entertain our guest tonight?" The little man bustled forward to Daoud,
rubbing his hands. His head was as big as that of a full-grown man, but
his hands and feet were small. His mustache bristled in spikes of black
hair, like a portcullis over his mouth.

"Please, in the name of the mercy of God," Daoud pleaded. "I am a
merchant. I am rich. Do not hurt me. I will pay you well."

"We want to hear nothing from you except frequent screams and answers to
the questions the podesta wants me to put to you," said Erculio in a
cold voice. "What do we want to know, Vincenzo?"

D'Ucello's clerk said, "The podesta believes he is a Ghibellino spy sent
here by the bastard King Manfred. He thinks he incited the Filippeschi
uprising. Also he may have killed the French cavaliere."

Erculio nodded vigorously. "Well, then, Messere. Are you prepared to
admit your guilt, now that you see where you are and realize what is
about to happen to you?"

"These accusations are false!" Daoud cried. "I swear it!"

The tonsured clerk, carrying a handful of quills, a bundle of scrolls,
and his ink pot, seated himself at a table in one corner of the room and
began to write.

To gain time, Daoud looked around Erculio's domain, remembering the
similar room in Tilia's brothel where he had subjected Sordello to the
Hashishiyya initiation. This place was starker and more frightful. It
was large, perhaps fifty paces on a side, divided by two rows of thick
columns holding up the weight of the great stone building above it.
Despite its size, the chamber was well lit. The candle sconces were
lined with sheets of tin to throw extra light.

Daoud recognized most of the implements of torment around the room. A
rack, a tilted wooden table with chains and winches. A sharp-pointed
wooden pyramid over which a victim could be suspended. A chair with
spikes protruding at the joints. A coffin lined with spikes. A brazier
full of pokers and branding irons of various sizes. Weights and pulleys.
Whips and cudgels, hung neatly from pegs that lined the walls. A cage
full of rats. A number of smaller devices to crush fingers or limbs--or
even skulls--laid out neatly on tables beside rows of long needles.

Daoud visualized himself drinking from a bowl of liquid light and felt
the mind-created drug Soma pouring down into his stomach and spreading
to his heart and lungs, through all his veins.

But still he must keep up the Mask of Clay.

"I can say no other than what