It was a brilliant piece of dynastic chess-if the individuals involved could be persuaded. The sticking point was persuading any young lady of taste to bed down with Baiji long enough. But that that marriage could be contracted to last just as long as it took to produce an heir, then evaporate as if it had never been. The young woman would find herself quickly married to Lord Geigi, who might even visit the planet for the occasion-and thereafter, if one could read Ilisidi's plans between the lines, young Maie of the East would occupy Kajiminda, deal with the Edi, and bring up a suitably educated heir for Geigi's branch of Maschi clan. Maybe two heirs, if she and Geigi actually took to each other... though the unspoken matter in the background was that Geigi was rumored to have very little interest in young ladies, and no success in getting an heir of his own. marriage could be contracted to last just as long as it took to produce an heir, then evaporate as if it had never been. The young woman would find herself quickly married to Lord Geigi, who might even visit the planet for the occasion-and thereafter, if one could read Ilisidi's plans between the lines, young Maie of the East would occupy Kajiminda, deal with the Edi, and bring up a suitably educated heir for Geigi's branch of Maschi clan. Maybe two heirs, if she and Geigi actually took to each other... though the unspoken matter in the background was that Geigi was rumored to have very little interest in young ladies, and no success in getting an heir of his own.

"With adequate security for her residence here," Geigi said quietly, "that above all. She would be an immediate target of our neighbors in the Marid. So would her child."

"The Edi will be establishing their own house somewhere neighboring both Kajiminda and Najida," the dowager said. "And one does not doubt they will become a force to be reckoned with."

"But is that a certainty?" Geigi asked. "One believed it would still be under debate in the legislature."

"Oh, pish," Ilisidi said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "My grandson has a brain. He will agree with me, given the other circumstances. And he will see that the legislature agrees. The arrangement gives no great advantage to any single western western house, which would be the greatest sticking-point. So it will pass." house, which would be the greatest sticking-point. So it will pass."

It wasn't going to be as easy as the dowager said, but with the possibility of a renewed set-to with the Marid looming in the immediate future, and another round of Marid-directed assassinations aimed at destabilizing the aishidi'tat, then counter-moves by the aiji, the house of lords might be inclined to give in and support the proposal. Even the hidebound traditionalists of the center, like Tatiseigi-who was a staunch ally of the aiji-dowager on other points-might be persuaded. One had the feeling of watching a landslide. Boulders were coming downhill, in the dowager's planning, and damned little was going to stand in her way.

Certainly not one young bookish girl in-what was the clan? Calrunaidi. Nobody in the west had ever heard heard much of Calrunaidi. much of Calrunaidi.

But one had certainly heard of Ardija. That, tied closely to Malguri, and involving relatives of the aiji-dowager, was a bloodline of some potency.

And that alliance would tie the west coast firmly to Malguri, which was Cajeiri's Cajeiri's inheritance, until he produced an heir for it. inheritance, until he produced an heir for it.

God. On the chessboard of politics, that was a potential earthquake. The great houses employed not only numbers experts, they employed genealogists to track this sort of thing. They would see it-but they likely would give way to it, in the interests of peace.

"One would agree," Geigi said, "if this can be arranged."

"Good, good," Ilisidi said. "So you may think on it and tell me your thoughts when you have had time to mull it over. Perhaps we should have our last round and let you get to your bed, Geigi-ji. You must be exhausted."

"One admits to it," Geigi said. "And I shall indeed think on your proposal, 'Sidi-ji. I shall think on it very favorably." He turned then to Toby and Barb, and said, in very passable ship-speak: "We discuss politics. Unavoidable. One wishes a more tranquil conversation."

"An extravagant honor, nandi," Toby said, one of his courtly phrases of Ragi. "One is gratified by your notice."

He got it out without saying orange drink orange drink, a close thing, with the word notice notice. Bren was astonished.

But then-Toby had spent the last couple of years running messages between the Resistance and the Island, and his vocabulary hadn't exactly rusted.

"You speak a fair amount of Ragi, nandi," Geigi said.

"About boats, navigation, hello, and goodbye, nandi."

"-se," Bren tossed in, the felicitous false-one, since Toby had given a list of infelicitous four. It was natural as breathing.

"-se," Toby added in the next breath. "We hear, but do not talk, nandi."

