do you mean?" Fear made his voice shrill and quavering.

"I mean, I must attack the Palazzo Monaldeschi."

"Attack the Monaldeschi!" It was almost a scream.

Daoud spread his hands. "I have no choice."

Ugolini sprang to his feet. "Pazzia! You are mad!"

_It is you who are almost mad, with terror_, Daoud thought. He was going
to have trouble with Ugolini, no question.

Aloud he said only, "We will discuss it. You can help us plan. Pardon
me, Your Eminence, while I send for Lorenzo."

* * * * *

"It will have to be late at night, of course," said Lorenzo. "And I
would think a Friday evening would be best, when the men-at-arms will be
off their guard and many of them out carousing. But it finally depends
on when Marco di Filippeschi says his family's men can be ready. They
need to buy weapons."

Daoud and Lorenzo stood by the cardinal's table while Ugolini paced with
many short steps between the windows and the hearth. He muttered to
himself, and his hands trembled as he ran them through his tufts of
white hair.

"What of our men?" said Daoud.

"We have over two hundred now, scattered throughout the city," said
Lorenzo.

_If I could be in the palazzo before the fighting begins ..._

Ugolini stopped his pacing and faced them. "You talk like moonstruck
men! You would unleash a civil war right here in Orvieto?"

"Not us, Your Eminence," said Lorenzo. "Have not these two families been
fighting for generations?"

"What is your objection?" said Daoud gently.

Ugolini fixed them with a ferocious glare. "For six months, half a year,
I have lain awake imagining arrest, disgrace, torture, execution.
Through miracles you have managed to carry out your plans without being
caught. Now you want to launch still wilder plans--incredible, fantastic
things. I have had enough. God has kept me alive this long. I will not
tempt Him further."

"My dear Cardinal," Daoud said, "once the Tartars are dead, this will
all be over. I will go back to Egypt. Lorenzo and Sophia will return to
Manfred's kingdom. You will have nothing further to fear."

"You could have tried to kill the Tartars at any time since they came
here," said Ugolini. "Why now?"

"I needed to create as much ill will as possible between Christians and
Tartars," said Daoud. "If I had killed the Tartars at once, I could not
have had them discredit themselves out of their own mouths. Fra Tomasso
and your colleagues among the Itali