t over the rug on the bedroom floor. He
oriented the prayer carpet toward the southeast and stood at the end of
it.

He began the salat, bringing his hands up to the sides of his head and
saying, "Allahu akbar, God is great."

He repeated his prayers, the bowing, the kneeling, the prostrations,
with great care and full attention. With his forehead pressed to the
rug, he submitted himself and this day utterly to the will of God.

Finished, he looked over at Sophia. She was still sitting on the edge of
the bed, watching him silently. He looked long at her, drinking her in.
It weighed heavily on his heart that he had to leave her, and even more
heavily that she would be terribly frightened for him until he came
back.

As he feared for her.

_Compassionate God, Cherisher of Worlds, protect her._

He began to dress for battle.

Husain had spread out his armor and weapons on top of his traveling
chest. Daoud's breastplate was made of many rectangular pieces of steel
laced together with leather thongs and overlapping each other. Two
larger plates, side by side, were attached over his heart, inlaid with
the spiraling gold design that marked him a member of the halkha, the
sultan's personal guard. Worked into the design were verses from the
Koran. On the left plate, "He succeeds who purifies the soul," and on
the right, "And he fails who corrupts it." The breastplate was divided
at the sides, where it could be strapped together. Baibars himself,
after Daoud returned to Manfred, had arranged for a bribed Genoese sea
captain to smuggle it to him. Daoud was proud of it, and the men of the
Sons of the Falcon would be proud to see their leader wearing it.

He pulled on a quilted tunic of embroidered red silk, its padding
stuffed with linen. Then he dropped the breastplate over his head. He
heard a movement behind him, and then felt Sophia fastening the
breastplate at his sides.

The storehouse of Manfred's Muslim armorers offered blades of the finest
Hindustan steel, and from it Daoud had selected a saif for himself. It
gleamed in the candlelight as he drew it from its sheath. He examined
with pleasure the gold inlay near the hilt. There was not a nick or a
scratch anywhere on the blade. He took a heavy silk scarf from the
clothing on the table and tossed it in the air. He held the blade under
it, edge up. The scarf fell on the blade and then dropped to the floor
in two parts.

He sheathed the sword and buckled it on. He