Free Deliberations: A Foreigner Short Story by C. J. Cherryh Page A

in Shejidan had remotely expected them.
    His grandmother had rallied her allies by the sheer unexpectedness of her arrival— and by the fact his grandmother had her own Guild already in place in the western Guildhall, and allies she could call on. His grandmother had cleared his father’s mistresses and the current wife out of the Bujavid with a suddenness that had stunned and deeply offended several clans. The legislature had gone into emergency session to prevent her— and could not achieve a quorum— since some maintained the session was not legal.
    In that confusion, Ilisidi had proclaimed herself, for the second time, aiji-regent of the aishidi’tat, ruler of the world, in the name of a minor son. She effectively controlled, for one major asset, the leadership of the Assassins’ Guild— and the size of her personal bodyguard, threaded through the west as well as the East, was, for a lord of the aishidi’tat, unprecedented.
    In two days, the mistresses’ relatives had found retreat the best defense. Her enemies had had a falling-out, and attempted to use the issue of the plane flight to draw her own conservative base into the argument. A few ‘counters had attempted to find adverse numbers in the event, but her supporters had their own ‘counters, and they found predictions of disaster in the other party. In two days, Ilisidi had presided over Valasi’s funeral, and on the third, the felicitous third, she had taken up residence in Valasi’s apartment, replacing all Valasi’s staff with her own.
    She had been, from the hour of her landing in Shejidan, in charge of the government.
    Down in the starlit town tonight people were preparing buckets of water in case the water failed, weapons in case of civil disorder, food in case of disorder and siege, and those districts that had electricity were bringing oil lamps out of storage, in case of power failure. Tabini knew these things. His bodyguards had told him it was going on.
    Would he launch a claim immediately as tomorrow dawned? He might have no choice. There were those who would launch it for him if he delayed— and his inaction would signal badly for the future of his rule.
    He drew in a deep breath of chill air, then quietly withdrew from the balcony and shut the doors. There was no danger from rifles at this height above the city— it would be a remarkable eye that could even note his presence on the balcony. But he shut the doors all the same, and walked from that little breakfast room into the sitting-room of his Bujavid apartment. Supper was past. He often took a small brandy at this hour, and his servants waited to provide it, but he did not feel in the least celebratory this evening, and one brandy might lead to unwise two.
    His bodyguard was there— they always shadowed him, at least two of the four— Nochidi and Keigan were with him now. The other pair were likely doing what wise bodyguards would do at such a time— gathering information, keeping an ear to Bujavid security, which he did not command, and which might not give his bodyguard the exact truth when consulted.
    Nochidi and Keigan were, like everyone around him, originally his grandmother’s men, trained in the Eastern Guild, and tonight— he wondered just ever so slightly whether the loyalty they gave him had ever overcome the loyalty they owed the aiji-dowager.
    “Tea,” he said, and servants moved to make it for him, and for his bodyguard if he sat down with them.
    He did that.
    They were older men. He could not remember a time they had not been part of his life. They were— all atevi were— darkskinned, golden-eyed, eyes shimmering a little in indirect light as they sat opposite him. These two wore the black leather of the Assassins’ Guild, the guild among other guilds that maintained the law of the aishidi’tat, the Western Association. Their predecessors had stood off the humans, and confined the invaders all to their island enclave. They were, always, protectors of lords