singing open the great gates

[middlingalong]

The following day, very little happens, except for Vorreedi mentioning that Yenaro has been arrested (by the civil police, for theft, on charges from a ghem-lord Miles has never heard of, as opposed to by Cetagandan security for treason).

Also, Ivan gets bored - with all the bodyguards Vorreedi now requires for them after the incident at the bioestheties exhibition, the possible spontaneity of going out with his ghem girlfriends is much reduced.

But the next day they get to attend the Singing Open of the Great Gates.

And oh, is there ever singing.

Comments

[middlingalong]

Nadina, meanwhile, is being supplied with another float-chair and more supplementation to her outfit and ghem-lady attendants. Linyabel gets a ghem-lady attendant too.

"I explained everything," Ivan tells Miles, "as best I could, um, under the circumstances."

"I admit," Vorreedi says, "I am still... assimilating it."

[thisvorlunatic]

Right. Miles sighs.

"What, uh, happened after I left the Star Creche?" he asks Ivan.

[middlingalong]

"I woke up and you were gone. I think that was the worst moment of my life. Knowing you'd gone haring off on some insane self-appointed mission without backup."

[thisvorlunatic]

"But Ivan," he murmurs, "you were my backup."

[middlingalong]

"Your favorite kind, knocked out cold on the floor, unable to inject sense into the proceedings, so you could take off to get killed or worse when everybody would have blamed me. The last thing Aunt Cordelia said to me before we left was 'And try to keep him out of trouble, Ivan.'" He parodies the Betan accent and everything. "Anyway, as soon as I figured out what the hell was going on, I got away from the haut-ladies - they're just like my mother, Miles, several times over, ugh - anyway, and Lisbet very emphatically suggested I talk to ghem-Colonel Benin, and he seemed like he had his head screwed on straight -" Benin drifts over to listen in. "And God be praised he actually listened to me. Made sense of my - gabble."

"I was, of course," says Benin, "following the very unusual activities around the Star Creche today. My own investigations had already led me to suspect something was going on involving one or more of the haut-governors, so I had orbital squads on alert."

"Squads," snorts Ivan. "There's three Imperial battle cruisers surrounding this ship, right now."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Sounds about right. Ghem-General Chilian's a dupe," he addresses Benin, "but you might want to ask him a few pointed questions about his wife the haut Vio."

[isthisart]

"He has already been detained," says Benin.

(Linyabel, meanwhile, has quietly halted the scream into everywhere of the contents of the Great Key and turned it over to Nadina, with its accessory.)

"One thing that Lord Vorpatril has not yet explained to my satisfaction, Lieutenant Vorkosigan," says Vorreedi grimly, "is why you concealed the initial incident involving an object of such enormous importance -"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Kety was trying to frame Barrayar, sir. Until I could achieve independent corroborative evidence that—"

"From your own side," Vorreedi presses.

Miles sighs.

"In fact, sir, I did not at first recognize the Great Key for what it was. But once the haut Lisbet contacted me via Linyabel, events slid very rapidly from apparently trivial to extremely delicate. By the time I realized the full depth and complexity of the haut-governor's plot, it was too late."

"Too late for what?" asks Vorreedi, rather pointedly.

Miles shakes his head. "You would have taken the investigation away from me, you know you would have, sir. Everyone in the wormhole nexus thinks I'm a cripple who's been given a cushy nepotistic sinecure as a courier. That I might be competent for more is something I - have never been given a chance to publicly prove."

The higher-ups on his own side know, of course, at least those of sufficient height - Illyan, Gregor, Miles's father Aral. It's the Cetagandans who are unaware of just exactly who played an instrumental role in foiling their attempted invasion of Vervain a year or two ago.

And it's the Cetagandans whom Miles happened to need to impress this time around. Not that that was his sole motive.

"So... you wanted to be a hero?" clarifies ghem-Colonel Benin.

"So badly you didn't even care for which side?" says Vorreedi unhappily.

"I have done the Cetagandan Empire a nice little favour," Miles concedes, directing an unsteady but courteous bow to Benin. "But only in the course of rescuing Barrayar from the wrong end of Governor Kety's cruel ambitions. It was all of a piece."

[middlingalong]

"Where would you be if we hadn't come along, though?" asks Ivan.

(Linyabel, meanwhile, murmurs to her ghem-attendant that, no, she does not need the Barrayaran removed from her person, is the ghem-attendant even paying attention?)

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles grins.

"Ivan, we won before you boarded this ship. Kety was just thrashing a little on the way down. I suppose if you'd taken another hour he could've cut the bubble and killed us or something," he concedes, "probably starting with me, but he still wouldn't have gotten away and the Star Creche still would've recovered the Key."

