_The city that founded my city_, Sophia thought.
Sophia and David rode along the Tiber as it wound its way through Rome
like a brown serpent. Looking up from the riverbank, Sophia saw the
peaked roofs and domes of churches, and the battlements of fortified
palaces. The houses of the common folk huddled at the feet of the hills,
and here and there remnants of old Rome rose like yellowed tombstones.
Today's Romans, Sophia thought, built their hovels in the shadows of
marble ruins.
Sophia was impressed only by the age of the place. Her own city, the
Polis, was everything now that this place had been centuries ago. Rome
had possessed civilization and had lost it. Constantinople had it still,
on a grander scale.
At dawn David's party had reached the place where the Tiber passed
through crumbling city walls. Lorenzo and Rachel crossed the river into
the Trastevere quarter, where the Jews lived. Sophia wondered how they
would get past the watchmen at the city gate with the old man's body.
Would Lorenzo tell a clever story, try bribery, or use his Ghibellino
connections? Or would he fail, and he and Rachel be arrested?
David did not seem worried. She had seen his anger at Lorenzo. Perhaps
he hoped to be rid of him. For her part, she felt Lorenzo was far more
her friend than David. She had known Lorenzo longer, and he had always
been kind to her. She prayed he would return safely to them after
finding a haven for Rachel among the Jews of Rome.
She and David had entered the city through a gate on the east side of
the Tiber without difficulty. Evidently news of the incident at the inn
had not reached the Roman watch. In the city she rode beside David along
the river's east bank.
She touched David's shoulder and pointed to a hilltop.
"That hill is called the Capitoline," she said. "At one time the whole
world was ruled from there."
She supposed David would find that hard to believe, though the hill was
still impressive, with a cluster of marble palaces at its top.
They were passing through one of the most crowded parts of Rome. On
their left, fishermen hauled their nets out of the river, throwing
flopping fish into baskets. On their right, shops in the ground floors
of overhanging houses offered fruits and flowers and vegetables, fish,
shoes, straw, rosaries, icons, relics, candles. Even at this early hour
the street was crowded. Romans jostled the horses David and Sophia rode,
but they gave Scipio plenty of room. Lorenzo had given the great
boarhound a stern lecture, after which Scipio docilely allowed David to
lead him on a leash.
"I have seen two other great imperial cities," said David. "One was
Baghdad, before the Tartars destroyed it. It was then much like this
city is now--its glory shrunken and faded, but still the center of our
faith, as Rome is the center of Christendom."
Sophia was taken aback at his casual error.
"Rome is the center of _Latin_ Christendom," she said sharply.
"Ah, how could I have neglected Constantinople and the Greek Church?" He
smiled. The smile lit his deeply tanned face in a way that surprised
her, held her gaze. She felt a warmth.
_How smooth and brown his skin is._
"You must never forget Constantinople," she admonished him with a small
smile.
"I spent a month in Constantinople some years ago--that was the other
imperial city--and I shall not forget it." This made her feel warmer
still toward him.
Then his smile faded. "Your city, too, has suffered at the hands of
barbarians--the Franks, who would destroy us."
_Destroy us?_ she repeated in her mind. _Is he not a child of those
Frankish barbarians?_
On the road from Lucera to Rome, he had told her--in a brusque fashion,
as if he were speaking of someone other than himself--the story of his
childhood and how he came to be a Mameluke. She found it hard to believe
that he spoke of the killing of his parents and his enslavement by the
Saracens as if it were some kind of blessing--but she had no doubt that
he was a believing Muslim through and through.
"Do you never think of yourself as a Frank, David?"
He smiled again. "Never. And I hope you will not think of me as one
either. Because I know you must hate Franks."
Hate Franks? Dread them was closer to the truth. Last night, when they
fought their way free of those people from the inn, she had remembered
the terror she had known as a girl in Constantinople. It was the return
of that terror that had given her the strength to smash a jug over that
horrid woman's head.
She was about to reply to David when Scipio broke into loud barking.
David frowned at the sight of something ahead. The Tiber made a sharp
bend, and beyond that, on the opposite bank, towered a huge fortress, a
great cylinder of age-browned marble--Castel Sant' Angelo.
At the base of the citadel was a bridge, and Lorenzo was crossing it.
She knew him even from this distance by his purple cap and brown cloak.
Sophia had expected to see Lorenzo return alone. It gave her a little
start of surprise to see that Rachel was still with him, still riding
their spare horse.
David angrily muttered something that Sophia guessed must be an Arabic
curse. He checked his horse. Sophia reined up her gray mare, and they
sat waiting for Rachel and Lorenzo to come up to them.
"They want me as far away from them as possible," Rachel said. She
climbed down from her mount at once, as if acknowledging that she had no
right to be riding it. She looked at David with an expression of appeal.
This was the first time Sophia had gotten a good look at Rachel. The
girl had removed the scarf that hid her hair, which was midnight-black
and hung in a single braid down below her shoulders. A dusty purple
traveling cloak enveloped her slight body. Her skin was white as fine
porcelain. The eyes under her straight black brows were bright, but
Sophia could see fear in them. She remembered herself ten years earlier,
a bewildered, terrified, orphaned girl in Constantinople.
_I must help this child._
"Why will your people not take you?" David said gruffly.
"They are afraid," said Rachel. "When we told them what happened at the
inn last night, they said we had put them all in deadly danger."
Lorenzo looked up from where he crouched scratching Scipio's long jaw.
"And we had better get out of the city quickly, before the rulers of
Rome start hunting for us."
Rachel went on. "One of the rabbis took Angelo's body, and promised to
bury him at once. That much they are willing to do. But they said they
could not protect me if I were discovered. Not only that, but it would
bring persecution down on them."