upright mattress and chose not to pick a fight.

“Am I on Carissi Station?” he said. His eyes went to the screen. The tiny yellow flowers on the bank looked like the ones that grew in the hills around Bita. Someone must have captured the vid on Thea.

“I’ll tell you, you wouldn’t have liked being put on a shuttle back to Iskat in the state you were in, Your Grace,” the orderly said. “You’re in the station’s med suite.” He was taking some form of reading from the diagnostic unit at the head of Jainan’s bed. “How’s the pain? Any blurriness of vision?”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Jainan said. “Does anyone know where I am?”

“Blurriness of vision?” the orderly said, and waited expectantly until Jainan shook his head, causing himself a stab of pain. “Well, I’d say there must be fewer people who don’t know you’re here. You’ve got two Internal Security guards out in the waiting room, another guarding the suite door, palace agencies harassing my manager, and a visitor list as long as your arm.”

“Kiem?” Jainan said. “I mean—Prince Kiem?”

“I couldn’t say,” the orderly said. “Now, do you think you could drink some water?”

“Am I under arrest?” Jainan said. “Has anything happened on Thea?”

“Under…? Nobody told me anything about that,” the orderly said. But Jainan could see him reassessing Jainan and his security arrangements with a sideways glance. Jainan also saw the moment when he resolved that his superiors would have told him if his patient were a dangerous criminal, and the professional upbeat manner returned. “I wouldn’t worry, I don’t think so. At least you’ve got all the bits of your brain in working order, how’s that for luck? How about that water?”

So he wasn’t under arrest, but Internal Security had people outside his door.

Fenrik couldn’t have succeeded in starting a war; the orderly would surely have heard. “Yes,” Jainan said, though his stomach felt like a shriveled, nauseous lump. He needed to be functional. As the orderly got up and fetched a plastic cup from a tray, memories piled into Jainan’s head, feeding the sense of urgency pumping through him. “I would like to see Kiem, please.”

The orderly handed him the water. “Drink that for me,” he said encouragingly.

Something inside Jainan snapped. His fingers curled around the cup. “I have had enough,” he said, in a voice that surprised even him, “of being treated as if I am incompetent. Last time I saw my partner, he was tackling a man with an incapacitator gun. Please show me the visitor list so I can ascertain if he is

alive.”

The orderly seemed taken aback. “If you’ll just calm down there, sir,” he said, in a quelling voice, but he was already reaching over to gesture the bedside screen awake. “We’ll get you that.”

Kiem would have found some way to soften what Jainan had just said. Jainan raised the plastic cup to his mouth mechanically. “I appreciate the water,” he said. “Thank you.”