"Orlandu," he said. "Let the oaf get up and send him on his way."
Orlandu turned in mid-kick and saw the golden horse. He raised his eyes, as if to an apparition, and stared at its rider. He swallowed his shock and said, "Tannhauser?"
By God the boy looked well. And what a power of good it was to see him. Tannhauser suppressed his inclination to smile, which required a considerable effort, and assumed a stern expression. "I'd hoped to find you studying Latin, or geometry, or some other such higher enterprise," he said. "Instead I find you brawling in the dung like a common serf."
Orlandu continued to gape, now torn between rapture and shame. His mouth opened and closed. The oaf scrambled to his feet and stumbled off. Tannhauser dismounted. He could contain the smile no longer.
"Come here, boy." He opened his arms. "And tell me how you've been keeping."
When Orlandu's excitement was at last contained to the degree that he could carry out an order, Tannhauser said, "I think it's time you announced my presence to the lady of the manor." He added: "Then recruit Buraq and leave us in peace until I call you."
Tannhauser chose to take a seat in the château's garden, where he enjoyed the wane of the day and took in the scents of the fruit trees and flowers, and reflected on the lushness that abounded thereabouts. He felt the presence of Carla-that strange aura of control and impending abandon
that she cast about her. A woman of property and taste. He reexamined his gear for stains and found himself presentable. Time passed and he grew a mite perturbed. He'd been certain of a warm welcome from the boy, but from Carla he was less sure. She'd had time and tranquillity in plenty to reflect on the folly of falling in league with such as him. Carla's allure might have drawn him across a continent, but the potency of his own was wide open to doubt.
Music drifted from the manor house at his back. A viola da gamba. It started with great delicacy, perhaps hesitation, then it found its wings and soared and swooped and plunged with majestic freedom. And Tannhauser felt a great happiness, as great as any he'd known, for the music was the voice of Carla's inmost heart, and she played for him.
When the music stopped he collected himself and stood up and Carla walked down the garden path to greet him. She was every bit as elegant, if not as erotically attired, as when they'd first met, yet, in compensation, her hair fell unrestrained about her shoulders and there was an exuberance in her carriage that he'd never seen before. Her beauty was not just undimmed, it had bloomed. She smiled, as if she'd believed in a moment like this, but hadn't expected it.
"You haven't lost your touch," he said. "Sublime. If I may say so, in art and appearance both."
Carla inclined her head in appreciation.
For a moment they took each other in.
"As you see," he said, at last, "I'm powerless, once again, to resist your call."
She said, "I hope it will ever be thus."
Her green eyes shone. She smiled. She tossed her hair. He was lost for words. What had he meant to say to her? So much. But where to begin? They stood looking at each other. The silence lengthened. He reached out and she gave him her hand. The loveliness of its touch sent a tremor through his spine. Her fingers squeezed and he saw her swallow the emotion that rose in her throat. His impulse was to pull her against him, and to crush her lips to his, and to submit to long-dormant instincts that now roared to life. Yet he resisted. Their last kiss had been stolen from a world replete with horror. And though horror and fire and madness would forever be mixed in the mortar that bound them together, he wanted their first kiss here, in a gentler world, to be free of shadows. And there was a
shadow-of an unforgettable passion, and of a spirit who had to be honored before they were free. The spirit of one they'd both loved and who loved them still.
He said, "I made you a promise that I want to keep."
In the garden lay a bed of roses, white and red, which Tannhauser had marked as soon as Orlandu had left him there. He led her down the path and stopped by the flowers.
"I'd hoped to find these here," he said.
Carla said, "So you're going to tell me a tale."
She smiled. Her green-and-black eyes brimmed. And Tannhauser knew she understood, and he knew why he loved her, and why he always would. They both were bloodred roses. They all of them were. He pointed out a tall white bloom.
"In Araby," he said, "they say that, once upon a time, all roses were white."
Glossary
abanderado:
Lowest noncommissioned officer of a Spanish
tercio
infantry unit.
adhan:
The Moslem call to prayer, made at dawn, shortly after midday, in late afternoon, at sunset, and at bedtime.
aga: Chief or general, as in Aga of the Sari Hayrak: "General of the Yellow Banners."
akçe:
Ottoman currency; silver coin; fifty to a golden ducat.
Allahu Akabar:
"God is most great."
alure: Walkway along the top of a castle wall.
Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae / Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto:
"The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary / And she conceived by the Holy Spirit."
arquebus: A matchlock musket; an arquebusier is a soldier thus armed.
Assalaamu alaykum:
"Peace be upon you."
Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh:
"Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessing."
Azeb: Frontal assault troops composed of Anatolian Turkish males.
bailey: The ward or courtyard inside the castle walls; includes exercise area, parade ground, corral.
barbican: Gatehouse or outworks defending the castle entrance.
basilisk: Large-bore mortar.
batter: The sloping part of a curtain wall; the sharp angle at the base of all walls and towers along their exterior surface; talus.
bey: Vassal sovereign of the sultan, or provincial governor.
Boluk: Janissary regiment.
bork:
A tall, white cylindrical cap about eighteen inches high worn by the janissaries.
camerata:
Orphanage for infants administered by the Order of Saint John.
caravan: A year of combat duty at sea in the Order of Saint John.
cataphract: Heavy cavalryman.
