his eyes caught hers. Strange eyes, she could not
tell what color they were. There was a fixity in them akin to madness.
The face was expressionless, rocklike. This, she was sure, was no
ordinary man, to be disposed of as an inconvenience. She was not
surprised Manfred had decided to let him live.

"Why did you change your mind?"

"I think this Mameluke can help me," Manfred said. "Therefore I am going
to help him. He is going to Orvieto on a mission for his sultan. I am
sending Lorenzo with him."

"What did you call him?"

"A Mameluke. A slave warrior. The Turks who rule in Muslim lands take
very young boys as slaves and raise them in barracks to be soldiers.
They forget their parents and are trained with the utmost rigor. They
are said to be the finest warriors in the world."

_What does a life like that do to a man? It must either destroy him or
make him invincible._

"The man looks like a Frank," she said.

"He comes of English stock," said Manfred. "You Byzantines lump all of
us together, English and French and Germans, as Franks, do you not? So
you can call him a Frank if you like. But whatever he looks like, he is
a Turk at heart. I've learned that from talking to him. It's really
quite amazing."

They were plunged into deep shadow as the arched golden shape on the bed
curtain disappeared, a cloud having passed over the sun. Despite the
summer's heat she felt cold, and even though she did not trust Manfred
she reached for him, wanting him close.

But Manfred drew away from her, preoccupied. She pulled a crimson
cushion from behind him and hugged it against her breasts.

_How alone the Mameluke must feel. Even here, where Muslims are
tolerated, they have tried to kill him. And when he is in the pope's
territory, every man will be his enemy._

She remembered the harsh face with its prominent cheekbones and gray
eyes and thought, Perhaps being alone holds no terror for him.

_After all, I am alone, and I have made the best of it._

"What is his mission in Orvieto?" she asked.

She listened intently as Manfred told her a tale of trying to prevent
the great powers of East and West from joining together to crush Islam
between them.

Manfred continued, "David hopes to influence the pope's counselors to
turn against the Tartars, that they may sway the pope himself."

"How can one man attempt such a huge undertaking?"

"He brought me an exceedingly valuable stone, an emerald, which I will
trade for j