Banichi looked at him, assessing, as it seemed. Weighing answers. “Guild Headquarters knows what the train is. We do not.”
“It is my guess that the dowager will keep her word, and we are going down to guarantee Lord Bregani’s safety.”
“If it can be guaranteed,” Banichi said. “Which is to say—Cenedi will be very reluctant to move until we have better information.”
Narani had prepared his coat. Bren reached back for the sleeves, and Narani settled it on his shoulders.
“How is the situation in Koperna at the moment?” Bren asked, letting Narani fuss with his right cuff.
“We do not have detail and one would not call it stable. We have sketchy information that sites the government as having moved from the residency area to the broadcast center—we assume this is Bregani’s cousin in that location. We are told the situation is moderately stable.”
So government was being run, effectively, from the broadcast center: it gave the government a voice and placed key personnel in a fundamentally more secure building. But it did not sound like complete tranquility, and it could get worse without notice. The Guild would secure the railyard first; and the station; and secure avenues from that, with a priority of protecting the broadcast center and being sure of the cousin’s safety.
“One would hope they are protecting the records,” Bren said, thinking of the Residency dropping to a secondary concern.
“Those and the utilities,” Banichi said.
They had hoped for more certainty. But the Guild would secure areas before it moved on, certainly leaving nothing of resistance between them and the railyard, logically moving to relieve any pressure on Bregani’s cousin.
Time was when the human from Port Jackson had had a very limited grasp of strategy and tactics, but he had gained something over the years—listening to Banichi.
And staying out of the way. Now—
Now it came to him that Ilisidi might have played this board in a very different fashion. If she had simply sat aboard and not communicated with an increasingly anxious Lord Topari—Topari would have been beyond agitated. But the Dojisigin might have regarded the Red Train’s arrival as a bluff. Or a decoy. Or even an uncommon but not unknown routing. The Red Train had occasionally come through here in the past, stopping briefly in Hasjuran, before going down on a non-stop run to Najida.
“One would think,” he said to Banichi, “that the dowager need not have made her presence aboard known. We made that excursion, all of us, to Lord Topari’s dinner. And if the Dojisigi have agents here, as they surely do—they will have reported it.”
“Indeed.”
“When the Red Train left half its cars and went down to Koperna, they may have suspected she was going there herself.”
“When it turned about and went up again,” Banichi expanded on the hypothetical, “they may or may not have realized Bregani was on it. They may not even have realized it as the Guild deployed down there, and it is remotely possible they still do not realize he is here—though once the Guild deployed, with a declaration it was at Lord Bregani’s request, it would put the mecheita in the dining room, so to speak. And orders have been coming from Bregani’s cousin, purporting to be from him. Now the Dojisigin see another train coming down the grade. They might move to stop it. They might mistake it, in the dark, for the Red Train coming back again, to take control of the action in Koperna—which would be interesting.”
“Sabotage?”
“Say that we are not sitting and waiting for them to try it. The first train down to Senjin deployed agents with cold-weather gear along the route, with better equipment and insulation than the Shadow Guild will have. That is classified, Bren-ji. We retain all options. Should the Hasjuran grade not be an option, we can reverse here and go all the way around the Southern Range to come into Senjin from the west. But that is a good seven or more days, and the longer Senjin lacks certainty the worse for the situation. We do not want to fight the people of Koperna.”
“So we are going down.”
“I think that is the conclusion the dowager will reach. There are no barriers down on the coast. One bridge. That also will be under our surveillance by now. Koperna has no defenses on the eastern approach—its defense having rested with the Dojisigin even before the Shadow Guild existed, there are not even the remnants of walls. The land is flat and the marsh drainage, save that one river, is to the south of the railroad. This has been extensively planned. I can say that. Cenedi’s briefing covered all points.”
“Except that train just now.”
“Excepting that,” Banichi said. “So we are fairly sure where we will meet it.”
“We are wagering a very great deal on that.”
“If it surprises us, it very likely surprises the Shadow Guild.”
“To our good, in that,” Bren said. He stood in court dress. Banichi in the more armored gear the Guild used in combat. “I am to deal with Lord Topari, assuming he keeps the appointment. I do not think the dowager will be in any mood for it.”
“She will not,” Banichi agreed.
“Do you think Tiajo is not going to survive, this time?”
“I think it was not the dowager’s direct intention. I think it likeliest the aiji is simply moving to protect his grandmother against any unforeseen countermove. It would be foolish to make a try at the Red Train with the aiji’s forces in place . . . but Tiajo is not known for common sense.”
That was true. Tiajo had gotten power as a teenager, and she never could have stayed in power without the Shadow Guild and all its apparatus. They moderated her bad decisions, but they had humored her hates and her tantrums and killed for them with no particular objection. She was manageable and she was feared by her people. That was her function, for them.
Could her recklessness push the Shadow Guild into a desperate move, and into a Guild trap?
On the one hand it was a wonderful prospect—seeing the last of the Shadow Guild go down.
On the other hand one did not want to be a close observer to that event. The Shadow Guild was entrenched in the folded landscape of the inner Dojisigin. They had lost heavily in the last set-to with the Shejidani Guild, who had outfought them in the field. Now Ilisidi had just stripped away the province that was Tiajo’s last ally. Ilisidi was directly threatening them, daring them to risk more of their assets to come after her.
“Let me know,” Bren said, “whatever you can find out. And have breakfast, Nichi-ji. Let us take whatever we can while we can. We are not at all certain about supper.”
* * *
• • •
Narani laid out all the stores of teacakes they had without access to the galley, with toast and preserves, and pots of tea; and they had, at least, breakfast before them, on the inadequate table. It was set as a standing buffet, and Algini poured tea in a row of cups.