Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold [22]
"Look at this! A letter from Lord Vorkosigan-he's free!"
The second man looked over his shoulder, and echoed, "Thank God! But why didn't he call in?" Then, after a moment more, "What? What?"
The lieutenant turned the letter over and they both read on. "Is he insane?"
The older man cast Jin a very narrow look, stirring up all Jin's worst fears. Policemen loomed in his imagination.
"Is this real?" the older man demanded.
Jin bent, picked up the fallen envelope, and held it out mutely. He swallowed and managed, "He said you'd like the thumbprint. He said it would be just like his grandfather's seal."
"Is that blood?"
"Um, yah . . . ?"
The older man handed the envelope to the lieutenant. "Take that downstairs and check it."
"Yes, sir." Trev-san disappeared through the doorway at the back of the hall. After a moment, Jin heard a door slam, and feet thumping down some other stairs.
"Excuse me, sir, are you the consul?" Jin had gained the vague notion that a consul was something like an ambassador, but smaller. Rather like his house, really. "Because Miles-san said, only give his letter to the lieutenant or Consul Vorlynkin." He managed to get that last name out without stumbling over his tongue, this time. Jin would have expected an ambassador proper to be stouter and older, but this man was lean and not as old as Miles-san, or at least, he didn't have any gray in his brown hair.
"I'm Vorlynkin." His stare at Jin intensified. His eyes were very blue, like a hot summer sky. "Where did you see Lord Auditor Vorkosigan?"
"I, um, met him last night. He'd been lost in the Cryocombs. He said."
"Is he all right?"
The answer seemed more complicated than the question, but Jin decided to skip all that and just reassure him: "He's much better this morning. I gave him eggs."
Vorlynkin blinked, and looked at the letter some more. "If this wasn't a letter in his own hand-if this isn't a letter in his own hand-I'd have you under fast-penta so . . . eh. Where did you see him?"
"Um, where I live."
"And where's that?"
He was in trouble now, between Suze and this alarming stranger. He was never supposed to talk to strangers, or tell anyone about the facility, he'd been told that often enough. He wondered if he could bolt back out the door and down the walk before the consul could grab him. "Um, my place . . . ?"
"What . . ." To his surprise, Vorlynkin did not pursue this, but turned the letter over again. "What did he seem to be about?"
"Um . . . he asked a lot of questions." Jin thought a moment, and offered, "He's not kidnapped any more, you know."
"But why send a child as a courier . . . ?" Vorlynkin muttered. Jin wasn't sure if the question was addressed to him, so did not attempt to volunteer an answer. It didn't seem the time to explain about almost twelve, either. He was beginning to think that the less he said, the safer he would be.
The other fellow-Lieutenant Johannes, Trev-san, whatever-stumped back into to the entry hall, waving the envelope at his boss. "This part's real. Now what, sir?"
"We still have to find his armsman just the same-he seems to think Roic was taken. No change there with respect to the locals. I suppose we have to do exactly what this says. But send a holo of the letter to ImpSec Galactic Affairs on Komarr, priority, scrambled."
The lieutenant looked hopeful. "Maybe they'll have an order. Some other order. One that makes more sense."
"Not for some days. And think who they'd have to go to for an override." The two men looked at each other in mysterious perturbation. "We're still on our own, here."
Jin diffidently cleared his throat. "Miles-san said I was to bring back a reply."
"Yes," said the consul. "Wait there." He pointed to a spindly chair against the wall, one of a pair flanking a little bureau with silk flowers atop it, and a mirror