“One believes he intended you see it, aiji-ma.”

“He is no fool,” Tabini said, nodding slowly. “So you have presented us with the Edi, the Gan, and the Marid. Perhaps we can hold the aishidi’tat together until my grandmother deigns to show up and tell us the rest of her plan. I hope for that hour!”

“I have written, aiji-ma, to Lord Tatiseigi, with some diffidence—but attempting to make a delicate approach to him, thinking perhaps to maintain this action of mine as a private approach. I acquired a porcelain in the South. Another, to display to the Merchants. But one for him, not in the character of a bribe. I do owe him. And I wish to let him see something I saw, that quite changed my view of the Marid as only fishing boats.”

“Before my grandmother returns,” Tabini said. “She has left you with this problem. Left youto court Tatiseigi and the committees and guilds.”

“One was attempting, aiji-ma, to better relations with nand’ Tatiseigi before he should take a public position against it—which one hoped would be moderated by his high regard for the dowager. But this still, at your order, aiji-ma, could be finessed.”

“He took a position eighty years ago and has not changed it since.”

“One still—was his guest, aiji-ma. One hoped, in that consideration—”

“You are going to vote againstthe cell phone bill.”

He drew in a breath. Total change of direction. But intimately connected to the topic of Tatiseigi, who opposed the bill. As Tabini supported it, in theory.

He nodded. “Aiji-ma, for reasons. For reasons. Which are neither here nor there in the current matter.”

“To him they are. He will believe he has had influence. That you have bent to that influence.”

“If you could postpone the bill, aiji-ma—”

Tabini muttered, then waved a deprecatory hand. “The Guild has approached me on this matter, and we are in discussions already. This may not be the year to consider the matter. But let me urge you to caution with Tatiseigi. There isthe situation we have already discussed, that in the north. It is delicate.”

The Ajuri. God.

“It is delicate enough,” Tabini said, “and this I say in confidence—that my wife is being put in a difficult position. Her father wants influence through her. And if she chooses to become a vessel for Ajuri influence—she and I may not continue this marriage.”

“Aiji-ma.”

“Say nothing of it to my son.”

“Of course not, aiji-ma.”

“One expects the lord of Ajuri will object to anythingthat promotes Lord Tatiseigi’s interests. The jealousy involved there is extreme.”

“Regrettably, —aiji-ma, I have already sent the porcelain to Lord Tatiseigi and asked for a meeting with him. And he isa key ally of the aiji-dowager. I regret not having waited for her, however. Now I greatlyregret it.”

“Finesse it. Finesse it. That is all I will say, if you must meet with him. Business of the aishidi’tat cannot stop because Ajuri threatens. One is not sanguine about your chances of converting Lord Tatisiegi to a regard for Lord Machigi, however.”

“One felt the need to try to approach him, aiji-ma, for fear he would take offense to be put off by her absence.”

“Nand’ paidhi, between Geigi’s feud with him and Ajuri’s feud with him, one fears you are stepping into deep water, but go to it, go to it. But do not attempt to convert him to a regard for Lord Ajuri. Thatis due, one fears, to get worse very quickly.”

“Aiji-ma, if one is accidentally stepping into a private situation, one can delay—”

“The one in the most delicate position in this matter is my son,paidhi-ji. My son is not to be informed of this situation with his mother’s clan. And one is certain you will respect that.”

“Absolutely, aiji-ma.”

“Baji-naji, fortune and chance, where it regards Lord Tatiseigi. Understand, the Ajuri may be a small clan, but they are very influential in the collection of small clans that constitutes the north, and they have long had a certain influence in the Guild. Their marriage to my house once made sense. Now it makes them a far greater problem than their size would indicate, and the impending birth of a second child has the old rivalry between Ajuri and Atageini quite—lively at the moment. Ajuri seeks every opportunity to find fault with the Atageini”

One could notask where Damiri stood on the matter. She was the one in the worst position, with man’chi to her clan at issue. Pregnant to boot. And the whole thing having blown up into a Guild crisis, with little Ajuri clan wielding a hidden influence in that body—or having had influence; who knewwhat was going on within that body, or how much antihuman sentiment within that guild his own bodyguard was trying to shield him from either knowing—or meeting head-on, disastrouslyc

He had to talk to them. He had to find out.

“One can only apologize,” he said, “for having touched on matters I should not have touched upon, and for not sending your son back the moment it became clear—”

“Nothing was clear,” Tabini said shortly. “Even to me. And in point of fact, my sonwas, again, safe with you for a few days—or should have been. It shouldnot have involved his great-grandmother. It shouldnot have involved that fool Baiji. It shouldnot have involved what we began finding out here once my grandmother stirred the pot. Lady Damiri, about whom you have been too delicate to ask, has lately decided to set her own father, newly ascended to the lordship of Ajuri, somewhat at distance, which he is taking in high offense. In greatest confidence, I believe that there has been a loan of money from my wife to the Ajuri to cover a business failure that would have brought disgrace on the clan—a scandal that brought the untimely death of her uncle and the ascension of her father. My wife is quite distressed with the situation. Not for dissemination—she suspects another clan in the death of her uncle. She is protective of her son and of her child yet to be born. She is quite distressed with the recent risk to her son, she is put out with me, she is put out with you, andwith my grandmother on account of the affair on the West Coast, with her deceased uncle on account of his financial dealings, and now with her father’s demands for special favor. None of this has made her happy at all in recent days. I do not repent my decision to leave my son in your hands in the midst of all these goings-on. At least he did not have to participate in the efforts of keeping my wife’s dealings with Ajuri from my grandmother’s major d’, while we were living in her apartment—and one has no doubt that would have put the cap on the matter. My confidence in you is undimmed. If ever my son arrives unexpectedly at your door, receive him and immediately do as you did at Najida: inform me, but do not let him out of your sight for a moment.”

“Aiji-ma,” he said, dismayed. “My door will always receive him. And you will always know.”

“Your household is commendably peaceful and safe,” Tabini said. “One understands my son’s attraction to it. And we have equal confidence in the staff you are bringing down from the station.”

“One is gratified, aiji-ma.” There was one troublesome question. He greatly hesitated to say it. But the stakes were too high. “Among them is Lord Tatiseigi’s former cook, Bindanda. One hopes he will also pass scrutiny. He is a truly excellent cook. And he has been a pillar of my staff.”

Tabini gave a brief laugh. “We know Bindanda very well. He is an excellent cook. But, paidhi-ji, he is actually myspy.”

That was a thunderbolt. An absolute thunderbolt. “One is astonished, aiji-ma.”

“Oh, he reports now and again to Tatiseigi,” Tabini said. “But his reports come here first. And your bodyguard approves the transaction.”

He was utterly confounded. He said, somberly, “Then one is glad, aiji-ma, if he wishes to stay on my staff.”