Mirror Dance

fractal knowledge-base, the kind created by, and in turn creating, a closed-in group such as the Vor… .

The library’s door swung open, and footsteps sounded across the marble and carpeting. It was Count Vorkosigan. Mark shrank back in the chair in the alcove, drawing his legs up out of sight. Maybe the man would just take something and go out again. Mark did not want to get trapped into some intimate chat, which this comfortable room so invited. He had conquered his initial terror of the Count, yet the man managed still to make him excruciatingly uncomfortable, even without saying a word.

Unfortunately, Count Vorkosigan seated himself at one of the com-consoles. Reflections of the colored lights of its display flickered on the glass of the windows Mark’s chair faced. The longer he waited, Mark realized, lurking like an assassin, the more awkward it was going to be to reveal himself. So say hello. Drop the book. Blow your nose, something. He was just working up the courage to try a little throat-clearing and page-rustling, when the door hinges squeaked again, and lighter footsteps sounded. The Countess. Mark huddled into a ball in the wing-chair.

“Ah,” said the Count. The lights reflecting in the window died away as he shut down the machine in favor of this new diversion, and swung around in his station chair. Did she lean over for some quick embrace? Fabric whispered as she seated herself.

“Well, Mark is certainly getting a crash-course about Barrayar,” she remarked, effectively spiking Mark’s last frantic impulse to make his presence known.

“It’s what he needs,” sighed the Count. “He has twenty years of catching up to do, if he is to function.”

“Must he function? I mean, instantly?”

“No. Not instantly.”

“Good. I thought you might be setting him an impossible task. And as we all know, the impossible takes a little longer.”

The Count vented a short laugh, which faded quickly. “At least he’s had a glimpse of one of our worst social traits. We must be sure he gets a thorough grounding in the history of the mutagen disasters, so he’ll understand where the violence is coming from. How deeply the agony and the fear are embedded, which drive the visible anxieties and, ah, as you Betans would see it, bad manners.”

“I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to duplicate Miles’s native ability to dance through that particular minefield.”

“He seems more inclined to plow through it,” murmured the Count dryly, and hesitated. “His appearance … Miles took enormous pains to move, act, dress, so as to draw attention away from his appearance. To make his personality overpower the evidence of the eye. A kind of whole-body sleight-of-hand, if you will. Mark … almost seems to be willfully exaggerating it.”

“What, the surly slump?”

“That, and … I confess, I find his weight gain disturbing. Particularly, judging from Elena’s report, its rapidity. Perhaps we ought to have him medically checked. It can’t be good for him.”

The Countess snorted. “He’s only twenty-two. It’s not an immediate health problem. That’s not what’s bothering you, love.”

“Perhaps … not entirely.”

“He embarrasses you. My body-conscious Barrayaran friend.”

“Mm.” The Count did not deny this, Mark noticed.

“Score one for his side.”

“Would you care to clarify that?”

“Mark’s actions are a language. A language of desperation, mostly. They’re not always easy to interpret. That one is obvious, though.”

“Not to me. Analyze, please.”

“It’s a three-part problem. In the first place, there’s the purely physical side. I take it you did not read the medical reports as carefully as I did.”

“I read the ImpSec synopsis.”

“I read the raw data. All of it. When the Jacksonian body-sculptors were cutting Mark down to match Miles’s height, they did not genetically retrofit his metabolism. Instead they brewed up a concoction of time-release hormones and stimulants which they injected monthly, tinkering with the formula as needed. Cheaper, simpler, more controlled in result. Now, take Ivan as a phenotypic sample of what Miles’s genotype should have resulted in, without the soltoxin poisoning. What we have in Mark is a man physically reduced to Miles’s height who is genetically programmed for Ivan’s weight. And when the Komarrans’ treatments stopped, his body again began to try to carry out its genetic destiny. If you ever bring yourself to look at him square on, you’ll notice it’s not just fat. His bones and muscles are heavier too, compared to Miles or even to himself two years ago. When he finally reaches his new equilibrium, he’s probably going to look rather low-slung.”

You mean spherical, Mark thought, listening with horror, and intensely conscious of having overeaten at dinner. Heroically, he smothered an incipient belch.

“Like a small tank,” suggested the Count, evidently entertaining a somewhat more hopeful vision.

“Perhaps. It depends on the other two aspects of his, um, body-language.”

“Which are?”

“Rebellion, and fear. As for rebellion—all his life, other people have made free with his somatic integrity. Forcibly chosen his body-shape. Now at last it’s his turn. And fear. Of Barrayar, of us, but most of all fear, frankly, of being overwhelmed by Miles, who can be pretty overwhelming even if you’re not his little brother. And Mark’s right. It’s actually been something of a boon. The Armsmen and servants are having no trouble distinguishing him, taking him as Lord Mark. The weight ploy has that sort of half-cocked half-conscious brilliance that … reminds me of someone else we both know.”

“But where does it stop?” The Count was now picturing something spherical too, Mark decided.

“The metabolism—when he chooses. He can march himself to a physician and have it adjusted to maintain any weight he wants. He’ll choose a more average body-type when he no longer needs rebellion or feels fear.”

The Count snorted. “I know Barrayar, and its paranoias. You can never be safe enough. What do we do if he decides he can never be fat enough?”

“Then we can buy him a float pallet and a couple of muscular body-servants. Or— we can help him conquer his fears. Eh?”

“If Miles is dead,” he began.

“If Miles is not recovered and revived,” she corrected sharply.

“Then Mark is all we have left of Miles.”

“No!” Her skirts rustled as she rose, stepped, turned, paced. God, don’t let her walk over this way! “That’s where you take the wrong turn, Aral. Mark is all we have left of Mark.”

The Count hesitated. “All right. I concede the point. But if Mark is all we have—do we have the next Count Vorkosigan?”

“Can you accept him as your son even if he isn’t the next Count Vorkosigan? Or is that the test he has to pass to get in?”

The Count was silent. The Countess’s voice went low. “Do I hear an echo of your father’s voice in yours? Is that him I see, looking out from behind your eyes?”

“It is … impossible … that he not he there.” The Count’s voice was equally low, disturbed, but defiant of apology. “On some level. Despite it all.”

“I … yes. I understand. I’m sorry.” She sat again, to Mark’s frozen relief. “Although surely it isn’t that hard to qualify as a Count of Barrayar. Look at some of the odd ducks who sit on the Council now. Or fail to show up, in some cases. How long did you say it’s been since Count Vortienne cast a vote?”

“His son is old enough to hold down his desk now,” said the Count. “To the great relief of the rest of us. The last time we had to have a unanimous vote, the Chamber’s Sergeant-at-Arms had to go collect him bodily from his Residence, out of the most extraordinary scene of … well, he finds some unique uses for his personal guard.”

“Unique qualifications, too, I understand.” There was a grin in Countess Cordelia’s voice.