He saw the Sons of the Falcon now, over on the left, their rows
straight, sitting quietly on their horses, moving little. They all wore
red turbans wrapped around their helmets; he had insisted that they
dress alike so as to be easily recognizable. They, too, had their band,
a dozen men who played kettledrums, trumpets, hautboys, and cymbals from
horseback. The band was silent now, but would play when the Sons of the
Falcon rode into battle.
"Long ago the Romans called this town Maleventum, bad wind," said
Manfred beside him, "because they believed that the winds from the north
brought pestilence down from the swamps around Rome."
Just the sort of thing Manfred would know, Daoud thought.
"Even though the people who live here chose a more attractive name,"
Manfred went on, "we see that the ancients were not wrong. Look what
plague the wind has blown down from Rome today."
Daoud's eyes followed Manfred's pointing arm to the narrow north end of
the long valley in which Benevento lay. The road from Rome entered the
valley at the north end and ran through it to the gate above which they
were standing. Rows of tents filled the northern opening of the valley,
and the tiny figures of horsemen and foot soldiers were forming dark
lines across the light brown fields.
Last night peasants from that end of the valley had come flocking into
Benevento with cartloads of possessions and stored crops. Even though
they were supposedly supporters of the papal cause, the people who lived
around Benevento felt safer under Manfred's protection.
But this valley was a stone coffin, Daoud thought. Hills on either side,
squeezing together at the top of the valley, the town lying across the
bottom end. In this box, how could he use the Sons of the Falcon well?
He pummeled his brain.
One thing he could at least achieve. He remembered Nuwaihi's report that
the Tartars were with Charles's army. He turned to Lorenzo.
"It falls to you to finish the Tartars. Make your way into Charles's
camp while the battle is on."
Lorenzo's mouth turned down under his thick mustache. "It will take
time. I can take a wagon and go around through the hills and pretend to
be a peasant offering to sell wine and food to Anjou's people."
"Take some men with you."
Lorenzo shook his head. "That would arouse suspicion. If I go alone,
whoever is guarding Charles's camp will see no reason to fear me."
"I went alone into the Palazzo Monaldeschi to kill them, and I could not
do it."
"And I, with my poor Sicilian skills, cannot be expected to succeed
where Daoud ibn Abdallah, who was trained by the Old Man of the Mountain
himself, failed. Is that what you are thinking?"
Daoud smiled ruefully. "Well--"
Lorenzo frowned at him ferociously. "You have given me the task. Let me
carry it out as best I can."
Daoud gripped his arm, feeling muscle like oak. "Go with God, my
brother."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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