Miles Errant - Lois McMaster Bujold [376]
"Mark!" Miles almost tried to crawl through the vid image. "Are you all right? Where are you?"
"You have, I see. Good. I'm at Lilly Durona's. God, Miles. What a place. What a woman. She let me have a bath. She put my skin back on. She fixed my foot. She gave me a hypo of muscle-relaxant for my back. With her own hands, she performed medical services too intimate and disgusting to describe, but very badly needed, I assure you, and held my head while I screamed. Did I mention the bath? I love her, and I want to marry her."
All this was delivered with such dead-pan enthusiasm, Miles could not tell if Mark was joking. "What are you on?" he asked suspiciously.
"Pain killers. Lots and lots of pain killers. Oh, it's wonderful!" He favored Miles with a weird broad grin. "But don't worry, my head is perfectly clear. It's just the bath. I was holding it together till she gave me the bath. It unmanned me. Do you know what a wonderful thing a bath is, when you're washing off—never mind."
"How did you get out of here, and back to the Durona Clinic?" Miles asked urgently.
"In Ryoval's lightflyer, of course. The code-key worked."
Behind Miles, Baron Fell drew in his breath. "Mark." He leaned into the vid pick up with a smile. "Would you put Lilly on a moment, please?"
"Ah, Baron Fell!" said Mark. "Good. I was going to call you next. I want to invite you to tea, here at Lilly's. We have a lot to talk about. You too, Miles. And bring all your friends." Mark gave him a sharply meaningful glance.
Quietly, Miles reached down and pressed the "alert" button on Iverson's comm link. "Why, Mark?"
"Because I need them. My own troops are much too tired for any more work today."
"Your troops?"
"Please do as I ask. Because I ask it. Because you owe me," Mark added, in a voice so low Miles had to strain to hear. Mark's eyes burned, a brief spark.
Fell muttered, "He used it. He has to know—" He leaned in again, and said to Mark, "Do you know what you have in ah, hand, Mark?"
"Oh, Baron. I know what I'm doing. I don't know why so many people have so much trouble believing that," Mark added in a tone of hurt complaint. "I know exactly what I'm doing." Then he laughed. It was a very disturbing laugh, edgy and too loud.
"Let me talk to Lilly," said Fell.
"No. You come here and talk to Lilly," said Mark petulantly. "Anyway, you want to talk to me." He nailed Fell's eye with a direct look. "I promise you will find it profitable."
"I believe I do want to talk with you," murmured Fell. "Very well."
"Miles. You're there in Ryoval's study, where I was." Mark searched his face, for what Miles could not guess, but then Mark nodded quietly to himself, as if satisfied. "Is Elena there?"
"Yes . . ."
Elena leaned forward on Miles's other side. "What do you need, Mark?"
"I want to talk to you a moment. Armswoman. Privately. Would you clear the room of everyone else, please? Everyone."
"You can't," Miles began. " . . . Armswoman? Not—not liege-sworn? You can't be."
"Technically, I suppose she's not, now that you're alive again," said Mark. He smiled sadly. "But I want a service. My first and last request, Elena. Privately."
Elena looked around. "Everybody out. Please, Miles. This is between Mark and me."
"Armswoman?" Miles muttered, allowing himself to be thrust back out into the corridor. "How can—" Elena shut the door on them all. Miles called Iverson to arrange transport, and other things. It was still a polite race with Fell, but it was clearly a race.
Elena emerged after a few minutes. Her face was strained. "You go on to Durona's. Mark has asked me to find something for him here. I'll catch up."
"Collect all the data you can for ImpSec while you're at it, then," said Miles, feeling bewildered by the pace of events. Somehow, he seemed not to be in charge here. "I'll tell Iverson to give you a free hand. But—Armswoman? Does that mean what I think it does? How can—"
"It means nothing, now. But I owe Mark. We all do. He killed Ryoval, you know."
"I was beginning to realize it had to be so. I just didn't see how."
"With both hands tied behind