the jolting
movement of his pony, left arm outstretched to balance himself, rumh
poised to throw.

_He is beautiful_, Daoud thought.

Nicetas's rumh went perfectly through the ring. The cheer for him was
lower; after all, nobody knew him.

Daoud called out, "God guides your arm, Nicetas!" Some of the other boys
stared at him, and his face grew hot.

Both contestants made successful second casts. But when Kassar made his
third throw, Daoud saw the ring wobble slightly. The rumh must have
brushed its inner edge. Nicetas's third try, once again, was flawless.

"We cannot be at this till sunset," Mahmoud grumbled. "Move out to
seventy paces." He paced off the new distance, and Kassar and Nicetas,
stone-faced, not looking at each other, rode to the spot he pointed out.

To throw the rumh accurately from that distance would take great
strength as well as a keen eye, Daoud thought. Looking at Nicetas's
slender arms and narrow shoulders, he wondered if the Greek boy could
manage it.

A wind rose, stinging Daoud's face with tiny sand particles. It was
blowing from the east, across the field where the boys rode. Nicetas
would be lucky to get his lance anywhere near the scaffold.

At Mahmoud's barking command, Kassar galloped out across the field. He
half rose as he came abreast of the target, and Daoud saw his powerful
shoulder muscles bunch under his thin robe.

There was a loud crack as Kassar's rumh hit the ring. Daoud saw black
fragments fly though the air. He gasped in surprise.

Kassar's lance had hit the side of the target ring, and the desert-dried
wood had shattered under the impact.

"Well." Mahmoud turned to Nicetas with a laugh. "The target is
destroyed."

"Let us put another ring on," said Nicetas promptly, just as Kassar rode
up.

Kassar's face was tight with fury. "The rings are different sizes. It
will not be fair if you have a bigger ring to hit."

"I want a smaller ring," said Nicetas with a faint smile.

Mahmoud sent a boy galloping to the target pullers with the order to
attach a new ring to the ropes. From where he stood, Daoud could not
even see daylight through the new ring. In the distance he saw a
whirlwind raising a cone of sand, a sand devil, spinning near the red
cliff.

"Think that there is a crusader charging at you, and you have to hit him
in the eye to stop him," Mahmoud suggested to Nicetas.

"If it were, I would not let him get close enough for me to _see_ his
eye," said N