Charles Quintus: Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor.
chrism: Consecrated oil used in the Roman church.
crenel: The low segment of the alternating high and low segments of a battlement.
crownwork: Freestanding bastioned fortification in front of main defenses.
culverin: Long-barreled cannon.
curtain or curtain wall: Connecting wall hung between two towers or bastions.
devshirme:
"The gathering." The conscription of Christian boys into the janissaries and the Ottoman civil service.
Devshirme
also referred to the conscript himself.
enceinte: The line of fortification enclosing a castle or town.
Enderun: School in Istanbul for boys gathered in the
devshirme.
Fee iman Allah:
"May Allah keep you safe."
fra:
"Brother"; member of a religious order, as in Fra Ludovico.
gazel:
A Turkish poem of six couplets.
gazi:
Warrior(s) of the Moslem faith against the infidels.
Holy Office or Sacred Congregation: The Roman Inquisition.
humbara:
A Turkish grenade, filled with gunpowder and Greek fire.
ignis fatuus: A light that, due to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter, sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground.
in foro interno:
A papal dispensation whereby in a particular case relaxation is granted from an existing law or monastic vow insofar as it affects personal conscience.
Inscrutabilia sunt judicia Dei:
"The judgments of God are inscrutable."
Jacta alea est:
"The die is cast."
janitor: Janissary rank equivalent to captain.
kazan:
The brass cauldron from which the janissaries ate once a day and which was the mascot of their regiment. To "tip the cauldrons over" described the janissaries in mutiny or revolt.
kullar:
The slaves of the Sultan.
Laghimji: Turkish sappers corps, who dug mines, built roads, and so on.
langue or tongue: One of the eight national divisions within the order, these being the Langues of Auvergne, Provence, France, Aragon, Castile (which included Portugal or Crato), Italy, Germany (which included all Northern European and Scandinavian priories), and England.
machicolations: Projecting gallery on brackets, on outside of castle or towers, with holes in floor for dropping rocks, shooting, and so on.
manga:
A
tercio
detachment of between one hundred and four hundred arquebusiers.
mantlet: Detached fortification preventing direct access to a gateway; low outer wall.
Marsamxett: Natural harbor on north coast of Malta.
Marsaxlokk: Large natural harbor on the south coast of Malta.
merlon: The high segment of the alternating high and low segments of a battlement.
oçak:
The sacred hearth; the janissary corps was known to its members as the
oçak
.
orta:
A company of Turkish soldiers, the number varying by corps. A janissary
orta
in the time of Suleiman was comprised of 196 men.
oilette: Firing hole built into a wall for cannons, muskets, or arrows.
Outremer: The Crusader states of Palestine and the Middle East.
Pater noster:
"Our Father"; the Lord's Prayer.
Philip II: Spanish emperor, son of Charles V.
pilier: The dean or master of a langue of the Order of Saint John.
prior: Head of a commandery of the Order of Saint John, equivalent to an abbot.
rejoneador:
Bullfighter on horseback.
Sanjak i-sherif:
The black war banner of the Prophet, inscribed with the
Shahada.
scryer: A spirit medium or clairvoyant.
Shahada:
"There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger."
silahadar:
The Yellow Banners, or Sari Bayrak, oldest Ottoman cavalry division.
Sipahi: The Kirmizi Bayrak, or Red Banners, Ottoman cavalry.
solak:
Elite janissary guard regiment; bronze helms but no armor.
solar: Upper living room, often over the great hall; the lord's private living room.
surah:
A chapter of the Koran.
tercio:
Spanish infantry battlefield squadron of some three thousand men, composed of pikemen and arquebusiers.
Topchu: The Ottoman artillery corps.
tuyere: A vent from the bellows in the firepot of a forge.
wall stair: Staircase built into the thickness of a wall.
wicket: Man-size door set into the main gate door.
yerikulu:
Provincial Turkish infantrymen.
Zirhli Nefer: Chain mail–armored division of the janissary corps.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge the inspiration, insight, and generosity of Al Zuckerman of Writers House. No writer has a better agent or editor, and no man has a greater friend.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Willocks was born in 1957 in Stalybridge, a small rural mill town in the Pennine Hills of northwest England. He was the eldest of four children; the only sense in which his mother may be said to have spoiled him was by buying him as many books as he could read. When he wasn't reading, he spent his spare time roaming the countryside reenacting Errol Flynn movies. Until the age of eleven he was educated by an order of Roman Catholic nuns, the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, who broke a lot of canes on his hide. The Brothers of Saint Francis Xavier at Xaverian College, Manchester, were rather less handy with the cane, and they provided a superb education.
In 1976 Tim went to University College Hospital Medical School in London. He took a bachelor of science degree with first-class honors in 1979, and graduated with a bachelor of medicine/bachelor of surgery in 1983. After practicing for several years as a junior doctor in a number of specialties (general surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency room, orthopedic and cardiothoracic surgery) at hospitals around England, he practiced psychiatry and addiction medicine in London until 2003. Hippocrates claimed that "medicine is the noblest of all arts," and so it is, but other arts held an irresistible allure.
In 1986 Tim was awarded a first Dan black belt in Shotokan karate by Sensei Sadashige Kato of the Japanese Karate Association. He still trains several hours per week. In 1991 he cofounded the Kurtz Theatre Company and produced thirteen plays on the London Fringe, including Christopher Marlowe's
Jew of Malta
. The play sparked Tim's interest in the Great Siege, which forms the background to
The Religion
.