“Here,” Jegari said, handing the water dish to him. “I shall open the cage. You can put the water in. Just be careful he does not get past you. Antaro can hold the harness while you work, through the grille.”
It took a little arranging, but Antaro reached in and caught the harness,. Cajeiri carefully bent down and put the water dish down.
“Now we can take the harness off,” Jegari said. “He should think about his training when he has it on, but he will only do it mischief if we leave it on. Besides, it will chafe his skin.
That took another bit of careful maneuvering, which Jegari and Antaro managed, getting the harness unbuckled and then letting Boji loose in the cage.
Boji was happier then and bounded this way and that, from perch to perch, ignoring the water dish.
Antaro flipped little hammerlike stops on the bottom and the top of the door.
Antaro said, “Always do that, nandi, because he may be clever enough to get his fingers through and open the main latch. That is why the area behind the latch has a much denser pattern in the brass, so he cannot do that, but my grandmother had one that could open almost anything.”
“One hopes he minds his manners!” Cajeiri said fervently, and then was amazed to see Boji hop down, dip both little hands in the water dish and drink just like a person.
Fascinating. And very spooky.
Then Boji leaped back up to the perch and then to the wall nearest him, clung to the brass flowers of the filigree and looked at him through the holes with first one eye and then another, as if correctly realizing now who he belonged to.
They said parid’ji could find man’chi to the person that owned them.
Atevi could. Mecheiti could, in their own way. He had never wondered about other animals, except cats and dogs and monkeys, which were as absent from the world as dinosaurs.
He had sowanted a cat or a dog. Or a dinosaur. Just a little one.
But Boji was going to be so good and so much fun. And if Boji decided to settle man’chi toward him, it was going to be very, very good, and so impressive for everyone he knew.
Boji was more fun than any baby. That was sure.
Once mani got back, he could visit her apartment and be under her rules when he was there, which he liked far better than his father’s rules. Well—but—
If he stayed overnight at mani’s apartment, once she came back, somebody had to keep Boji. And he could not tell the staff about Boji yet. And he still had no idea what he was going to do about the servants.
He would have to leave half his bodyguard to stay in his apartment, and then he would have to lie, and then his bodyguard would, and it would just be damned difficultc
Orche could take Boji to see mani. Mani might be amused by Boji. She had strongly protected all sorts of wild creatures on Malguri land, and she had been very fierce about telling lords they should not declare any wild creature to be vermin, which had prompted no few arguments with her neighbors and, on several occasions, shooting.
She would definitely think Boji was interesting. Boji’s kind lived on the western side of the mountains, and she might never have seen one close up. She mightbe his ally in keeping Boji. If she got back before his mother and father found out he was here.
He just sat, watching Boji clean his fur, plotting how to get allies on the matter of Boji.
And the shuttle was coming down. He would get to see Narani, and Asicho, who had used to treat him very specially. They were both coming back to nand’ Bren’s service. Bindanda was coming, too. Bindanda had used to make him special desserts. He could almost taste them.
And his tutor was not boring, which was a great surprise.
Suddenly everything in the world was going as right as it could go.
Well, except for the baby coming.
9
Letters and committee meetings.
Committee meetings, and more committee meetings, and a reasonable forecast of arguments and squabbles between regions that had to be headed off once the details of the Machigi alliance became public. Jealousies existed between clans within regions, and between provinces and regions, where it came to prerogatives and agreements with the government in Shejidan. Philosophical disputes existed between the modernists and the traditionalists and the Rational Determinists, a philosophical quagmire that the paidhi-aiji didn’t remotely wish to navigate. When it came to philosophy, one could let Geigi, a Rational Determinist, use his influence, from a safe remove at Kajiminda to make headway on that front. Let Tatiseigi, a staunch traditionalist, have at the rest of his associates in Shejidan, in favorof the paidhi-aiji’s position. Therewas a novelty.
The whisper was getting out regarding the new proposals for the disposition of the coast and the tribal Gan and Edi. Rumors were also getting out about the treaty settling the Marid and about the paidhi-aiji’s position on cell phones.
Three issues. One could not have shouted fire in the halls of the Bujavid and stirred up any more passionate reaction than that combination of news. There were increasing rustlings of alarm from every political entity in the aishidi’tat.
Jago reported that Tabini was getting questions, too. Tabini was letting supporters of the cell phone issue down by stages, saying that the matter was complex and under renewed study, not quite mentioning yet, for the benefit of those opposed to cell phones, the possibility of some device still more technical in the offing.
And the irony of it all was that, for all the furor the agreement between Ilisidi and Machigi was causing, there was no point at which the various clans, districts, industries, associations, organizations, and philosophical groups—could actually get to vote on whether or not there would be an association between Malguri and the Taisigin Marid. An association was purely—and traditionally—a matter between or among the participants, and it was, to a certain extent—nobody else’s business until it was signed.
Thenthe implementation was going to rattle every door in the aishidi’tat.
Atevi politics at its finest.
The aiji-dowager sent word she was winging her way here—or was about to. The time was flexible. The shuttle was comingcthat took time, but gravity was notflexible. And Machigi’s representative would be coming in; the train would be on a commercial schedule, not being a special.
As for Ilisidi’s timing, it was a toss-up as to whether it was news about the shuttle, news about the representative, a personal letter from Tatiseigi, or the fear that Lord Geigi would be coming in to have a potential encounter with Tatiseigi that had gotten the dowager moving—but moving she was, possibly to fling herself between her two rivalrous associates.
Adding to the stir, the porcelain exhibit had just opened its doors to the Merchant’s Guild, as a “gift from the lord of the Marid,” and the word had now gone from the paidhi’s office to the Merchant’s Guild that this exhibit represented an opportunity for a trade that had not been available for a very long time. The first merchants to set up agreements in Tanaja naturally stood to profit most, and to get their hands on a currently limited number of itemscoh, they understood that part very well.
That bid fair to start a feeding frenzy, and the feeding frenzy was almost certain to cross party lines and to upset just about every vested interest who couldn’t see a way to profit.
The Marid representative, too, was going to get a great deal of attention once she arrived—dangerous attention, in some quarters. And the Guild knew it.
Bren sent, by means of the Guild, a welcoming message for the representative when she arrived, along with a bouquet of suitable and auspicious flowers of the season, and a card marking the occasion.
One understands you have had a long trip and may wish to rest,he said in the letter, so one hesitates to call in the midst of your arrival. My office and my personal staff stand ready to assist or to answer any questions, and please have your staff contact mine without hesitation if there is regard way in which I personally can assist you.