ith bulging eyes and
a face as sharp as the carving knife she brandished.

An earthenware jug crashed down on her head. Her eyes rolled up till
only the whites showed. As she slumped to the floor, Daoud saw Sophia
behind her.

_Well done, Byzantine woman._

"Scipio! Spegni!" Celino shouted. With a roar like a lion's, Scipio
leapt at the central figure among the three men confronting his master.
Scipio's prey screamed, then stumbled over a bench and fell to the floor
on his back. The hound sprang onto his chest, snarls of rage all but
drowning out his victim's shrieks. The other two men, their mouths
gaping, their eyes fixed on nothing, ran past Daoud without seeing him.

"Stop your dog," Daoud called to Celino. "I want no killing." Smoke
spreading from above was searing his nostrils.

Daoud, Celino, and Sophia, followed by the old man and the dog, made
their way to the door.

Daoud threw saddlebags to Celino and Sophia. Men were dragging their
panic-stricken, rearing horses out of the stables and through the gate.
The giant innkeeper and other men were racing up and down the outside
stairs, which had also begun to burn, dumping buckets of water on the
fire. Men were fighting their way through smoke and flame into the
bedroom, trying to rescue belongings they had left there.

The boy stood by their horses, exactly where Daoud had left him. Bravely
done, Daoud thought. Hastily tying his packs down, Daoud unlaced one.
There were two weapons inside--a Scorpion, the miniature crossbow of the
Hashishiyya, and a full-size crossbow. Daoud chose the bigger one, a
Genoese arbalest drawn by crank, a present from King Manfred. The
quarrels were loaded by spring from a chamber within the stock that
could hold six at a time, so that the bowman could fire it as quickly as
he could draw it.

Holding the arbalest with one hand, Daoud vaulted into the saddle.
Celino and Sophia were already up. The old man had clambered onto their
spare horse, and his son was on the donkey.

_I should leave that old man behind_, Daoud thought angrily. _Were it
not for him, I would be sleeping comfortably right now._

"_They_ started the fire!" It was the innkeeper's wife in the doorway,
her tall body and long arms silhouetted by leaping flames. She pointed
an accusing hand at Daoud's party. "Stop them!"

The men who had been trying to put out the fire were giving up, and they
turned and started for Daoud and his companions.

"Throw them int