Inheritor (30 page)

There
would
be a kitchen tour, Bren was quite sure.

"
There
you are!" Ilisidi said in the felicitous three mode. It was Tabini, Damiri,
and
Tatiseigi she headed for; and it was time for the paidhiin to beat a judicious retreat from potential in-law negotiations.

"Is there going to be trouble?" Jase asked as they ducked out and back toward the foyer.

"Only if they get in 'Sidi-ji's way," Bren said, in high spirits for the first time in two days. "And don't call her that! I don't. Certainly not here."

Jase had met her before. And knew, at least, the aiji-dowager's abrupt manner; but
last
time he hadn't been able to understand a word except
Felicitous greetings
and
My name is Jason. Don't shoot
.

They reached the foyer again, and enjoyed a few moments alone with Cenedi, Jago, Saidin, and the flowers, before another party turned up at the door, the lord of Berigai and his entourage, early, while Bren was sure the company in the breakfast room was still engaged in preliminary negotiation and had hardly gotten to the general walking tour the staff expected.

But he knew that Berigai, in whose province Grigiji the astronomer emeritus lived and taught, was well-disposed to him; and by extension, to Jase or whomever the paidhi wished to introduce him to — the Grigiji affair having brought good repute to the observatory and prosperity to the region. It was a very auspicious start to the party which would begin in the formal dining room with a few tidbits and a glass of spirits until it had gathered numbers.

And until the business in the family was settled.

More guests showed up. Jase was bright-eyed, and stayed with hot tea — they both did, as some of the guests also chose to do. There was nothing on the menu, Cook had promised them, except any dish with the red or the purple vegetable, that was harmful to humans. There were a couple of noble guests clearly in the Tatiseigi camp who spent a great deal of time in the corner looking toward them, and discussing matters in private behind the floral arrangement.

Then another arrival, who created some movement among the quiet security presence, and brought Cenedi to consult with Tano, quietly, just outside the dining room. Another lord walked in, unescorted.

Algini slipped to Bren's side.

"Nand' paidhi, Banichi wishes you to know that lord Badissuni is in the company this evening."

Badissuni, Bren thought, looking at the thin, grim-faced lord who broke into a pasted smile as a servant offered him a drink, then coasted up to the lords and ladies around the dining table. Conversation there staggered, took note, and lurched forward valiantly.

Algini had gone, doubtless on some business known only to security. The business in the Marid had just walked in, had a drink, and smiled its way around the table with the occasional flat, wary glance atevi gave to the novelty of humans.

"What's the trouble-in-the-house?" Jase asked in a low voice, and this time the noun was entirely appropriate.

"Badissuni, from the peninsula. Messenger to Tabini.
Don't
get involved with him." The doorway electronics, he was sure, contained a metal detector of some kind. His mind was busy adding up Badissuni as a guest while the relatives of the man Badissuni was serving (and wished to kill: dead before autumn, Banichi had said) were guesting in the house of the lady Direiso, who was Tatiseigi's ally last year when Tatiseigi was plotting against Tabini — who was back on the kitchen tour with Tatiseigi and Damiri looking for contraband in the vegetable bins, God save them.

Badissuni smiled at everyone but him and Jase: the smile was still there, but it went rigid and unpleasant when his gaze fell on either of them, and Bren avoided staring back. Jase was staring — and he moved between Jase and the view of trouble.

"Don't look at him, nadi. You invite trouble."

"He doesn't like us here."

"No," Bren said. "He doesn't like us
anywhere
."

Jago appeared from the doorway and definitely kept a watch on the situation. Cenedi had gone back to keep an eye on the dowager and no doubt to pass a message, but Jago tracked them, and eased up next to him.

"That is Badissuni, Bren-ji. Don't come close to him."

"Is he armed, nadi?"

"No one brings weapons past the door save the three authorized security present: the aiji's, the aiji-dowager's, and lord Tatiseigi's, one assures you, nadi."

Which counted his own among the aiji's and Saidin technically among Tatiseigi's, to be sure.

"Danger?" Jase asked.

"Be careful, nadi," Jago said to him. "Only be careful. He is an invited guest."

