Swords From the Desert (12 page)

"Nay, Khalil, thou hast led her to me."

Then he groaned as if feeling the sting of a wound. His two nobles were near the statue, but before them now was a Frank. And surely the horse this warrior bestrode was Khutb.

I cursed the Bokharian who had without doubt offered the gray horse to the first knight of the invaders, for protection. This knight rode as one accustomed, with mailed knees gripping tight and a loose rein. Eh, the horse responded to his touch.

He reined between the two Greek nobles, and took the sword stroke of one upon his long shield, slaying the other with a sweep of his straight blade. Wheeling Khutb in a whirl of dust, he parried the heavy blow of the surviving Greek and swung up his sword. The Greek flinched aside and fled.

The men who had pressed around me were gone. There was heavy dust and smoke in the air, and a great outcry. I could no longer see Menas.

Anger gripped me, at loss of the horse, and I ran forward, catching the rein of the Frank as he lowered his sword.

"Dog of a Nazarene," I cried, "the horse is mine, and if there is aught of honor in thy soul, thou wilt dismount and let the sword be judge between us."

Now in my haste, I had spoken in my own tongue. Half his face was hidden by his vizor, but I saw his lips smile.

"The steed is mine," he made reply in Arabic, "and I will prove it upon thy body, 0 son of Yamen."

And he cast himself from the saddle. Striding toward me, he let slip his shield, seeing that I had none. So I knew him for a brave man-aye, and soon I knew him for a swordsman.

His blade was lighter than most Frankish weapons, and his long arm lashed out so swiftly, I gave ground. Once I parried, and he beat down my arm.

For a space we struck without ceasing, I striving to slash within the other's arm, yet there was no evading his sweeping stroke. The mail links on my shoulder were hewn through and I could feel the blood running against my ribs.

Again I gave ground and as he strode forward I leaped, striking at his neck. My blade met steel that was not yielding. And I, Khalil, stood weaponless, my scimitar clattering on the stones. The Frank had struck it from my hand with his sword.

"Yield thee, youth!" he said, and again his lips smiled.

I had been too sure of my swiftness, too certain of my strength. Eh, I made the head bow of submission, saying-

"This also was to come upon my head."

And then Khutb, who had been standing near, walked up to me and thrust his nose against my hand. The Frank threw up his steel vizor and loosed the coif at his throat.

I looked into his eyes and behold, he was of my height, and his skin was dark as a desert man's. His eyes were blue, and clear, and surely his age was no greater than mine. Moreover the damp hair at his brow was black. On his sun-stained surcoat there was no device, but upon the shield he had thrown down was a red cross, greatly scarred and stained.

Still I looked at him. He had been riding Khutb, and a thought came to me.

"Art thou the Lord Ricard, from Palestine?" I asked.

"Aye so," he assented, "I am Richard from Palestine. Who art thou, to cry my name?"

"Thy prisoner, Khalil el Khadr, chief of a thousand blades. Nor will I cry aman to thee, so slay if thou wilt."

He glanced around and sheathed his long sword, then folded his arms, planting his feet wide, to consider me, smiling.

"Was the horse thine, 0 Khalil?"

"He was. I stole him from the mock-emperor, and that jackal of a Bokharian gave him up to thee."

"Aye so."

"And now have I a word for thee. The Frankish maid who waits thy coming is yet unharmed and unscathed. But it is a task of tasks to shield her, and-go thou and speak to her."

He followed my eyes to the statue, where the barbarian girl was standing, half hidden by the smoke.

"That is the daughter of the castellan of Edessa to whom thou didst give the gray kohlani as a betrothal gift." I judged that he was surprised beholding her in youth's garments, for he looked again at me, narrowly, and again at Khutb.

"Come!" he said. The Lord Richard was a man sparing of words. Striding toward the statue, he came to stand beneath it and that elfin Irene smiled down at him. Though she wore cloak and vest, tunic and pantaloons, her beauty was none the less for that.

The cold blue eyes of my lord Richard glowed, and he caught his breath. His two hands he held up to her, and she leaped down. Gently he placed her upon her feet, nor did he take his hands swiftly from her waist.

