well. She knew
now that "Tartar" was merely a European word for his people, that they
called themselves "Mongols."

He pulled his silk trousers up and knotted the drawstring. His belly had
been flat when she first met him. Now it was swollen as if _he_ were
having a baby, and excess flesh sagged on his shoulders and chest. His
decline was partly from too much wine and partly from too little
activity. She rarely saw John without a wine cup in his hand, and by
evening he was often surly or in a stupor. He talked to her less, and
was less often able to couple with her. If he spent many more months
like this, he would sicken and die like a wild bird kept in a cage.

"I had _six_ cups this morning before I came to you," he boasted. "Wine
makes me strong." He drank off half his cup and set it on the marble
table.

She sat beside him on the rumpled bed. "You need to get out, Usun. Go
riding."

He shrugged. "Too hot." He grinned, stroking his white beard. "But next
year we will ride to war."

"Next year?"

"King Charr has promised to let me and Nikpai--Philip--ride to war with
him when he attacks Manfred."

In her anxiety she seized John's arm--she rarely touched him--and said,
"You must insist that your guardians let you go out riding regularly.
And you must stop drinking so much wine. Otherwise you will be very
sick."

His black eyes were wider and moister than usual. "You worry about me,
Reicho?"

She took her hand from his arm. "I don't want to see you die," she said.
She did not know why she felt that way. After all, he had enslaved her,
and every time he possessed her body it was virtually rape. And if he
died, she might be free. But, she supposed, she had gotten to know him
so well that she felt sorry for him.

She did not like to hear about this war against King Manfred. Friar
Mathieu had told her gently that her lost friends, Sophia, David, and
the others, were very likely all spies for Manfred. If Sophia were in
King Manfred's employ, that made no difference to Rachel. From all she
had heard, Jews were better treated in Manfred's kingdom than anywhere
else in Italy. The French, on the other hand, were often cruel to Jews.
It would bring sorrow and suffering to many people if Charles d'Anjou
conquered southern Italy and Sicily.

She wished she could be with Sophia. But Sophia was probably in Sicily,
and how could Rachel, all alone, cross half of Italy to find her?

The locked box she kept under the bed