had happened at the cathedral this morning. Sophia
sat in a chair on the other side of the table, and Daoud stood by the
window.

"The Monaldeschi and the Filippeschi are both Guelfo families, and the
Filippeschi have high connections with the Church," Ugolini said. "That
is why the contessa waited until the pope left before taking her
revenge."

"I have seen Christians slaughter Muslims and Muslims massacre
Christians," Daoud said. "But today Christians were killing mothers and
infants that could have been their own. Women were doing some of the
killing."

Ugolini smiled at the skull, but there was no laughter in his round
eyes. "Are not family quarrels the cruelest of all?"

Daoud noticed that Ugolini's hands, fingertips pressed against the
smooth curve of the skull's cranium, were still quivering. As for Daoud
himself, he was quite calm now.

_The last time I was really terrified was when I looked into the locket
and saw whirling blackness._

He was still angry with himself about that, knowing what a foolish thing
it had been to partake of hashish when he was already in a dark mood.
The fear he had felt a month earlier after taking the drug and looking
into the locket remained with him, clinging to his mind like some
parasitic insect. It rose to confront him now, as he looked at Sophia.
Would something horrible happen to her because of him? Blossoming Reed
had threatened just that, and so far Blossoming Reed's magic had worked
well. Since that vision, the joy he felt with Sophia had been chilled
somewhat by fear for her.

"How safe are _we_ now, with the Monaldeschi rampaging through the
streets?" Sophia asked.

Ugolini shuddered. "And the Filippeschi. Those who are left will be
striking back. This city will destroy itself, like a rat eating its own
innards. I say leave now. All of us."

_Leave?_ Daoud thought. He would be less afraid for Sophia if she were
in a safer place. But where should he go?

"Where do you want to go?" he asked Ugolini.

The little cardinal drew himself up. "I am still the cardinal
camerlengo, and will be as long as Urban is alive. I am obliged to
follow the pope as quickly as I can to Perugia. There is peace and order
in Perugia." He looked at Daoud uneasily. "What do _you_ want to do?
Stay here?"

_He is hoping to be rid of me._ Daoud considered Perugia, but there he
would have everything against him and no forces to help him.

He must go to Manfred. Once the pope and the