in your debt forever, for my
kingdom and my life."

_That should make this a bit easier for me._

"Thank you--Sire."

Du Mont and FitzTrinian, Fourre and de Marion, laid their stones as
Charles and Simon watched. The Burgundian, von Regensburg, had been
killed yesterday, impaled on a Saracen foot soldier's spear. Simon felt
little regret at his passing.

"We are burying Manfred as our pagan ancestors were buried," said
Charles, "but I hope this gesture of respect helps reconcile his former
subjects to me. I fear trouble with them. It has already started. Last
night, after the battle, several men died mysteriously."

"Oh?" said Simon.

"The death that shocked me most was de Verceuil's."

Simon was amazed. "The cardinal?" He could hardly believe it. He
remembered de Verceuil's departure just after the cardinal had killed
Manfred, as Simon and Daoud were beginning their final combat.

"Poisoned," said Charles. "I do not know if it was done by Manfred's
followers or by an enemy of his in our own ranks. You had not heard?"

"No."

Even though one expected to hear, after a battle, of untimely deaths,
Simon's blood ran cold with shock. De Verceuil did not seem the sort to
oblige his fellow men by dying unexpectedly.

A cold wind blew across Simon's neck and whipped the bright purple
woolen cloak Charles was wearing. Charles touched his hand to his gold
crown, larger than the count's coronet he had worn on state occasions in
the past, as if fearing that it might blow away.

"He went to the Tartars' tent looking for them before we learned they
had been killed," Charles said. "Saw a jar of wine on the table. He was
thirsty after the fighting, and took a long drink straight out of the
jar. Those who saw him said that in an instant his skin turned hot and
red. First he cried out that he was blind, then he raved about terrible
visions and began laying about wildly with his mace, so that his
attendants were forced to flee. Then he went into convulsions, and
within the hour he was dead."

Simon remembered Lorenzo saying something about having gone to the
Tartars' tent.

_He was going to make doubly sure he killed them this time. Instead, he
killed Manfred's killer._

"A tragedy," Simon said, sorry that, despite the duty of Christian
charity, he could feel no sorrow.

"Then there was Sordello, your captain of archers who guarded the
Tartars. Did you not hear about him?"

"He has not been under my command since I