“Amiri!” cried Tej, flinging herself on him in turn. “You look so different! Jet!”
The olive-skinned man embraced her, his eyes closing briefly as if in prayer. “You’re alive. You’re both alive, but oh-” His eyes snapped open again in anger shot with joy, crackling with both. “We’ve been waiting for months! Never heard a word, until-we didn’t know if you were alive or dead!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Tej laugh-cried back, “we ran out of money, we ran out of luck, we ran out of, of nearly everything…”
Rish held out one of the other man’s muscular arms, and reached to touch the outer curve of an ear. “You’re so big! And your beautiful skin-what’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing permanent,” he assured her, folding her in a fresh hug. “Just a treatment to blend in on Escobar, wearing off. The extra fifteen kilos is mostly muscle, but I needed some fat to change the shape of my face. The Duronas supplied.”
Tej danced in a circle, arms outspread as if to take in everyone. “Oh, how did you find me, how did you get away, why are you all here
…? And you brought Grandmama, too?”
Standing a little aside from the whole show, watching with cool approval, was the tallest woman of all, taller than Ivan. She wore loose silky trousers, shirt, and a light, knee-length coat in an indeterminate planetary style. She was very straight-backed, yet thin and faintly frail. Age-softened skin clad bones of timeless elegance. Her bright silver hair was cut in short wisps around her perfectly-shaped head.
Tej bowed before her, hands held palm-to-palm in a respect only enhanced by the pleasure overflowing from her face. A pale hand as delicate as an ice sculpture moved to rest palm-down among her wild curls in a gesture of benediction. “Indeed,” the woman murmured.
The customs officer, with another chary look around at all the wildly gesticulating and madly babbling Arquas, edged closer to Ivan. Better the Vor lord that you knew than the Jacksonians that you didn’t? He said, not quite out of the corner of his mouth, “Are these really relatives of yours, Captain Lord Vorpatril?”
About to hotly deny any such absurdity, Ivan’s mouth opened and hung at half-cock. “Well, er…in a sense. That is, that would be my father-in-law, my mother-in-law”-he nodded variously-“and my, um, siblings-in-law.”
“ All of them?”
“Yeah, pretty much. I know they don’t look alike. It’s kind of hard to explain…” He took a breath. “Yes.” He added after a vaguely shattered pause, “And my-uh-that lady over there would be my grandmother-in-law. My wife’s mother’s mother. Widowed.” Ivan was suddenly profoundly grateful for that. A wizened ghem-general would surely tip this barrel right over.
Wait, no, this wasn’t the whole set after all. It seemed the eldest brother Eric was still missing, and a couple of the Jewels-Ruby, and, what was the other one? Topaz, that was it. Maybe it wasn’t just jump-lag and umpteen hours in Barrayaran detention that gave the Arqua crew that edgy, exhausted air.
The customs officer looked as if he was thinking hard and fast. Ivan eyed him uneasily.
Tej grabbed Ivan by the arm and towed him over to face the Baron, the Baronne, and Lady ghem Estif. Ivan was sorry now he wasn’t shaved and in uniform, instead of stubbled and in wrinkled civvies grabbed off his bedroom floor. Though he supposed it made him even-all with the travel-worn Arquas.
In a voice gone breathless and shy, Tej said, “Dada, Baronne, Grandmother-this is my Barrayaran husband, Lord Ivan Xav Vorpatril.” As if she had several other husbands of various planetary origins tucked away somewhere…? “He’s not a lord of anything, though.”
The three elders swung piercing gazes upon Ivan. Their smiles chilled right down.
“Lily Durona had said as much,” said the Baron.
“It all sounded very odd,” said the Baronne.
“Not at all illuminating,” said Lady ghem Estif.
“The wedding was a bit impromptu,” said Tej, “but at the time it saved me and Rish from a world of trouble. I’ll explain later.”
The Baron’s heavy features lightened only marginally. It was the man’s height and broad build, Ivan decided, that reminded him subliminally and uncomfortably of Count Falco. And his edginess that recalled, even more uncomfortably, Uncle Aral in a mood. Yikes.
