g the worst enemies her people had on earth, more to
be feared than the Saracens--the Latin Christians of the West. The floor
seemed to shake under her, and her body went cold and then hot as she
thought of what she must face. If they found out that she was a woman of
Constantinople, they would tear the flesh from her bones.

_A woman of Constantinople helping a Saracen to plot against the pope!_

Fear was like a cold, black ocean, and she was drowning in it. She dared
not even let herself imagine the horrors, the torments that would end
her life if those people in Orvieto found her out.

She did not have to go through with it. Once she and Lorenzo and this
David--this Mameluke--were on the road, she could slip away. Manfred had
said they would be carrying jewels. Perhaps she could take some, use
them to buy passage for herself.

_Passage to where?_

There was no place in the world she belonged but Constantinople. And her
place in the Polis was dependent on the basileus, Michael. If she
angered Manfred, she could not dare go back to Michael.

To be forever exiled from Constantinople would be a living death.

In her mind she saw the Polis, glowing golden at the edge of the sea.
She saw the great gray walls that had protected Constantinople against
barbarian invaders from East and West for a thousand years. She saw the
gorgeous pink marble of the Blachernae Palace of the Basileus, the
statue of Justinian astride his horse, his hand raised toward the East,
the great dome of Hagia Sophia, her namesake saint, that seemed to float
over the city, held in place by an army of angels. She heard the roar of
the crowd watching chariots race in the Hippodrome and the cries of the
merchants from their shops along the arcaded Mese. The Polis was the hub
of the world, the fulfillment of all desires.

The vision sent strength and purpose surging through her body, and she
straightened up, took her hand from the paint box, and began moving
around the room again, collecting her possessions.

She would go with Lorenzo and the Mameluke and do, as she had always
done, whatever was necessary. She would see this thing through. With the
help of God, she might prevail.

_And after that?_

What future for a woman as alone as Sophia Karaiannides?

She shrugged. Time enough to think about the future after she had been
to Orvieto and lived through it.

Of one thing she was already sure. She would not come back to Manfred.

She went ba