. Her fingers found the dart. She wrapped her fist around it and
flung herself out of the chair, straight at Simon.

Simon tried to fend her off, but she darted under his hands, twisted
around him, and drove the dart into Sordello's throat. Blood spurted
over her hand.

Sordello seemed neither to see her nor to feel the dart. His eyes stayed
fixed on Simon's neck. He slashed at Simon. But Sophia's lunge had
pushed the two men apart. Sordello's blade scratched Simon's neck just
under his right ear. Then it fell from the bravo's fingers.

Sordello, the dart still hanging from his throat, staggered backward,
his knees buckling. His body folded, and he lay sideways on the floor.

The four living people in the room were as still as the dead one. Then
Simon touched his fingertips to his neck and winced. Sophia saw a
rivulet of blood running down into his mail collar.

Friar Mathieu tore away a piece of the bedsheet and dabbed Simon's wound
with it. He took Simon's hand as if he were a puppet and pressed his
fingers against the rag to hold it in place. Then he knelt over
Sordello's body and whispered in Latin.

Whimpering, Sophia stumbled back to the armchair where she had been
sitting. A sob forced itself up from her chest into her throat. She felt
Rachel's gentle hands helping her to sit down. Another sob came up,
shaking her body. Another followed it, and another. She lost touch with
everything around her for a time, buried in a black pit where neither
sight nor sound nor even thought could penetrate. She was lost in
wordless, mindless grief.

Then, gradually, she began to hear murmurings, voices.

Friar Mathieu said, "She saved your life."

Simon said, "I know. David--Daoud--told me not to take Sordello with me
if I went looking for Sophia. As if he knew this might happen. How could
that be?"

Rachel was sitting on the arm of the chair, gently stroking Sophia's
shoulder.

Friar Mathieu said, "Why would Sordello try to kill you? Because he was
about to rape Sophia when you interrupted? Or because he was afraid you
would punish him for killing--Daoud?"

Amazement jolted Sophia's body. She opened her eyes and stared at Friar
Mathieu.

"_Sordello_ killed Daoud?"

Simon answered her. "I will tell you how he died. I must talk to you. I
have waited more than a year, you know, to see you again."

Sobs still shook her, but she nodded and wiped her face with the sleeve
of her gown. He reached down. She took his ar