The man"s defiance dismayed Daoud. He had hoped that the mere sight of the chamber would set Sordello to babbling and begging. He needed to be frightened more.
"Have them chain him to the ring, Lorenzo."
Sordello aimed a kick at one of the slaves following Lorenzo"s orders.
The African gave Sordello"s arm a quick twist and got a howl of pain out of him. Soon the aging bravo, arms stretched out, legs spread apart, was suspended upright in the great hoop. The ring of iron hung from the ceiling on a single chain wrapped around a huge beam, allowing it to rotate slowly. Daoud imagined how helpless Sordello must feel hanging there.
Lorenzo took hold of the ring and gave it a spin. Face and back, face and back, face and back, Sordello whirled before Daoud. His eyes bulged.
"Figlii di cagne!" he shouted.
_Still more angry than frightened. But perhaps he is just good at concealing his fear._
Daoud made a small hand gesture, and Lorenzo stopped the spin of the ring so that Sordello was facing Daoud.
Daoud studied Sordello, looking for the subtle signs that would reveal his true feelings. His eyes gleamed like a caged hyena"s, full of hatred for Daoud.
Lorenzo had kept Sordello locked in a pitch-black cubicle in Cardinal Ugolini"s mansion for a day and a night before bringing him here. Daoud studied the man. It was obvious from his pallor, his red-rimmed eyelids, and his sagging mouth that Sordello had lain awake much of the time in the darkness. Daoud could see the fear, too, in the clenching and unclenching of Sordello"s jaw muscles.
Daoud flicked a finger at Lorenzo. "Read the love song you found on this trovatore when you seized him."
Lorenzo unfolded a square sc.r.a.p of parchment and read:
Your Magnificence:
On Thursday last Donna Sophia left the Cardinal"s mansion alone, on foot and heavily veiled. As she clearly did not want to be seen, your servant thought much was to be gained by following her, and so did. I regret to say she spent the afternoon wandering in the craftsmen"s market, shopping for gloves, purses, and other adornments. Before Nones she went to the Church of Sant" Andrea, where she prayed a while, then went to Confession. Your servant attempted to approach close enough to overhear, but was unable to do so without being seen.
Lorenzo looked up and shook his head. "What a furfante you are! Trying to eavesdrop on penitents." He went on with the reading.
David of Trebizond has spent his days riding about Orvieto, meeting with the fattori of various trading houses that deal in silks and spices. Your servant adds a list below. The cardinal sleeps most of the day and works through the night behind the locked door of his cabinet on the top floor of the palazzo. Sometimes he mounts to the roof and studies the stars with the aid of magical instruments. Of the servant Giancarlo I am unable to make report, having not seen him all this week.
Lorenzo laughed. "That is the only true statement in this list of lies.
You did not see me all week because I have been constantly at _your_ back."
Sordello spat at Lorenzo"s feet. "Ladruncolo! Sneak!" At this Lorenzo and Daoud broke into laughter, while Sordello glared at them helplessly.
The hoop on which he was splayed turned slowly one way and then back the other.
"You are indignant at being spied upon?" Lorenzo chuckled. "Then imagine how we feel. And what is worse, you do not even tell the truth about us."
"I p.i.s.s in your teeth," Sordello snarled.
"For instance, what you write about Madonna Sophia," Lorenzo went on, unperturbed. "You lost her a mere three streets from the cardinal"s mansion. She knew you were following her and took pains to rid herself of your unwanted attentions. But you could not admit to your master what a buffone you are, so you made up all that about her buying gloves in the bazaar and going to church."
Actually, Daoud thought, that was the afternoon Sophia had come here, to Tilia"s house, to see Rachel, and it would have been disastrous if Sordello had followed her. They would then have had to kill him, which would have been unfortunate, since this way of handling him was so much better.
Of course, they might still have to kill him. He already knew enough about them to send them all to the stake if he ever spoke out. He must be brought under control, to serve their purposes, or he must quietly disappear.
"So, you not only spy on us, but you lie about us," said Daoud. "And to whom do you send these lies? When the Bulgarian woman Ana takes your weekly reports back to the Palazzo Monaldeschi, to whom does she deliver them? De Verceuil? De Gobignon?"