[middlingalong]

"Why don't you sign up for Cetagandan Imperial Security, then, coz," says Ivan. "Maybe ghem-Colonel Benin would promote you. Maybe they'll load you up with a whole grab bag of prizes."

[isthisart]

Linyabel raises an eyebrow at Ivan. She doesn't think she approves very much of him.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Ivan," Miles says pointedly. "Don't be an ass." He flashes a grin. "I'm too short for Cetagandan Security, obviously. If I was freelancing for anyone, it was the Star Creche."

[isthisart]

"For which," Linyabel puts in, "the Star Creche is thoroughly thankful."

Benin deflates slightly. "Hm. In any case, Lord Vorkosigan - my Celestial master the Emperor haut Fletchir Giaja requests you attend upon him in my company. Now."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...Certainly," sighs Miles. He glances conflictedly at Ivan and Vorreedi, unsure whether he wants them along, or wants them in the next solar system. Ivan especially.

[middlingalong]

"...the haut Linyabel and your friends may accompany you," Benin says. He adds, to Vorreedi and Ivan - assuming Linyabel is full up on protocol, "With the understanding that they may not speak unless invited to do so."

Vorreedi nods understanding. Ivan attempts to look extremely bland.

[isthisart]

With that, Linyabel starts floating forward. They wind up near Nadina.

"Such a nice young man," Nadina murmurs about Benin, nodding at him. "So neatly turned-out, and he understands the proprieties. We'll have to see what we can do for him. Don't you agree?"

"Not me," says Linyabel. "Surely."

"You've acquitted yourself so well, though. Perhaps things could be different now."

"Not, I think, enough to suit me, even if enough to suit the haut. But by all means, get ghem-Colonel Benin a present."

And with that, they are on the Cetagandan security shuttle, accompanied by Benin himself.

[thisvorlunatic]

"By the way," says Miles, smiling with a hint of mischief, "congratulations on cracking your very tricky murder case, General Benin."

"...Colonel Benin," the ghem-colonel corrects, blinking in puzzlement.

"Time will tell," Miles says serenely.

[isthisart]

Linyabel stays with them - and with Miles in her lap - until they have landed, and then she picks him up and puts him on his feet gently and goes with Nadina and Benin one way while ghem-guards - courteous, but mysteriously and politely void of any means for their guests to communicate with the outside - lead the Barrayarans elsewhere.

Elsewhere is an antechamber; following a prolonged wait, elsewhere becomes a chamber proper which Vorreedi claims not to recognize. It doesn't, apparently, see use in public or diplomatic ceremony. It has curiously deadened acoustics and, under cunningly but incompletely concealed panels, a pop-up comconsole and station chairs. They are obliged to stand for the time being, as none of the pop-up furnishings are currently popped up.

Yenaro, who looks much the worse for wear, is waiting there too. He is not pleased to see Miles and Ivan, and tries to pretend not to notice them.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles, undeterred by Yenaro's displeasure, essays a cheerful wave.

[isthisart]

Yenaro, pained, nods politely back.

Ghem-Colonel Benin enters the room, and dismisses the ghem-guards. Following him are Linyabel, Nadina, and Lisbet, in float-chairs but without force-screens, who arrange themselves on the side of the room. (Nadina's hair is tucked with its ends out of sight in her garments.)

Last, the emperor himself strides in, shedding more guards at the entrance. By Imperial standards, his outfit is casual, half a dozen layers of mourning white. Yenaro sways on his feet as though likely to faint. Even Benin is rigidly formal. A chair rises from the floor to greet the imperial presence, and down sits Emperor Fletchir Giaja. He beckons Benin; Benin dismisses even Yenaro's guard. The room contains one Emperor, three haut-ladies, three Barrayarans, and Yenaro.

"Lord Vorkosigan," says the Emperor.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles steps forward as unshakily as possible.

"Sir," he acknowledges.

The Imperial fuss is not all that intimidating to him; his parents raised Emperor Gregor Vorbarra, his foster brother in all but name, and his childhood memories insist that emperors are for playing hide-and-seek with. Which could be a deadly intuition to obey in this context. He tries very hard to keep salient facts in the forefront of his mind, like ruler of eight planets, and older than my father.

"I am still... unclear," the Cetagandan Emperor continues, "just what your place was in these recent events. And how you came by it."

"My place was to have been a sacrificial animal, and it was chosen for me by Governor Kety, sir. But I didn't play the part he tried to assign to me."

The Celestial Master frowns slightly. "Explain yourself."

Miles flicks a glance at the haut Lisbet.

[exerce_imperia]

She nods.

[thisvorlunatic]

A complete explanation, then.

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.

[middlingalong]

Ivan almost laughs. And then doesn't. Nope, nothing to see here, blank face, no expression.