Betrayer, by C.J. Cherryh

[othercat]

At 328 pages, this book was a very fast read, and follows very closely behind the previous book. Bren has been sent to negotiate with Machigi, the young leader of the Marid, a region that has been causing trouble, and was responsible for the recent coup. His situation is complicated by not having any clear marching orders from Ilisidi on what he can offer Machigi and further complicated by two Guild assassins who had managed to get on the wrong side of everyone by being extremely stupid. Finally, the presence of Barb, who had been kidnapped by unknown persons at the end of the previous book, creates its own unique problems (mainly problems involving Jago wanting to scratch Barb’s eyes out and Barb being hopelessly stupid).

After an initially positive interview with Machigi and Bren deciding that Ilisidi wants him to solve the problem the Marid are having by proposing an alliance between Ilisidi’s eastern associates and the Marid, (which could potentially resolve various conflicts that had resulted in the Marid coup) leads the atevi lord to invoke an ancient negotiation custom. In the past, the white ribbon and clothes that had come to signify the human ambassador-translator had been the uniform of a special kind of (atevi) negotiator who negotiated based on manchi (loyalty or affinity) toward both sides of a conflict.

Betrayer