Protector: Foreigner #14 by C.J. Cherryh Read Free Book Online Page A

among Ragi, didn’t feel it, couldn’t get her mind into her husband’s clan—
    —And that said something disturbing about the tension in that marriage.
    “A human cannot offer advice here.”
    “I do not court advice, paidhi. I know exactly where I am, and where she is. But your bodyguard outranks all but my grandmother’s, and
they
are back there right now discussing how to manage a situation
I
have created.”
    A slight hesitation on that unusually personal
I.
    “Your bodyguard, aiji-ma?” Bren guessed.
    “My bodyguard—and my wife. Ajuri poses a more serious threat than one might think: I have been directly briefed, and
my
bodyguard has
not.
That is only
one
of our problems. Then there is this: if my wife does
not
recognize the increasingly grim situation with Ajuri, and is naive in her thinking, then she is too stupid to be my wife. If she
does
know it, and is attempting to involve herself in this clan’s longstanding politics, it can lead to much worse places—danger to her, naturally—danger to the aishidi’tat itself from her associations within that clan, and temptations to actions which are—what is the human expression? On the
slippery slope
?”
    “One understands.”
    “I do not believe she would harm her own son to set her daughter in his place. And she knows our son is too stubborn to change his man’chi. But she has possession of another Ragi child, the one she is carrying. And this is what I have told my grandmother’s bodyguard, and indirectly, yours.
You
need to know. My
grandmother
may well know. In fact I am sure she knows. This approach of my grandmother this evening was
not
in ignorance of the situation. Hence its troubling timing.”
    “I understand.” Not
one understands,
the formal, rote answer that equaled
yes, sir.
But
I
understand.
I
am hearing and agreeing. And he did understand. Far too much to be comfortable at all. “I am at
your
orders, aiji-ma. They take precedence over hers . . . though I shall try, by your leave, to find a course where both work.”
    “You have that skill. Use it. About certain things, your aishid will brief you. Know there may be a time my son may resort to you on his own. Do not refuse him. Put him immediately within your security perimeter.”
    “I shall, without fail, aiji-ma.”
    “There may be a time
I
send him,” Tabini said further. “That will signal a far more serious situation.”
    “Aiji-ma. We will defend him with all our resources.”
    “I have no doubt of it,” Tabini said, “and that is all I can say until events prove the outcome.” He himself opened the door into the reception hall. They quietly reentered, past the two bodyguards. Numerous eyes turned their way, and Bren took his cue from Tabini and smiled, as if it was some light, pleasant business.
    Far from it.
    Tabini moved off to speak to another partisan.
    Deep breath. Keep smiling.
    He presented courtesies to a lord of the mountain districts, and to the Chairman of Finance.
    Thank God the boy had gone to bed. The atmosphere had gone dangerous, and he was, God help him,
not
as good as some at keeping worry off his face.
    And he was not surprised when, a few minutes on, one focus of that worry—Ilisidi—walked up and stopped beside him.
    “Well?” she asked, expecting at least no outright prevarications.
    “Your grandson is concerned, aiji-ma,” he answered her. The evening was, one was sure, needing to wind down soon. There was drink enough that voices were getting a little loud. “But the situation is of long standing.”
    “There is every reason my granddaughter-in-law should make peace with us,” Ilisidi said. “We did not speak of the baby. Nor of the young gentleman.”
    The dowager, Tabini had said, likely knew what the issue was—probably more than he did, and maybe more than Tabini did, seeing the dowager’s guard was more plugged in to the security surrounding the aiji than were the aiji’s own bodyguards. And they all knew why there had to