Ashes Of Victory

behind with Jesus Ramirez, Honor's second-in-command, to help organize the transfer of her Elysians to the planetary surface.

She really ought to have stayed aboard Farnese and organized that transfer herself, but White Haven had been politely insistent about the need to get her and her story on their joint way to higher authority. So Alistair had remained behind, along with the other survivors who'd been with her since their capture in Adler, and she glanced over her shoulder one more time at the handful of people who would accompany her on the next stage of her journey, then returned her attention to the man seated beside her.

It was easier than it had been. One thing about moments of tempestuous emotion, she'd discovered: they simply could not be sustained. Indeed, the stronger they were, the faster it seemed people had to step back to gather their inner breath if they intended to cope with their lives. Which, fortunately, both she and White Haven did. The murmuring undercurrent remained, flowing between them even if she was the only one who could sense it, but it was bearable. Something she could deal with, if not ignore.

Sure it is. I'll just keep telling myself that.

'I'm sure it will be months before we get all the details straight, Milady,' the earl said, and Honor hid a wry mental grimace at his formality. He clearly had no intention of calling her by her given name... which was probably wise of him. 'Lord knows we've only scratched the surface so far! Still, there are a few things I simply have to ask you about right now.'

'Such as, My Lord?'

'Well, for one thing, just what the devil does `ENS' stand for?'

'I beg your pardon?' Honor cocked her head at him.

'I can understand why they're not `HMS,' given that you've been acting in your Grayson persona, not your Manticoran one,' White Haven said, gesturing at the blue uniform she wore. 'But that being the case, I would have expected your units to be designated as Grayson ships. Obviously they aren't, and I haven't been able to come up with any other organization, except perhaps the Erewhon Navy, to fit your terminology.'

'Oh.' Honor gave him one of her crooked smiles and shrugged. 'That was Commodore Ramirez's idea.'

'The big San Martino?' White Haven asked, frowning as he tried to be sure he'd fitted the right name to the right face on a com screen.

'That's him,' Honor agreed. 'He was the senior officer in Camp Inferno — we never would have been able to pull it off without his support — and he thought that given the fact that we were escaping from a planet officially called Hades, we ought to call ourselves the Elysian Space Navy. So we did.'

'I see.' White Haven rubbed his chin, then grinned at her. 'You do realize you've managed to open yet another can of legal worms, don't you?'

'I beg your pardon?' Honor repeated in a rather different tone, and he laughed at her obvious puzzlement.

'Well, you were acting as a Grayson, My Lady... and you're a steadholder. If I remember correctly, the Grayson Constitution has a very interesting provision about armed forces commanded by its steadholders.'

'It—' Honor broke off and stared at him, her single natural eye very wide, and she heard the sudden hiss of an indrawn breath from the armsman behind her.

'No doubt you're better informed than I am,' White Haven said into her sudden silence, 'but it was my understanding that steadholders were specifically limited to no more than fifty personal armed retainers, like the Major here.' He nodded courteously over his shoulder at LaFollet.

'That's correct, My Lord,' Honor agreed after a moment. She'd been Steadholder Harrington for so long that it no longer seemed unnatural to have somehow become a great feudal magnate, yet she hadn't even thought about the possible constitutional implications of her actions on Hell.

She should have, for this was one point on which the Constitution was totally unforgiving. Every armsman in the service of Harrington Steading answered to Honor in one way or another, but most did so only indirectly, through the administrative machinery of her steading's police forces. Only fifty were her personal liege men, sworn to her service, and not the steading's. Any order she gave those fifty men had the force of law, so long as it did not violate the Constitution, and the fact that she'd given it shielded them from any consequences for having obeyed even if it did. She could be held responsible for it; they could not, but those fifty were the only personal force Steadholder Harrington was permitted.

Steadholders might command other military forces from within the chain of command of the Grayson Army or Navy, but to satisfy the Constitution, the command of those forces must be lodged in the established Grayson military with the specific approval of the planet's ruler. And Protector Benjamin IX had not said a word about anything called 'the Elysian Space Navy.'

She looked over her shoulder at LaFollet, and her armsman gazed back. His face was calm enough, but his gray eyes looked a bit anxious, and she raised an eyebrow.

'Just how badly have I stepped on my sword, Andrew?' she asked him, and despite himself, he smiled, for 'sword' had a very specific connotation on Grayson. But then he sobered.

'I don't really know, My Lady. I suppose I ought to've said something about it, but it never occurred to me at the time. The Constitution is pretty blunt, though, and I think at least one steadholder was actually executed for violating the ban. That was three hundred years ago or so, but—'

He shrugged, and Honor chuckled.

'Not a good precedent, however long ago it was,' she murmured, and turned back to White Haven. 'I guess I should have gone ahead and called them units in the Grayson Navy after all, My Lord.'

'That or the RMN,' he said judiciously. 'You hold legal rank in both, so the chain of command would have covered you in either, I imagine. But it might be just a little awkward the way things actually worked out. Nathan and I—' he flicked a small nod at the imperturbable young lieutenant behind them '—discussed this on our way to Farnese. He actually went so far as to consult Benjamin the Great's library. I don't believe there's been a precedent since the one Major LaFollet just referred to, but the fact that a steadholder not only held command in but actually created a military force not authorized by the Protector could be a real problem. Not with Benjamin, of course.' A casual shooing gesture of his right hand banished that possibility to well-deserved limbo. 'But there are still those on Grayson who feel more than a little... uncomfortable with his reforms and see you as the emblem of them. I have no doubt that some members of that faction would love to find a way to embarrass you — and him — by seizing on any weapon, even one as specious as that sort of pettifogging legalism. I'm sure Benjamin's advisers will see the problem as soon as I did, but I thought it might be as well to point it out to you now so you could be thinking about it.'

'Oh, thank you, My Lord,' Honor said, and both of them chuckled. It was a brief moment, but it felt good. At least we can still act naturally around one another. And who knows? If we act that way long enough, maybe it will actually become natural again. That would be nice. I think.

She brushed the thought aside and leaned back, crossing her legs and ignoring Nimitz's mock-indignant protest as her lap shifted under him.

'I trust you haven't had any more interesting thoughts, My Lord?' she said politely to White Haven, and the earl smiled.

'No, I haven't,' he assured her, then rather spoiled the reassurance by adding, 'On the other hand, you have been gone for over two T-years, Milady, and everyone thought you were dead. There are bound to be quite a few complications waiting for you to straighten out, don't you think?'

'Indeed I do.' She sighed, and ran the fingers of her hand through her short-cropped hair. She missed the longer, more luxuriant length she'd managed to produce before her capture, but the Peeps had shaved it all away in the brig of PNS Tepes, and the loss of her arm had made it impractical to grow it all the way back out.

'I'm sure there are, as well, Milady.' White Haven said, and shrugged as she glanced at him again. 'I have no real idea what they might be. Well, there are one or two things I can think of, but I feel it would be more advisable to let Protector Benjamin discuss them with you.'

His face was admirably calm, but Honor felt a sudden prickle of suspicion. He did