Mirror Dance

ivory skin softening with tiny wrinkles, a high-bridged nose—Dr. Durona. Again. She was dressed in a fine flowing silk shirt in a pale green perhaps accidentally reminiscent of the color of the Durona lab coats, and soft trousers the color of cream. Dr. Lotus Durona, Baronne Bharaputra, had elegant tastes. And the means to indulge them.

“Rowan, dear,” she nodded; she held out a hand as if Rowan might give it a courtier’s kiss.

“Lotus,” said Rowan flatly, and compressed her lips. Lotus smiled and turned her hand over, converting it into an invitation to sit, which they all did.

Lotus touched a control pad at her place, and a girl wearing Bharaputra brown and pink silks entered, and served drinks, to the Baron first, curtseying with lowered eyes before him. A very familiar-looking girl, tall and willowy, with a high-bridged nose, fine straight black hair bound at her nape and flowing in a horse-tail down her back… . When she made her offering to the Baronne, her eyes flicked up, and opened like flowers to the sun, bright with joy. When she bowed before Rowan, her up-turning gaze grew startled, and her dark brows drew down in puzzlement. Rowan gazed back equally startled, a look that changed to dawning horror as the girl turned away.

When she bowed before him, her frown deepened. “You … !” she whispered, as if amazed.

“Run along, Lilly dear, don’t gawk,” said the Baronne kindly.

As she left the room, with a swaying walk, she glanced covertly back over her shoulder at them.

“Lilly?” Rowan choked. “You named her Lilly?”

“A small revenge.”

Rowan’s hands clenched in deep offense. “How can you? Knowing what you are? Knowing what we are?”

“How can you choose death over life?” The Baronne shrugged. “Or worse—let Lilly choose it for you? Your time of temptation is not yet, Rowan my dear sister. Ask yourself again in twenty or thirty years, when you can feel your body rotting around you, and see if the answer comes so easily then.”

“Lilly loved you as a daughter.”

“Lilly used me as her servant. Love?” The Baronne chuckled. “It’s not love that keeps the Durona herd together. It’s predator pressure. If all the exterior economic and other dangers were removed, the far corners of the wormhole nexus would not be far enough for us to get away from our dear sibs. Most families are like that, actually.”

Rowan assimilated the point. She looked unhappy. But she didn’t disagree.

Vasa Luigi cleared his throat. “Actually, Dr. Durona, you wouldn’t have to travel to the far reaches of the galaxy for a place of your own. House Bharaputra could find a use for your talents and training. And perhaps even a little autonomy. Head of a department, for example. And later, who knows?—maybe even a division.”

“No. Thank you.” Rowan bit out.

The Baron shrugged. Did the Baronne look faintly relieved?

He interrupted urgently, “Baron—was it really Ryoval’s squad who took Admiral Naismith? Do you know where?”

“Well, now, that’s an interesting question,” Vasa Luigi murmured, eyeing him. “I’ve been trying to contact Ry all day, without success. I suspect that wherever Ry is, your clone-twin is also—Admiral.”

He took a deep breath. “Why do you think I am the Admiral, sir?”

“Because I met the other one. Under telling circumstances. I don’t think the real Admiral Naismith would permit his bodyguard to give him orders—do you?”

His head was aching. “What’s Ryoval doing to him?”

“Really, Vasa, this is not dinner-conversation,” reproved the Baronne. She glanced curiously at him. “Besides—why should you care?”

“ ’Miles, what have you done with your baby brother?’ ” The quote came from nowhere, fell out of his mouth. He touched his lips uncertainly. Rowan stared at him. So did Lotus.

Vasa Luigi said, “As to your question, Admiral, it turns on whether Ry has come to the same conclusions as I did. If he has—likely he’s not doing much. If he hasn’t, his methods will depend upon your clone-twin.”

“I … don’t understand.”

“Ryoval will study him. Experiment. His choice of actions will flow from his analysis of his subject’s personality.”

That didn’t sound so bad. He pictured multiple-choice tests. He frowned, bewildered.

“Ry is an artist, in his way,” continued the Baron. “He can create the most extraordinary psychological effects. I’ve seen him turn an enemy into a slave utterly devoted to his person, who will obey any order. The last man who attempted to assassinate him and had the misfortune to live ended up serving drinks at Ryoval’s private parties, and begging to offer gratification of any kind to any guest on request.”

“What did you ask for?” the Baronne inquired dryly.

“White wine. It was before your time, love. I watched, though. The man had the most haunted eyes.”

“Are you considering selling me to Ryoval?” he asked slowly.

“If he’s the highest bidder, Admiral. Your and your clone-twin’s raid upon my property—and I am still not certain you did not plan it together from first to last—was very costly to my House. And,” his eyes glinted, “personally annoying. I’ll not bother avenging myself upon a cryo-amnesic, but I do wish to shave my losses. If I sell you to Ry, you’ll be better punished than even I care to think about. Ry would be delighted to own a matched pair.” Vasa Luigi sighed. “House Ryoval will always be a minor house, I fear, as long as Ry allows his personal gratification to outweigh its profits. It’s a shame. I could do so much more with his resources.”

The girl returned, served little plates of hors d’ouvers, refreshed their drinks, some wine-and-fruit concoction, and wafted out again. Slowly. Vasa Luigi’s eyes followed her. The Baronne’s eyes narrowed, noting his gaze. Her lashes swept down, focusing on her drink, as his head turned back.

“What about … the Dendarii Mercenaries, as a bidder?” Yes! Just let Bharaputra make that offer, and the Dendarii would come knocking on his door. With a plasma cannon. High bid indeed. This game must be a short one. Bharaputra could not put him up for auction without revealing that he had him, and then, and then … what? “If nothing else, you could use their competition to force Ryoval’s bid up,” he added slyly.

“Their resources are too finite, I fear. And not here.”

“We saw them. Yesterday.”

“A mere covert ops team. No ships. No back-up. I understand they only revealed their identity at all in order to get Lilly to talk with them. But … I have reason to believe there is another player in this game. My instincts twitch, looking at you. I have the oddest urge to take a modest middleman’s profit, and let the negative bidders apply to House Ryoval.” The Baron chuckled.

Negative bidder? Oh. People with plasma cannons. He tried not to react.

Vasa Luigi continued, “Which brings us back to the original question—what is Lilly’s interest in all this? Why did Lilly set you to revive this man, Rowan? For that matter, how did Lilly obtain him, when some hundreds of other earnest searchers could not?”

“She didn’t say,” said Rowan blandly. “But I was glad for a chance to sharpen my skills. Thanks to your security guard’s excellent aim, he was quite a medical challenge.”

The conversation became medical-technical, between Lotus and Rowan, and then more desultory, as the clone-girl served them an elaborate meal. Rowan evaded as smoothly as the Baron questioned, and no one expected him to know anything. But Baron Bharaputra seemed not to be in a hurry. Clearly, he was setting up to play some land of waiting game. Afterwards the guards escorted them back to their room, which he realized at last was part of a corridor of identical chambers designed, perhaps, to house the servants of important visitors.

“Where are we?” he hissed at Rowan as soon as the door shut behind them. “Could you tell? Is this Bharaputra’s headquarters?”

“No,” said Rowan. “His main residence is still under renovation. Something about a commando raid blowing out several rooms,” she added snappishly.

He walked slowly around their chamber, but he did not take up banging on the walls again, to Rowan’s obvious relief. “It occurs to me … that there’s another way to escape besides breaking from the inside out. That’s to get someone else to break from the outside in. Tell me … would it be harder to break in and take someone held prisoner by House Bharaputra, House Fell, or House Ryoval?”