There was a weird sound from outside, far off: mecheita, he thought. And then he heard a mecheita grunt, and another moan, and then three or four.
Mecheiti did that when they were disturbed. It could be vermin in the stable.
Then there was a horrid screech that woke up Artur and had Gene and Irene wide-eyed.
“Boji!” Cajeiri cried, leaping to his feet, with every intent of going to the window to open the drapes.
But then a rifle shot echoed off the walls.
“Lights,” Veijico said sharply—she was already on her feet. All his aishid was, and he was. The rest of them stood up just as Lieidi, close to the door, threw the light switch.
The room went dark, all but a light in the bodyguards’ bedroom.
“What’s going on?” Irene asked in a whisper. “What’s that sound?”
“Mecheiti,” he said. Down in the stables, the mecheiti were telling everybody to keep out.
Their last light went out, except for the tiny seam of light under the main door—Eisi had gone into the bedroom and gotten that one. By that last seam of light, he saw Jegari putting on his jacket—and Gene bumped into a chair arm—humans did not see well in the dark, he knew that. “Everybody stand still,” he whispered. “Listen.”
He was trying to hear anything coming from his bodyguard’s communications unit, faint as it might be. Outside, another faint seam of light at the edges of the drapes: someone had just thrown on the outside lights. The mecheiti continued threatening and moaning about something.
He heard a faint scratching, then, right at the window.
Guild, was his first thought, even up here.
But then there was that tap-tap-tap of a bony, long finger, on the window glass—the way Boji opened eggs.
“That’s Boji!” he whispered. “Open the drape, nadiin-ji! Please! He wants in!”
Antaro was nearest. She very carefully pulled back the drape, and there in the gap, against the glow of floodlights below, was a little spindly-armed silhouette, looking in, hands spread on the glass.
“Let him in,” Cajeiri said. “Let him in! Let him in, Taro-ji!”
“Gari,” Antaro said to her brother, and Jegari worked his way to the other side of the window. They let the drape fall a moment, as the two of them, each on a side, loosed the latches and carefully eased the window up a little.
“Boji!” Cajeiri said softly, and made that clicking sound he used to imitate Boji’s own. “Egg, Boji! Eisi-ji, quickly, find him an egg, Eisi-ji!”
The commotion down in the mecheita pen was clearer with the window open. There were voices outside. Lucasi and Veijico were talking on Guild communications, telling whoever they were talking to that Boji had just come up the wall.
“I have the egg, nandi,” Eisi said.
“Let me have it. Quickly!” Cajeiri took it, and held it in his hand—Boji’s kind could surely see it even in the dark. He obeyed Antaro’s furious signal and kept back against the wall as he reached the window. She shoved him down, low, and he held it on the windowsill, determined not to let Boji snatch it and run.
Boji’s head appeared, under the curtain, in the barely adequate opening Antaro and Jegari had created.
Then more of him eased in under the window. Everyone in the room stayed very still.
“Come, come, come, Boji. Egg.” He kept it just out of reach. “Take the egg.”
All of Boji came in.
“Now!” Antaro said aloud, and down went the window, smoothly, from both sides.
The window slamming down panicked Boji. He jumped for a chair in the dark and jumped again, one place after another, and lost himself in the recesses of the high ceiling, where no light reached.
“Lock the window,” Veijico said quietly. “Get the young gentleman back from it, nadiin.”
She had just said it and he had gotten up, about to back away, when a shot went off, not near the mecheita pen. North of that, his ears told him. On the grounds outside, but under Great-uncle’s and mani’s windows.
“Mani!” Cajeiri said. “Nadiin! Mani’s rooms!”
“They are safe,” Lucasi said. “The grooms are closing the herd into the stables. Taibeni riders are coming in. They will be searching that little wood near the garage and all up and down. They may try that powder again. The riders are aware of it.”
Damn, Cajeiri thought. They were all standing in the dark, he still had a stupid egg in his hand, and now his aishid was shifting about, putting protective jackets on, and strapping on their sidearms. He set the egg down on the table nearest, intending to explain to his guests as much as he knew, when of a sudden something dropped like a missile and left again.
