"Blow to the head. Sword through the shoulder."

She inhaled sharply. "Sword? Whose sword?"

"A very nasty one. Pietro. I think you'd better get me to a hospital."

"Oh, God."

He was getting dizzier by the moment. "Just get me to Jamie. Okay?"

She nodded and helped him across the courtyard. The guards at the drawbridge didn't even challenge them as they started across it.

"You said I'd have to get rid of them," she said dully. "They don't seem to care."

"Neither does Gardeaux."

Her arm tightened around him. "Damn him to hell."

She was hurting and he wanted to comfort her. He couldn't do it. Later. He would do it later.

The emergency room of Our Lady of Mercy Hospital was full to capacity, and Dr. Minot, the resident in charge, was in no mood for Nicholas's demands. "The wound is not deep, Monsieur. We'll treat it with antibiotics and a tetanus shot. There's no need to put a blood sample under a microscope."

"Do it for me anyway," Nicholas said. "You know how we hypochondriacs are."

"We have no time for pampering here. If you like, we'll send a sample out to the lab. It will come back in a day or so."

"I need it now."

"Impossible. I can't do-"

Nell stepped forward until she was only inches away from the resident. "You'll do it." Her eyes were blazing at him. "You'll take that sample now. Not tomorrow. Now."

The young resident took an involuntary step back and then forced a smile. "But of course, anything to please so lovely a lady."

"How long will it take?"

"Five minutes. No more." He beat a hasty retreat.

Nicholas gave her a weary smile. "What would you have done to him?"

"Anything. From neutering him to going to bed with him." She sat down on the bed. "How do you feel?"

"Protected."

"I didn't protect you very much at Bellevigne."

"Things happen. You didn't expect Kabler. Neither did I. Where's Jamie?"

"Still in the waiting room. They let only one of us come in with you. Will Minot be able to tell how badly you're infected?"

He nodded. "The microbes are pretty bizarre. You can't miss them under a microscope."

"And what do we do then?"

He avoided the question. "Let's not count our microbes before-"

"Shut up." Her voice was trembling. "Don't you dare joke right now."

"Okay." He smiled. "We'll just wait."

The resident didn't come back in five minutes. He made them wait fifteen, and when he walked back into the room he was frowning. "Done. Nothing abnormal. A complete waste of time. I hope you're satisfied."

Nell stared at him, stunned.

"Completely normal?" Nicholas asked.

"Completely."

Nicholas sank back against the pillows. "Thank God."

"Now I'm going to prescribe some antibiotics and a mild sedative for possible-"

"I need a telephone," Nicholas said, sitting up again. "There's none in here."

"You can use one after I've-" He glanced at Nell and said, "I'll have the nurse bring one in to you." He left the room.

"How could it be?" Nell whispered. "What happened? It's a miracle."

"It's no miracle." He grabbed the receiver and punched in Gardeaux's number as the nurse plugged in the phone. "It's much baser than that."

When Nicholas was connected to Gardeaux he was still in the auditorium. The party had gone on for hours and there were no signs it was slacking.

"You'll excuse me?" Gardeaux asked when he was handed the portable phone. "Anyone who would call at this time of night may be in need of help."

"Or another drink." The Prime Minister laughed. "Tell him to come to the party. You have the finest wine in France."

Gardeaux smiled as he moved to a quieter area. He could have ignored the call from Tanek, but he wouldn't deny himself the pleasure. "What is it, Tanek?" he asked. "Getting panicky? There's no use begging. You know there's no antidote."

"I just wanted to tell you that the Charlemagne sword is a fake."

Anger flared through Gardeaux. "You'd say that even if it were authentic."

"It was crafted by Hernando Armandariz in Toledo. You can check on it."

Gardeaux drew a steadying breath. "It doesn't matter about the sword. I still won. You're a dead man. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my guests."

"I won't keep you much longer. I just wanted to tell you to expect a report from Our Lady of Mercy by courier tomorrow." He paused. "And to tell you to go look in the mirror."

He hung up.

Gardeaux frowned as he stared at the phone. Tanek was entirely too cryptic. Of course he wasn't going to go look in the mirror. Was he supposed to see himself as some kind of monster because of what he'd done? He was the one who had triumphed. No reason why he- In the bathroom mirror his reflection was everything it should be. The picture of a successful, powerful man, a conqueror. He started to turn away and then wheeled back.

The light had fallen on the cut in his lip that Nicholas had made when he had lunged up and struck him.

Encircling the cut were the tiny beginnings of a blister.

Gardeaux screamed.

"Colono?" Nell shook her head in bewilderment as she helped Nicholas into the car outside the hospital. "Gardeaux has colono? That's crazy. I don't understand."