"Who invited him, nadi?" Bren asked.

"The aiji," Jago said — Jago who'd wished for the contract on that lordling's life, and who'd already occupied a rooftop vantage in the Hagrani estate. Jago was, he was sure, armed; and that coat surely concealed body armor. "Don't stand near him, nadiin-ji."

"Nadiin." Madam Saidin appeared and spoke in a clear voice. "The host suggests the party adjourn to the breakfast room."

They lingered with Jago, letting the lords and ladies exit, Badissuni among them. The party left a table of serving platters mostly down to crumbs by now, and a clutter of abandoned glasses which the servants hastened to gather up on trays.

"What's happening?" Jase asked.

"Just be calm," Bren said, and they drifted in the wake of the others toward the restored rooms, which rapidly filled shoulder to shoulder with guests admiring the lilies, praising the workmanship, gossiping about the event last year which had necessitated the repairs. There was applause, and lights glared as cameras pretended to be unobtrusive, creating the effect of sunlight across the lilies and the blinded guests. Security was tense in that moment, and Naidiri himself, chief of Tabini's security, set himself in their
path
and moved the traveling cameras definitively out of the room.

The camera lights went out. Music began, a simple duet of pipes played by two of the servants, who were quite good at it. Talk buzzed above the music and grew animated.

The two humans found refuge against the restored frieze and simply listened to the conversation, as Tati-seigi and two other provincial lords discussed the menu, and Tatiseigi looked at least marginally cheerful, except the looks he threw Badissuni.

"Doing all right?" Bren asked.

"I think," Jase said. He looked tired, and it
was
tiring to keep up with a high-speed translation problem. Jase had gone into it on the edge of his nerves.

"So tell me," Ilisidi said, coasting up, one of the few atevi present not too much taller than a human, "how do you find life on Earth? Different than the ship, nand' paidhi?"

Jase cast him a desperate look.

"Answer," Bren said. "Nand' dowager, I did tell him be careful with his language."

"Different," Jase said. "Thank you, nand' dowager."

"Vastly improved," Ilsidi said, leaning on her stick, creating a small space around them by her presence. "The last time I saw you, you and those two human women were boarding a plane for Shejidan, and they were bound for the island. How
are
they faring, nand' paidhi?"

"I hear from my companion from the ship, nand' dowager. She fares well, thank you."

"And nand' Hanks?"

Nand' Hanks, hell. Ilisidi
never
used honorifics for Deana Hanks. Bren's heart rate kicked up a notch and weariness with the noise went sailing on a sea of adrenaline.

"I don't hear from nand' Hanks, nand' dowager."

"Does your companion?"

"Aiji-ma." Bren took a deep breath. "How do you find the lilies?"

Ilisidi broke into a grin. "I was wondering how to get you off to yourself, Bren-ji." She snagged his arm and drew him aside, and he could only go, trusting Jase to the security watching both of them.

"Neighbors will talk, aiji-ma."

"Become a scandal with me." She leaned on his arm and directed their steps toward the windows. "Ah, the city air. You should come back to Malguri."

"I wish that I could, aiji-ma."

"I think, if the schedule permits it, I shall invite the astronomer emeritus for a weekend at midsummer.
That
should prove interesting, don't you think?"

"The last I saw they were shooting at strangers, aiji-ma."

"They
need
new ideas. I would delight to have you at the gathering, nadi. Do consider it. Malguri in summer. Boating on the lake. — You should," the dowager added, with a wicked grin, "bring this nice young man. He has possibilities."

"Should I assist a rival to attain your interest, aiji-ma? I am devastated."

"Oh, but one hears that
you
have favored a certain member of your own household, nand' paidhi. Should I not take offense?"

He was appalled. Did she mean Barb, perhaps, or — God help him — Jago?

Dangerous territory. He was
never
certain whether Ilisidi's romantic fantasies were a joke, or just a hazardous degree serious.

"Aiji-ma. No one could possibly rival you. I've so missed our breakfasts together."

