Cetaganda

because he was not-looking at Miles's body.

Miles rose along with Benin, and paused. 'Ghem-Colonel . . . may I make a personal suggestion?'

Benin tilted his head in curious permission.

'You have good reason to suspect you have a little problem somewhere overhead. But you don't know where yet. If I were you, I'd go straight to the top. Make personal contact with your Emperor. It's the only way you can be sure you've capped the murderer.'

Did Benin turn pale, beneath his face paint? No way to tell. 'That high over—Lord Vorkosigan, I can hardly claim casual acquaintance with my celestial master.'

'This isn't friendship. It's business, and it's his business. If you truly mean to be useful to him, it's time you began. Emperors are only human.' Well, Emperor Gregor was. The Cetagandan emperor was haut-human. Miles hoped that still counted. 'Ba Lura must have been more to him than a piece of the furniture, it served him for over fifty years. Make no accusations, merely request that he protect your investigation from being quashed. Strike first, today, before . . . someone . . . begins to fear your competence.' If you're going to cover your ass, Benin, by God do it right.

'I will . . . consider your advice.'

'Good hunting,' Miles nodded cheerfully, as if it wasn't his problem. 'Big game is the best. Think of the honor.'

Benin bowed himself out with a small, wry smile, to be escorted from the building by the embassy guard.

'See you around,' Miles called.

'You may be sure of it.' Benin's parting wave was almost, but not quite, a salute.

Miles's desire to dissolve into an exhausted puddle on the corridor floor was delayed by the arrival of Vorob'yev, doubtless from his listening post below-stairs, and another man. Ivan hovered behind them with an expression of morose anxiety.

The other man was middle-aged, middle-sized, and wearing the loose bodysuit and well-cut robes of a Cetagandan ghem-lord, in middle colors. They hung comfortably upon him, but his face was free of colored paint, and the haircut he sported was that of a Barrayaran officer. His eyes were . . . interested.

'A very well conducted interview, Lord Vorkosigan,' said Vorob'yev, relieving Miles's mind. Slightly. An even wager who had interviewed whom, just now.

'Ghem-Colonel Benin obviously has a lot on his mind,' said Miles. 'Ah . . .' He glanced at Vorob'yev's companion.

'Allow me to introduce Lord Vorreedi,' said the ambassador. 'Lord Vorkosigan, of course. Lord Vorreedi is our particular expert in understanding the activities of the ghem-comrades, in all their multitude of arenas.'

Which was diplomatic-talk for Head Spy. Miles nodded careful greetings. 'Pleased to meet you at last, sir.'

'And you,' Vorreedi returned. 'I regret not arriving sooner. The late empress's obsequies were expected to be rather more sedate than this. I didn't know of your keen interest in civil security, Lord Vorkosigan. Would you like us to arrange you a tour of the local police organizations?'

'I'm afraid time will not permit. But yes, if I hadn't been able to get into a military career, I think police work might have been my next choice.'

A uniformed corporal from the embassy's ImpSec office approached, and motioned away his civilian-clothed superior. They conferred in low tones, and the corporal handed over a sheaf of colored papers to the protocol officer, who in turn handed them to the ambassador with a few words. Vorob'yev, his brows climbing, turned to Ivan.

'Lord Vorpatril. Some invitations have arrived for you this morning.'

Ivan took the sheets, their colors and perfumes clashing, and leafed through them in puzzlement. 'Invitations?'

'Lady Benello invites you to a private dinner, Lady Arvin invites you to a fire-pattern-viewing party—both tonight—and Lady Senden invites you to observe a court-dance practice, this afternoon.'

'Who?'

'Lady Senden,' the protocol officer supplied, 'is Lady Benello's married sister, according to last night's background checks.' He gave Ivan an odd look. 'Just what did you do to merit this sudden popularity, Lord Vorpatril?'

Ivan held the papers gingerly, smiling thinly, by which Miles deduced he hadn't told the protocol officer quite everything about last night's adventure. 'I'm not sure, sir.' Ivan caught Miles's suffused gaze, and reddened slightly.

Miles craned his neck. 'Do any of these women have interesting connections at the Celestial Garden, do you suppose? Or friends who do?'

'Your name isn't on these, coz,' Ivan pointed out ruthlessly, waving the invitations, all hand-calligraphed in assorted colored inks. A faintly cheerful look was starting in his eyes, displacing his earlier glum dread.

'Perhaps some more background checks would be in order, my lord?' murmured the protocol officer to the ambassador.

'If you please, Colonel.'

The protocol officer left with his corporal. Miles, with a grateful parting wave to Vorob'yev, tagged along after Ivan, who clutched the colored papers firmly and eyed him with suspicion.

'Mine,' Ivan asserted, as soon as they were out of earshot. 'You have ghem-Colonel Benin, who is more to your taste anyway.'

'There are a lot of ghem-women here in the capital who serve as ladies-in-waiting to the haut-women in the Celestial Garden, is all,' Miles said. 'I'd . . . like to meet that ghem-lady I went walking with last night, for instance, but she didn't give me her name.'

'I doubt many of Yenaro's crowd have celestial connections.'

'I think this one was an exception. Though the people I really want to meet are the satrap governors. Face-to-face.'

'You'd have a better chance at that at one of the official functions.'

'Oh, yes. I'm planning on it.'

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Celestial Garden was not quite so intimidating on the second visit, Miles assured himself. This time they were not lost in a great stream of galactic envoys, but were only a little party of three. Miles, Ambassador Vorob'yev, and Mia Maz were admitted through a side gate, almost privately, and escorted by a single servitor to their destination.

The trio made a good picture. Miles and the ambassador wore their ultra-formal House blacks again. Maz wore black linings and pure white over-robes, combining the two mourning colors, acknowledging the Cetagandan hue without over-stepping the boundaries of haut-privilege. No accident that it also displayed her own dark hair and lively complexion to advantage, and set off her two companions as well. Her dimple flashed with her smile of anticipation and pleasure, directed over Miles's head to Ambassador Vorob'yev. Miles, between them, felt like an unruly lad being escorted firmly by his two parents. Vorob'yev was taking no chances of unauthorized violations of etiquette today.

The offering of the elegiac poetry to the dead empress was not a ceremony normally attended by galactic delegates, with the exception of a very few high-ranking Cetagandan allies. Miles did not qualify on either count, and Vorob'yev had been forced to pull every string he owned to get them this invitation. Ivan had ducked out, pleading weariness from the court-dance practice and the fire-viewing parties of yesterday, and the excuse of four more invitations for this afternoon and evening. It was a suspiciously smug weariness. Miles had let him escape, his