Free Betrayer: Foreigner #12 by C. J. Cherryh Page A

the East, including the coasts. If they can bring them here, excellent. If I have to go to the maps, that will be fine, too.”
    “Yes,” Jago said, and she got up and went to the door to talk to whatever servants were stationed with the guards.
    “I have a report to give to the dowager,” Bren said to Banichi and Tano in the meanwhile. “Tano-ji, Banichi may have told you that Lord Machigi has taken the position that I am his mediator as well as the dowager’s—” He used the ancient word for the office, with all it implied. “So I shall eventually be conveying his position, so far as I know it, as his representative. As yet, I have no idea exactly what that position is, except that he has said that the dowager is generally correct in her perceptions.”
    Tano nodded—and probably already knew everything he had just said, unless the local Guild had been interfering with his aishid’s communications. He was stating things for their eavesdroppers, putting the slant on things he wanted. And he smiled somewhat grimly. “They will monitor what we say. Which is expected. And since our purpose here is exactly what we said it was, we have no reason to object. We can do very little until Lord Machigi tells us what he concludes, but I also have to advise the dowager what proposals I have made, so at least we can be accurate about her position. I have some hope this negotiation will work. There is absolutely nothing gained for anybody by another war. And a lot to be gained for the Taisigi in particular if we can work this out.”
    Solemn nods. They knew exactly what he was doing.
    And they knew their own business, which was to keep the situation as quiet as possible as long as possible, give no information away, and hope that even if every assumption the dowager had made was wrong, he could still talk sense to Machigi.
    The lord of the Taisigi, he told himself, was young but not stupid.
    That was the best asset they had.
    Jago came back in and closed the door. “They will bring a phone, nandi,” she said. “And the maps, with writing materials.”
    “Excellent,” he said.
    Algini also—finally!—came back into the room, from the hall, and cast a look at Tano, then came and picked up Bren’s teacup; when he set it down again, it weighted a piece of paper. A note.
    That ticked up the heart rate a bit. Bren quietly picked up the note and read it.
    Certain Guild disappeared from Shejidan in Murini’s fall. Most of these, outlawed by Guild decree, entered service in the Marid, from which they trusted they would not be extradited to face Guild inquiry. Not all such are reliably in Guild uniform, and some may have falsified identities. My own presence here is known. Your mission here directly threatens the lives of these outlaws, since if Lord Machigi associates with the dowager, their sanctuary is threatened. Lord Machigi’s bodyguard is aware and is taking measures as of this hour.
    Measures. When the Guild said that—there was bloodshed.
    So there were high-level fugitives, then, the very highest—Guild members who, two years ago, had carried out the overthrow of Tabini-aiji and the murder of no few of Tabini’s staff, on behalf of the usurper Murini.
    The Guild in Shejidan had cleaned house after Tabini’s return. Some of the people responsible for the coup had been killed. Others had run for it—mostly south, even those with no southern connections.
    Outlaws. Desperate, skilled Assassins.
    Machigi himself might be in increasing danger.
    Should I have sent the bus off? he wondered. Here they sat, his four bodyguards isolated and out of touch with the Guild, and now with Machigi’s bodyguard evidently engaging in a purge of individuals who, until his arrival, might have assumed they had a permanent safe haven here.
    Certainly the renegades would bear him no good will at all. Persons who employed them wouldn’t, either.
    And . . . my own presence here . . . was downright chilling. Whoever knew what Algini was, or