The doors had swept open to admit a group of latecomers in military dress, bedecked with medals and rank emblems. The crowd opened like a flower around them. Kiem took one look and groaned. “Oh, great.”

“Kiem?” Jainan detached himself from his conversation and discreetly fell in beside him. “What’s wrong?”

“My mother,” Kiem said, under his breath. “She’s not supposed to be here yet. She must have taken an earlier shuttle. Argh.” He wondered for a fleeting moment if one of the gilded chairs would give him enough cover if he concealed himself behind it and thought chair-like thoughts.

“Kiem!” A short, stout woman, her uniform bars sagging with the weight of medals on them, emerged from the center of the group.

Kiem raised a hand. “Welcome back, Mother.” He gave Jainan a sorry this is probably going to be awful look and held out his arm. Jainan took it, and they approached her together.

“General Tegnar,” Jainan said, bowing. Kiem bowed as well.

Kiem’s mother looked them up and down. “Well, at least you two are in one piece,” she said. “No sooner do I hear you’re married, Kiem, than I hear you’ve lost your partner to some sort of kidnapping.”

Kiem raised his head from his bow. “Mother!”

“He didn’t lose me,” Jainan said. Kiem tried to shoot him a sideways apologetic look, but against all odds, Jainan was obviously trying to suppress a smile as he looked down at her. “I conveniently located myself in a classified military facility, which you must admit is hard to misplace.”

Kiem’s mother snorted. “Could say that.” Her face crumpled into something even sterner, like continental collision happening on an accelerated timescale.

“Heard about Fenrik. Kingfisher. Bad business all around.”

“Have you heard what’s going to happen?” Kiem said.

“Word is they’re retiring him,” his mother said shortly. “Might bring me back to Iskat.”

“Ah,” Kiem said. He tried and failed to process how he felt about having his mother back on-planet. “Good?”

“Thean,” his mother said, examining Jainan. “Hm. I hear on the grapevine

you’re handy with a quarterstaff.”

Jainan inclined his head. “I do my best.”

“You’ll have to show me.” Kiem’s mother folded her arms and stared at Kiem. “Hear you hijacked a shuttle.”

Kiem felt tongue-tied and lumbering and cowardly, as he usually did when confronted with his mother’s judgment. “It was for a good cause.”

General Tegnar reached up a hand and unexpectedly clapped him on the shoulder. “Bet it was. Good show. Your Thean must be a good influence. Kiem wouldn’t even shoot at a target when we sent him to camp,” she added to Jainan.

“Hope you can light a fire under him. Needs some backbone. Some ambition.”

Her tone at the end turned hopeful.