without
carrying the Scorpion in a concealed pocket in his cloak.

He walked past the cathedral church of San Giovenale, and once again
from the open doors heard the pale voices of the priests of the
cathedral chapter. A heavy odor of incense, carried on the moist night
air, filled his nostrils.

Pain crushed his heart as he passed beyond the pool of light that
spilled out the cathedral door. He seemed to feel a heavy hand on his
shoulder, and looked up. Conjured up from memory, his blond father
appeared to tower over him, a red cross on the shoulder of his white
mantle. A warm hand gripped Daoud's, and his mother, her red-gold hair
bound with pearls, smiled down at him. Her dress was blue, like the
dress she had died in.

_What memories torment Rachel_, he wondered.

* * * * *

Just ahead of him, the narrow street opened into the broader one that
ran past Cardinal Ugolini's mansion. He had just passed an inn called
Vesuvio, after the burning mountain near Napoli, when a door opened
softly behind him. Very softly, but it did not escape his trained ear.
He glanced back and saw the upper half of a divided door mate with its
lower half.

_Watching for me?_ That was unlikely, because a spy watching for him
would have had no idea when to expect him and would have had to stand by
that door all night. He looked back again at the doorway and then at the
cardinal's residence. The street was wide enough to allow a person
standing in the doorway of the inn a good view of the front of the
mansion.

He walked out into the square and turned to the right so that he could
no longer be seen from the inn. Behind a filmy curtain on the third
story of the mansion shone a yellow glow. Sophia's room. Was that Simon
de Gobignon in the inn doorway?

No, it was not, because now he saw de Gobignon. The unmistakable tall
figure was standing in the candlelit window behind the curtain. A thin
arm pushed the curtain back, and though the light was behind de
Gobignon, Daoud could see the Frenchman plainly, looking down into the
square. Even though he was sure de Gobignon could not see him, Daoud
stepped farther back into the shadows.

De Gobignon in Sophia's room. Daoud clenched his fists, and his lips
drew back in a snarl.

The Scorpion would not carry that far. No, but he could stride closer in
an instant, aim at that spidery figure silhouetted against Sophia's
lighted window, and bring down his enemy wit