e had sent Rachel here
to become a slave.

_I, too, was once a slave._

But as a full-fledged Mameluke he was free. These women did not have
that way of escape. As long as they could, they must perform the act of
love, as it was called, with whoever paid them, or starve.

Baibars had done well to close the brothels of El Kahira. It was the
very meaning of love that it was freely given. Love was free submission
to another, just as Islam was free submission to God. Daoud had first
experienced love when he and Nicetas gave their bodies to each other.
And later with Blossoming Reed, even though theirs was an arranged
marriage, that, too, was love.

He could not lie with Francesca tonight. It would be too much like lying
with Rachel. He could not watch what Orenetta, Caterina, and Maiga would
do with Sordello. The thing he was having them do to Sordello was an
abomination. Despicable though Sordello was, he, too, had a soul, and
tonight Daoud was trampling upon God in the person of Sordello.

And yet he must see that all went as planned tonight. Did he want his
homeland destroyed?

_But I have to get away from here._

He stood up suddenly. "I must go back to Cardinal Ugolini's." Tilia,
Lorenzo, and Francesca stared at him.

Tilia recovered first. "But you were to stay the night here. What
about--" She gestured toward the wall.

Daoud shook his head. "I am not needed. And I have an important matter
to discuss with Ugolini."

"Which you just remembered," Lorenzo said, eyeing him sourly.

Daoud pressed his lips together. "Those three women know what to do.
There is no need for anyone to intervene unless he starts to resist. And
then you can kill him as easily as I can."

Lorenzo stood up and bowed formally. "Thank you for your trust,
Messere."

_If I am right in thinking that he hates this as much as I do, then he
hates me for making him stay here._

* * * * *

The thump of Daoud's boots on the cobblestones echoed against the fronts
of the huddled houses. Armed with sword and dagger, his head clear, and
keeping to the wider streets, Daoud felt safe from attack, even though
it was well past midnight. Besides, the Filippeschi had been won over,
so he need no longer fear them. Fear, he thought, was the wrong word for
it. Tonight he would welcome battle.

And he had the Scorpion with him tonight. He no longer ever made the
mistake of going about in the streets of Orvieto at night