Geigi laughed. "Very well done!" And continued, in ship-speak: "The station knows you as well done!" And continued, in ship-speak: "The station knows you as Frozen Dessert Frozen Dessert."

Toby and Barb both laughed.

Frozen Dessert? Bren wondered.

"Our code name," Toby said to Bren, "when the authorities had to refer to us."

Bren translated that for the dowager, and for Cajeiri. "That was the word referring to them and their boat, during the Resistance, aiji-ma, young gentleman. When they were running messages."

"And bravely done!" Geigi said. "The enemy would appear and the dessert would melt in the sun."

"Little boat," Toby said in Ragi. "Hard to spot."

"Very good work," Geigi said in ship-speak, and in Ragi: "Tell them that they will be welcome as my personal guests in Kajiminda, when I have done a little housecleaning."

"He says you're welcome as his guests at Kajiminda when he has things there under control," Bren said, thinking the while that Geigi could not possibly follow through on that, and, please God, would never have to give up his station post to do so. But there was another round of polite sentiments, all the same.

Then a tap of the dowager's cane. "We must let this gentleman get to his bed, paidhi-ji."

"Indeed, aiji-ma." As host, he made the suggestion. "Geigi-ji, please let my staff escort you to your rooms."

Geigi's bodyguard, among other things, had to be bone-tired, exhausted, after standing the last while, and those two still needed to brief and debrief with the rest of his aishid, and with the aiji-dowager's people. They They had several more hours to go before they saw their beds. had several more hours to go before they saw their beds.

"We are quite weary," Geigi said obligingly, and in a series of small signals, the dowager gathering up her cane and signaling Cenedi; and Bren, as host, making a sign to Banichi and Jago, Geigi gathered his considerable bulk up from his chair, everyone got up, and there were goodnight bows all around as he left. Cajeiri and Barb and Toby hung back until the dowager and Geigi had gotten out the door.

For Bren, exhaustion came down on him, not just for this day, but for several days before. He waited while Cajeiri joined his bodyguard on the way out; and then heaved a deep sigh, feeling the effects of just about two sips too much brandy. "So sorry you have to hike down to the boat," he said to Barb and Toby. And added: "Very well done, extremely well done. Frozen Dessert."

They laughed, assured him an after-dinner hike wasn't at all a hard thing for them, and he walked them to the door.

Then, in an attack of unease, and thinking of that long, dark set of steps amid the scrub evergreen, and that exposed dock below, he said to Banichi and Jago: "Nadiin-ji, one hates to ask, but would you go with them?"

"Yes," Banichi said. "Let us pick up some equipment, and we shall be glad to do so."

"I hate to bother them," Toby protested. "Surely just house staff-"

"-is in no wise equipped to take care of untoward situations," he said. "Indulge me. Geigi's just arrived, with all that means. If our enemies aren't asleep or more disrupted than we think, they'll know he's here, they'll know meetings are going on, they'll want more than anything to know what we've said, and I'm almost inclined to move out some more staff and house you two in the basement with Baiji tonight. Frozen Dessert, indeed. You're too well informed. Scarily well-informed. And I don't want the Marid getting their hands on you."

"Is that that all?" Toby laughed. "I thought it was brotherly concern." all?" Toby laughed. "I thought it was brotherly concern."

"That, too, is somewhere in the stew. Just take the protection. And if you're harboring any more more secrets, bring me up to date on them." secrets, bring me up to date on them."

"Oh, you knew we were running messages. Most of the time we didn't have a clue about the content. At least on this this side of the water." side of the water."

"But you did know what Mospheira was up to."

"Nothing not well-known now."

"The Marid may not think so. You're just a bit more fluent than makes me comfortable, brother. Unguessed talents." That Toby had never outright told him how fluent he was getting- that bothered him; but Toby worked for Shawn, the President of Mospheira, the way he himself had once worked for Shawn in the State Department, and there were secrets and secrets in government employ.

"It's getting better," Toby said lightly. "I haven't been around people talking before. I'm starting to pick out words. Figure out others."

"I still can't put a sentence together," Barb said. "Toby's far braver about that. But we absorb things. I'm picking up a lot about the boat from the work crews."