Ilisidi laughed and squeezed his arm. "Flatterer. I shall steal you away alone to Malguri in a lightning raid and simply not return you to my unappreciative grandson at all." Curtains billowed around them, and Ilisidi's face went grave. "So would Mospheira lock you away.
Beware
that woman."

"Hanks?"

"Hanks!" It had as well be an oath. "I warn you, beware her."

"1 do. I do very much. — May I dare a question, aiji-ma? Should I also beware the lord of the Atageini?"

"Presumptuous, Bren-ji."

"I am very aware, aiji-ma. But I have never known you to lie to me."

"I've loaded your arms with lies, nadi! When in our dealings have there not been lies?"

"When I have relied on you for advice, aiji-ma. When I have truly cast myself on the truth inside your mazes you have
never
left me lost, aiji-ma."

"Oh, you thief of a woman's better sense! Flatterer, I say!"

"Wise woman, I say, aiji-ma, and cast myself utterly on your tolerance. Should I beware the lord of the Atageini?"

"Beware Direiso. As
he
must. As that scared fool Badissuni must."

"I entirely understand that."

"Wise
man
. Would that
Tatiseigi
did."

He almosfthrew into the mix a similar and equally urgept^question about lord Geigi's current relations with Direiso, and with Tatiseigi, and instantly thought better of it. Geigi had ridden beside Ilisidi to the rescue, after Ilisidi had repeatedly and forcefully called Geigi a fool. He believed that in her riddling reply about Tatiseigi needing to beware of Direiso, Ilisidi had just told him the unriddling truth on three points: that something was going on, that Tatiseigi was still uncertain in his man'chi, that Direiso was very much a problem.

But regarding the matter of Geigi's relation to Ilisidi, Geigi might be a fish best left below the surface of that political water, where he could swim and conduct his affairs unseen.

It was Direiso on whose affairs Ilisidi might have information she was willing to share with him. In specific, she had signaled she would talk about Hanks, but he prepared a question, a simple, But what
of
Direiso and Tatiseigi — skirting around the fact of the departed Saigimi's wife's relationship to Geigi
and
to Direiso.

Badissuni and Tatiseigi were at the moment in converse, the topic of which seemed grim and urgent.

"Nand' paidhi," a servant came to him to say, and placed a note in his hand.

A male human on the phone
, it said. Something wrong with his mother, was all he could think; and his face might have gone a shade paler. He might have looked as blank and stunned as he felt for a moment, blindsided out of a totally different universe.

«
^
»

"D
ifficulty?"
Ilisidi said to him.

"Forgive me. It's a phone call from Mospheira. It can wait." He was watching Badissuni and Tatiseigi as they spoke briefly, then moved apart, Tatiseigi instantly surrounded by the curious and less restrained, and people gazing in speculative curiosity at Badissuni, whom — God! — Tabini snagged for a small exchange.

And his mother — dammit, he needed to know.

"Go, go, go," Ilisidi said, "attend your phone call. Come back to me. I'll gather the gossip. Your mind is clearly distracted." Ilisidi's face betrayed no concern whatsoever. But her tone of command, sharp and absolute, told him he'd slipped his facial control and let things through he would rather not have allowed to the surface.

But he
wanted
the phone call. Ilisidi gave him leave. And might learn more than he could — or than she could with him attached.

He cast a worried look around for Jase, who was quietly in the corner, talking to his security and having no difficulty. Jago was watching him, and he coasted past Jago on the way to the door. "A phone call's come from the island," he said. "I'm going to the office. I'll be right back."

"Yes," Jago said, and tailed
him
as far as the door, when he'd been so bothered he hadn't even twigged to the possibility of a set-up to draw
him
to disaster. She stayed close, stationing herself in the hall as he went the short distance to the private office, at the door of which the servant stood.

He went in and picked up the phone. "Hello?" he said. "This is Bren Cameron."

"
Bren, this is Toby
." It was a tone of voice he almost didn't know. "I
thought I'd better call
."

"Damn right you'd better call. How are you? How's Mother?"

A pause that said far too much. "
Heart attack. Small one. How are you? "

It was better than his worst fears. His knees weren't doing so well. He sat down. "I'm doing fine. Tell her that. Listen. I want you to call Barb and have her call me."