Cajeiri feared so. He very greatly feared so, and told Eisi, one of the servants who had collaborated with them, bringing food and taking out soiled sand. “Be on the alert to any sign, anywhere in the premises. One believes he could even have gotten out into the servants’ halls, nadi-ji. Please look for him! Search little places! But ask no one! Do not tell anyone!”
It was a disaster. If Boji got out into the Bujavid halls, he would embarrass his father and his father’s security and the whole thing would be notorious, worse even than the mechieta and Uncle’s new driveway, which already was told about him far more often than he would like. His parents would wishthey would have a new baby who caused less trouble. They would send him off to learn responsibility.
Maybe they would send him to mani.
Mani would not be very patient with him losing Boji in her household, but at least she would just thwack his ear and forget it in an hour or so. His father and mother never forgot anything, and every time he did something in the least wrong the whole history came up again.
It was just wretched.
And he did not want to think of poor scared Boji getting out in the halls. Boji could find his way clear out of the Bujavid, out on the hill, down to the streets. He would be in the middle of Shejidan, where he could get into more trouble, and where he would find no food. He imagined the outside of the hill, where, as best he knew, there was no water, just rocks, and trees, and shrubbery. There were probably creepers, so there might be eggs, but only very little ones.
And all the traffic of the hotels racketed about below the hilclass="underline" streetcars, and shops, and the people coming and goingcBoji could get into really, really bad trouble if he had gotten out. He could be killed.
Or he could be living down in the tunnels and passages of the Bujavid, which was even worse—there might be water, but there would be no eggs at all, and it was dark and scary, and Boji liked sleeping in little secure places, like the little bag they had hung in his cage, which he slipped into very happily, with just his tail sticking up out of the bagc
Where in the apartment was like that little bag?
His aishid was still searching. They were all in the girls’ room now, taking apart the beds and searching in little spaces.
He started looking for places they might not think of. He started thinking of things like a bag. He started thinking about cloth-covered, dark places, and he looked at the hangings, and he looked even inside a big vase. And then he got down and looked under a table in a dark corner and sawc
The underside of the chair next to the table was cloth. Cloth chairs with cloth bottoms. He went from room to room looking under chairs. He looked behind the tapestry. And then he looked behind the doors, and even tipped over the very tall brass vase, just in case.
Boji was nowhere to be found. Nowhere. His aishid had by then put the girls’ beds together again and put all the drawers back in.
Soc
He looked under hisbed. In case. And under the ornate chair in the corner.
There was, under its bottom, a dark spot that looked odd. He investigated with his fingers and there was a hole.
Thatwas not the sort of thing the gentleman in charge of furnishings would like or would ever have let out unrepaired. And theyhad not put a hole in it in searching. It was just Boji’s size, and Boji had those very clever fingers.
He sat back on his heels and thought about it. If they made a big fuss and scared Boji, then the next time he got out, Boji would pick someplace harder to find. He could figure that. And he knew about this hole.
So he quietly got up, figuring to go get one of the eggs they had for bait. And on his way he put his head into the boys’ room, where they were starting to take apart Lucasi’s bed.
“One believes one may have found him. Be very quiet, nadiin-
ji! And stay here and do not make any noise!”
He ran and got an egg. And a writing pen.
And he went and sat down on the floor by the chair and used the metal pen nib to punch a hole in the end of the egg.
He sat very still with his back turned to the chair. Eggs had a smell. Boji always knew when one was offered.
Suddenly he heard movement, the sound of claws on fabric. A startling weight landed on his shoulder and headed straight down his arm to the egg.
Boji was back. He let Boji eat the egg but not take it from his hand, and with his other hand he got a grip on Boji’s harness.
Just then someone knocked at the front door, and Boji exploded, flinging egg every which way. Boji might have bitten him in his twisting and fighting to get free, except his hold on the harness was in the middle of Boji’s back, and Boji just fought and spat and yowled as he got up.
Eisi and Lieidi knew not to knock, but someone came into the sitting room, probably one of the other servants, who were notpermitted, and Cajeiri was prepared to tell them so—if he had not his arms full. He gathered himself up to his feet, shoved Boji into the hollow of his other arm and tried to calm Boji’s struggles and chittering, soothing that had some effect, at least enough that Boji stopped fighting.
Antaro had gone down the inner hall to reach the sitting roomche saw her pass the door; both doors to the bedroom were open, the sitting room door and the inner corridor door, so he had no trouble hearing.
“Aiji-ma,”he heard Antaro say, and Cajeiri’s stomach sank.
“Tell my son I shall see him,” was the answer.
Boji’s cage was in that room with the door open. Cajeiri headed for the other, inner door, for Lucasi and Jegari’s room, with the intention of handing Boji to them, but Boji suddenly set up a yowl.
“What was that?” he heard his father ask, and Antaro said, out in the sitting room, with admirable presence of mind, “One will ask, aiji-ma.”
But there was nothing for it. His hands, his face, and his good clothes were spattered with egg yolk, Boji was chattering and spitting in fright, ripping the threads of his coat in frantic attempts to escape, and his father was not going to be in a better humor at being lied to by a trainee Guildswoman under his orders.
He took a deep breath, kept a firm grip on Boji, who was clawing frantically all the while, and went out into the sitting room. His father was standing there alone, Antaro having headed for the back of the suite. He met in Antaro the doorway and caught her eyes in passing, on his way into the sitting room. He dared not say a thing but just kept going.
“Honored father,” he said, and bowed, which made Boji grab his coat with both hands, for safety.
“Son of mine,” his father said in that deep, ominous voice. “ Whatis that?”
“A pariid’ja, honored Father.”
“One can detect that basic fact. Let us amend the question. Whyis it here?”
It was not a good thing to dodge Father’s questions. He had rehearsed what he would say when he had to tell his parents about Boji. He had rehearsed it every night. But all of that was useless. “One requested him, honored Father. One had gotten the cage, and one thought—”
“Thought. One is very glad that thoughtentered somewhere into the transaction.”
“One is confined to this apartment, honored Father, and one has no chance to go out to the country, and one misses it, honored Father. On the ship at least there was the garden.”
“One sees you have fairly well started one here.”
The plants. The many plants.
“One admires plants. And one so admired the cage, which is brass,nand’ Father, and not at all breakable! One in all points remembered the rule, that I might have brass, and it is very solid. I cannot possibly damage it! And one is very happy with the apartment, nand’ Father! One is very happy with the cage, and the plants, and since it is out of the question, one is very sure, to bring a mechieta to the BujavidcOne is sure there is no stablec”