And the egg was gone.
• • •
“Any word?” Bren asked—he and Jase were in the dark, literally. The two of them had been in late conference in Bren’s suite when the alert had come down. Banichi and Jago had grabbed up jackets and pistols and headed out to liaison with Cenedi at the first alarm. Tano and Algini had stayed—armed, in the dark, with the door locked, and talking to someone. Jase had advised Kaplan and Polano, next door, to arm and expect news as it came in.
“We are receiving word,” Tano said calmly, “that fire came from one of the house guards. A sensor picked up someone near the stable. The young gentleman, meanwhile, reports the parid’ja came back to the window and they let him in.”
Guild reports were not sloppy. The report said someone, not movement, or an animal. Someone had been at the stables, and if Cajeiri’s pet had had anything to do with what followed—it had probably run for a high spot when someone had come close to its hiding-spot.
“We have a problem,” he said in ship-speak, for Jase’s benefit. “Near the stables. Our problem didn’t get out on foot. He might have decided to risk taking the herd-leader. Meanwhile Cajeiri’s little pet made it back to his window and they let it in.” He was not happy about the youngsters near a window at the moment.
“You think he’d survive to get a saddle on that fellow?” Jase asked, and simultaneously someone knocked on the door. A human voice said, “Captain?”
“Kaplan and Polano,” Bren said to Tano, who was nearest the door. “Let them in, nadi.”
A quick unlock let Jase’s bodyguard into the room from the lighted hall—and both of them arrived in tees and knit pants, Polano with his rifle, Kaplan with a pistol.
The door shut quickly, leaving them back in the dark.
“We’re all right,” Jase told his guards. “Tano and Algini are with us. The house seems secure but we’ve had an intruder out by the mecheiti.”
“There’s nothing we can do at the moment,” Bren said. Two ship’s security officers trying to assist would only add to the problem—especially with Taibeni riders coming in. “We just sit in the dark and let the Guild figure this one out.”
“Cenedi sent Nawari down the hall to see to the children,” Algini said. “The young gentleman’s aishid reports they opened the window very slightly to retrieve the parid’ja, not having their lights on at that point. They say no one was exposed.”
Cenedi was going to have an extensive word to say to the young gentleman’s aishid, Bren thought. They were all young. Cajeiri was hard to tell no. Thank God they hadn’t had a shot fired through that window.
“The second shot was from a member of Lord Tatiseigi’s Guild, who fired from an assigned position to try to stop two fugitives along the back of the house. Lord Tatiseigi’s man did not pursue. This was his order—not to leave his post for any reason.”
Two fugitives.
Algini was silent a moment. “Taibeni are coming up, part of them through the woods. The western camp has riders out now to sweep the perimeters.”
One would not want to be in the fugitives’ situation. Tatiseigi’s herd was locked in, stout doors and heavy bars assuring that herd was not g
oing to break loose and take after the Taibeni, who were going to be fanning out along the hedges, through the woods, and looking for a scent trail—
Once the mecheiti found it—it was going to be an ugly business out there. The fugitives couldn’t run fast enough—no one could. They could try the powder, they could try shooting from ambush, and they might bring riders and mecheiti down—but not all of them, not before the riders would run them down and the mecheiti would take them apart. They’d saddled fast—the Taibeni might or might not have the war-caps on those tusks, but with or without, they were lethal. He didn’t want to see the result. But it was a near certainty he would have to. They needed to know whose these men were.
He sat down, feeling his way by the table edge. In the house, everything was quiet.
“Unfortunate,” he said. “The Taibeni aren’t going to go half-measures. The Taibeni value their animals—and control in a hunting herd is on a thin thread, as it is. If they try that powder trick again—we may not have anyone to question.” He heaved a sigh. “I’m sorry about this.”
“Seems to us your security is handling the problem.”
“I’m very glad they are.”
“Any bets it’s the Kadagidi?”
