The two of them faced each other, the tottering drunk, the portly, filthy priest, screaming at each other. They were so alike, Robert saw, two foolish middle-aged men who dreamed of reshaping the world. But he knew it was a world which no longer belonged to them.

Moraima stepped between them. ‘Stop this, father, grandfather. I can’t stand to see you fight.’

Robert stepped up and took Moraima’s arm. ‘Come away, Moraima. Leave them to it. You’ll only get hurt.’

The vizier turned on him again, his flushed face a mask of ferocity. ‘Get your filthy paws off her, you Christian animal. I know what you did. I know about the tainted spawn you have planted in her belly!’

That shocked even Sihtric to silence. Everybody stood still. Moraima covered her face.

Orm said darkly, ‘Is this true, Robert?’

Robert looked at the girl. ‘We’ve had no time to talk, no time alone - but, yes, father. I think it’s true.’ And now he understood why the vizier hated him.

Moraima said to the vizier, ‘How did you know, grandfather? I’ve been to no doctor.’

‘But you told one of your friends, who told her friend, who told the boy Ghalib, who, hating Robert, told me.’

Robert grunted. ‘Ghalib will never forgive me for saving his life.’

The vizier shrieked, ‘And I will not forgive you, or spare you, for you have defiled her, as this fat priest defiled her mother, my daughter.’

Robert boldly took Moraima’s hand and drew her behind his back.

Orm said, ‘Is that what this is all about? Are you really hungry to conquer the world for Islam, vizier? Or are you simply enraged that your granddaughter, like your daughter, loves a Christian? Is that what is driving you insane?’

The vizier stood tall, his mouth drawn wide, the muscles in his neck spasming. So deep was his rage, so toxic the drink swilling in his body, that for a heartbeat he seemed unable to act, even to speak. The guards fingered their scimitars uneasily.

But Sihtric was not frozen. He turned to Moraima. ‘Goodbye, my lovely girl, my darling. All my life I have chased such grand ambitions. And yet in the end, if all I leave behind is you, perhaps it’s enough.’

Moraima asked, bewildered, ‘Father? What do you mean?’

‘I will not see Christendom threatened - not through my own foolishness and arrogance. You say that everything I’ve achieved is gathered in this room, vizier. Then it must end, here in this room.’