ack seemed to have given up or
disappeared.

"Yes, but that Sienese attack on Orvieto--"

Charles interrupted. "De Verceuil got the Tartars out of Orvieto safely.
And that attack was aimed at the pope, not the Tartars. After all, who
has been trying to kill the Tartars, and why? Manfred's agents, because
they knew that if the pope approved the Tartar alliance, my brother
would then give me permission to march against Manfred."

Simon remembered King Louis saying he wanted to be ready to launch his
crusade by 1270, now only five years away.

"But preparations for a crusade take many years," Simon said. "Should
not the Tartars go to the king now, so they can begin to plan?"

"I do not think they should visit my brother just yet," said Charles.
"His mind so easily fills up with dreams of recapturing Jerusalem."
Simon caught a faint note of mockery in Charles's voice. "The presence
of the Tartars at his court might distract him from his more immediate
responsibilities."

"Then what will we do with the Tartars?" Simon asked, nettled.

"Let them remain with le Gros's court in Viterbo. It honors the pope to
have those strange men from the unknown East at his coronation. Then,
when he comes here to present me with the crown, let them come, too, as
my guests. Indeed, they can stay with me after that. They will be safer
with me than they would be anywhere else in Italy. And it might interest
them to see how Christians make war."

_They would be safer still in France._

He could have taken Sophia and the Tartars to France together, leaving
the Tartars safe and well guarded with King Louis, and then going on
with Sophia to Gobignon. And getting away from Charles and his war.

"How many more months will I have to stay in Viterbo guarding the
Tartars?" he said with some irritation.

Charles put down his wine goblet suddenly and stood up. He seemed to
fill the tent. The candles on the chest lit his face from below, casting
ghastly shadows over his olive complexion.

"Simon, I feel I can speak more frankly to you than I ever have. It is
nearly two years since I asked you to undertake the guarding of the
Tartars. The way you acted today showed me that you've learned a great
deal in that time. You have seen the world. You have seen combat. You
have learned to lead."

_He praises me because I was so quick to mow down a hundred or so
commoners_, thought Simon.

"Thank you, uncle," he said tonelessly.

"I did not summon y