“We have no few choices.” Tano turned the lights back on. “Are we clear, Tano-ji?”
“Not yet,” Tano said. “But this floor is clear.”
It was late. It had been late before the trouble began. But there was no chance they were going to go to bed until they had answers. And Supani had stood up, standing at the side, but back on duty, the room having guests. “Tea?” Bren asked Jase. “It seems we’re going to be a while at this.”
“There’s a chill,” Jase said. “Not sure whether it’s the night or the events.”
“Tea,” Bren said, “all around.” Supani nodded and set about it, Koharu moving to help him, while Tano and Algini talked to someone who presumably was in touch with those outside.
“It’s not the way the Kadagidi normally go about things,” he said to Jase, “up close like this. Usually it’s sniping from a distance. Political maneuvering. However, they’ve been pretty well confined to their own borders this entire year. The people can come and go, but Aseida’s been bottled up—not his bodyguard, but Aseida himself. If he’s picked this time to make a nuisance of himself to Tatiseigi, it’s a bad time.”
“Not part two of the grandfather’s assassination.”
“I don’t rule anything out—from either side of that matter. If it’s a probe—they already suspect their answer. And finding that out’s fairly inevitable. We only figured the Malguri story to last a few days, as is—possibly not past a Kadagidi spy on the road here. There’s a reason the Taibeni met us at the train station. They were sweeping the area before we got there, and they’ve been watching the road between Kadagidi and here. The Kadagidi have their own train station, two of them, one in the township, one closer to the Kadagidi estate. It’s not as if they need to be using the road past Tatiseigi’s estate. As far as I know—it’s not been an issue.”
Koharu poured tea for them, as Supani was doing the same for Kaplan and Polano. Bren took a sip.
“The Taibeni have located them, nandiin,” Algini said. “The signal is located but not taken.”
Damn. A complication?
“What do you think is going on, Gini-ji?”
“One rather suspects,” Algini said, “that our problems are up a tree.”
• • •
They could have the lights on now, Nawari said as he arrived, and kindly turned them on.
Cajeiri was relieved that the alert seemed to be winding down, and he drew easier breaths with Nawari in the room to look things over. He trusted his own aishid, that they could take care of things if they happened, but he by no means wanted things to happen tonight, with gunshots going off. He had heard that sound all too often in his life, and one could not trust being absolutely safe even on the second floor.
And his guests were impressed and seemed reassured, now that the light was on. Nawari walked around with his rifle in hand—Nawari was lean and particularly good-looking and very professional-looking in his glance over things.
“Good you had the lights out,” Nawari said.
Antaro said firmly, “The moment the alert came, Nawari-nadi.”
Nawari looked at the window latch, took a look outside, moving the filmy curtain with his hand, and looked satisfied.
Then he looked at him. “One understands you recovered the parid’ja, nandi.”
Cajeiri took a careful breath: Nawari would not chastise him or his aishid in front of his guests, no.
But he could not let his aishid be pulled aside for a reprimand, either. “Nawari-nadi, I ordered it. We heard the mecheiti. And then we heard Boji scratching at the window. We had turned the lights out.”
“We put the lights out immediately when we heard a disturbance,” Veijico said, which was right. “Records will note we notified security simultaneously.”
“Then Boji tapped the window,” Cajeiri said. “He makes this sound. My aishid was very careful. They opened the drape from the sides, we had the lights out, and we did not open the window but a crack. I had an egg, and Boji came in on his own.”
Nawari looked at Antaro and Jegari.
“The tap is distinctive, nadi,” Antaro said, “and we at no time presented a target.”
“Bear in mind that the window-glass would not stop an intruder, nadiin. —Our allies have deployed riders from both camps, tracking two targets. Do not look out the windows, even after the all-clear.”
“Great-uncle’s herd—” Cajeiri said, thinking instantly of Jeichido out there.
“Shut in,” Nawari said. “Safe and shut into their stable. Our allies are dealing with the matter. There may be unpleasantness. Your guests, young gentleman, should not be confronted with the view.”
