[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"Vaguely." She looked at him in unease.
"Please be sure somebody checks it tomorrow morning. But don't go up there
before then."
"I wouldn't dream of it," she assured him faintly.
"Come on, Miles," Ivan urged over his shoulder.
"Just a second."
Miles darted back inside to Elli Quinn, still seated obediently in the living
room. He pressed the wad of leftover bills into her palm, and closed her
fingers over it.
"Combat bonus," he whispered to her. "For upstairs just now. You earned it."
He kissed her hand and ran after Ivan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Miles banked the lightflyer in a gentle, demure turn around Vorhartung Castle,
resisting a nervous urge to slam it directly down into the courtyard. The ice
had broken on the river winding through the capital city of Vorbarr Sultana,
running a chill green now from the snows melting in the Dendarii Mountains far
to the south. The ancient building straddled high bluffs; the lightflyer
rocked in the updraft puffing from the river.
The modern city spread out for kilometers around was bright and noisy with
morning traffic. The parking areas near the castle were jammed with vehicles
Page 146
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
of all descriptions, and knots of men in half-a-hundred different liveries.
Ivan, beside Miles, counted the banners snapping in the cold spring breeze on
the battlements.
"It's a full Council session," said Ivan. "I don't think there's a banner
missing-there's even Count Vortala's, and I don't think he's been to one in
years. Must have been carried in. Ye gods, Miles! There's the Emperor's
banner-Gregor must be inside."
"You could figure that from all the fellows on the roof in Imperial livery
with the anti-aircraft plasma guns," observed Miles.
He flinched inwardly. One such weapon was swivelling to follow their track
even now, like a suspicious eye.
Slowly and carefully, he set the lightflyer down in a painted circle outside
the castle walls.
"Y'know," said Ivan thoughtfully, "We're going to look a pair of damn fools
busting in there if it turns out they're all having a debate on water rights
or something."
"That thought has crossed my mind," Miles admitted. "It was a calculated risk,
landing in secret. Well, we've both been fools before. There won't be anything
new or startling in it."
He checked the time, and paused a moment in the pilot's seat, bent his head
down, and breathed carefully.
"You feeling sick?" asked Ivan, alarmed. "You don't look so good."
Miles shook his head, a lie, and begged forgiveness in his heart for all the
harsh things he'd once thought about Baz Jesek. So this was the real thing,
paralyzing funk. He wasn't braver than Baz after all-he'd just never been as
scared. He wished himself back with the Dendarii, doing something simple, like
defusing dandelion bombs. "Pray to God this works," he muttered.
Ivan looked even more alarmed. "You've been pushing this surprise-scheme on me
for the last two weeks-all right, so you've convinced me. It's too late to
change your mind!"
"I haven't changed my mind." Miles rubbed the silver circles loose from his
forehead, and stared up at the great grey wall of the castle.
"The guards are going to notice us, if we just keep sitting here," Ivan added
after a time. "Not to mention the hell that's probably breaking loose back at
the shuttleport right now."
"Right" said Miles. He dangled now at the end of a long, long chain of reason,
swinging in the winds of doubt. Time to drop to solid ground.
"After you," said Ivan politely.
"Right."
"Any time now," added Ivan.
The vertigo of free fall... he popped the doors and clambered to the pavement.
They strode up to quartet of armed guards in Imperial livery at the castle
gate. One's fingers twitched into a devil's horns, down by his side; he had a
countryman's face. Miles sighed inwardly. Welcome home. He settled on an
incisive nod, by way of greeting.
"Good morning, Armsmen. I am Lord Vorkosigan. I understand the Emperor has
commanded me to appear here."
"Damn joker," began a guard, loosening his truncheon. A second guard grasped
his arm, staring shocked at Miles.
"No, Dub-it really is!"
They underwent a second search in the vestibule of the great chamber itself.
Ivan kept trying to peek around the door, to the annoyance of the guard
charged with being the final check against weapons carried into the presence
of the Emperor. Voices wafted from the council chamber to Miles's straining
ear. He identified Count Vordrozda's, pitched to a carrying nasality, rhythmic
in the cadences of formal debate.
"How long has this been going on?" Miles whispered to a guard.
"A week. This was to be the last day. They're doing the summing up now. You're
just in time, my lord." he gave Miles an encouraging nod; the two guard
captains finished a sotto voce argument, "-but he's supposed to be here!"
Page 147
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"You sure you wouldn't rather be in Betan therapy?" muttered Ivan.
Miles grinned blackly. "Too late now. Won't it be funny if we've arrived just
in time for the sentencing?"
"Hysterical. You'll die laughing, no doubt," growled Ivan.
Ivan, approved by the guard, started for the door. Miles grabbed him. "Sh,
wait! Listen."
Another identifiable voice; Admiral Hessman.
"What's he doing here?" whispered Ivan. "I thought this thing was closed and
sealed to the Counts alone."
"Witness, I'll bet, just like you. Sh!"
"... If our illustrious Prime Minister knew nothing of this plot, then let him
produce this 'missing' nephew," Vordrozda's voice was heavy with sarcasm. "He
says he cannot. And why not? I submit it is because Lord Vorpatril was
dispatched with a secret message. What message? Obviously, some variation of
'Fly for your life-all is revealed!' I ask you-is it reasonable that a plot of
this magnitude could have been advanced so far by a son with no knowledge by
his father? Where did those missing 275,000
marks, whose fate he so adamantly refuses to disclose, go but to secretly
finance the operation? These repeated requests for delays are simply
smokescreen. If Lord Vorkosigan is so innocent, why is he not here?" Vordrozda
paused dramatically.
Ivan tugged Miles's sleeve. "Come on. You'll never get a better straight line
than that if you wait all day."
"You're right. Let's go."
Stained glass windows high in the east wall splashed the heavy oak flooring of
the chamber with colored light. Vordrozda stood in the speaker's circle. Upon
the witness bench, behind it, sat Admiral Hessman. The gallery above, with its
ornately carved railings, was indeed empty, but the rows of plain wooden
benches and desks that ringed the room below were jammed with men.
Formal liveries in a wild assortment of hues peeked out beneath their scarlet [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]