Great-grandmother fixed him with a stare he had rarely gotten, not even from his father. But it seemed not quite to focus on him, rather on the general surrounds, and on a host of general problems.

“Barbaric ideas,” she said darkly, “this kidnapping, from a region which has long flouted Guild rules. Weare old-fashioned, Great-grandson. But we are notbarbaric! We in the East have long viewed the aishidi’tat with suspicion, and to this day the Guild has been scant in the East—but we are civilized, all on our own. We have neededno Guild to enforce basic civility. We had laws before the Guild arrived, and before we were signatory to the Association! The Marid, however, has a piratical history longbefore humans ever landed on this world and before the Edi ever came to this shore, so they cannot claim they were provoked into bad behavior!”

“What have they done, mani?”

“Done? They have set traps on a public road and like the meanest of cowards have kidnapped an Edi child, a common citizen, from the camp at Kajiminda. Your father’s Guildsmen were on the way back from recovering the child when they met an infernal device, and two are dead and relatives of the child are injured. The child, fortunately, was not in that vehicle.”

Appalling. Worse than Antaro had said. Barb-daja was kidnapped, an Edi child was kidnapped—it was one thing to kidnap a lord’s son, who had protections, and who was political—but one just was not supposed ever to involve commoners, who were immune from that sort of thing, even if there was a Filing. And he had two members of his aishid missing so long that one was obliged to wonder if they were still alive.

He said nothing. Mani said:

“Our staff has recovered the child andexecuted justice on these pirates! More, we have identified the pair responsible. They are most certainly employed by a Marid clan whose man’chi is to Machigi, in Tanaja. The Guild is meeting at this hour, for a bill of outlawry.”

It was scary. He had heard all of it from Antaro. He imagined the Guild, the loyal Guild, who had been subject to this sort of thing during Murini’s administration, was going to hand back the same treatment to the Marid, which had supported Murini. They were out for revenge. And he murmured, because it popped into his head, and he was not good at holding back questions: “Just Machigi, mani, or the whole Marid?”

Mani’s hand came down smack! on the chair arm. “There! Just exactly so! Why should you ask that, Great-grandson? Favor us with your opinion!”

“It was stupid. It was stupid for Machigi to do and you said once he was not stupid, mani.”

“And?”

He thought fast. “Someone else could have done it to get Machigi in trouble.”

“Who then?”

“A rival. Some rival.”

“Why?”

“If my father takes out Machigi, they win. So it would either be somebody in the Guild or one of Machigi’s neighbors. There is no fortunate third.”

“Ha! There is nothing fortunate in this entire situation, except our presence here! And how old are you, Great-grandson?”

Everybody knew how old he was, particularly Great-grandmother, but when Great-grandmother asked, one answered, and answered smartly:

“We are two months short of fortunate nine, mani.”

“Ha! I say! Ha! And quite impertinent, to be plural at your age, young gentleman!”

“One deeply apologizes, Great-grandmother.”

“But you are correct, Great-grandson! We have not wasted our efforts. Yousee it, you see it quite clearly, as do we! There is, depending on this infelicity of two, an infelicitous duality of possibilities for so stupid a move as this attack.” Up went the forefinger. “First, that Machigi himself didorder this, in which case he is a fool, and should remain in power, since he is on the side of our enemies! But none of my spies have reported that he is ever a fool! Second of this duality—” Up went another finger. “Someone in the Marid is plotting against him, and has orchestrated these kidnappings down very traceable channels precisely to bring Machigi down! We are meantto be outraged, we are meantto react, and now, by the impending actions of our outraged Edi allies, we are placed in a very difficult position, Great-grandson, which can only delight our enemies! The Edi have just served notice that they will attack the Marid by sea in retaliation. The Gan—the Gan are in the process of being contacted, by what means the Edi have not seen fit to reveal, and are being asked to intervene in a general war against the Taisigi. And intothis, we inject a decree of outlawry against all the Guildsmen employed by Machigi of the Taisigi. We are highly suspicious of this incident, which would remove the brightest of the Marid lords in favor largely of the two most stupid. We have not lived this long by taking appearances for granted. We are notfor this declaration of outlawry! Cenedi and I are at extreme odds in this.” A deep breath and a calculating look. “And clearly my great-grandson agreeswith me.”

Cajeiri bowed. It was wise to bow, when Great-grandmother had an agenda. “Yes, mani-ma.”

“Go tell Cenedi we wish to speak to him. You should find him in operations.”

Oh, this was getting dangerous. He had never before been caught between Great-grandmother and Cenedi.

But mani was the one more to worry about. He bowed, he left with Jegari, he went to the door of operations—it was notguarded, since it was probably the last room in the house that anybody would want to barge in on—and barged in.

He made it in. One of Cenedi’s men leapt up from an adjacent chair and stopped Jegari.

“Cenedi-nadi.” A respectful bow. “My great-grandmother will speak to you very urgently.”

Jegari did not get time to be let in. Cenedi stood up from the consoles and came in his direction in grim compliance, and it seemed a good thing just to get out of the way. He followed Cenedi out into the hall and gathered up Jegari on his way.

Back to mani’s suite. Immediately. And Nawari opened the door for Cenedi—almost started to shut it, and then did not, as Cajeiri took Jegari right on through with him.

“Come!” mani said, beckoning Cajeiri with a look straight at him and past Cenedi, so he came. Fast but decorously. And it was time to be invisible. He quickly found something interesting about the other wall.

“What have we found out, Nedi-ji?” mani asked Cenedi.

“The Guild will meet,” Cenedi said darkly, and folded his arms.

“The Guild will be locked in days of debate during which the situation will grow worse than it is. And what do they know? We are the ones in the midst of this incident. We know the persons involved. We know the likelihood that things are not as they seem. No, do not tell me otherwise! And do not tell me that certain of the Guild in service to certain lords of the aishdi’tat will not take the opportunity to politicize the involvement of Edi in our security arrangements! There will be debate, Nedi-ji. By no means deny that! There will be debate, the debate will scatter off into side issues includingthe Edi, and in the meanwhile we have not only nand’ Bren but also Lord Geigi placed in a very difficult situation. If there is a second provocation, it will likely aim at one of them!”

“Then best call them back, aiji-ma.”

“Or send the paidhi forward,” mani said; and Cenedi seldom looked taken by surprise, but he did, then.

“To do what, aiji-ma?”

“So do you not, Nedi-ji, think Machigi remarkably clumsy, to so flagrantly violate Guild policy with senior-ranked, adminstrative-level Guild and myself here as witnesses? With persons who are as good as labeled Taisigi-connected? We are meant to be outraged. We are meant to have extreme difficulty reining in our irregular allies. Do not oblige them by being outraged!”

“Do you think, aiji-ma, that Machigi has notbeen responsible for the situation in this district?”