Chapter Text
Armsman Daniels sat in a chair in the far back of the third grade classroom and looked longingly out the window. Spring was calling. He hadn’t enjoyed third grade all that much the first time, and watching the young Prince Xav attend it was only slightly more interesting than watching the grass grow on the playground outside. Scratch that - he was watching the grass and not watching third grade. But such are the duties of an armsman assigned to watch the Crown Prince. Usually he had company in his boredom in the person of the Armsman assigned to watching Sasha - no, it was Aral now - Vorkosigan, the Prince’s cousin and son of perhaps the second most powerful man on Barrayar, one Lord Auditor Miles Vorkosigan. But today Aral was home sick with some sort of cough. Daniels wished heartily that the boy would get well soon, if only so that he would have the company of Armsman deSilva and they could continue their game of Survival in the Time of Isolation. He was about to win!
The inside of the Vorbarra District Day School looked like many other schools. The picture of Emperor Gregor Vorbarra was displayed in accordance with the regulations for all Barrayaran schools. There was also a picture of the District’s Count as well, in this case Count Gregor Vorbarra, the same man in a different uniform. In Vorkosigan District schools there would have been the picture of the Emperor and a picture of their Count, Count Miles Vorkosigan. And so forth in all the other 58 districts on Barrayar.
Little boys sat in tidy rows of small chairs and desks. Even the uniforms didn’t look all that dissimilar from the ones he had worn in his youth. But the children that attended this school were the elite of Barrayar. This was the school that one sent their high Vor lordlings to if one was able to afford the remarkable tuition and was able to secure one of the highly coveted admission letters. The high Vor ladylings (was that even a word?) went to a different school located several miles away. That the Prince and his cousin would attend was a foregone conclusion. The other younger Princes would attend as well. The next youngest one already did; Prince David was in a classroom across the hall accompanied by another Armsman. Gallo, too, was probably very bored.
Daniels looked back from the window at the sound of chairs scraping along the floor to see Xav and another student getting up and walking toward the door. He tucked his pad into his pocket and followed them out.
The group reached the hallway and headed toward the library.
“Pol, you want to do this report on who?” asked Xav confused.
“On Simon Illyan,” replied Pol certainly.
“But we are supposed to pick an important historic person,” replied Xav.
“He is an important historic figure,” said Pol.
“But Uncle Simon is just Uncle Simon. He isn’t that...” Xav searched for the right word.
Pol stopped and stared at Xav, “He is that important. And besides, his father was Greek.”
Daniels could see that Xav didn’t understand the significance of the statement from his little Greekie friend. Maybe someone would enlighten him as to the ‘historically important people’ who sometimes came to dinner at his table. Daniels decided to relay this conversation to the Head Armsman in his daily report. At least Trent would get a laugh out of it if nothing else.
The trio walked down the hallway, the sound of footsteps the only noise. “Do you want to meet him?” asked Xav.
“Really?” asked Pol, stunned.
“Sure. He sometimes comes to pick up Aunt Alys at the Residence. I can ask her when he’s likely to come by.” Xav got a little more excited about the idea, “Maybe he will tell us a story about the cool stuff he did. He doesn't remember a lot of things, but sometimes he tells the most amazing stories.”
Pol’s eyes had gone as big as saucers with the idea of meeting one of his heroes and the casual way Xav threw around invitations to meet them. Daniels grinned. There were many, many moments of total boredom at this job and then there were moments when he could see flashes of the wonderful things he was a part of, even if it were just arranging a meeting between a little boy and an old man. This was definitely going into that report to Trent.
The group reached the library and walked in. This was the oldest part of the school and the least modern of the buildings. The library was the only building remaining of the original school grounds, the others having been destroyed in one of several skirmishes around the capital over the years. The rough hewn stones made the building feel colder than the temperature on the thermostat registered. The books stood arranged on shelves at a height for children. Daniels looked over them and at the mostly empty room, scanning for a nonexistent threat. There were three students working on some project on one of the tables near the computers and two librarians talking behind the circulation desk. Nothing dangerous here. There never was. That was the life of an armsman: lots and lots of waiting and standing around waiting. And that was the good times.
