“Why have you told me, nadiin-ji?” he asked outright.

“Tabini-aiji has specified you may be advised, nandi,” Algini said. “But that Geigi should not be.”

Use his head, then. That was what Tabini expected of the paidhi-aiji. Function in his official capacity. Think his way through. Advise the Guild, for God’s sakec nobodyadvised the Guild, except he had Banichi and Jago in his aishid, who had been Tabini’s; and Algini, who had been the Guild’s; and God knew what Tano had been, or why he had come in attached to Algini. His brain raced, finding connections, finding his own staff was a peculiar hybrid of high-level interests and that there was a reasonhis bodyguard told him things.

The west coast was a damned mess, was what. The dowager hadn’t meant to get involved out here. She’d been on her way back to the East to spend a quiet spring. Tabini hadn’t intended to have his son come out herec

“Is the aiji protecting Najida?”

A nod from Jago. “Yes. Definitely.”

“And these four, with us?”

“Specialists,” Algini said.

Don’t ask, then. He didn’t.

But Algini said, further, “There are many more moving in, from all directions.”

Bren cast an involuntary glance at the windows. There was only rolling meadow. But they were not alone. Out in that landscape forces were moving, major forcesc and he had told Toby they would get Barb back. He had believed it when he said it. But the operation had just mutated. Tabini-aiji was backing them, all right, but suddenly the dowager’s phone calls to Shejidan and the Filing all made one piece of cloth. Tabini had behaved for months as if exile might have changed him, made him more timid, more willing to ignore longstanding situations, anything to avoid another conflict that might destabilize the government.

Negotiating with the Farai, who had occupied the paidhi-aiji’s apartment and refused all hints they should quit the premises.

Negotiating with Machigi over old issues, as Machigi rose to power over the dead bodies of certain relatives who had supported the usurper Murinic

All leading to this.

Suddenly the argument between the dowager and Tabini about the Edi assumed a wholly different character. Reshaping the balance of power on the coast, hell! Reshaping the entire western half of the aishidi’tat, was what. Tabini had had an operation underway and Ilisidi had moved right into the middle of it with heragenda.

And co-opted the paidhi-aiji into it.

He felt a little sick at his stomach. He looked at four faces gone utterly solemn, four close associates who absolutely understood how the game had changed—and changed in ways that profoundly affected the mixed company on this bus.

“Indeed,” he said, “I see.” Pairuti, like Geigi, had no children. Baiji was, in fact, the governing line’s main hope in that regard. So there was no family to get swept up into the order, but— “Is there a chance, still, nadiin-ji, that we can still go through with our plan and give Lord Pairuti the chance to resign?”

Banichi, Jago, and Tano all looked to Algini for that one. And Algini frowned.

“The order is without prejudice,” Algini said, “regarding his situation. He isgiven that latitude.”

“Is he viewed as complicitous, Gini-ji?” Bren said.

“As having cooperated with the Marid during the Troubles, nandi,” Algini said. “Complicitous to that extent.”

“Many did,” Bren said. “There is that extenuation. The demise of Lord Geigi’s sister, however—”

“He is not faulted in that,” Algini said.

“Can we give him at least the chance, then?” Bren said. He had never participated in an assassination order. He had the most extreme qualms, even to the extent he wanted to order his own aishid to hang back and not get involved. “Nadiin-ji, the paidhi-aiji is neutral. I am an intercessor, not—not the lord of Najida, in this matter. But one cannot jeopardize the mission, either, to the aiji’s detriment—or to the risk of his agents. One finds oneself in a most uncomfortable position.”

Banichi said. “We should take the house. That must be done, efficiently and completely, Bren-ji. If you say preserve him, we shall do that.”

“If,” Bren said uneasily, “if you can do it without risk to yourselves.” He took a deep breath and wiped his face with his hand. “This is whythe Guild has a policy against involving outsiders, is it not, nadiin-ji? I am a fool. Forget everything I have said. I withdraw my statements. I place nosuch restriction or request. My intercession should have been with Tabini-aiji, notwith Guild assigned to carry out his decision.”

“Yet Lord Pairuti could provide useful information,” Banichi said. “It is not an unwise choice, Bren-ji. But the decision must be politically supported. That is not our decision. If you say help him live, we can do that.”

“What does Lord Geigi’s aishid say?”

“They are willing to go in andto take down the lord,” Jago said. “But they are notcurrent with technology down here. It would be a risk we would not wish them to run. And they may have a personal connection with members of the household. That is another risk.”

“We and the dowager’s men can take the house,” Banichi said. “We have no question.”

“The aiji’s menc” Bren began.

“We do not discuss that, Bren-ji,” Jago said—which told the story. They were undiscussable and they were going to vanish at some critical point. It took no great wit to know they were going overland and across the local border, and in what direction, and why they were not lingering to assist his operation.

Bren absorbed that information, and Jago said, further: “There are others. Many others.”

So thatwas how they were staying current with the situation. Relays—possibly something set up on Maschi landc and there were Guild out there—many others, Jago said, moving by stealth. Bren cast a look forward, where Geigi and his aishid sat—the bodyguard reading or with heads together in converse, Geigi still seeming to be asleep.

And one could not leave hanging the question of what to do with Lord Pairuti.

And one could not ask Geigi, either, nor get any useful opinion from Lord Geigi’s bodyguard.

Though one had this most uneasy notion that Geigi’s drowsiness might notbe due to the schedule they had kept—that Geigi might be far more aware of things than he wanted to be, and intended to minimize what he did know.

The paidhi-aiji could have done the same thing—sit still while his bodyguard arranged things.

But his aishid had outright invited him into it—which meant, he thought, that they wanted him to make the political decision on what wasleft vague in their orders.

He went back to his seat. His aishid settled around him. Lord Geigi stirred somewhat, but never opened his eyes.

They sat, on a bus rolling along toward a major problem, and stayed in silence for a while, in a landscape no longer even relatively safe.

God, he had promised Toby. He had promised and offered assurances he had thought were reasonable, knowing the way political kidnappings usually ran, and now Barb’s safety was nowhere assured in this. A whole quarter of the aishidi’tat was about to go up in major hostilities. Tabini was using their visit to the Maschi as cover for the wholesale movement of major forcesc to attack the Marid in what amounted to war.

It was Tabini’s right to do it to them, and Tabini would naturally regret doing it—but—

Damn!

There might be villages deeper in the folded hills; they likely were numerous, with market roads leading elsewhere. This road bore an overgrowth of brush, opportunistic plants that sprang up in the clear spot a road madec indicative of a road unused for a space of time.

Except that this growth of brush had been broken down by a recent passage that might or might not be intermittent trips to the Separti road. One rather thought of the appearance of Marid Guild turning up at Kajiminda, and then at Najida, and Marid cells in Separti and Dalaigi.