red and black rug, the walls decorated
with frescoes of angels and saints lavishly bedecked with gold leaf.
Simon's eye kept returning to a voluptuous Eve, no part of her nude body
hidden by the leaves or branches artists usually deployed for modesty's
sake. She was handing a golden fruit--it might have been an orange or a
lemon rather than an apple--to a muscular and also fully displayed Adam.
Simon found them disturbingly sensual though they dealt with a religious
subject, and he was surprised that a cardinal should have such pictures
on his walls.

Ugolini's small, elaborately carved oak table, set beside a window, was
polished and quite bare. There were no books or parchments anywhere in
the large room. Simon suspected that the cardinal used this room to
receive visitors but did little work in it. A five-pointed star was
carved in the back of the cardinal's chair above his head. Simon sat in
a small, armless chair made somewhat comfortable by the cushion on its
seat.

"I have come in the hope of presenting to you our French point of view
on this proposed alliance," said Simon. That sounded impressive enough.

"And do you speak for France, young man?"

"Not officially, Your Eminence," said Simon, flustered. "I mean only
that I _am_ French, and that both King Louis and his brother Count
Charles d'Anjou have deigned to share their views with me."

Ugolini leaned forward. His expression was earnest enough, but there was
a twinkle in his eye that gave Simon the uneasy feeling that the
cardinal was laughing at him.

"I am eager to hear what you have learned from the king and his
brother."

"Quite simply," Simon said, "they look on the advent of the Tartars as a
golden opportunity--one might say a God-given opportunity--to do away
with the threat of the Saracens once and for all."

Ugolini nodded thoughtfully. "So it is not just a question of rescuing
the holy places."

_Am I giving away something I should not?_ Simon asked himself, suddenly
panic-stricken. It was Count Charles, he now recalled, who had said that
the alliance might make possible the complete destruction of Islam.

_I am in this over my head._

But he had to go on.

"The Saracens believe they are called upon to spread their religion by
the sword. They will continue to make war on us unless we conquer them."

Ugolini lifted a finger like a master admonishing a poorly prepared
student. "The prophet Muhammad calls upon his followers to _defend