window or it would be night and the
wall-lights would be on. There would always be somebody with him.
Nikkolay's wife, Dame Cecelia; Rovard Grauffis; Lady Lavina
Karvall--he must have slept a long time, for she was so much older
than he remembered--and her brother, Burt Sandrasan. And a woman
with dark hair, in a white smock with a gold caduceus on her breast.

Once, Duchess Flavia, and once Duke Angus himself. He asked where
he was, not much caring. They told him, at the Ducal Palace.

He wished they'd all go away, and let him go wherever Elaine was.

Then it would be dark, and he would be trying to find her, because
there was something he wanted desperately to show her. Stars in the
sky at night, that was it. But there were no stars, there was no
Elaine, there was no anything, and he wished that there was no
Lucas Trask, either.

But there was an Andray Dunnan. He could see him standing
black-cloaked on the terrace, the diamonds in his beret-jewel
glittering evilly; he could see the mad face peering at him over
the rising barrel of the submachine gun. And then he would hunt
for him without finding him, through the cold darkness of space.

The waking periods grew longer, and during them his mind was clear.
They relieved him of his crown of electronic thorns. The feeding
tubes came out, and they gave him cups of broth and fruit juice.
He wanted to know why he had been brought to the Palace.

"About the only thing we could do," Rovard Grauffis told him.
"They had too much trouble at Karvall House as it was. You know,
Sesar got shot, too."

"No." So that was why Sesar hadn't come to see him. "Was he killed?"

"Wounded; he's in worse shape than you are. When the shooting
started, he went charging up the escalator. Didn't have anything
but his dress-dagger. Dunnan gave him a quick burst; I think that
was why he didn't have time to finish you off. By that time, the
guards who'd been shooting blanks from that rapid-fire gun got in
a clip of live rounds and fired at him. He got out of there as fast
as he could. They have Sesar on a robomedic like yours. He isn't
in any danger."

The drainage tubes and medication tubes came out; the tangle of
wires around him was removed, and the electrodes with them. They
bandaged his wounds and dressed him in a loose robe and lifted him
from the robomedic to a couch, where he could sit up when he wished;
they began giving him solid food, and wine to drink, and allowed him
to smok