aoud felt unimpressed. The Mamelukes also had
post riders. They could carry a message from El Kahira to Damascus in
four days.

"How intelligent!" said Fra Tomasso. "I will warrant we would be better
governed here in Europe if we had such a system."

The note of admiration in Fra Tomasso's voice made Daoud uneasy. A
servant passed, offering cups of wine on a tray. Daoud took a goblet.
John and Philip raised the empty cups they held, and Ana refilled them
from a pitcher on the table.

"Your empire is so vast, is it not," Daoud said to the Tartars through
Ana, "that even messages that travel swiftly cannot hold it together?"

Philip, the black-bearded Tartar, answered that, smiling. "Fear of the
Great Khan holds our empire together," Ana translated.

"Is the Great Khan feared even in the lands of Kaidu Khan and Baraka
Khan?" Daoud asked, naming the two rebels who did not recognize Hulagu
Khan's brother Kublai. He strove for a tone of innocent curiosity.

The faces of the two Tartars remained expressionless, but Daoud,
schooled by his Hashishiyya masters to notice signs of emotion in the
most guarded of men, observed the flush creeping into their brown
cheeks, the slight quickening of their breathing, and the twitching of
their fingers. Until he asked his disturbing question they had answered
Daoud readily, almost casually, as they would any of the contessa's
other guests. Now, in silence, they studied him. Waiting for them to
finish their inspection, Daoud held out his wine cup to Ana, who filled
it from the pitcher on the table. The pitcher was almost empty, and she
signaled to a servant to bring another.

John Chagan said, and Ana translated, "I do not believe we have had the
honor of being presented to you, Messere."

Daoud turned to Fra Tomasso, who was following the conversation closely.
"Will you be good enough to introduce us, Your Reverence?" Any
opportunity to involve himself with the Dominican philosopher could be
useful.

While Fra Tomasso presented him and Ana translated, Daoud stared at the
Tartars with deliberate challenge, draining his wine cup. Philip caught
the meaning of the gesture at once, and drank deep from his silver
goblet as well. John followed suit.

"Trebizond," said John. "Not far from our borders." Daoud had wondered
whether any of the Tartars' sponsors had told them of David of Trebizond
and his testimony against them at the pope's council.

"Your khan, Hulagu, has already presse