"I was," Daveen said softly, "for many years, poet and singer to the Court of Duke Winslow. Five years ago I participated in the first of your many rescues--the first time Winslow attempted to have you killed." He chuckled musically. "Poor slovenly Winslow. Every time you fall in his clutches, some blind man comes along to lead you to safety." "You rescued me? From what?" "That I cannot tell you yet. The Duke warns me that I must be very careful with you, that I must not swamp your mind with too much information at once." Kesley looked around at the bare, luminescent walls, at the smiling figure of the gaunt-faced, old, blind man sitting opposite him. "Which Duke?" "The Antarctican Duke. The man who has searched so long and patiently to bring both of us together. You see?" "Yes," Kesley said faintly. "_He_ brought us here. But where were you?" "I fled from Winslow, five years past, after doing what I did. I sought refuge in Scandinavia and sang for the Duke there until Winslow's men found me and forced me to fly. I returned to North America, lived for a while at the Colony--I believe _your_ odyssey brought you there as well--and when life there became unbearable, I vanished." "Where? How?" "There are ways," Daveen said. "When one knows the arts of the mind, one can do many things. I went into hiding. It was the only way for me to remain alive. Winslow sought me with desperate urgency, for I had betrayed him. Miguel had my daughter." "I know." "I continued to live in North America under Winslow's very nose. It was a good joke; now that I'm free, I must let Winslow know about it. He has a fine sense of the ironic." "Where did you stay?" Kesley prodded. "I lived in the ghetto." "Among the _mutants_?" "I _was_ a mutant. You knew me as Lomark Dawnspear." For a moment Kesley rocked crazily in his chair; things seemed to wheel in a dizzy arc around him. "What?" he finally asked, recovering himself. "Mental projection, complete; constant hypnosis." "Dawnspear was blind, too," Kesley recalled suddenly. "Yes. It pleased me to retain the image of the blind man who saw so well. Dawnspear was blind. Otherwise, he was a complete fabrication. I invented a false background for him, persuaded people that he had always lived in that house in that part of Chicago. And they believed it. Unable to do anything else, I lived camouflaged, not knowing how urgently I was sought." "And then I came to Chicago." "Then you came. And stumbled into Winslow's grasp exactly as you had done before. And once again reached the dungeons. Again, it was necessary for me to rescue you." "I did it once before, as Daveen. Five years ago. You came to Winslow's court, and he delivered you to the headsman. I intervened." "Why? How?" "You loved my daughter. Furthermore, I thought you should not die." "I loved her even then?" Kesley asked, astonished.