ld cause bad feeling between
you," Simon said. "He has known you all your life, and if he has not
broken with you by now, it must be because he loves you too much."

He turned abruptly and left Charles standing alone on his little hill.

The star swung at his neck, and he thought of going back and throwing it
at Charles's feet. But, no, he decided he would keep it, and honor
Manfred's memory.

The grief of these two days still darkened his world, but there was one
small brightness. He might not have accomplished anything to liberate
the Holy Land, but he had freed himself from Charles d'Anjou.

* * * * *

It hurt Simon to see Sophia's face. Her eyelids were red and puffed. Her
cheeks were hollow and her lips pale. She was still beautiful, but it
was a sorrowful beauty, like that of a grieving Madonna.

"I see you are wearing Manfred's star," Sophia said.

"Forgive me." He felt a flash of hatred for himself. How stupid of him!
She must think he was wearing it like a captured trophy.

He said, "Charles gave it to me. I swear to you, I mean no disrespect to
Manfred. Just the opposite. It must hurt you to see it. How thoughtless
of me! Anjou insisted on my putting it around my neck just now. I am
only going to keep it safe in memory of Manfred, not wear it. Let me
take it off."

_You are babbling_, he told himself. _Be still._

"No," she said, touching his hand lightly, briefly. "No one has a better
right to wear it than you."

Simon said, "I want you to know this--Daoud succeeded."

"What do you mean--succeeded how?"

They stood just outside the walls of Benevento by the side of the road
leading to the south. A group of Charles's men-at-arms, past whom Simon
had just escorted Sophia and her friends, lounged before the gate.

"Last night I suspected it, but this morning I talked to Anjou, and now
I am certain. There will never be an alliance of Christians and Tartars.
Anjou never wanted it, and he will do everything in his power to prevent
it. It would interfere with his own ambitions."

Her amber eyes looked into his, and he felt the pain she was holding
rigidly at bay within herself.

Oh, God, those eyes! How he had dreamed of spending the rest of his life
in their gaze. Now, after today, he would never look into them again.

She said, "Does it disappoint you that there will be no alliance?"

"Once it would have. After all, I gave everything I had to trying to
make the a