“Security,” he offered warily.

“You didn’t trust me.”

This is Jackson’s Whole. You said it yourself. “I was more worried about Vasa Luigi.”

“I can see that, I suppose,” Rowan sighed.

“When did you each get in?”

“I made it yesterday morning. Lilly came in last night. Smooth! I never dreamed you could get her out too!”

“The one escape was lock-and-key to the other. You got yourself out, which enabled Lilly to get herself out.” He flashed a smile at Lilly Junior, who was watching them curiously. “I did nothing. That seems to be the story of my life, lately. But I do believe you’ll all make it off-planet before Vasa Luigi and Lotus figure it out.”

“We’ll all have lifted before dusk. Listen!” She led him to her window. The Dendarii personnel shuttle, with Sergeant Taura piloting and about eight Duronas aboard, was lifting heavily from the courtyard of the walled compound. Point-women, going up to prepare the ship for the others to come.

“Escobar, Miles!” Rowan said enthusiastically. “We’re all going to Escobar. Oh, Lilly, you’re going to love it there!”

“Will you stay in a group when you get there?” Miles asked.

“At first, I think. Till it gets less strange for the others. Lilly will release us at her death. Baron Fell anticipates that, I think. Less competition for him, in the long run. I expect he’ll have the top people stripped from House Ryoval and installed here by tomorrow morning.”

Miles walked around the room, and noticed a familiar little remote box on the sofa-arm. “Ah! It was you who had the other control to the thermal grenade! I might have known. So you were listening in. I wasn’t sure if Mark was bluffing.”

“Mark wasn’t bluffing about anything,” she stated with certainty.

“Were you here, when he came in?”

“Yes. It was a little before dawn this morning. He came staggering in from a lightflyer wearing the most peculiar costume, and demanding to speak with Lilly.”

Miles raised his brows at the image. “What did the gate guards say?”

“They said Yes, sir. He had an aura … I don’t know how to describe it. Except … I could picture large thugs in dark alleyways scrambling to get out of his way. Your clone-twin is a formidable young man.”

Miles blinked.

“Lilly and Chrys took him off to the clinic on a float-pallet, and I didn’t see him after that. Then the orders started flying.” She paused. “So. Will you be going back to your Dendarii Mercenaries, then?”

“Yes. After some R&R, I guess.”

“Not … settling down. After that close call.”

“I confess, the sight of projectile-weapons gives me a new and unpleasant twitch, but—I hope I won’t be cashing out of the Dendarii for a long time yet. Um … these convulsions I’ve been having. Will they go away?”

“They should. Cryo-revival is always chancy. So, you … don’t picture yourself retiring. To Escobar, say.”

“We visit Escobar now and then, for fleet repairs. And personnel repairs. It’s a major nexus intersection. We may cross paths again.”

“Not the same way we first met, I trust.” Rowan smiled.

“Let me tell you, if I ever do need cryo-revival again, I’ll leave orders to look you up.” He hesitated. I need my Lady Vorkosigan, to put an end to this wandering… . Could Rowan be it? The thirty-five sisters-in-law would be a distant drawback, safely far away on Escobar. “What would you think of the planet Barrayar, as a place to live and work?” he inquired cautiously.

Her nose wrinkled. “That backward pit? Why?”

“I … have some interests there. In fact, it’s where I’m planning to retire. It’s a very beautiful place, really. And underpopulated. They encourage, um … children.” He was skirting dangerously close to breaking his cover, the strained identity he’d risked so much lately to retain. “And there’d be lots of work for a galactic-trained physician.”

“I’ll bet. But I’ve been a slave all my life. \Vhy would I choose to be a subject, when I could choose to be a citizen?” She smiled wryly, and came to him, and twined her arms around his shoulders. “Those five days we were locked up together at Vasa Luigi’s—that wasn’t an effect of the imprisonment, was it. That’s the way you really are, when you’re well.”

“Pretty much,” he admitted.

“I’d always wondered what adult hyperactives did for a living. Running several thousand troops would just about absorb your energies, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes,” he sighed.

“I think I’ll always love you, some. But living with you full-time would drive me crazy. You are the most incredibly domineering person I think I’ve ever met.”

“You’re supposed to fight back,” he explained. “I rely on—” he couldn’t say Elli, or worse, all my women, “my partner fighting back. Otherwise, I couldn’t relax and be myself.”

Right. Too much togetherness had destroyed their love, or at least her illusions. The Barrayaran system of using go-betweens to make marital arrangements was beginning to look better all the time. Maybe it would be best to get safely married first, and then get to know each other. By the time his bride figured him out, it would be too late for her to back out. He sighed, and smiled, and gave Rowan an exaggerated, courtly bow. “I shall be pleased to visit you on Escobar, milady.”

“That would be joust perfect, sir,” she returned, deadpan.

“Ow!” Dammit, she could be the one, she underestimated herself—

Lilly Junior, sitting on the sofa watching all this with fascination, coughed. Miles glanced at her, and thought about her account of her time with the Dendarii.

“Does Mark know you’re here, Lilly?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve been with Rowan.”

“The last time Mark saw you, you were going back with Vasa Luigi. I … think he’d like to know you changed your mind.”

“He tried to talk me into staying on the ship. He didn’t talk so well as you,” she admitted.

“He made this all happen. He bought your passage out of here.” And Miles wasn’t sure he wanted to think about the coin. “I just trailed along. Come on. At least say hello, goodbye, and thank you. It will cost you nothing, and I suspect it would mean something to him.”

Reluctantly, she rose, and allowed him to tow her out. Rowan gave them a nod of approval, and returned to her hasty packing.

Chapter Thirty-One

“Did you find them?” Lord Mark asked.

“Yes,” said Bothari-Jesek tightly.

“Did you destroy them?”

“Yes.”

Mark flushed, and leaned his head back against Lilly’s chair, feeling the weight of gravity. He sighed. “You looked at them. I told you not to.”

“I had to, to be sure I was getting the right ones.”

“No, you didn’t. You could simply have destroyed them all.”

“That’s what I finally did. I started to look. Then I turned off the sound. Then I put them on fast-forward. Then I started just spot-checking.”

“I wish you hadn’t.”

“I wish I hadn’t. Mark, there were hundreds of hours of those holovids. I couldn’t believe there was so much.”

“Actually, there were only about fifty hours. Or maybe it was fifty years. But there were multiple simultaneous recordings. I could always see a holovid pick-up hovering, out of the corner of my eye, no matter what was going on. I don’t know if Ryoval made them to study and analyze, or just to enjoy. A bit of both, I guess. His powers of analysis were appalling.”

“I … don’t understand some of what I saw.”

“Would you like me to explain it to you?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“I can understand why you’d want them destroyed. Out of context … they would have been a horrible lever for blackmail. If you want to swear me to secrecy, I’ll vow anything.”

“That’s not why. I have no intention of keeping any of this a secret. Nobody is ever going to get a handle on me again. Pull my secret strings ever again. In general outline, you can tell the whole wormhole nexus, for all I care. But—if ImpSec got hold of those holovid recordings, they would end up in Illyan’s hands. And he would not be able to keep them from the Count, or the Countess either, though I’m sure he’d try. Or, eventually, Miles. Can you imagine the Count or the Countess or Miles watching that shit?”