or. John's translator made no
effort to stop her.

_That would not have fooled him, except that he was not expecting me to
do anything_, she thought as she ran down the corridor.

She held one thought in her mind--she must get out of this building. She
heard screams and sounds of struggle from the rooms of the other women.
She saw Francesca fighting with a helmeted man, and her eyes met
Francesca's over the man's brown-cloaked shoulder. Only one of the
dagger-wielding men was in the corridor now, and she had surprised him.
He shouted at her and ran after her.

Gathering up the skirt of her robe, she raced down the stairs, taking
the last four in a leap. The dark man with the dagger was right behind
her, and behind him she could hear John's shout. There was anger in the
Tartar's voice now. That terrified her even more.

_He did not think I would get away from him this easily._

The dark man grabbed her flying robe, and she felt the silk tear. She
had nothing on underneath the robe. She would not let that stop her from
running. She must not let anything stop her.

She heard the man behind her calling as she ran down the stairs to the
first floor. She was in the corridor now, and she saw that it was
swarming with men in helmets and mail, struggling with Tilia's women.
Some of the men had their breeches down.

She saw tall, beautiful Maiga striking out with her fists at the
helmeted men. But they were wrestling with her and forcing her onto her
back. Agonized pity for Maiga blazed up within her, but she ran on.

One of Tilia's black African servants was lying on the floor across the
corridor. His eyes were open and he was not moving. Again she felt a
surge of pity.

But then terror gripped her.

_They are killing people here! My God, what are they doing, what are
they doing?_

Instead of going on down the stairs from the first floor gallery to the
ground floor, she leapt over the body of the black man and ran into the
crowd of men and women struggling in the hall.

_I am small and I am quick_, she thought, and that gave her the courage
to keep running. The men in the hall were not interested in her, and she
slithered past them while John and his bodyguard stumbled along behind.

The bodyguard's voice sounded far away. Other men were shouting at him.

"Catch her yourself, you damned Armenian ape!" These men were speaking
in Italian. "We've already got ours."

Rachel reached the stairs at the other end of th