“How do you do, sir, ma’am, haut,” Ivan managed, belatedly grateful for every lesson in diplomacy his mother had ever tried to inflict on him. The last being the proper form of address to a haut lady, if a touch flattering to one culled and demoted to ghem. Lady ghem Estif’s silver brows rose in surprise. In any case, she did not offer to correct it. God, what next? I am pleased to meet you was a diplomatic lie of the first order, beyond his scope right now. His mouth moved on automatically to, “How may I help you?” Wait, no…
The Baron brightened a touch more, with a surprised glance under those heavy lids at his daughter. Right answer? “By all means, let’s find out. Pidge, come here.”
The woman in the flowing blue-green trouser outfit stepped up alertly. “Baron?”
The Baron waved the customs officer forward. “Officer Mahon, I think the time has come for you to talk with our lawyer, the Baronette Sophia Arqua.” Pidge’s formal name and courtesy title, Ivan dimly recalled. “She will speak for our group.”
“Are you oath-bound to practice law on Barrayar, ma’am?” asked Mahon stiffly.
Pidge smiled warmly across at him, eye-to-eye. “I am primarily trained in galactic law and trade law, with some experience in criminal law. I have made a special intense study of Barrayaran law in the past two weeks, however.”
Ivan wondered-on Jackson’s Whole, how literally did she mean criminal law?
“The conundrum would seem to be whether we are still House Cordonah”-she cast a nod at her father, who nodded back-“and so due all appropriate diplomatic protocol, or whether we are Houseless persons, seeking asylum under the aegis of a Barrayaran Vor relative, and due all assistance as such.”
“That’s not nearly the only two questions…” Mahon, swinging toward the ImpSec lieutenant, held out a hand in either direction or plea, Ivan wasn’t sure.
Zumboti took a neutral pose, not quite parade rest, and observed to the air, “It is ImpSec’s mandate to secure the Imperium against threats of violence. I’ve seen none on offer here, so far. Strictly bureaucratic issues are not normally our department.”
What, was ImpSec giving its officers a short course in disingenuity, now? Probably.
Mahon rubbed his forehead, and muttered, “Two hours…” It took Ivan a moment to realize he was likely referring to his end-of-shift, when the day officers would be coming on. And, Ivan was reminded with a glance at his wristcom, when he was due at Ops. So would Mahon play this out till then, in order to dump it on his senior colleagues and escape? In any case, he looked marginally happier to be presented with a single Arqua to argue with, rather than all of them at once. And a gorgeous female, at that. A little weakly, he allowed Pidge to glow at him, take him by the arm, and lead him aside, bending her head to murmur at him in an intimate tone.
Shiv Arqua’s gaze shifted around to at last snag on Byerly, standing behind Rish. A brow cocked. “And who is this?”
By, with covert reluctance, stepped forward. Rish cleared her throat. “Baron, Baronne, haut, may I present my, um, friend, Byerly Vorrutyer.”
Byerly managed a tolerably non-croggled bow. “My pleasure, to be sure.” Aye, By was the trained professional liar.
Star, strolling up, sniffed. “ Um-friend? So it would appear. Really, Rish, your taste in men. He has to be a natural.”
“Barrayaran Vor, certainly,” said Lady ghem Estif, with the air of an entomologist observing a familiar species of beetle.
“Though not a lord,” By put in, with a specious helpfulness.
“But a friend?” said the Baron to Rish. That edge was back. “Truly?”
Rish, put on the spot, shrugged. “Well…friendly. I’ll explain later, all right?”
By’s stance eased. The Baron’s suspicious glower seemed to slot him into a class by himself, provisionally. Very provisionally. Which wasn’t wrong.
“So were the news vids all lies?” said Tej. “There were pictures of your bodies.”
“Yes, that made it rather awkward for Prestene to report our escape, when we followed Star and the girls to Earth,” said the Baronne dryly.
