ne where Cardinal Ugolini's mansion was."

"How did you know I was here, Francesca?" Tilia asked.

"Cassio told me just before--before--" Francesca was convulsed with
sobs.

Tilia turned to Sophia. "I have never seen her like this."

"Your house is destroyed," said Francesca, choking and gasping and
wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"Destroyed!" Tilia and Sophia stared at each other. A shock of fear
swept through Sophia. Already terrified for Daoud, she was now swept by
dread for Rachel and pity for Tilia.

_Any more of this, and I will lose my wits._

"And they hanged Cassio."

"Oh, my God!" Tilia screamed.

Another jolt of terror. Sophia thought of that day in Constantinople
when the Franks had run riot, burning whole districts and murdering
townspeople. Was this another such day?

"And they--and they killed Hector and Claudio and Apollonio and the
other menservants."

"Who did this?" Tilia was on her feet, standing over Francesca,
shouting. "Who? Who?"

Was the whole world turning against them, Sophia wondered. Was it the
podesta's men? The Monaldeschi?

Francesca put her hands over her face and wept softly for a moment, then
continued. "The Tartars and that French cardinal who always came with
them. They came with armed men, dozens of them. They were after Rachel."

_Rachel!_

The horror of it all was like a spear driven through Sophia's breast.
She sat down on her bed as the room went black around her.

"Oh, no," she heard herself saying. "Oh, not Rachel!" Fear stopped her
heart. She slumped on the bed, her hand pressed to her chest.

"When Cassio tried to stop them, they went mad," said Francesca. "The
men-at-arms killed every man in the house, and they raped all the women.
Some of us over and over again. And they tore the house apart and stole
everything they could carry. What they could not take, they smashed. And
all the while they kept laughing, Madama. They kept laughing."

Sophia felt bile burning in her throat. If she had to hear any more
horrors, she was going to vomit.

Tilia sat looking stunned, shaking her head from side to side.

"What happened to Rachel?" Sophia managed to choke out.

"She tried to run away. She got out of the house. The white-haired
Tartar, the one who beds with her, chased her. He must have caught her,
because I heard the cardinal shouting that they had found the one they
came for and they must get on the road or they would be fighting the
Sienese."

_Rach