"Sophia and Lorenzo will be of great help to us. We will give it out
that I am the cardinal's guest. Lorenzo will be my servant, Giancarlo.
And Sophia will be the cardinal's niece."
"Hm." Tilia frowned. "I am _very_ hungry. Let me sample the delicacies
your Greek woman bought in Bagnioregio. Then I will go back to the city
and send word to the cardinal of what you have told me."
Daoud heard the false note in her voice and bristled with suspicion.
_And you would keep me waiting out here while you warn him of what a
danger I am to him._
"I will tell him everything myself."
Her eyes clouded over. "The cardinal will send for you when he has heard
my report."
"Great God, woman!" Daoud's voice rasped in his anger. "Do you expect
me to wait out here until the Tartars come to Orvieto? I am sent by the
sultan, I bring great wealth to you and your master, I am fighting for
my faith, _and I will not wait_!"
Tilia patted his arm placatingly. "Look here, Daoud, in all honesty,
Cardinal Ugolini is terrified. When he first got Baibars's message about
you, he wept for hours, cursing himself over and over for a fool.
Imagine the outrage if the Christians were to discover that a Muslim
agent has come so close to their pope. The cardinal would never have
taken the first denaro picciolo from your sultan if he had ever known
that it would lead to this--a Turk at his door demanding his help in a
plot against the pope."
"I am not at his door," said Daoud pointedly.
"No, and before you arrive there, you must give me time to assure him
that you know what you are doing, that you do not look anything like a
Turk, and above all that you bring him such great wealth as to make the
risk worthwhile. If you just appear at his palace when he has insisted
that you wait here, it might throw him into a panic. He might do
something very foolish."
Anger flared up in him. She was obstructing him and threatening him, and
he had had enough.
_She means he might expose me. Or order his men-at-arms to kill me. This
is Manfred's indecision all over again._
He seized Tilia's arm, his fingers sinking into soft flesh under her
silk sleeve. "I am going to the cardinal, with my party. And you will
equip me with a message for him, telling him you feel assured it is safe
for him to admit us."
She stared up at him, expressionless, for a long time. He sensed that
she was trying to see into his heart, to weigh his will.
"No," she said. "You are not going now. First--"
His grip on her arm tightened, and in his anger he was about to shake
her, when her hand darted to lift the pectoral cross from her breast.
Her thumb pressed a dark red carbuncle between the arms, and a thin
blade sprang out of the shaft.
"Please notice that the cross is attached to my neck by a chain, David.
I cannot hurt you unless you come too close to me. I have no wish to
attack you. There is asp venom on the blade, by the way."
His anger turned against himself. It was foolish to try violence on a
woman like this. Had he not told himself he could not force Tilia and
Ugolini to do anything, that he must persuade them?
_This woman herself is as dangerous as an asp. But I need her._