“But I am right,” Bren said. “And the dowager, being wise, knows it. Be angry with me. But one begs you rest while doing it.”

“Shameless,” Ilisidi muttered, and scowled at nothing in particular. “Well, well, let us call Geigi. And while we are about it, let us rouse out that scoundrel Baiji to the phone, and see what Geigi will say to his nephew. If that fails to enliven the hour, perhaps we shallgo to bed for a few hours.”

“Immediately, aiji-ma,” Bren said, and got up and headed out to his study, alone, scattering a trio of young male servants who had gathered in the main hall. “Bring Baiji to the study,” he said, “nadiin-ji, and you are instructed to use force should he object. Siton him, should he attempt to escape.”

“Nandi,” they said, astonished, and hurried off on their mission.

He entered the study, sat down, and immediately took up the phone.

Getting through to Mogari-nai offices took authorizations. Ramaso couldn’t do it without going through Shejidan; but he could. And when he had:

“This is the paidhi-aiji. Put me through to the space station.”

“ Nandi,” the answer came, a little delayed. “ Yes.”

And a few moments after that:

“ This is Station Central. Mogari-nai, transmit your message.”

“Live message, Station Central. Give me the atevi operator. This is Bren Cameron, key code under my file, BC27arq.”

A pause.

“ Confirmed, sir.”

The next voice spoke Ragi, and his request to that station roused out, if not Geigi himself, one of his personal guard, probably out of a sound sleep.

“ Is there an emergency?” the deep atevi voice asked in Mosphei’, and he answered in Ragi.

“This is the paidhi-aiji. This call is with the concurrence and imminent presence of the aiji-dowager. With apologies for the hour, we request Lord Geigi’s immediate response. The matter is of dire importance.”

“ We shall hurry, nandi,” the answer came, just that, and the speaker left the phone.

There was, now, a small stir at the door. It opened, and Bren punched the call onto speaker phone as the stir outside proved to be a scowling and unhappy Baiji, in the company of the three young servants.

“Nandi, we have had no breakfast, we have been subjected to—”

“Take a seat, nadi. That one will do.”

“Nandi!” Baiji protested. “We are by no means your enemy! We protest this treatment!”

“What you are, nadi, will be for others to judge,” Bren said, and noted a further presence in the hall, past the still-open door. “On the other hand, you may as well remain standing. The aiji-dowager is here.”

“Aiji-ma!” Baiji turned in evident dismay, and bowed, however briefly, as Ilisidi, not relying on Cenedi’s arm, appeared at Cenedi’s side in the doorway, walked to the nearest hard chair and sat down unaided, leaning on her cane. Cenedi took his usual post behind her.

“Aiji-ma, one protestsc”

“Silence!” Bang! went the cane. “Fool.”

“ Aiji-ma!”

“ Nand’ Geigi is present,” a voice said on speaker, and a moment later: “ Nand’ Bren. This is Geigi.”

“One rejoices at the sound of your voice, nandi,” Bren said. “The aiji-dowager is here with me. One regrets, however, to inform you of a very unfortunate situation: my life was attempted under the portico of your house, which is now, intact, except the portico, in the hands of Guild in the aiji’s employ. Among other distressing matters, I saw none of the Edi that I knew when I was there. More, your nephew has had certain communications with the Marid—”

“I am innocent!” Baiji cried. “ I am unjustly accused!”

“He is at my estate, under close guard, nandi, considering a negotiation regarding a Southern marriage, and the suspected importation of Guild of the Marid man’chi, and the ominous disappearance of staff loyal to you, nandi. One cannot adequately express the personal regret one feels at bearing such news.”

“ I rescued the aiji’s son at sea!” Baiji cried. “If I were of hostile mind, I would have delivered him to these alleged Southerners!”

“One might point out,” Bren said, “that I personally, aboard my boat, followed your nephew’s indication to locate and pick up the heir, who was at no time actually in your nephew’s hands. What he would have done had he been the one to intercept the aiji’s son is a matter of dispute.”

“Unfair!” Baiji protested. “Unfair, nandi!”

Ilisidi signaled she wanted the handset. Immediately. He picked it up, passed it over, and it reverted to handset mode, silent to the rest of the room.

“Nandi,” she said. “Geigi? Your nephew has become a scandal. Your estate reverts to yourcapable hands. Settle whom you wish in charge, exceptthis young disgrace! The connivance of the Marid to take this coast has continued and your nephew continues to temporize with the South as he did during Murini’s tenure. There was excuse, while Murini sat in charge, but this flirtation has continued into inappropriate folly and a reluctance to go to court. One cannot imagine what this young fool hopes to gain, except to extend the Marid into northern waters and settle himself in luxury funded by my grandson’s enemies!”

“I never did such things!” Baiji cried.

“And he is a liar!” Ilisidi snapped. Then she smiled sweetly, and extended the phone toward Baiji. “Your uncle wishes to speak to you, nadi.”

The servants who surrounded Baiji still did so, and Cenedi would not let Baiji touch the dowager, even indirectly: Cenedi transferred the phone to a servant, who gave it to Baiji, who put the receiver to his ear with the expression of a man handling something poisonous. His skin had acquired a gray cast, his face had acquired a rigid expression of dismay, and as he answered, “Yes, uncle?” and listened to what Geigi had to say, he seemed to shrink in size, his shoulders rounded, his head inclined, his occasional attempts to speak instantly cut off.

“Yes, uncle,” he said, “yes, uncle, yes, one understan—” A bow, a deeper bow, to the absent lord of his small clan. “Yes, uncle. One assures—uncle, one in no way—Yes, uncle.” And then: “They just left, uncle. One has no idea why. One did nothing to—” Baiji was sweating. Visibly. And Ilisidi sat there with the smile of a guardian demon, staring straight at him, with Cenedi standing by her side.

Bren—just sat listening, until a movement in the doorway caught his eye.

Cajeiri had shown up, his two companions barely visible in the hallc Cajeiri in an oversized bathrobe, hugging it around him and drinking everything in with large eyes and two very good ears. He didn’t create a stir, didn’t say a thing.

And, silent, like two black ghosts, Banichi and Jago turned up behind Cajeiri, likewise listening.

Bren found he himself had dropped a couple of stitches in the moment of noticing that arrival: Baiji was handing the phone back to one of his servant-guards, who offered it back to Cenedi, who offered it to Ilisidi.

“Yes?” she saidc and looked fiercely satisfied. “Excellent. We shall see he does, Geigi-ji. We shall try to learn the whereabouts of staff. And we shall expect you.”

“Expect you.” So Lord Geigiwas coming down from the station, on—Bren found he had lost track of the launch schedule and had no idea of the date of the next shuttle flight; but it was weekly. It would not be long, likely, before Baiji found himself accounting to his uncle in meticulous detail.

Ilisidi handed the phone to Bren. “Lord Geigi has signed off, nand’ paidhi. But he wishes you well.”

“Indeed.” He set the handset back in its cradle. “And you, neighbor?” LordBaiji, he did notsay: Ilisidi had removed that title with that simple, deliberate nadi, and he didn’t argue.

Baiji clasped his hands between his knees and compressed his lips to a thin line as he bowed to the dowager and to him. “One apologizes,” he said. “One so profoundly apologizes, nandiin.”