"Go peddle your silks and spices, Messer David." The man was so ill-tempered he had not the sense to try to protect himself by hiding his anger and defiance.
Daoud gritted his teeth in frustration. Sordello was not breaking quickly enough.
Daoud sent Lorenzo a signal with two fingers. Lorenzo sprang at Sordello with his blade, a dagger so big it was almost a short sword, and slashed at his tunic, belt, and hose. The blacks grinned. Sordello roared his protests. A last flick of the blade cut away his grimy loincloth. In a moment Sordello hung naked on the ring, his shredded clothes hanging from his ankles or lying on the flagstone floor. His body was wiry and muscular, with only a small paunch at the waist. The flickering torchlight picked out the shadows of scars crossing his chest and belly.
Daoud stared with curiosity and faint distaste at the uncirc.u.mcised p.e.n.i.s peeping from its thicket of grizzled hair.
Daoud put his fingertips together and casually crossed his legs, lounging back in the throne, letting the contrast between his position and Sordello"s sink in. He prayed that the man might succ.u.mb. His soul must be made of sand; how could it be otherwise?
The ring slowly rotated. Sordello twisted his head to look over his shoulder at Daoud.
"If you kill me, he will know." There was the faintest quiver in his voice.
Daoud chose not to ask the obvious question--who "he" was--but said, keeping his voice soft and kindly, "What will he learn from your death, Sordello?"
Before Sordello could answer, Lorenzo burst out, "We are not going to kill him for a long while, are we, Messer David? You promised me I could have some sport."
"Quiet, Giancarlo," said Daoud, narrowing his eyes. "You shall have your sport."
"Why torture me? Why kill me?" There was a plea in Sordello"s voice now.
"I have told nothing that could hurt you."
"You have told _us_ nothing, Sordello." Daoud stood up. The platform on which the throne chair stood gave him impressive height, and the torches high in the wall behind him threw his shadow across the room.
"I admire your fidelity to your master, whoever he is," Daoud said with a smile. "What a pity he will never know about it. As I told you, this is h.e.l.l, and you are dead already. You will just vanish, like a bit of rubbish washed out of the city by the rain. Your master will probably think you deserted him, as your sort of wandering ladrone so often does."
"I am not a highwayman!" Sordello"s cry echoed against the stone vault.
"I am a man of honor. I am an educated man, a trovatore."
"You are feccia!" Lorenzo shouted, and slapped Sordello"s face hard.
"For that I will one day slice open your guts," Sordello growled.
Exasperated, Daoud saw that hurting Sordello only made him angrier. If they hurt him enough, certainly, they would have him begging for mercy, but by then they might have injured him so badly he would be of no use to them.
"Let him be, Giancarlo," Daoud snapped.
"I saved your life," Sordello said to Daoud. "I killed a man for you. Is this how you repay me--letting this pig strip me and beat me?" His narrowed eyes gave a hint of slyness. "I could be worth ten of this Neapolitan mezzano to you."
"You dare call me a pimp!" Lorenzo lunged at Sordello again, this time aiming the point of the huge dagger at his belly. Sordello twisted his body in the chains and gave a cry of fright.
"Giancarlo!" Daoud shouted sternly. "Back!"
Sordello hung rigid in his chains. Sweat ran down his face. His whole body was covered with sweat, glistening in the torchlight, and Daoud suspected he would be cold to the touch. Sordello"s eyes rolled from Lorenzo, who stood frozen with the dagger outstretched, to Daoud and back again. The two blacks stood behind Lorenzo, smiling broadly.
"You are worth nothing to me at the moment, Sordello, because you refuse even to give me the one harmless piece of information I ask for. You will not tell me who set you to spy on me. So I might as well give you to Giancarlo here for his amus.e.m.e.nt." He held a hand out to Lorenzo, as if giving him leave to proceed.
"It is Simon de Gobignon!" Sordello cried. "It is to him my messages go."
Daoud"s heart leapt with exultation, and he allowed himself a satisfied little sigh. A flicker of a finger told Lorenzo to lower his knife.