She must look frightful. Her cheeks were tight with dried tears, and her hair fell in knots around her face. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

But he opened the door and peered in anyway. “Are you all right? You’ve been quiet for so long. And you missed dinner.”

“I’ll be fine.” She sat up straighter in bed, smoothing her hair down with her fingers.

He came all the way in, carrying a tray of food. “I saved you the best pieces,” he said in an encouraging voice. “Some fruit, and some dried fish, and some really wonderful bread. You must be hungry.”

“I ate with Chay,” she said.

“That was hours ago,” he said firmly, and set the tray on a nightstand beside her bed. Then he pulled up a chair and sat beside her. “You’ll feel better if you eat. I promise you.”

“Oh, all right,” she said ungraciously, and picked up a fork. The food was all cold, of course, but it had come from Chay’s kitchens, and so it was marvelous. She did actually feel a little more cheerful as she ate the last bite. Impossible that mere food could make any difference against such a sea of troubles.

“And your vitamins,” he said, handing her one of the pills he had been dosing her with for the past three days. She didn’t even bother to argue this time, just swallowed it with a sip of tea.

“And your foot?” he asked. “Does it hurt? Do you want a pain pill?”

“Actually, it feels pretty good today. I think I’m fine.”

“Good. Now tell me what Chay Zanlan said.”

“All bad news,” she said quietly. “He is in fact infected. He’s taking the antidote you brought, but his doctors aren’t sure they’ve caught the disease in time. And they’ve already found it in many people that he’s dealt with in the past few weeks. It’s as contagious as you said.”

Nolan nodded gravely. “But they can spread the word about it, can’t they? Convince the whole race to get inoculated? He found the papers I gave him, didn’t he, with the formulas for the vaccine?”

“Yes. And the gulden have a marvelous information network—and a fanatic loyalty to their leader. If Chay says everyone should take the vaccine, everyone will take it. They should be able to contain the virus.”

Nolan sat back in his chair, smiling and pleased. “That’s it, then. That’s success. That’s the best news you could hope for.”

“No,” she said. “The best news would be that there was no fear of Chay dying. The best news would be that such a virus did not exist.”

“I meant the best news in the real world,” he said.