal to go after someone. And that took time.

And probably Bren’s guard would never listen to him. Even Banichi. Banichi had used to build cars with him, but no longer. He’d had Casimi and Seimaji, that Great-grandmother had set to guard him; but he had not even had them now for days, because they’d both gone back to Great-grandmother. So besides that, he had those two old sticks, Kaidin and Temein, that Great-uncle Tatiseigi had sent to watch over him and spy on his father: and Kaidin and Temein had never been happy at all with him, since they had gotten in trouble for losing him once—

And for the rest of his resources, he just had his father and his mother’s guard standing around, and theywere never under his orders. If he asked them to do something, it was always, “Ask your own guard, young gentleman.”

Even worse, mother’s sister was visiting for the last three days; hertwo servants were flirting with his father’s guards, hanging about the kitchen and being obnoxious. The guards were distracted, being stupid, and nobody even cared what he thought.