Daoud's weapons hung on the wall, and his armor was mounted on wooden stands. Chests of clothing and other possessions were lined up along the wall. Soon the servants would be bringing her things in too. This room--another thing she could not tell him about. She despised herself. But it might well offend him if he knew of Manfred's little joke, and enmity between Daoud and Manfred at this moment could be disastrous. _Manfred needs Daoud. Why is he so foolish as to risk angering him?_ Daoud and she stood staring at each other. They had said little so far. She felt overwhelmed, and she supposed he did too. She felt her longing for him as a strange not-quite-pain in the pit of her stomach. He took her shoulders in his hands. How good to feel his strong fingers holding her. "How long has this been your room?" she asked. "For about a month. Rather grand, is it not? The king says it is suitable to my rank. I have my own command, a division of his mounted Muslim warriors. I call them the Sons of the Falcon." _Suitable to my rank._ She wondered how much Daoud knew about herself and Manfred. "What troubles you?" he asked. _So many things._ "Manfred," she said, choosing the worry easiest to speak of. He stroked her cheek gently. "No need to torment yourself. I understand how it must have been." _But would you understand about Simon?_ She said, "But can Manfred accept what you and I are to each other?" He shrugged. "You see that we are together in his palace. You saw that I rode with you before me on my horse through the streets of Lucera and into Manfred's castle." "I see that Manfred must know about us. Are you sure he does not want me back? It can be fatal to cross a king." "When we got the message that Ugolini and you were coming here instead of going to Viterbo, I talked with Manfred, not as subject and king, but as man and man. He was most gracious, as Manfred usually is." "What did he tell you?" "That indeed he still cares for you. Too much, it seems." "Too much?" Daoud's teeth flashed in his blond beard. "His queen, the mother of his four children, Helene of Cyprus, usually looks the other way when Manfred beds beautiful young women. But she saw in you too serious a rival. He had to send you off with me, or the queen would have had you poisoned." Sophia's eyes strayed to the bed in horror. She remembered now that before she left here, Manfred had hinted at something like that. "Poisoned! And I am safe now?" Again the white grin in the blond beard. During the six months they had been apart, she had begun to think that her love for him might have seduced memory and enhanced his good looks beyond reality. But now in the flesh he surpassed even the image her memory had cherished. "You are safe as long as you stay away from Manfred and he from you. There will be a feast tonight, in honor of Cardinal Ugolini. You will see how carefully the king will avoid you."