AND THEN MY SWEET SOPHIE DIED in the prison cell.

She passed with a calm, far-off quiet in her eyes. Her mouth hung in the slightest smile, perhaps because I had finally come back, as I had promised.

Tears ran down my cheeks. I wanted to scream, Why did Sophie have to die? Why her?

I grabbed the Tafur by the collar of his robe and hurled his dead body against the bars. Why, you bastard? Tell me, what did she mean? Why did you kill my son? Why are innocent people dying?

Then I sank down with my head in my hands.

I wanted to take Sophie home. That's all I could think of, to bury her with her son. I owed her that. Buthow? The dead Tafur was slumped before me. Any moment, the guards would come. I couldn't even open her cell.

The truth hit me: Sophie was gone. There was nothing I could do for her now. Except maybe one thing-Don't give them what they want. Whatever that could be.

I ran and found a ragged cloth, and came back and laid a corner of it under Sophie's head. I covered her body with the rest, as if she were in our bed at home, though I knew nothing could disturb her now. I took one last, loving look at Sophie, the person who had been my everything since we were ten.I'll come back for you , I promised.I'll take you home.

Then I staggered down the stone stairs and past the indifferent guards. I ran back toward my room through the castle's maze of darkened halls.

My body shook with incomprehension.What had she been doing here? It wasn't a dream-my wife was d............