Ma Kosti claimed the sibs when they emerged from their conference with Count Vorkosigan. Miles watched in bemusement as they mixed and sliced and kneaded at her direction. They stuck to some long-practiced choreography; Felice even ducked under Raina's knife to scoot a kitten out of the way. Ma Kosti seemed just as tickled, as she exchanged recipes with Cora. Alex finally excused himself to discuss the afternoon's plans with Miles.

The tall, quiet man had almost been shy when approaching him, as though moved by some old aura of... Miles didn't know what. Or perhaps he was just quiet, after years of being drowned out by his twin sister. So far today, Miles hadn't seen them together long enough to compare.

Alex announced the travel arrangements to the others. "First we'll spend a few hours at ImpMil, to see Laisa and Gregor through. Once we're there, we'll be safe; it's fully fortified. We can take off straight for the Surleau from the lightflyer pad tonight. Here's the order for the cars: Cora and I will go fetch Ekaterin. Raina goes with Miles, Felice goes with the Count and Countess."

His twin had raised her eyebrows at that. "Why aren't you coming with me, and Miles?"

"Then there's the question of timing," Alex continued. He didn't looked at Raina. "All three cars should leave at the same time, but we won't be obvious about their occupants, all right? It should go smoothly."

"It's not Sebastian's style to blow us all up, anyway. Not artistic enough," agreed Raina.

Nevertheless, the siblings had planned the move thoroughly. Felice, in a grimy smock, had even checked the groundcars herself. They started out into a clear day, with a slight breeze to ruffle the bright leaves.

They were halfway there when a small gray object hit the windshield with a thud. Grenade? Shit. The driver quickly turned down a side street. No, just rocks, Miles realized, as more pelted the sides of the armored car. The scanner confirmed it. "Turn back to the main road, we're all right inside," the ImpSec man said to the driver and his comm link.

But Raina had already gotten out, as the car slowed down to turn. The volley stopped, except for a few final shots. Raina dodged them. The last rock she caught, and dropped.

"Stop the car!" Miles ordered. All his instincts told him to keep moving, but he could not leave Raina alone with these people. What will she do to them? Miles could see their faces now. They were young men, and a few women, not poor but not in the upper class. University students? They were alike in their plain clothes, and in their expressions of dismay. For Raina had pulled out a long knife from the folds of her dress. She was still striding, easily . . . until in a blur she rushed one of the ringleaders, a tall man in his twenties. Her run flowed into a kick. Now he was down on the ground, sobbing. It's happening too fast! Miles screamed, inside.

Raina wedged the knife under the man's throat. One of the women screamed, and stopped abruptly when a trickle of blood appeared on the gleaming blade. He was babbling, loud enough for Miles to hear. "… we just heard, it was a rumor, we thought it would do no harm, we tried to call and ask, but they wouldn't tell us…"

"Tell you what?" Raina growled. Her voice was too quiet and low, too inhuman. Miles could not see her face.

The man was shaking. Cutting himself more, on the sharp knife. "We… we heard about the attack on the Residence… we heard the real story… oh God! We thought---! We just heard, that it was Lord Vorkosigan who'd gone in…"

"That he'd blackmailed the Emperor," a woman said, voice quavering too much, "No one paid mind to us. No one told it straight."

"My lord," the ImpSec man said. "Our men say there's no way to stun her without that knife cutting deeper. What do we do?" Miles shook his head. I have to get out and talk to her, but I can't, it could all be a ploy…

Alex appeared, out of breath. He yanked Raina back, and automatically she whirled and tried to plant the knife in his belly. There was a blur of movement, which ended with the knife in both their hands, their bodies struggling together, chest to chest. Miles just barely caught Alex's muffled whisper. "No… killing." As her grip loosened, his free hand wrapped around her waist.

"…we only wanted to scare 'em…" the man on the ground said, feebly.

Miles sat back, and released the breath he'd been holding.

ImpSec sorted it out quickly: Raina and Alex were hustled into a fourth car, Cora continued to the Vorthys' alone, and Felice transferred to Miles's car. The bystanders and the would-be attackers were also cleared away.

Miles watched Felice watch the fourth car pull away. They sat silently for a while, watching the leaves scatter in the light traffic. Finally she met his gaze. There was water standing in her eyes.

"You asked, before, if it really made a difference--- what Raina did in the Imperial War. It made all the difference in the world."

"Do you want to tell me?" Miles asked.

Felice gave him a peculiar look. Miles felt like he'd opened his mouth to spit and jewels had spilled out. She smiled briefly before beginning the story. "No one else could do what she did. Not even Alex, if he'd opted for ship command instead of espionage." She settled back, talking shop. "It was a dicey situation in Komarran local space. The thick of the fighting had moved away from the wormhole. Next to the Ceta exit we had two heavily damaged cruisers, and one whole, the one under Raina's command. The flow out of the wormhole had stopped, and everyone assumed there wouldn't be any more.

"Raina figured differently. The Cetagandan diplomatic couriers kept jumping back and forth; she'd reason to believe there were bigger ships waiting for a clear line to the Komarr-Barrayar wormhole. Everyone else was too far out of range, except those three ships. She conferred with the other commanders. They agreed with her, but pointed out that if she were right, there'd be no time to transfer crew into her ship. Most thought it was best to wait for reinforcements.

"She wouldn't have it. She laid out a plan: one ship jumps through to force their hand, the other jumps and then detonates inside the wormhole.

"Although she was the superior officer, by rank, she didn't order them to do it. She told them no Vorkosigan gave out criminal orders. But by then she'd convinced them." Felice looked out the window. "There were 1,053 people on those two ships, all told. Earlier, she'd transferred off one of them to take command of the third ship. She knew most of those people."

There was a heavy silence. "Was she right?" Miles asked.

Felice shook her head. "No, ironically. There were bigger ships on the other side, but they weren't planning on jumping. What did happen was a shift in the battle behind her. We'd been losing, by a large margin. With one wormhole blocked, the Ceta ships tried to run to another exit. Raina caught that, and ordered ships to intercept before the Cetas could figure out what was happening. That's what really won the battle."

"My God." Over one thousand people. Miles felt that loss at the pit of his stomach.

"Raina returned to a hero's welcome. She held up for all the ceremonies and parties, but at home, it was all we could do to keep her in focus. Alex had to take a leave of absence, since he was the only one who could get through to her. She'd be bashing her head against the wall, screaming hysterically, one night, and the next day you couldn't get her to talk."

Miles recalled the look on Alex's face when Raina impassively mentioned her homecoming from the war. He probably remembers all of it, even though she doesn't.

"The doctors had to adjust her dose almost hourly instead of daily. We seriously considered an institution, then. It wasn't until Uncle Gregor had a war memorial built, for public death offerings, that she calmed down. But she was never the same."

How long had this been bubbling over? Miles shivered. Raina had been two weeks without medication. Her control was wearing very thin--- What if Alex can't contain her? Would she turn on us, in her madness?

Felice quirked an eyebrow at his pensive expression. "Raina is used to control, Miles. Control over others, control over the situation. She needs it since she has barely any control over herself. Twice in her life she lost that. And both times, her mistakes cost the lives of people close to her."

Miles winced. That feeling he was intimately familiar with.

"It's an obsession, with her, to never make those mistakes again. You can imagine what this whole situation is like. It's bad enough for the three of us; in Raina's case, it's not only personal, it's redolent with history. Bad memories."

The car pulled up to the back entrance of ImpMil. "And now," Felice said, stepping out, "Raina may lose the one person who can stop those memories… those nightmares… from returning."