Protector

“Unfair? Your situation is consequent of a chain of decisions stretching back to your predecessors and culminating in your kinsman Murini the traitor—whose murderous administration of the aishidi’tat alienated all your neighbors and offended the peace of the heavens and the earth alike! You have the effrontery to seek shelter in my house . . . when I would be within my rights to lock you in the deepest cellar Tirnamardi affords and feed you on grain and bitter herbs until I have you before the association itself!” Tatiseigi drew a deep breath. “But unlike your allies, who fire on civilians and attack children and servants, Iregard the laws of the aishidi’tat. I shall appeal my grievances against you directly to the aiji in Shejidan, if his grandmother does not File on you first. And should trouble come to my doorstep on your account, I shall hold you further responsible! Give him over to my bodyguard, nandiin. If he wants protection, weshall take charge of him!”

Tatiseigi’s temper was well-known, and this time directed at the truly deserving. Tatiseigi snapped his fingers, and his two senior bodyguards took charge of the man and bundled him right back onto the bus.

“Well!” Tatiseigi said in satisfaction, and to the servants standing by. “The bus will need immediate cleaning, nadiin. The dowager has need of it. But, Jase-aiji, nand’ Bren, we are dismayed. Are these allthat have survived with you?”

“One rejoices to report no losses on our side at all, nandi,” Bren said. “The renegades were not so favored. Nonesurvived in that house, except the servants.” It was as politely as he could put the terrible business on the front porch, and at the back of the building as well, by what he had since heard. “The dowager’s men and some of your own guard and allies will secure the place until more reinforcements can arrive, and I understand we shall send for them.”

“You shall have whatever you need, as quickly as we can provide it. Come in, come in.” Tatiseigi started up the steps, and they walked with him, bodyguards and all. “Is Asien’dalun truly missing a section of its walls?”

“A large window and part of a corner, nandi.”

Ilisidi wanted the bus, he was thinking. For what did she want it? Where in hell was she going?

“They deserve it for my lilies,” Tatiseigi said. “An extraordinary day, nand’ paidhi! I shall support the Kadagidi and speak for the clan in court when it comes to that. But this scoundrel has gotten everything his predecessors have deserved, heaped up in his bed and set alight.” The old man looked back from the top step and waved at the servants, who had opened the baggage compartment. “Do not offload anything from the bus, nadiin-ji. Leave it all aboard!” To Bren he said, as they passed the doors and entered the lower foyer. “The dowager has called a train. Her men at Asien’dalun are to be relieved soon, you say.”

“Within the hour, one hopes.” Called a train. Leave the baggage on the bus. “Where are we to go,nandi?”

“To Shejidan, nand’ paidhi. If reinforcements indeed are on the way to Asien’dalun, we shall pick up her men in my estate truck with the baggage, and we shall all rendezvous at the station. The servants are packing. Baggage will be coming down very soon. The children are all downstairs with staff, again touring the collections.”

“Has something changed, nandi?”

Tatiseigi hesitated, took account of who was near them—which was, at the moment, only their aishidi, and Jase. “On the contrary, we are taking action, nand’ paidhi. We are not calling the aiji’s train. We have diverted a local far closer. The Guild is currently arranging a problem on the rails.”

Meaning Cenedi, through his contacts, had arranged a problem on the rails, a move to isolate the local line and keep a bubble of vacant track available. He began to get the picture.

“The young gentleman,” Lord Tatiseigi said, “has not been informed of the action at Asien’dalun, nor will be until the last moment. We are telling none of the servants. We shall take all our detainees with us. We shall not put that burden on my staff, nor leave anything to draw an attack here. Go up to the main floor, nandiin. Take refreshment. There is tea in the breakfast room, and my staff will give you something stronger should you wish it.”

Tatiseigi waved his hand in invitation and was off, up the stairs at his best pace, with his aishid around him.

God. Back to the capital?

At Ilisidi’s direction?

He was exhausted. Drained. Mentally. He had looked to have a quiet hour to debrief with his aishid—which he had not been able to do, sharing a bus with Lord Aseida—then he had intended to see that Banichi had his injury looked at by the dowager’s physician, and then to take some critical notes—before he sat down with Tatiseigi and the dowager to find out what they knew. He had had his agenda all mapped, and thought it quite enough for a day.

Clearly not.