"It worked?" Jamie looked back at them from the driver's seat. A delighted smile lit his face. "You brought the bastard down?"

"I'd lay odds on it." Nicholas leaned back in the seat. "We'll check tomorrow, but I'd wager he's on his way to the nearest hospital right now."

"How?" Nell asked.

Nicholas took out his handkerchief and carefully removed the signet ring on his middle finger. "A modern version of the Renaissance poison ring. I thought it fitting since Gardeaux is so intrigued with the period." He laid the ring in the handkerchief and tied the four corners before placing it in the car ashtray. "On impact the initial in the center compresses and allows the poison to flow out."

Nell shivered as she realized Nicholas had been wearing that ring the whole time he had been struggling with Gardeaux's men.

"I was careful." Nicholas's gaze was on her face, reading her thoughts.

"You were lucky," she said. "But where did you get the colono?"

"The same place Gardeaux got his. Medellin. From Paloma and Juarez."

Paloma and Juarez. Sandequez's partners in the drug cartel. "They gave you poison to kill their own man?"

"Not at once. I spent two weeks in Medellin waiting on the hot seat for their decision. It could have gone either way. Up to the last minute tonight." He wearily leaned his head back against the seat. "Everything had unraveled and I had to get an edge. I thought Sandequez's death might be the key. So I went to Paris and put pressure on Pardeau. He'd recorded the reward money that had changed hands from the Colombian Drug Enforcement Forces to Gardeaux. I told him that I was on my way to Medellin and he either had to worry about Gardeaux or the entire Colombian drug cartel. He let me have the books."

"And you took them to Paloma and Juarez to prove Gardeaux had murdered Sandequez."

"They didn't like it. Unity is everything to them. It's the way they survive. If Gardeaux killed Sandequez, who was to say he wouldn't nibble at the power structure by killing another one of them? On the other hand, it's bad policy to admit disruption in the ranks, and Gardeaux had been valuable to them. It might have been worth the danger he represented to keep him on."

"But they decided not to do it?"

"I told them that I'd take care of the matter for them. If an outsider killed Gardeaux, it would solve their first problem. After two weeks they told me that they'd decided to go along with me. Gardeaux had requested a new batch of colono and they would make sure the serum was switched and a harmless liquid substituted. They gave me the poison ring and their best wishes and sent me on my way."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Nell asked bitterly.

"Because it could have been a lie. There was a possibility that they had sent me to Bellevigne to die, that they didn't switch the serum to give me a chance. That there was no colono in the ring. Or that there was poison in the ring but also on Pietro's sword. That might get rid of both of us. There were too many variables."

"Why did I plant the gun if you had the ring?"

"Insurance. I knew his men wouldn't let me near Gardeaux. That's why I wanted you to douse the lights. I thought I'd make the move then."

But she hadn't given him that chance. "I didn't make it there in time."

"I still had the gun you planted. I used it as a threat to get him close enough." He shook his head. "I almost didn't make it."

"But you did," Jamie said. "What next? Will Gardeaux be after you?"

"Within twenty-four hours he'll cease to care about anyone but himself."

"Where do we go? The cottage?"

"No," Nell said quickly. "Not the cottage. I want to go back to Paris."

Nicholas nodded. "It's just as well, Jamie. I want you to get Pardeau away from Paris for a day or two until we're sure about Gardeaux. I promised to protect him."

"Yes, by all means, let's protect all the beasts and idiots in our midst," Nell said.

Jamie gave her a cautious glance and started the car.

"I'm in deep trouble?" Nicholas asked in a low tone.

Nell didn't answer.

He closed his eyes. "Then I suppose I'd better rest and gather my strength. Wake me when we get to Paris."

Nell slammed the door of her apartment behind them. "Go to bed. I'll go to the pharmacy and have your prescription filled."

"That's not necessary."

"It's necessary. Or don't you think I'm capable of doing that either?"

Nicholas sighed. "Here we go."

"You should have let me help you."

"I did let you help."

"You could have told me about the colono. You could have brought me into it."

"Yes, I could have done that."

"But you let me run around the edges while you-" She stopped and said wearily, "Maybe you were right. I couldn't even do that right. I almost got you killed."

"You did what you could."

"It wasn't enough. I should have moved on Kabler more quickly. I should have been there to douse the lights." Tears were flowing down her cheeks again. "I failed you, dammit."

"You've never failed me. So you're not super-woman. Things happen," he said roughly. He moved across the room and grasped her shoulders. "And the reason I didn't set up a way for you to help me with the colono was that I didn't want you around the stuff. I saw what it did to Terence. I couldn't stand the thought of you even being near it."

"You'd rather take a chance yourself. How do you think I felt when you told me the wound was-"

"How did you feel, Nell?"

"You know how I felt."