rase his
marriage proposal to her. He dreaded the fighting, but wished it would
start.

Like a rising tide the shadows spread and deepened, swallowing up the
hills beyond the city, then the city walls, then the towers. The four
men stood in darkness, no torchlight up here to make them an easy
target. The only light on the roof below was the shimmer of charcoals
burning in four braziers for fire arrows.

An orange glow appeared over the hills to the east, the moon starting to
rise.

Simon heard distant shouting. Battle cries.

"Filippeschi!" It was Teodoro's voice.

Simon saw flickering red light dancing on house walls coming toward
them, converging from front, sides, and rear. The streets were too
narrow to permit sight of the advancing bravos and their torches.

_So, even though they know we are ready for them, they have come._

From the street directly opposite the main entrance to the palace a
long, dark shape emerged, like a gigantic tortoise. Similar shapes
issued from other streets opening on the piazza. The tortoises were big
enough to shelter at least a dozen men. There were six of them, crawling
across the open space.

"Use the fire arrows!" Simon shouted. Teodoro repeated the order to his
men. On the roof below, men raced from the battlements to the braziers
and back again, and streaks of light arced from the rooftop at the
tortoise shapes.

Simon could hear the burning arrows sizzle on the wet wooden frameworks
and wet hides. The hides did not burn, but the light from the arrows
made it easier for the crossbowmen shooting from the battlements to see
their targets. Teodoro was down on the roof directing their fire. The
archers volleyed at the closest tortoise. The steel bolts tore right
through the skins, piercing the men beneath. Simon heard the thump of
thirty bolts striking a tortoise at once, then screams. The framework
stopped moving, and Simon saw men crawling from under it. Some ran
frantically back to the shelter of the side streets; others crept a few
paces and collapsed.

Something whizzed past Simon's head and struck the brick merlon beside
him. A shower of chips clattered on his mail. One stung his cheek.

"Shooting back," said Teodoro. "From the sides."

Torchlight flickered from behind wooden mantlets at the mouths of the
streets approaching the palace from the north and south. The rectangles
of wood filled the street from side to side. From this height Simon
could see the crowds