Captain Vorpatril's alliance

Ivan Xav choked into his own napkin at this one, and was drawn away from his little moment of irate by uniting with this old friend in trading scurrilous observations about The Coz, none of which, Tej noticed, Galeni tried to gainsay.

At dessert, the commodore pulled a small, flat case from his jacket pocket and pushed it rather shyly toward her and Ivan Xav. It contained a book‑disc, she saw. Ivan Xav eyed it warily. “What’s this, Duv?”

“Something of a combination birthday and wedding present. Well, perhaps more for Lady Tej than you. A new history of Barrayar since the Time of Isolation. Just released from the Imperial University Press this week, after some years in the preparation. Professora Vorthys is going to teach her modern history class with it, starting next fall.”

“How long is it?”

“Ninety chapters, roughly.”

“And how many did you write?”

Galeni cleared his throat. “About ten.”

“I didn’t know ImpSec gave homework,” said Tej faintly.

Galeni smiled wryly. “More of a hobby, in my case. But I do like to keep my hand in, when I can. As much as I can. I have several interesting papers written, waiting for their references to age out of their classified status.”

“I should explain,” said Ivan Xav, “when Duv said he quit school to go to the Imperial Military Academy, back when the Service was opened to Komarrans, he was a professor, not a student. History. He’s mostly over it, but sometimes he reverts. Is this thing”‑he touched the case with a cautious finger‑“written in high academic?”

“I can only speak for my own chapters, but Illyan beat the scholastic prolixity out of me back when I was first writing ImpSec analysis reports for him,” said Galeni. “Taught me the ImpSec ABC’s‑accuracy, brevity, and clarity. Although he did say he was glad to get reports where he didn’t have to correct the grammar and spelling.”

Ivan Xav laughed. “I’ll just bet.”

Tej had just enough wits to accept the book‑disc with suitable appreciation. This did not seem the time to explain that she wasn’t going to need to study Barrayaran anything, because she was skiving off to Escobar at the first opportunity. Ditto Delia’s offer to hook her up with the array of sisters, when the chances arose. She managed noncommittal thanks.

The Galenis excused themselves soon after dessert‑a toddler and an infant evidently waited at home. A vid‑cube of the absent offspring was shown about; Tej made suitable complimentary noises. As the couple passed out of the restaurant, Ivan Xav remarked, “No night life for him anymore, poor sod.” But undercut this by adding, “I expect that suits him to the ground.”

Ivan Xav didn’t have brothers, but at least it seemed he had brother‑officers, Tej reflected. It was something.

It wasn’t till bedtime, when Ivan Xav was taking his turn in the bathroom and she and Rish were making up the couch, that Tej was able to snatch a private moment to decant the Byerly Report.

“So? Last night. How was it?”

Rish flicked over a sheet and smiled a maddeningly secret smile. “Interesting.”

Tej tossed her head. “That’s what people say about some dodgy dish that doesn’t quite work. Whitefish and raspberries.”

“Oh, this combination worked. Delectably.”

“ So? ”

Rish touched her lips, though whether to check her words or draw them out, Tej could not guess. “Byerly…I’ve never encountered anyone whose mouth and whose hands seemed to be telling two such different stories.”

“Do I have to shake you?”

Rish grinned, and made a rather Byerly‑like wrist‑flutter. “The mouth ripples on amusingly enough, though most of what comes out is camouflage and the rest is lies‑not so much to me, though. But the hands…”

“Mm?”

“The hands are strangely shy, until suddenly they turn eloquent. And then their candor could make you weep. A woman might fall in love with the hands. Though only if the woman were nearly as foolish as my little even‑sister‑which, luckily, doesn’t seem to be possible.”

Tej threw a pillow at her.

The next day, the last of Ivan Xav’s leave, he spent ferrying them around to see a few locally‑famous tourist sites, including a military history museum at Vorhartung Castle, the most looming of the old fortresses above the river that were, indeed, lit up colorfully at night. During this outing, he discovered that Tej and Rish not only didn’t drive ground vehicles, they couldn’t.

“We had sport grav‑sleds, at this downside country villa my parents kept, but my older sibs usually hogged them,” Tej explained. “And in congested places, towns and cities like this”‑she waved around‑“even Dada used an armored groundcar with a dedicated driver and bodyguards. Outside the cities it’s all toll roads built and operated by assorted Houses, so you need a lot of money to get around.”

“Huh,” said Ivan Xav. “I bet I can fix that.”

His fix proved to be a private driver’s education service specializing in off‑world tourists, whose personable instructor picked them up at the front of Ivan Xav’s building the next morning, after Ivan Xav went off to Ops for his day’s work.