"Send someone to fetch Sordello to me."
"You should be resting."
He laughed and touched her hand lightly. "Resting! Our enemies are not resting." She sighed, but went.
When Sordello entered Daoud's room, Lorenzo followed him closely, eyes boring into the back of the mercenary's skull. Sophia entered behind Lorenzo.
Trembling, Sordello knelt by Daoud's bed. "I feared for you, Messer David. I am happy to see you looking so well."
Would Sordello give up the pleasures of hashish and the promise of a paradise with beautiful women? What reward could Simon de Gobignon offer him that could be more enticing?
Yet, I have always known that this man was a two-edged sword that could turn in my hand.
"The Monaldeschi were prepared for us," said Daoud. "They were armed and on their battlements when we came. Someone warned them."
"You do not suspect me, Messer David?" Sordello, crouched on the floor by Daoud's bed, looked up slyly sideways at him. "I would be a fool to injure one who has been so great a benefactor to me."
Daoud felt rage boil up inside him at Sordello's false abjectness. He glared at the old bravo and saw a faint tremor in his jaw.