Chapter LVI
As soon as I reached the lines of the Sultan's men I was surrounded and carried off to the Sultan's house again. This time it was one of the emirs who spoke to me, asking me of everything that I had seen in the castle and I told him freely, for am I not of Dar al-Islam, the Household of Faith? Only the message that Reynauld had given to me I withheld, and that for loyalty to es-Sid and not for love of Reynauld.
"Hmmm," he said when I told him of the stones falling uselessly in the courtyard. "We shall have to shift our aim."
Shortly before we finished speaking someone knocked on the door of the room and to my delighted surprise Hamed put his head round the door. He did not look at me but spoke instead to the emir.
"When you have finished with him, Sid, I have orders to take him to the Emir Abdullah Amir Fiqri. My master, Babrak ibn-Tullah undertakes to see that he does nothing further against the Sultan's peace."
The emir to whom I was speaking simply nodded and waved his hand in dismissal and Hamed at once withdrew. A short time later another person passed through the room. I glanced up and our eyes met and I immediately knew him as Harun. He said nothing, either good or bad, but went out through the door into the appartments of the Sultan, may God provide for him. Then I began to feel afraid, for it is one thing for travellers to become friends despite their different allegiances, but another for one of the Sultan's men to meet, in the Sultan's camp, one whom he knows to be working for the Sultan's enemy.
When the emir finally dismissed me there were two waiting for me in the anteroom - Hamed and Harun. Fortunately Hamed was talking to one of the guards, so Harun was the first to greet me, rising and coming to give me the kiss of peace.
"Ya Fuad! I thought it was you but I wasn't sure until now. Kif halak kif halak kif halak?"
"Al-hamdu-lillah!" I exclaimed, embracing him. "I never thought to see you here."
"Come, let us talk in the sunshine," Harun said, putting his arm through mine and leading me out of the room.
From the corner of my eye I saw Hamed looking after me with raised eyebrows, but I went willingly, for it seemed to me that if I had been denounced to the Sultan it was better that Babrak and the others should escape.
Out in the street Harun turned to face me.
"Still interested in Reynauld?" he asked me.
"By God, that is so," I agreed.
"I hear you have been inside the castle," he said with a wry grin.
I jerked my chin. "I had a message to deliver," I said.
"I shall not ask you what it was," Harun said, but it was obvious that he was eager to know.
"Between us two there are no secrets," I said, lowering my voice and drawing close to him. "My message was that the king in al-Quds knew of his situation and would come to his relief as soon as possible." Which was true, if not exactly what I had told Reynauld.
"Did you see anything of use to us in the castle?" Harun asked.
"Look," I said, pointing up the street to where men were levering one of the mangonels to a new position. "That is because of what I told the emir in there."
Harun smiled. "I always knew that you were of the party of God, even if you serve the infidels. Now I will tell you something; I have just come from Misr and as I left a great fleet was preparing to sail in search of those Nasranis and their ships. There were at least thirteen large galleys making ready with a thousand fighting men, to say nothng of sailors. The Sultan, God protect him, is determined to put an end to the insolence of Reynauld - he attacks him here to prevent him sending succour to his men on the sea."
"Is that it!" I gasped and laughed with delight. "May God prosper him."
"Will you take that news to your lord in al-Quds?" Harun wanted to know.
"I must," I said. "He will be as pleased as we are."
"Well," said Harun, "I shall not stop you, but ride slowly. I should not want the king to send help any sooner than necessary. Go with God."
"And you also," I said.
We embraced and he turned to go back into the house, brushing past Hamed as he went through the door. Hamed stepped out and without looking at me walked slowly down the street. I followed him through the streets of Kerak to a small house near the gate.
"By God!" he exclaimed as soon as we were inside the house and alone. "I thought you were dead! The Sultan was furious that anyone should break his peace."
"How did you hear about me?" I asked, reaching gratefully for the cup of water he handed me.
"Babrak spends most days with the emir waiting for orders from the Sultan, so he was in the court when you were brought in. We were astonished to see you here. What were you doing attacking that tower?"
I put my lips to Hamed's ear and whispered. "Es-Sid put a message in a ball of clay and commanded me to sling it in through the window."
Hamed began to laugh. "So that's it!" he exclaimed. "Well, next time you do that, don't let the Sultan's men see you doing it. Now, who was that man talking to you?"
"He was that Harun who travelled with Charles and me last year," I explained.
"Was it, by God?" Hamed said. "Did he recognise you?"
"Of course," I told him. "We are friends."
"Well, that is thrice lucky. Come, Hilmi is waiting."
He took me through the house to the stables at the back where Hilmi was grooming the horses and after we had greeted each other and exchanged news we returned to the house to eat and to wait for Babrak to return, which he did just after the hour of siesta. He also wanted to know why I had come and laughed at my explanation. When I told of speaking face to face with that son of Iblis, Reynauld de Chatillon, they were all eager to learn of him.
"Well," Babrak said when I had finished. "Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, for you have been twice in danger today."
"Thrice, counting your encounter with Harun," Hamed said.
We had to tell the tale to Babrak and he shook his head. "Truly, it was not written that you should die today."
"Will you carry Reynauld's message?" Hamed asked.
"I suppose I must," I said, pulling a face, "but by God, it is for the sake of es-Sid and not for love of Reynauld. I shall also tell Guy of what is happening in Egypt, for Harun is just come from there."
"Oh?" Babrak raised his eyebrows. "What is happening in Misr?"
I told them the news Harun had given me about the great fleet that was preparing to go and hunt for Reynauld's men.
"This is a great matter," Babrak said when I had finished. "One of us four must go down to Aqaba at least, to discover what is happening and bring certain word. I cannot go, for I have daily access to the councils of the Lord Salah ud-Din and there is much that I can both say and report without doing dishonour to our Faith. Hamed cannot go, for such a one as I cannot be without service."
He paused and I glanced over at Hilmi, whose eyes were gleaming even as, I am sure, mine were also.
"Hilmi, I would send you but there are two reasons why Fuad should go. First, because this will be an errand of many months, for whoever is sent cannot return until this matter is settled with victory for one side or the other and if my groom were to disappear for a long time it would rouse suspicion. Secondly, Fuad has already been to Aqaba and beyond and knows the way and the people to meet. My decision is that Fuad must go to Aqaba and you must go to al-Quds to take the news to es-Sid and return as quickly as possible."
"I have no horse," I objected. "I left it in a village a day's walk from here. I thought that I would escape notice if I came as a poor man, without arms and animal."
"That is easily solved," Hilmi grinned. "Am I not the stable-boy?"
About the middle of the afternoon, therefore, when the sun was hottest, Hilmi and I rode northwards together and on the way I remembered the words of the sheikh of the village and repeated them to Hilmi that he might tell them to es-Sid. We both laughed together at the thought of mere villagers speaking of high strategy, for such things are for soldiers, not for peasants.
