Whack! went the cane.
“About time!” Ilisidi said. “Confess, wretch, or we shall lose all patience! What began your unfortunate association with these notorious troublemakers? Name their names, each one!”
Baiji stammered something. Bang! went the cane a second time.
“You have this single chance to redeem yourself,” Ilisidi snapped. “Your uncle will ask us what your subsequent behavior may have been, and we assure you we shallanswer him. As things stand, we cannot construe a use for you. As things may become, we mayconsider a quiet settlement that may let you recover some respectability. Choose, and choose now!”
“With greatest appreciation, aiji-ma, with greatest appreciation for your intercession—”
“You bore us. Talk! Give us your account!”
The dowager did nothing to steady Baiji’s nerves. His mouth opened and closed. He mopped his face with his sleeve, and he said: “Aiji-ma. My fault began with the Troubles, when the whole world was going toward Murini. The Marid supported him in everything. But the lords of the Marid—after supporting Murini in his—in his ill-considered enterprise—”
“Attacking my grandson and murdering his staff. Let us be specific.”
“Attacking—attacking the aiji, yes, aiji-ma. Once Murini had done that, once he had taken over the central clans, the Marid would, one is quite sure, have replaced him if they could. One saw them manuevering for power, in the old way.”
“A reasonable assessment,” Ilisidi said mildly.
“And in their maneuevers, aiji-ma, in the nature of their manuevers, one feared they wished to extend their power up from the South without challenging Murini up in Shejidan. It was no profit to them to go eastward. All the economic profit lay in their going westward and north, along the coast, which is a kind of enterprise—fishing, and all—that they understand. They were sending out emissaries and promising extravagant things in their own name, saying that they were Murini’s allies and that favor and economic union with them would gain great profit. The alternative—the alternative—was down in Pura, where they assassinated—assassinated Lord Kaien and his whole household.”
“A disgrace.”
“It was so tiny a house. It threatened no one, but it suggested independence and no one could protect it. That was the point, aiji-ma. From where we stood it was very clear. And houses capitulated, one after the other, the Udiri, the Wori, the Maisi and the others, right up the coast. Even Dalaigi wasc was growing quite chancy: Southerners openly walked the streets, and there were assassinations of small people, even shopowners, for refusing to deal with them. The Edi were not able to withstand these assaults. The little villages—these people could by no means pack up and go into the hills, and there was no safety in the inland, nor any aiji to hear their request for help. There was nothing for them to do, aiji-ma. I had no support—I could no longer contact my uncle! I could no longer protect Kajiminda!”
“Go on. Omit nothing.”
“Aiji-ma, a letter from the South was by no means unexpected. Murini was by then in Shejidan. Receiving this letter— one might have appealed to Shejidan and voiced one’s opinion that the Marid was only supporting Murini as a convenience, and that they meant to assassinate him once the center of the aishidi’tat was in any sense stable under his rule. One thought of this act. But from a coastal lord and a relative of Lord Geigi— one had no confidence that Murini-aiji would hear such an opinion with any understanding or gratitude. He would be just as likely to report all I said to the Lord of the Marid, and then where would I stand? I would be dead. I believed I would be dead in short order did I attempt to reason with Murini or divide him from his Southern allies.”
“Not badly reckoned,” Ilisidi said more mildly. “You begin to interest usc even to make some sense. Name names and recall that we have been out of the current of Southern politics for three years.”
A soft movement brought Cajeiri to the back of his great-grandmother’s chair, beside Cenedi. That space in the doorway having cleared, Banichi and Jago entered the room and stood against the wall, grimly listening.
“The Dojisigi district of the Marid,” Baiji said, “the lord of Amarja, Toric he sent to me, offering his granddaughter, Tiajo—promising support for this whole district if I made this alliance.”
“Tori,” Ilisidi said, “son of Badissuni.”
“The one, yes, aiji-ma. The proposal said—that the western coast—that I—had the choice of falling by force and assassination to the Kadigidi aiji and the North—or I could join with the Marid, by a close alliance that would respect the existing Associations of the coast. And one knows—one knows, aiji-ma, and knew then—”
“Out with it!”
“One suspected Lord Tori lied about respecting the coastal Associations. The Edi and the Marid are old enemies. But it has always been the position of the Maschi to protect the Edi of this coast—which we have always done, aiji-ma!”
“Then where are they?”
“Aiji-ma, one asks understanding! This was my thinking— that if one started to form new alliances, if you were lost, if the Marid and Murini of the Kadagidi were going to divide the world between them—at least one could save something. I could not contact my uncle. If one began to negotiate with the Marid at least with a starting agreement that the existing associations should persist, then one at least had a basis on which to negotiate for better things. One was no longer negotiating for things as they were—that was lost. One was trying to save what could be saved. The wars of the Edi with the Marid, the piracy, the raids—all these the Maschi had been able to calm. Could one not do this best in a new age by making an association withthe Marid, rather than fall to the Kadagidi and become a target when the Marid ultimately moved to assassinate Murini and seize the aijinate? If I had attempted to fight either of them, this whole coast would be under assault—and all the ancient agreements would be trampled down. All the old grudges would be paid off, Contracts would be issued on every handc the very living of the people would become impossible if the coast came under blockade, in a struggle between Murini and the Marid, and the humans would—” Baiji’s eyes shifted anxiously to Bren. “One has no idea what the humans might do if the Kadagidi and Marid started fighting in the strait, off their very shores. If humans invaded, and we had no association to protect us—we would become a battlefield.”
“Humans would not have invaded on their own behalf,” Bren said, hoping he believed it. “One strongly doubts your scenario for an invasion, nadi. Mospheira was aiding the Northern Isles to remain independent. Had you appealed to the Presidenta, you might have joined the Northern Isles and theymight have interdicted the Marid. Their navy might have saved you.”
“But it was an association we have never made, nandi,” Baiji protested.
“The Edi have close connections with the Isles,” Ilisidi said. “You might have asked themc if they had not already seen in you a policy and a future they would not tolerate.”
That panicked Baiji for a moment. His eyes shifted from one to the other of them, wildly. “So. But—with a successor, me being a young man, my honored mother having diedc”
“Another interesting point. Howdid she die?”
“You cannot think, aiji-ma! You cannot, you cannotthink—”
“She was in ill health, we understand. And whendid your flirtation with the Marid begin?”
“Aiji-ma, no! That had nothing to do with it! One never— neverwould have tolerated such a thing.”
“Back to the Edi. Whydid you not use their good offices to reach the north? Was it possibly too great an exertion for a young man? Or did the Edi already question your dealings?”