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a hired space captain named Ky Tung, also formerly of the enemy mercenaries, they take the payroll. Miles finds out about this when he awakens after his emergency surgery, and also finds his cousin Ivan Vorpatril sitting next to his infirmary bed. Ivan had been ordered to find Miles, as rumors of his raising a mercenary army—expressly forbidden on Barrayar—have caused enemies of his father to attempt to accuse Miles of treason. Ivan was to have been killed in a jump accident, but when he missed his ship, he stuck to his original mission, and found Miles at Tau Verde IV. Miles figures out the plan, but before he can get back home, he is contacted by Admiral Oser, the leader of the mercenaries hired by the Pelians, who wants to join the Dendarii. After working out the details of his rapidly expanding mercenary army, and a quick stop to drop mercenary Elli Quinn off at Beta Colony for reconstructive facial surgery, he gets back to Barrayar just in time to expose the plot against his father, and see the conspirators arrested. Miles gently nudges Emperor Gregor Vorbarra to bring the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet under the control of Barrayaran Internal Security, and then, as "punishment" for his escapades, Miles is sent to the Imperial Service Academy for officer training.

"The Mountains of Mourning" (1989)

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella

A ragged, wild-eyed woman named Harra Csurik comes to Vorkosigan Surleau, demanding to see the count for justice for her murdered baby, Raina. After hearing her story, Miles decides to take her in to see his father as a lark. After breakfast, however, Aral sends Miles to the small village of Silvy Vale to find out if the woman's husband did kill her baby, which had been born with a harelip, something the backwoods people often take for a sign of mutancy. After a two-day horseback ride into the Dendarii Mountains, Miles, his armsman Pym, and an Imperial military surgeon, Doctor Dea, arrive at the backwoods hamlet. Cutting through feeble resistance by the village's Speaker, Serg Karal, Miles begins his investigation in earnest, exhuming the baby's body, and having Dea perform an autopsy, which reveals the child was killed by having its neck broken. They take a look at the couple's cabin, and Miles has Harra recount her actions the day she found her baby dead. He sends the Speaker to bring Lem Csurik in for questioning under fast-penta, to determine his guilt or innocence. The men return, and say he's fled. That night, the village honors Miles with a feast and music, and he meets both mothers-in-law, Csurik's, who protests her son's innocence, and Harra's mother, Ma Mattulich, who is a dark, angry woman, and who refers to Miles as "mutie lord." There are two attempted assaults that night; first on Miles's Service-issue tent, which he had let the Speaker's children sleep in, and which is fortunately fireproof, and later on his horse, Fat Ninny, which could have killed the animal if they hadn't chased off the attacker. Early the next morning, Miles sees Lem, who has come out of the mountains to clear his name, but he insists on not naming any one else in the incident, although he clearly knows more than he's saying. Miles agrees, and has the doctor fast-penta him for the interrogation, which proves his innocence. Miles now knows who killed the child, and summons the suspects and witnesses. He clears up the matter of the burning torch thrown on the tent, finding out it was Dono Csurik, Lem's younger brother, trying to scare Miles. Miles leaves his punishment up to the family. He has Doctor Dea fast-penta Ma Mattulich, who reveals not only that she killed Raina, suspecting she was a mutant, but had killed two of her other deformed children, born twenty years earlier. Faced with handing down a proper sentence, but not really wanting to order her execution, Miles sentences her to death, but stays her execution indefinitely. Instead, he strips her of all legal rights, remanding her to her daughter's care for the rest of her life. He also offers Harra and Lem the chance to attend