It seemed that she, who had been glib of tongue with me, was stricken with his silence, for she lowered her eyes and answered hardly at all, though he questioned her. What passed between them was in the Frankish speech, and to this day I know naught of it.

My lord Richard paid no heed to what went on, to right or left. His lean, dark cheeks were flushed, and when he turned upon me there was a mask of anger or sorrow on his face. He beckoned up an archer who had been loitering near, and spoke with him.

"0 Khalil," he said, "who is that al-comes?"

I looked where he pointed, and beheld Menas, no longer Domastikos, no longer emperor, but captive on his white horse, with a hundred other Greeks-all surrounded by staring and jesting Frank men-at-arms. And all of them bore a red cross on their shields. For this reason I judged them to be the followers of my lord Richard, and verily this was the case.

"He," I made response, "was emperor for an hour-between the flight of the Greek host and thy coming. Before that he was Menas the Domastikos."

"Nay, Khalil, like a hawk swooping low, thou hast seen many things, but not this. The Emperor Murtzuple fled from the other side of the city when we entered the Galata gate."

"Aye, my lord. And then Menas harangued the mob and had himself acclaimed master of the Greeks, here, in this forum. Thy swords and the faint hearts of his followers, and-" I thought of the few moments delay when Menas had looked upon Irene and had lingered until the path of safety was closed-"his own lust defeated his scheme."

"Wise Khalil!" The young barbarian smiled, leaning on his sheathed sword. "This is a rare day, and thou art a rare paynim. For thy shielding of this damosel ask of me any gift that I may in honor grant."

It was boldly and clearly spoken. Yet I could not without shame ask of him my liberty for the small service I had done this Nazarene maid. My soul warmed when I thought of Khutb, but how could a captive claim such a steed? I dared not look at the gray horse.

So I bent my head and he spoke again.

"One thing more thou mayest do in service to this maid. But wait-"

He pondered a moment and swung away, to walk between his men who called upon him loudly and with laughter after the barbarian fashion. Irene followed him with her gaze, as if a little bewildered.

Verily, four years may alter a man, and it may have been that she found my lord Richard somewhat different than she had supposed. At their betrothal she had spent with him no more than seven days. Yet beyond any doubt, she loved this youthful paladin of the Franks.

Of a sudden a thought seared my brain like an arrow. Richard of Brienne had sent his captain secretly to Menas before the siege. The twain had talked together for long hours, and then the captain had been sent forth again secretly.

"0 one without wit!" I cried upon myself. I beheld at last the full of Menas's treachery. He had agreed to betray the city, for a price no doubt. He had agreed with the Franks how they should set about the siege.

And then, mistaking both the strength of the city and the hardihood of his own men, he had sought to seize the throne and drive out the invaders, after Murtzuple had fled. In truth, he had not known which way to turn when the iron men rode into the square. He had played the part of a snake with two heads and had been well scotched.

For a space the young peer of the Franks talked with the defeated usurper, apart from the ranks, and then the Lord Richard came back and gave some orders to the archer. How should I know what was in his mind? My shoulder ached and my soul was sick.

"Eh, Khalil," he said, "knowest thou the statue of the giant woman?"

"It is in the Forum of Constantine."

"Aye, go thither with this, my follower," he nodded at the archer. "Show him the way. He will lead thee to the sheriff*
of the Montserrat Franks. Tell to this sheriff thy story, all of it, and come back with them to this place."

"I am thy captive." And then a demon of anger plagued me, for the pain in my shoulder. "Nay, send thy kapitan, the man who plotted with the Domastikos!"

If the Lord Richard had few words, he had a clear mind, and quick.

"Point out this kapitan!"

I looked through his followers and again; but the powerful Frank who had come secretly to the house of Menas was not among them.

"He is not here. Yet I knew him beyond a doubt, having seen him at the sack of the village where thou wert pleased to carry off the gray horse."

"So thou didst hear this man of mine talk with Menas-when?"

The word was like a lash, and I told the barbarian lord what I had seen in the palace of the Greek, thinking that he was playing with me idly. In truth, before this I had thought to be slain. This Richard was not a man of mercy.

