it was as big as it ever could be--and a man could go
anywhere in the city quickly on foot. Those of wealth and rank often
rode, but a horse or a sedan chair was a mark of distinction rather than
a necessity. A bird looking down on the city would see a roughly oval
shape, longer from east to west. One might get lost in the twisting side
streets but otherwise could walk along the Corso from one end of Orvieto
to the other while less than half the sand trickled through an hour
glass. From Ugolini's mansion on the south side of the town, Simon
reached the Palazzo Monaldeschi, near the northern wall, so quickly, he
barely had time to think over the events of the day.

David of Trebizond was a trader, after all, and traders needed armed men
to protect their caravans. Why worry about the three men with swords and
crossbows he had seen with Giancarlo? They were far from being an army.

But was David actually sending out any caravans?

_If I could put someone in the enemy camp ..._

Before entering the Palazzo Monaldeschi, he surveyed it with a knight's
eye. It was a three-story brown stone building with a flat roof crowned
by square battlements. In each of the four corners of the palace there
were small turrets with slotted windows for archers. Above the third
story rose a block-shaped central tower.

Even as he looked up, he noticed a figure on the battlements, a helmeted
man with a crossbow on his shoulder. He looked down at Simon, touched
his hand to his helmet, and walked on.

It was good to know that the Monaldeschi family maintained a constant
guard on their palace. The hidden enemy of the Tartars could get at them
here only by a full-scale siege.

Simon walked around the building. If there were two archers in each
turret, their overlapping fields of fire would cover every possible
approach. He noted that the piazza in front of the palace and the broad
streets on the other three sides allowed attackers no cover. The city
wall was nearby, though, he saw. Archers could fire on the Monaldeschi
roof from there, and at least two of the city's defensive towers were so
close that stone casters set up in them could score hits on the palace.

What if the enemy were to attempt a siege?

_We must control that section of the city wall and make it our first
line of defense. The buildings around the palace would be our second,
and the palace itself the third. To control all that, we really need
another forty crossbowmen. But