Xav and Pol walked toward the biographies section near the big windows. There were flowers on this side of the building. Daniels mused that there would be much playing tonight at the Residence. Maybe the Empress would even get in on it, and she hardly ever ventured outside to play in the children’s games.
With a crack and the shattering of glass, all thoughts of boredom leapt from Daniels head. The blast of spring air and the shrill of an alarm engaged all his senses as he ran to where the still form of his charge lay on the floor and a rapidly enlarging puddle of blood seeped into the carpet.
He tipped a table over and created a shield for the prone form and bent to see the damage.
Xav sat up and looked at him with several cuts bleeding from his face. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” said Daniels as he reached to the boy, “Are you hurt?”
“I don’t think so. I’m just on the ground and covered in glass,” replied Xav. Xav looked at the still form of his friend and continued, “But Pol is hurt. Really hurt.”
All the drills where the boys needed to get down and be safe had paid off. Unfortunately it looked like an innocent bystander had gotten hit instead. Daniels confirmed that Xav did indeed look mostly alright and turned his attention to the other boy. Xav was right; Pol was hurt.
Daniels looked once more at his charge and pressed the red alert button on his wristcom, grateful for the feature that allowed his voice to be heard cancelling out the chatter that the frequency buzzed with.
“This is Daniels. I am in the library with Xav. The south facing window has been shot, possibly with a sniper rifle. Xav appears to not be seriously injured. There is a civilian who needs medical attention immediately; I suggest bringing the tube. And possibly others with injuries from the broken glass.”
“Expletive!” was the startled response of the ImpSec officer assigned to the school, “I have people on their way to you now.”
Xav looked at his classmate on the ground and back to Daniels, “What now?”
Daniels looked warily around the room, still on edge from the adrenaline coursing through his veins. “We wait for backup and get you to a safer location.”
“What about Pol?”
“I don’t know. He will get the help he needs. My job is to make sure you are safe. ImpSec will take care of him.”
“But he is hurt a lot worse than I am.”
Daniels spared a look at the two boys and the overturned table. Xav was right. The last time he had seen that kind of blood loss the situation hadn’t turned out well. But fortunately, his job wasn’t to look after Pol, it was to look out for Xav and he had gotten altogether too close to messing that up.
“Take off your jacket and press on the places that he is bleeding from.”
“Really?” asked Xav quickly removing the jacket and laying on his friend’s chest.
“Yeah, it is the best you can do without other equipment. Equipment that we don’t have, but should be here soon.”
“Mama will complain that I stained it....”
“I think she will get over it this time.”
Three minutes later the exterior of the library was determined to be safe and six armed men entered the library through the empty place where the window used to be. They were followed by another three men carrying various medical equipment including the cyrotube. It was only used in the most severe trauma cases, where the victim was unlikely to survive transport to someplace better capable of handling the injuries.
As the armed men walked the perimeter of the room determining the extent of the damage and the disposition of the other people in the room, the medics approached the place where the trio waited. Xav was still valiantly using his jacket to try to stop the blood on his young friend.
One of the medics handed Xav’s jacket back to him and began the grisly job of determining Pol’s injuries while a second began setting up equipment nearby. The cyrotube looked ominously like a coffin. As the medic pulled back the remains of the uniform shirt, Xav turned a ghostly shade of white and looked as if he was going to lose his breakfast.
“Put your head between your knees and take deep breaths,” came Daniels’ voice, “and don’t watch.”
Xav obeyed the directions and the color slowly returned to his face. The third medic looked at Xav and the jacket Xav was holding in concern. Daniels quickly added, “The blood isn’t his. At least most of it.”
