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the adults were all talking about the Shadow Guild and the Kadagidi and serious troubles. No. He was supposed to be back here with his guests, pretending everything was normal.
    It felt
just
like last year, when he had had his eighth birthday. His associates had told him he should get presents. He understood now it was polite to
give
them on his birthday, at least to special people; and that the really good thing on his birthday should be how people treated him, and what he was allowed to do. He liked that idea. It would be really good if what he got was permission to go about with just his guard . . . but he had not too much hope of that, with all that was going on.
    Still, there might be something new he would be allowed to do. He hoped it was good.
    His privilege-gift from Great-uncle was wonderful, and was an actual present, too—a mecheita descended from Great-grandmother’s famous Babsidi. And the privilege part of it was Great-uncle and mani believing he was old enough now to handle her. He had gotten that gift in front of his guests. And it had been the best day of his whole life.
    Until it turned out someone had killed his grandfather, and the Kadagidi had tried to assassinate Great-uncle.
    The sun sent a tantalizing shadow of something flickering across the shades.
    â€œDon’t,” he said in ship-speak, as Irene glanced toward that window shade right beside her. She looked at him, a little startled, then embarrassed.
    â€œI forgot.”
    â€œOne regrets,” he said in Ragi, in deliberate anger, in the most perfect court accent, “that we cannot open the shades. One regrets that we shall probably be indoors from now on. One very much regrets, nadiin-ji, that there is a
stupid
old man in the Guild.”
    Probably they missed half of that. He had not been thinking about simple words. He had only felt he had to say it or explode. And he was sorry now he had let his voice be sharp.
    â€œWe’re fine,” Gene said in ship-speak. “We’re fine, Jeri-ji. We’re
here.
We’re on a planet. It’s ordinary to you. But we’ve never even
seen
a planet in our whole lives. Now we’ve seen trees. And we’ve been on mecheita. And we’ve seen all sorts of things. Just riding the train is exciting. We’re all right. We want
you
to have a good time. It’s
your
birthday.”
    â€œThat’s right,” Artur said. “Isn’t it, Irene?”
    â€œWe’re all fine,” Irene said. “We’re happy.”
    They were very generous. He hoped they were enjoying at least what they could see. Everything had been different for them. And there would always be rules—there had been rules about manners at Great-uncle’s house, when what they all had most wanted was to remake the association they had had in the tunnels of the ship, when they had broken all the rules they ran into with no fear at all.
    But it was all different, now. Here he was not Jeri-ji, the youngest of them. He was “young gentleman” and “young sir,” and they were, well, his
guests,
and he was in charge of them, and he had to protect them. He had tried to explain about the Kadagidi. But they had no idea even yet what was really going on, and how bad it could get if enemies were trying to attack his father and overthrow the government again.
    Last night had not upset them that badly. They had not panicked. They had not asked to go back to the spaceport or wished they were back on the space station. They said were sorry about his grandfather—but they did not understand. They knew he was upset about his grandfather dying—but they thought it was from missing his grandfather. He thought about explaining the truth, that he was worried about whether his mother or father had ordered it, and how that would affect whether they stayed married.
    But he was too embarrassed to explain
that
to them.
    They could not be two years younger, and back