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coming over from the Barrayaran courier jump-ship in a personnel pod. We
docked into this dump of a freight bay. The Ba Lura, wearing a station
employee uniform and some badly applied false hair, lumbered into our pod
as soon as the lock cycled open, and reached, we thought, for a weapon. We
jumped it, and took away a nerve disrupter and this." Miles held up the Great
Key. "The Ba shook us off and escaped, and I stuck this in my pocket till I
could find out more. The next time I saw the Ba it was dead in a pool of its
own blood on the floor of the funeral rotunda. I found this unnerving, to say
the least. Now it's your turn. You say Ba Lura stole the key from your charge.
When did you discover the Great Key was missing?"
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"I found it missing from its place . . . that day."
"How long could it have been gone? When had you last checked it?"
"It is not being used every day now, because of the period of mourning for the
Celestial Lady. I had last seen it when I arranged her regalia . . . two days
before that."
"So potentially, it could have been missing for three days before you
discovered its absence. When did the Ba go missing?"
"I'm . . . not sure. I saw Ba Lura the evening before."
"That cuts it down a little. So the Ba could have been gone with the key as
early as the previous night. Do the ba servitors pass pretty freely in and out of
the Celestial Garden, or is it hard?"
"Freely. They run all our errands."
"So Ba Lura came back . . . when?"
"The night of your arrival. But the Ba would not see me. It claimed to be sick. I
could have had it dragged into my presence, but ... I did not want to inflict
such an indignity."
They were in it together, right.
"I went to see the Ba in the morning. The whole sorry story came out then.
The Ba was trying to take the Great Key to ... someone, and entered into the
wrong docking bay."
"Then someone was supposed to supply a personnel pod? Then someone was
waiting on a ship in orbit?"
"I didn't say that!"
Keep pressing her. It's working. Though it did make him feel faintly guilty, to
be badgering the distraught old lady so, even if possibly for her own good.
Don't let up. "So the Ba blundered onto our pod, and-what was the rest of its
story? Tell me exactly!"
"Ba Lura was attacked by Barrayaran soldiers, who stole the Great Key."
"How many soldiers?"
"Six."
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Miles s eyes widened in delight. "And then what?"
"Ba Lura begged for its life, and head and honor, but they laughed and ejected
the Ba, and flew away."
Lies, lies at last. And yet . . . the Ba was only human. Anyone who had screwed
up so hugely might re-tell the story so as to make themselves look less at fault.
"What exactly did it say we said?"
Her voice grated with anger. "You insulted the Celestial Lady."
"Then what?"
"The Ba came home in shame."
"So . . . why didn't the Ba call on Cetagandan security to shake us down and
get the Great Key back on the spot?"
There was a longer silence. Then she said, "The Ba could not do that. But it
confessed to me. And I came to you. To ... humble myself. And beg for the
return of my . . . charge and my honor."
'Why didn't the Ba confess to you the night before?"
"I don't know!"
"So while you set about your retrieval task, Ba Lura cut its throat."
"In great grief and shame," she said lowly.
"Yeah? Why not at least wait to see if you could coax the key back from me? So
why not cut its throat privately, in its own quarters? Why advertise its shame
to the entire galactic community? Isn't that a bit unusual? Was the Ba
supposed to attend the bier-gifting ceremony?"
"Yes."
"And you were too?"
"Yes ..."
"And you believed the Ba's story?"
"Yes!"
"Lady, I think you are lost in the woods. Let me tell you what happened in the
personnel pod as I saw it. There were no six soldiers. Just me, my cousin, and
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the pod pilot. There was no conversation, no begging or pleading, no slurs on
the Celestial Lady. Ba Lura just yelped, and ran off. It didn't even fight very
hard. In fact, it scarcely fought us at all. Strange, don't you think, in a hand-
to-hand struggle for something so important that the Ba slit its own throat
over its loss the next day? We were left scratching our heads, holding the
damned thing and wondering what the hell? Now you know that one of us, me
or the Ba, is lying. I know which one."
"Give the Great Key to me," was all she could say. "It's not yours."
"But I think I was framed. By someone who apparently wants to drag
Barrayar into a Cetagandan internal . . . disagreement. Why? What am I being
set up for?"
Her silence might indicate that these were the first new thoughts to penetrate
her panic in two days. Or ... it might not. In any case, she only whispered,
"Not yours!"
Miles sighed. "I couldn't agree with you more, milady, and I am glad to return
your charge. But in light of the whole situation, I would like to be able to
testify-under fast-penta, if need be-just who I gave the Great Key back to. You
could be anyone, in that bubble. My Aunt Alys, for all I know. Or Cetagandan
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