Miles frowned faintly at the First Lord. "I don't understand."
"I must bear up a little longer, Miles. To do that, I need my health." He looked back at the mosaic, and there was sudden grief in his expression. "It was arrogant of me, to behave as if I had no limits. If I don't respect them now…" He shrugged. "The next time I might not wake up."
"Bear up a little longer?" Miles asked.
Gaius nodded. "Hold on. Prevent Aquitaine and Kalare from sinking us into a war of succession-and there will be one, Miles, once I am gone. But I can buy time."
"For what?"
"For a change in the boy."
Miles frowned. "If he doesn't change?"
Gaius shook his head. "Then he doesn't. Unless matters change, no one hears of this, Miles. Even rumor and suspicion would make him a marked man. We must protect him, inasmuch as we can."
"Aye, sire," Miles replied.
Gaius nodded and started walking steadily up the stairway.
Miles followed the First Lord back up the steps to the palace, silently afraid of the future.