Gazing up the river, he noticed a huge round shape bulking against the
horizon, a fortress of some kind. There might be danger from that
direction.
"Celino, you and Sophia and I are a little army in the land of our
enemies. An army can have only one leader."
Celino nodded. "I know that. But you must understand that if I accept
you as our leader, it is of my own free will. I am still my own master."
Daoud felt a strange mixture of admiration and uneasiness at this. He
was painfully aware that among Mamelukes a warrior of Celino's age would
be treated with great respect. Indeed, King Manfred clearly held Lorenzo
in high esteem. His effort to save the old man had been noble in its
way. But an impulse at the wrong time, even a noble impulse, could mean
death for all of them.
"Does that mean you feel free to disobey me?"
"I have done whatever you wanted up to now. Except for what happened at
the inn. That was different."
"Why different?" Daoud demanded. "You are not a stupid man, Celino. Why
did you do such a stupid thing?"
Celino shook his head and turned away. "Angry as you are at me, Daoud,
you cannot be angrier than I am at myself. If I had not intervened, that
man Angelo Ben Ezra might yet be alive and his child-wife not widowed.
They might have been hurt, and they surely would have been robbed. But I
do not think those tavern louts would have gone so far as to kill them."
Daoud was astonished that Celino did not even defend his actions.
"Any more than we meant to kill any of those men," Daoud agreed. "But a
man of your experience knows that once the sword is drawn, only God
knows who will live or die. Yet you drew your sword against them."
"The old man wandered in out of the night seeking hospitality. Instead,
they were beating him, and they were going to take his donkey and
everything he owned and cast him out. Because he was a Jew."
"Yes, you Christians are very cruel to Jews. It is not so in the lands
of Islam. But you should be used to seeing such things."
"I am not a Christian, Daoud. I am a Jew myself. And that is why I went
to that old man's aid."
Daoud blinked in surprise, then began to laugh.
"You find that funny?"
"I am just as surprised to find out that you are a Jew as others would
be to find out that I am a Muslim." Daoud stopped laughing. "I have
known many Jews in Egypt. Abd ibn Adam, Sultan Baibars's personal
physician, is a Jew. But why do you not wear the required hat?"
"It is not required in Manfred's kingdom. And I would not wear it on
this mission any more than you would wear a Muslim's turban." Then
Celino laughed. "But if I were to drop my breeches, you would see the
mark of Abraham."
"I have that as well," said Daoud with a smile. "Muslims are also
circumcised. I was eleven." He remembered with a twinge the old mullah
chanting prayers in Arabic, the knife whose steel looked sharper and
colder than any he had seen before or since.
"Now that mark is all I have left of the religion I was born into,"
Celino said.
"What do you mean? Did you convert to Christianity?"
"I told you I am not a Christian. I profess no faith."
Daoud drew back. A man who had no faith at all was somehow less than
human.
"You believe in nothing?"
"One of Manfred's Saracen scholars gave me a book by your Arab
philosopher Averroës. In it he taught that there are no spirits, no
gods, no angels, no human souls. All things are matter only. That is
what I believe."
Daoud made a casting-away motion. "I have been taught that Averroës is a
great heretic. Now I see how wise we are not to read him."
"It was life that made me a nonbeliever. Averroës only showed me that
there are learned men who think likewise."
Daoud shook his head. Baibars would never allow such a man near him.
"Why does your king permit you to have no religion?"
"The truth of it is, he thinks as I do. As his father, Emperor Frederic,
did before him. In the kingdom of Sicily under the Hohenstaufens, people
may believe as they please, as long as they are discreet about it. Of
course, King Manfred must pretend to be a Catholic, or all the hosts of
Christendom would fall upon his kingdom and destroy him. As for me,
Manfred trusts me because he knows I do not stand in awe of the pope.
The same reason he relies on his Saracen warriors."
Yes, Daoud thought, having no religion might make Celino a more useful
companion for a mission like this. But how could Daoud trust a man who
had no faith in a higher power?
"But why did you try to fight for that old man? Look what you have done
to us."
Celino sighed and shook his head. "He was so much like my own father. I
could not help myself."
"That is a poor excuse."
Celino looked steadily into Daoud's eyes. "It may seem so to you. It is
said that Mamelukes scarcely remember their mothers and fathers."
Daoud's body stiffened with rage. Celino's words were a blow that tore
open an old wound.
"You know nothing of that, and for your own safety you had best not
speak of it to me," Daoud said in a choked whisper.