And verily his brow became dark and he stirred not for a space, except to knot his fingers on his belt.

"What a coil!" he said under his breath. "May God have mercy on his soul!" And he bade me sternly speak not again of such matters. "What now?" he cried when I still tarried.

"My sword," I explained.

The city burned, and the plunderers were like hungering wolves. If I went unarmed through the bazaar and the alleys, I should be set upon by vagabonds. I had seen the Greek captain of cavalry die, and if my fate was near me, it were better to die here under the Frank's sword than to be torn into pieces.

Aye, if Richard were playing with me, as he had with Menas, there was no good in a few hours more of life. He motioned to the archer, who picked up my scimitar and thrust it out toward me. Then the young barbarian did a courteous thing. He spoke quickly to the warrior, who shifted the sword so that it lay with its point in one hand, its hilt across the other arm, toward me.

"May it be remembered, on thy behalf!" I cried, taking it, and bowing. And then I dared his anger again. "This maiden-wilt thou have her in thy care henceforth?"

Whereupon the barbarian Irene looked from under her lashes at the youth, as a maid will when she judges matters for herself in veiled fashion. As for Richard, his eyes glowed upon me strangely.

"Never harm shall come to her, while I live."

With the archer stalking beside me, staring at every tumult, I made my way through the throngs. Doubt was heavy upon me, because I was being sent to a strange chieftain of the Franks, and because I was very weary.

By the smell in the alleys I knew we were passing through the Jews' quarter. It was the custom of the Greek tanners to carry the filthy water from the tanneries in carts and dump it under the noses of the Jews. Here the houses leaned close together overhead, and it was a place of gloom under the smoke-veiled sky. I turned aside and sought the square as my lord Richard had directed.

We had passed a few Franks, riding through the streets in groups, and some had halted us, until the archer talked with them and we were permitted to go on.

This archer had a green hood close drawn over his head, and a fat face red as fire and eyes that seemed to be asleep, but for all that he did not cease watching me. When we came to a throng in the square he pushed through, making way with both elbows, and pulling me with him.

The crowd had gathered around an old man and a girl. The old man was a Greek merchant of the poorer sort, and by the tears on his cheeks it was clear that the girl was his daughter. She had flung herself on the ground, and her face was smudged and stained as if she had been rubbing dirt upon it. Her garments were soiled and disordered, as if she had thrown them on in haste.

Two horsemen and a dozen warriors were about her, and these were Franks. The taller of the two riders was richly clad in a fur-edged mantle, with a gold chain at his throat. His shoulders were heavy, and his lips, and his eyes were a faded blue.

I knew that he was an officer of some kind because he had a small baton tipped with a gold crown in his belt-but I did not think he had been in the fighting that day.

He was looking at the Greek girl, and at two of his men who were pulling her up by the arms, trying to make her stand on her feet. To him the archer went, and they talked, glancing at me.

Then this sheriff spoke impatiently to the two warriors, and the old Greek wailed. Someone laughed, because the sheriff had given order to strip the garments from the young girl.

She struggled without weeping, and it was clear that the dirt had been put upon her face to hide her beauty, for she was lithe of limb and erect of stature, and her terrified eyes were like dark pearls. When even her sandals had been wrenched from her, the tall Frank leaned down and took her chin between thumb and forefinger, to scrutinize her face.

Again he gave an order, and this time the Frankish warriors hung back and muttered. It speaks ill of a leader when he asks of his men a deed that shames them. At length one of them sought on the ground and picked up a long cord. With this he bound the wrists of the silent girl, and tied the free end of the cord to the tail of the sheriff's horse. As he did so, my guard, the archer, spat.

"That will teach the wanton to come to her feet at call," so said the Frank. And he spoke in Arabic, to me. "What seekest thou, dog?"

Before this never a man had named a chieftain of the Ibna al Yamen so, and lived. I drew the edge of the khalat over my forehead and looked upon the ground.

"Thy tongue shall feel the dagger, an thou answer not," he went on, his lips drawing back upon his teeth. "I have dealt with thy saracin folk before now-"

"Lord," I cried, lest he add worse to my shame, "I was sent to lead this archer to thee, and to tell thee a tale-"