_I shall be leaving this world just moments from now. I will fix my thoughts on God._ "I gave you more time than I intended to," d'Ucello said to Daoud. "There was a small battaglia at a bordello on the east side of town. A place you are familiar with. The house run by that fat old whore, Tilia Caballo. Where, according to her testimony, you were when the French cavaliere was murdered outside Cardinal Ugolini's. Your putana friend has been despoiled, I fear, and many of her menservants killed and her women hurt." _Rachel._ He desperately wanted to know whether Rachel had been hurt, and he dared not speak of her to d'Ucello. Anguish for Rachel cracked his armor against fear. He saw what was going to happen to him, felt the liquid fire, saw his death. Cold sweat broke out on his body. He tried to turn his mind back to Tilia's house. _And Tilia, what of Tilia?_ It surprised him that his anxiety for Tilia was so strong. She had come to be his friend without his ever realizing it. He thought of Francesca, who had comforted him so during his first months in Orvieto. Of the women who had helped him initiate Sordello. All of them no doubt raped, and perhaps hurt in other ways besides. _The savages! This would never have happened in El Kahira._ It was safe enough to ask, "Who did it?" "The ambassadors from Tartary and their guards, as they were leaving Orvieto to follow the pope to Perugia. The French Cardinal de Verceuil was there and, far from trying to prevent the wickedness, urged them on. It seems you dislike the Tartars with good reason." The podesta paused. He still hoped, Daoud realized, to provoke or invite him into letting something slip. If it was the Tartars, they must have come for Rachel. D'Ucello picked up the flask of Greek Fire from the table, where it had stood these many hours, where Daoud could plainly see it. He had, most of the time, avoided looking at it. "Were any of the women taken away?" Daoud asked. That, too, should be a safe question. Every moment he and d'Ucello talked, d'Ucello hoping he might yet learn something, was another moment of wholeness and life. _But I must not deceive myself. These are only moments. I affirm that God is One. God be merciful. God receive me. I die as Your warrior._ "Yes," said d'Ucello, eyeing him thoughtfully. "Did you have reason to think someone would be carried off?" It hurt Daoud's neck to turn and try to look into d'Ucello's face. Daoud let his head fall to the table on which he lay. "I visited there often. I made friends with some of the women." D'Ucello snorted. "From now on you will have no need to go to bordellos." To gain another moment, Daoud said, "I marvel that you possess Greek Fire. The making of it is a great secret, and it is too dangerous to transport far. If a bit of it gets loose on a ship, that ship is seen no more." D'Ucello squinted at him. "If you were truly only a trader from Trebizond, you would be too terrified to wonder where I got this stuff."