The cook had provided a selection of prepared fruits, very artistically arranged. That appealed. One could have exempted the prepared head of the unseasonal game as a cap for the stewpot, but Banichi lifted it by the ears and set it delicately aside, gratefully out of view behind the stewpot. Other dead animals stared down from the walls.
“This is excellent,” Banichi said.
Bren poked at the sliced meat. His nerves were jangled. The dining chair hurt. He took up his knife and cut a bite, trying to put ghost stories and assassins out of his mind. He found the first taste excellent, and helped himself to the sliced meat and a good deal of the spicy sauce he enjoyed over the vegetables.
“Is there,” he asked, in the lull eating made, “possibly any word on my mail? I know you’ve had your hands full, but—”
“I have, as you quaintly express it, had my hands full. Perhaps Jago will remember to check the post.”
“You could call her.” Temper flared up. Or a sense of muddled desperation. “Has anyone explained to my office where I am, or why?”
“I frankly don’t know that, paidhi-ji.”
“I want you to convey a message to them. I want you to patch me through on your communications. I know you can do that, from the security station.”
“Not without clearance. It’s a public move, if the paidhi takes to our security channels. You understand the policy statement that would make, absolute encouragement to your detractors and Tabini’s.”
“What happened to security?”
“Courier is still far better. Far better, nadi. Prepare your statement. I’ll send it the next time one of us carries a report.”
Banichi didn’t refuse him. Banichi didn’t say no. But it kept coming out to procrastination, I forgot, and, There’s a reason.
He ate the rest of the meat course in silence, favoring his sore mouth.
And questions still nagged him.
“Was it an accident, the power outage?”
“Most probably. To put a quarter of the homes in Maidingi township in the dark? Hardly the Guild’s style.”
“But you knew it last night. You knew someone was loose on the grounds.”
“I didn’t know. I suspected it. We had a perimeter alarm.”
Did we? he thought bitterly. And asked, instead: “Where is Algini?”
“He’ll return with Jago.”
“Did he leave with Jago?”
“He took the commercial flight. Yesterday.”
“Carrying a report?”
“Yes.”
“For what? Forgive my frankness, Banichi-ji, but I don’t believe there’s any possible investigation to be done—to find the precise agency at work here, yes, but I don’t for a moment believe Tabini doesn’t know exactly what’s wrong and who’s behind it. I don’t believe you don’t know. I don’t believe you didn’t know where I was this morning.”
“Behind the ridge, mostly, for quite a while. I noticed your limping.”
Soreness didn’t help his mood. “You might have warned me.”
“Regarding what? That Ilisidi would go riding? She often does.”
“Dammit, if you’d told me there was the chance of a sniper, if you’d told me we’d be leaving the house, I might have come up with a reasonable objection.”
“You had a reasonable objection. You might have pleaded your recent indisposition. I doubt they would have carried you to the stables.”
“You didn’t tell me there was a danger!”
“There’s a constant danger, nadi.”
“Don’t shove me off, dammit. You let me go out there. It’s harder to find an excuse for tomorrow, when I’m also committed to go. And am I safe then? I don’t always understand your sense of priorities, Banichi, and in this, I truly confess I don’t.”
“The tea was Ilisidi’s personal opportunity. And Cenedi was with us last night, during the search. Cenedi would have taken me if he’d intended to. I made that test.”
It took a moment for that to sink in. “You mean you gave Cenedi a chance to kill you?”
“When you will make promises to strangers without consulting me, paidhi-ji, you do make my job more difficult. Jago was advised of the situation. Possibly Cenedi knew it, and knew that he had Jago yet to deal with, but Cenedi is not contracted against you, I made amply certain of that. And I was between you and the estate at all times this morning.”