Amit glanced at Kiva. “Ah, Lady Kiva. I thought I recognized you. I believe you were friendly with both my sister and brother at one time.”

“ ‘Friendly’ isn’t the word I’d use,” Kiva said.

“Perhaps not,” Amit said, agreeably, and then turned his attention back to Huma. “Interference of trade is a serious charge, ma’am, so I assume our lawyers will be discussing that as well. I do not need to remind you that the Court of Grievances is very sensitive to being used as a way for one house to intimidate another. So if you bring a suit and lose, the House of Nohamapetan will get lawyers’ fees and treble that in damages. And our lawyers are very good and thus very expensive.”

“We won’t lose. We’re also bringing charges against your brother Ghreni for attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, conspiracy to both, sabotage of a guild vessel, piracy, and extortion.”

“What?” Amit said, less genially.

“The little fucker planted a bomb on my ship and sent pirates after one of my passengers,” Kiva said.

“And yes, Amit, we have all the evidence we need to make those charges stick,” Huma said. “We have Kiva, and the victim of the attempted kidnapping and murder, and the crew of the Yes, Sir all willing to testify.”

“Plus the security recordings of the attempted murder, and the confession of the hit man, and the recordings of the communications between the Yes, Sir and the pirate vessel,” Kiva added, helpfully.

Huma nodded. “There is that slight complication that Ghreni is at least a year and a half away, which makes it difficult for him to be recalled to stand trial. But with the evidence we have, I think we can convince both the guild and parliament to issue a bill of attainder.”

“And since the little shit was the authorized representative of the House of Nohamapetan on End, we’ll make sure the bill attaches to your house,” Kiva said. She was freestyling off of what her mother was saying, but she was pretty sure she knew what her mother was up to and that this was where she was going with it. So why the fuck not.

“I can guarantee you that the House of Nohamapetan is not engaged in any plan to destroy one of your ships,” Amit said.

“Don’t even try that, Lord Amit,” Huma said. “We all know your brother doesn’t have that much initiative. Neither do you, for that matter. If Ghreni is doing anything, he’s doing it under direction. If not from the House of Nohamapetan, then from someone in the House of Nohamapetan, which from our point of view is the same thing. We have no problem asking the guild and Interdependency courts to widen the scope of the conspiracy charge and investigate you, your sister, and indeed the entire fucking House of Nohamapetan.”

“That might be more difficult than you expect,” Amit said.