"Well, you just be careful going down there, and get the hell away from dock if you don't like the look of what's headed your way. Even if you just get nervous. Stand off from shore and be ready to get out to the middle of the bay if you don't like the feel of things at any time you're down there. Better a little inconvenience than a mistake the other way."

"Got it," Toby said, and by then Banichi and Jago were coming back, carrying rifles, and with their outdoor jackets on- bulletproof and heavy as sin.

No surprise to Toby or Barb, who were used to Guild working gear. Bren saw them all out the door.

"Kindly go straight to the room and stay there, nandi," Jago said.

"I shall," he promised her. "Immediately."

And he walked straight in that direction the moment the front door shut.

His two personal staff, Koharu and Supani, weren't long arriving in his suite, a characteristic knock on the outermost door. Staff in the hall would have reported he was retiring, and his valets showed up almost before he'd gotten his own coat off.

He handed the garment in question to Supani, who hung it on a hanger, and that on a hook on the door: the coat would go away with them and come back refreshed and pressed by morning. Likewise the shirt and trousers and the ribbon that tied his queue, which he finger-combed out. He automatically sat down and let Koharu apply a brush to his past-the-shoulder hair.

Felt good. Took away tensions of the day.

Pop-pop-pop from outside. From down the hill.

Gunfire. He leapt up, headed for the other room and the door. Supani chased him down with a dressing gown and insisted on helping him.

"Tano and Algini!" he said, and Koharu understood and ran, outpacing him as he made the hall along with four of Ilisidi's men and Cenedi himself, Cenedi giving directions as more of that company showed up from the lower hall.

Bren reached the library, where Tano and Algini still sat at stations and the two assigned to Cajeiri hovered by. "Get to the young gentleman!" Bren snapped, and those two went, leaving him room to reach Tano and Algini in the cramped quarters.

"Movement, nandi, down by the dock," Tano said, "and up by the house."

He didn't distract them with questions: Algini was talking in code, probably to Banichi and Jago, maybe to units disposed about the grounds, and Tano's eyes never left his screens.

"Sector 14 now," Tano said into his own microphone.

Whether intruders were incoming or outgoing in sector 14 one had no idea, but it was too near the downhill walkway. Bren hovered and kept quiet. He could see that blinking sector for himself, some distance off the walkway where Banichi and Jago would be.

He didn't know who had been firing, except the one from Ilisidi's young men on the roof. He hoped it was Banichi and Jago taking a few shots at intruders and not the other way around. He hoped Toby and Barb kept their heads down. They hadn't had time for it to be just Banichi and Jago on the return.

"Somebody should check the boats," he muttered.

"Someone is doing that, Bren-ji," Tano said. "Both boats. And our own perimeter." His eyes never left the screens. "It may be diversion. We have called the village and set them on alert."

Damn, he thought. The aiji's men hadn't hadn't cleared out all the problem. They'd gotten Kajiminda cleaned up, they'd gone after the lot down in Separti Township, but very possibly people had gotten out of Separti. Some might have escaped by sea, and some might have headed overland, to take the long land route to the Marid. Some might not have left at all, but gone to set up bases in the wild lands, the hunting reserves, between the coastal villages of Sarini Province and the Maschi territory... bases that could continue to be a problem until hunted down. cleared out all the problem. They'd gotten Kajiminda cleaned up, they'd gone after the lot down in Separti Township, but very possibly people had gotten out of Separti. Some might have escaped by sea, and some might have headed overland, to take the long land route to the Marid. Some might not have left at all, but gone to set up bases in the wild lands, the hunting reserves, between the coastal villages of Sarini Province and the Maschi territory... bases that could continue to be a problem until hunted down.

How many Guild agents might the Marid have deployed in the district? Unfortunately, a lot, if one counted any Guild who had been supporting Murini... who might have headed down to the Marid as a way to escape retribution.

He really, really didn't like that line of reasoning. He stood very still, just watching the retreat of intrusion in a series of lit-up squares. Which could be a real retreat, or simply designed to divert attention from something breaching their perimeter elsewhere.

He stood still so long his arm, leaning on Tano's chair, began to tire, and his eyes, focused on those screens, to dry out from want of blinking. He shifted position slightly and did blink.

The Guild's actions were like that. Patient waiting, interspersed with a few moments of adrenaline.

