Captain Vorpatril's alliance

Um, Ivan started to say, then thought better of it. He converted it to an “Oh.” Did Simon care about that? Evidently. Ivan’s mental review of all the awkward, smart‑ass ways he’d introduced Simon these past four years was interrupted, thankfully, by Byerly sauntering over.

By gave Simon an apologetic nod. It was always a little fascinating to watch By’s habitual smarmy irony so thoroughly purged, not only from his expression, but from his body language, around the former ImpSec chief. Illyan plainly still unnerved By to the marrow of his bones, even though By had once worked for him‑or was that, because he had once worked for him?

Ivan’s glance took inventory of Arquas and Jewels, gathered around the drinks trolley or gazing out the windows into the softening winter dusk. “I see you managed to get them all here. Mamere find a bus?”

“A luxurious sort of ground‑barge, yes. We didn’t lose a single Arqua overboard,” Byerly said, with mock pride. “Not for lack of their trying. You have a lot of new in‑laws Ivan.”

“Yeah, noticed that.” Ivan nabbed a drink, with a smile of intense gratitude to his mother’s servitor, a regular from that catering service Lady Alys called on for very‑high‑end governmental receptions, when she wasn’t using Imperial Residence staff. The woman smiled back in a motherly manner. Simon and Mamere were tag‑teaming, Ivan saw out of the corner of his eye, Mamere escorting the Baronne and Lady ghem Estif to the wide windows to point out the highlights of Vorbarr Sultana, Simon doing the same for Shiv, both covertly watching the senior Arquas’ interactions with their very assorted children. Very adult children, but did any of the oldsters really see them that way…?

Tej was drawn into conversation with her brother Amiri, and his apparent jeeves‑shadow Jet, or Onyx; did each of the full‑blooded Arqua children rate his or her own Jewel, or what? This was a family dynamic that Ivan’s acquaintance with the Barrayaran historical precedent of acknowledged bastards did not quite seem to cover. He made the rounds of the rest of the clan, inquiring politely after their hotel, their naps, and their trip to his mother’s flat, all of which were reported as tolerable, then drifted over to join Simon and Shiv in time to hear Simon say, “So how did Prestene get the drop on you?”

Shiv heaved a sigh. “In part, it turned out to be an inside job. Some trusted subordinates‑shouldn’t have been.”

“Unfortunate. But that can happen to the most supposedly‑secure bastions.” Simon touched his forehead in a frustration‑gesture Ivan hadn’t seen for a while. “That was how the bastard took down my chip.”

“Your eidetic memory chip that was removed upon your retirement? Was this not ordered by your Imperial masters? I don’t follow.”

“The other way around, I’m afraid. First the chip was bio‑sabotaged, quite thoroughly‑Ivan would doubtless remember that part better than I do”‑a sharp glance under his lidded eyes Ivan’s way‑“then the slagged remains surgically excised, happily before and not after the ugly side‑effects killed me. Not the way I would have chosen to retire from the Imperial Service, for all my daydreams of doing just that, after forty years.”

“Ah. I quite see,” said Shiv, sounding entirely sincere.

The two men toasted each other ironically with their nearly‑empty glasses, and drained them. The drinks‑trolley elf appeared magically to refill them, then vanished into the mob again.

The marquetry doors on the end of the living room parted like the curtains on a play, revealing the stage, or at least the table, now pulled out to a spacious oblong and invitingly set. Mamere and her minions smoothly guided the guests to their places. Shiv seized the moment to murmur something in his daughter Pidge’s ear, before they were separated.

Ivan was unhappily parted from Tej, seated opposite her father who was placed at the foot of the table on Simon’s honored right. Alys, at the head, had Moira ghem Estif on her right, and Udine Arqua on her left‑the usual protocols had plainly broken down in the face of the Arqua challenge, or things were being let to go a casual sort of family‑style, or else Mamere had devised placements by some plan of her own, possibly with advice from ImpSec (retired). Ivan found himself plunked between his mother‑in‑law and his senior sister‑in‑law Star, with Byerly beyond her, separated from Rish by Emerald. Jet, Pearl, Amiri and Pidge filled the opposite side of the table between Lady ghem Estif and Tej. The table was too long to maintain a single conversation except in spurts; most likely the talk would fragment into two or three parts. By, in the middle, was placed to either hear everything or be utterly distracted, depending.