The medic calmed slightly, “We need to get Xav to ImpMil to make sure and I would rather get both of you out of here as soon as possible. ImpSec is still securing the perimeter and Captain Cohagen is on a rampage.”
Daniels didn’t have to imagine very far to guess how upset Captain Cohagen was. He had only to think of how upset Captain Dragan had been over the summer when the household security had lost Xav in the Residence.
“I agree,” responded Daniels eagerly.
“A helicopter should be arriving on the west lawn in a few minutes. These men are going to provide escort for you and Xav to get there.”
“What about Pol?” interjected Xav. “Pol needs to be at ImpMil more than I do.”
The resigned medic looked at the injured boy and the other medics furiously working on getting him prepped and ready for transport. “That may be true, but my orders are to secure your safety and get you clear until the security of this location is verified. He,” said the medic grudgingly, “isn’t on my list.”
Xav looked at Daniels and the medic. “Can you please make room for him too?” he pleaded, “Please? I don’t want him to die because of me.”
The head medic looked back at the other medics as they finished the prep and connected the boy to the tube. In less than a minute the child would be fully in stasis and as stable as possible. The medic made a decision and said to the waiting men, “Pack him up. I’ll take him solo and update ImpMil while we are in the air. I can pick up a new detachment when we land,” and then back to Xav, “I don’t want him to die either.” Finally he announced to the armed men, now standing in a loose circle around them, “Help carry the tube and then report to Captain Cohagen. It looks like you are going to be here a little longer than planned. We are going to need your weight allowance.”
The leader of the guards pointed at two others who picked up the tube that the injured child had been laid on and lifted it. The medics picked up equipment and the group headed to the west lawn.
As Daniels helped Xav to his feet, he felt a stab of pain in his leg and for the first time noticed the shard of glass poking from his uniform trousers. The medic looked at it and the blood staining the pants and said, “It looks like the kid wasn’t the only one to get caught by the blast.”
Daniels took a step and winced. “I will be fine. I am not leaving Xav.”
The medic responded, “I wouldn’t even think of asking.” He caught the attention of one of the guards, “Help get Armsman Daniels to the helicopter and be careful of the right leg.”
“Yes, sir,” answered the guard.
The helicopter took off a few minutes later.
*****
Under any other circumstances Xav would have found a ride on a helicopter exciting. These were not the circumstances he had hoped for. His Armsman was bleeding. His friend was in a tube and not even breathing. And he was scared. Very very very scared.
He wanted to go home and be safe. He wanted to be working on a stupid report for his history teacher. He wanted everything to be the way it was supposed to be and this wasn’t it. This was like on one of those holo-vid-dramas that Mama told him he shouldn’t watch and he sometimes did anyway. This stuff was only supposed to be pretend. But it wasn’t pretend this time and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all.
****
Armsman Daniels didn’t like heights. He could deal with them if he had to, but they were far from his favorite thing. And he didn’t like bleeding either, especially if it was his blood. Although Xav’s blood would have been worse. He supposed he could deal with the blood...
The helicopter set down on the top of ImpMil, the Imperial Military Hospital, where people in the Imperial Service and their dependents were treated in case of injury. This was where the best doctors on Barrayar were. And this was where he was going...
Daniels barely noticed when he laid down on the flat bench in the helicopter. He hadn’t noticed at all when that entire bench had been picked up and removed. He did notice however when someone in white attempted to remove his stunner from him.
His words slurred, “No, can’t have that...need to keep Xav safe.”
A patient voice spoke slowly to him as the world swam out of focus, “Armsman, we have sealed this entire wing. Xav is as safe as it is possible for us to keep him.”
The high pitched voice of the crying Crown Prince cut through the fog, “Daniels, let them help. Papa is coming and Trent is coming too. He is bringing more people. I don’t want you to die.”
The last thing he remembered before the drugs knocked him out was the sobbing of a child...
****