He takes a deep breath and starts at the beginning.
Vorreedi manages to damp his reaction down to a clenched jaw when Miles gets to the part about Ba Lura carrying the false Great Key on its ill-fated incursion.
From there he goes on to the funeral rotunda, to his realization that to exculpate Barrayar he must produce the true Key, that the ba's murder implied something seriously whiffy going on at the highest levels of Celestial Garden security, that Benin must have been a sacrificial appointee - Benin confirms with a nod that Naru did indeed personally assign him to the case. Miles goes on to praise Benin's ability to pick up his hints and run with them, and picks up the haut-thread of the narrative again with a commendation of Lisbet Serise's ability to read her people and general level-headedness.
"I'm sure Lura was primed with all sorts of lies, but haut Lisbet didn't buy a word of them. She acted throughout for the good of the haut - for all of us - never once for her personal aggrandizement," he says. "I'd say your late August Mother chose her Handmaiden well."
"That is hardly for you to judge, Barrayaran," says the haut Fletchir Giaja in tones so dry Miles can't tell amusement from genuine danger.
"Excuse me," he says boldly, "but I didn't exactly volunteer for this mission. I was suckered into it. My judgements have brought us all here, one way or another."
no subject
He takes a deep breath and starts at the beginning.
Vorreedi manages to damp his reaction down to a clenched jaw when Miles gets to the part about Ba Lura carrying the false Great Key on its ill-fated incursion.
From there he goes on to the funeral rotunda, to his realization that to exculpate Barrayar he must produce the true Key, that the ba's murder implied something seriously whiffy going on at the highest levels of Celestial Garden security, that Benin must have been a sacrificial appointee - Benin confirms with a nod that Naru did indeed personally assign him to the case. Miles goes on to praise Benin's ability to pick up his hints and run with them, and picks up the haut-thread of the narrative again with a commendation of Lisbet Serise's ability to read her people and general level-headedness.
"I'm sure Lura was primed with all sorts of lies, but haut Lisbet didn't buy a word of them. She acted throughout for the good of the haut - for all of us - never once for her personal aggrandizement," he says. "I'd say your late August Mother chose her Handmaiden well."
"That is hardly for you to judge, Barrayaran," says the haut Fletchir Giaja in tones so dry Miles can't tell amusement from genuine danger.
"Excuse me," he says boldly, "but I didn't exactly volunteer for this mission. I was suckered into it. My judgements have brought us all here, one way or another."
The Imperial eyebrows drift upward in surprise.