He understood, then—he absolutely understood. “Yes, Nawari-nadi,” he said.
“You seem to be in good order here. Are you anxious about being by yourselves tonight, young gentleman? There will be guards in the hall all night.”
“We are perfectly fine,” he was quick to say. “Only no house servant should open our door.”
“That word is already out, for all the house.” Nawari headed the door, and Cajeiri cast a fast look about the tops of the curtains and hangings.
“Please,” he said as Nawari laid his hand on the latch, “please be very careful with the door, Nawari-nadi. Boji is hiding somewhere in the suite, and one does not wish him loose in Great-uncle’s house.”
“One will be very careful,” Nawari said solemnly, and was exactly that, in leaving them alone in the room.
The Taibeni had the mecheiti hunting the intruders.
At least they were not in Great-uncle’s basement.
He hoped there were no more of them.
He faced his guests, who had not, he thought, gotten all of that past Nawari’s Malguri accent.
And he did not want to tell them all of it, about the mecheiti, or he would never get them back near the stables.
“Everything is good,” he said. “All safe.” He glanced at his aishid, very sorry that he had gotten them in trouble. “Nadiin-ji, one regrets—”
Antaro gave a little oblique nod, as if to say, yes, there would be a problem, but his aishid would deal with that for him, too.
“We have Boji back,” she said.
“Wherever he is,” Lucasi said.
But they all sat down to talk it over, late as it was, with his aishid nominally still on duty, still armed, leaning rather than sitting.
And in a little while Boji put his head out from the top of a drape.
“Egg,” Cajeiri said, and Lieidi, nearby and with his eye on Boji, calmly reached into his pocket and produced one. “His egg, nandi.”
• • •
“We are strongly suspecting,” Tano said, still listening to the communications flow, and still with no word what the situation was out on the grounds, “that this infiltration was prior to the sensors going up. It would take a very expert sort to get in here now. I know only four who could attempt it and three of them are under this roof.”
“The fourth?” Bren asked. Jase was doing a shorthand translation for Kaplan and Polano. Algini was checking Banichi’s black box, doing something.
“Far too wise to take off across that meadow with the mecheiti let loose. We believe they were inside, decided to try to get out. At the moment, we are more worried about anyone who may be left inside.”
“Somebody our housecleaning missed?” Bren asked.
“Possibly, nandiin-ji. We have kept staff frozen in place for hours for individual interviews. We have begun to release certain staff, one area at a time, as their personal quarters are searched and cleared. Lord Tatiseigi’s security is proceeding now with a roll call, all staff to report for individual recognition and clearance, and it has been slow. We are not accepting a supervisor’s word without an interview and an examination of identification—we are doing this as delicately as possible, considering we are treading over Atageini prerogatives. We have conducted interviews. We have asked about unlocked doors, pilferage, or unusual behavior, about persons late, or otherwise out of routine. We have had chiefs of staff cross-compare the schedules and duty reports. We are now going over those records ourselves. We have checked the furloughed servants: five groundskeepers who were put on holiday before our visit—three mechanics sent on furlough the day before our arrival. They are registered at the hotel in the township. We have sixteen questionable individuals lodged in a house, under guard, which represents every individual who might know anything about our activity and security arrangements here. We have not had any deliveries, no one coming or going.”
“We are not satisfied with the garage,” Algini said sharply. “It abuts the area where we had the first alarm. We are rechecking.”
“The three mechanics,” Tano said, “normally have quarters in the loft above the service area. We started processing that area this afternoon. The vehicles, the loft, the fueling station, the service pit . . . the searchers say most access doors are painted shut and undisturbed—they opened the plumbing access, and checked for signs of entry, but found none. The place is evidently a dense clutter of tools, pipe, chain, all sorts of things. Four of Cenedi’s men spent two hours going over the place—but we also have had the basements to go through, and the staff checks. The team in charge locked the garage and put a guard on it, then went to check plumbing accesses that branch off from that one.”