"You only live so long as you serve a purpose in the empire. So you're serving. Just in case anyone asks." Desdaine shrugged out of his fur coat. He shook the melted ice droplets off it, walked back to the stone-paved entryway, and hung the coat on a wrought iron hook. He strode into the kitchen. He found a highball glass, found the bar, and poured himself a stiff one. "I am glad you are alive."

Laren came to the kitchen archway. He was painfully attractive. He leaned forward, his shoulder on the stout log pillar, and looked in, watching Desdaine. "Can't say the same about you." His eyes flicked downward at Desdaine’s hands. "Pour two."

Desdaine took down a second glass. He poured, relieved to see that his hand didn't shake. He corked the decanter, took up both glasses, and offered one to Laren.

Laren accepted the drink from Desdaine, and didn't throw it at him. That was a good start.

Desdaine clinked his glass to Laren's. "Salud," he said.

"Drop dead," Laren said.

Desdaine's first round went down quick. He poured another drink and swept past Laren back into the great room. Laren moved with him.

Desdaine looked up and feigned a great interest in the strings of tiny white lights that lined the stout timber crossbeams -- anything to avoid looking at Laren.

Wooden logs crackled and settled in the fieldstone hearth. A robot fire tender remained discreetly out of sight.

Laren dropped backwards, letting himself flump into a deep, overstuffed leather chair. He hung one leg over a wide padded chair arm. He was barefoot. Apparently his jailors hadn't given him shoes. "So, what's the trick here?" He licked his hand where he'd sloshed his drink. The motion of his tongue caught Desdaine's eyes. It made him hard.

"Run for it," Desdaine said, turning his gaze to the window.

"What happens then?"

Desdaine nodded at the frozen landscape outside. "Have you looked out there?"

Outside was cold and forbidding as all hell.

Laren gave a quick nod with a tight smile. "Noticed that. What do I have to do to stay alive? Really."

"Nothing."

"Is this some weird way of making me talk?"

Desdaine shook his head. He gazed fixedly into his own drink. "You don't know anything. You're only a spy by definition. I already know everything about you."

"Yeah. About that. How the hell did you know my dog's name?"

"I told you, I'm a fan."

"Uhm." Laren hedged as if hesitant to point out the obvious. "I don't know if you noticed but I happen to be a Raudaner?"

"I am all too aware of that. Admiration does not respect national boundaries." Admiration. There was a nice word to use instead of love, lust, craving, or obsession. "You cannot imagine the mountains of fan mail General Gatalan gets from your country."

General Gatalan was the leading fighter ace on the Ilzec side.

"No shit?" Laren said.

Desdaine nodded. "Every day. Bags of nude photos, proposals, propositions, bras, thongs, garters."

"Damn," Laren said, as if feeling cheated. "I only get those from Raudaners. I never get bras from Ilzec."

"That is because we screen outgoing mail."

"Are you allowed to tell me that?"

"It's not a secret. And you're not leaving here to tell anyone," Desdaine said. "At least not until war's end."

"Okay, I'm missing a step here. This place is a government setup. I'm supposed your sex slave here. That means this arrangement has official blessing. Isn't homosexuality illegal in your country?"

Heat rose in Desdaine's face. He willed himself back into a hollow calm. "Yes. It is."

Laren craned his neck around, making an obvious survey of the handsome comfortable surroundings. "I'm thinking someone went way out their way to make you happy."

Desdaine glanced around too. There was a subtle richness and obvious sensuousness to the cabin. It was very cozy except for its desolate location. "It does have that appearance," Desdaine said, bleakly. "But I assume nothing anymore."

"I'm your sex toy?"

"That seems to be the intent."

"Whose intent? You say it's not your intent. How 'bout I say bull tits?"

Desdaine felt as if he were being flogged. "I just couldn't let them kill you."