They were back to the patient waiting. Which was almost as bad as the adrenaline.

"Are our people safe?" he asked.

"All reporting, Bren-ji."

Our people included his brother, Barb, and the two people he loved most in the world. included his brother, Barb, and the two people he loved most in the world.

And the fact Tano and Algini were sitting there dead calm and completely unemotional meant only that they were on the job and not sparing a thought to personal relationships with anybody. They continued nonstop observing, listening and, with small key-clicks, aiming sensors and communicating with various people about the grounds... all of whom were evidently reporting in or responding in some fashion.

Bren waited for another length of time before saying, very quietly, without inflection: "If it is safer for Banichi and Jago to bring their wards back to the house tonight, we shall certainly find room."

"It may indeed be safer," Algini said, and plied keys, a series of fast clicks. He said then: "They agree."

The next while, extricating two valuable and highly visible targets, namely two pale-skinned humans, from a difficult position on the lower walk-that took some time, and Bren stood and listened for part of it.

But then he decided he could be of somewhat more use than that, so he went out to the hall, and asked Ramaso, who had appointed himself to hall duty during the disturbance, to make ready two beds belowstairs.

"Indeed," Ramaso said. "Please delay them with hospitality upstairs, nandi, and there will be space for them as fast as possible."

"One doubts they will sleep immediately," he said, and turned to find Antaro and Nawari both, one an emissary from Cajeiri and one from Ilisidi, and then Lord Geigi himself coming out into the hall, to find out what was going on. Lord Geigi, like him, was in his night-robe, but not, like him, with his hair undone. Bren felt a little heat touch his face, a little embarrassment at that, and so surely must Ramaso, but there were more important things afoot than a little impropriety. "Geigi-ji," he said. "What a welcome we have given you!"

"My staff informs me your brother and his lady are turning back."

"Indeed. It seems safer."

"It must," Geigi said. "Infelicity on the Marid and all its houses! No one will sleep for hours, and my fool of a nephew should not be the exception. Let your staff inform him I shall speak to him directly after breakfast and that the activities of his associates tonight have placed me in no good mood toward him! I would deal with him tonight, except I want my wits about me!"

The middle door opened. Cajeiri turned up, putting his head out. "Are we safe, nand' Bren?"

"At the moment we appear to be, young gentleman. Go back to bed."

Cajeiri likewise was in a night-robe, and barefoot, with his his hair streaming over his shoulders. hair streaming over his shoulders.

And Ilisidi's door opened. Cenedi himself arrived, in boots and trousers, and with braid intact, and obviously wanted answers.

"Nand' Toby and Barb-daja are coming back to the house tonight, Cenedi-ji." Which was stupid to say: of course Cenedi knew that part of it already. Guild in protection of their lord were never out of touch with the rest of their number. What Cenedi didn't know was the arrangement he had just ordered in the household. "We are lodging them downstairs. If the dowager would wish a quieting cup of tea in the study, we might arrange that." It came to him that, besides his study, which he needed for his own urgent business in straightening this mess out, they did did have the sitting room they could convert to sleeping quarters. have the sitting room they could convert to sleeping quarters.

But that had its own necessary function in the house, the meeting place, the only place besides the dining room that could accommodate them all; and the dining room was just-not the place one discussed business. Impossible, he thought distractedly. And any any room downstairs was bigger than the cabin Barb and Toby shared on the boat. room downstairs was bigger than the cabin Barb and Toby shared on the boat.

Two beds, he had told Ramaso. Were they going to think he was making a statement?

"The dowager will take tea," Cenedi said, "but will not receive visitors tonight, nandi."

"Mandi-ji." Bren snared a passing servant, who skidded to a fast halt. "Tea for the dowager. Tea for any guest who wants it."

"I shall take some myself," Geigi said, "with teacakes, should there be any at this hour, nadi."

"So would we like teacakes," Cajeiri said. "My staff would, too."

Where a boy Cajeiri's size proposed to put more food after that supper, God only knew. "See to it," Bren said to the servant, and as Samandri took out at all decorous speed: "Cenedi-ji, can your people supply security to the front door while we open it for Banichi and Jago?"

"We are already in position, nandi. And they are on their way."

"Of course." He found himself exhausted. "Forgive me, nadi-ji."