Chapter LXXXVIII
We embraced and mounted our horses. Hamed and Babrak rode away together back along the road by which we had come. Hilmi grinned at me and turned to the right. I rode straight down to Galilee, angling off to the right towards where the Jordan left the lake.
It was mid-afternoon when I watered my horse from the sweet water of the River Jordan. I filled my water skin and rode south along the bottom of the valley until I saw the battlements of Belvoir dark against the sky on the hills above me. I had never been there before - a Muslim could not expect a welcome in any Frankish castle and especially not from those of the Temple or the Hospital - but there was a clear path leading up the steep slope and I followed it, slowly climbing high above the valley.
It was evening when I came to the castle, which was built of black stone and looked doubly sinister in the waning light. Nothing moved in all that land apart from a few hyrax scampering among the rocks and the banner of the Hospital flapping idly in the breeze. The path circled round the castle so that I approached the gate from the summit of the hill, but on this side there was a wide, deep moat spanned by a narrow wooden bridge. My horse's hooves clattered noisily on the timbers. There was neither movement nor sound from inside the castle, but I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched.
"Ya, within!" I shouted, hammering on the door with the hilt of my dagger. "I have news."
"Who are you?" asked a voice above me.
I leaned back and saw nothing. I slid down off my horse and walked backwards until I could look up at the wall above the gate and at last I saw a man's face framed in a small window.
"Bon jour, m'sieu," I called. "I have news."
"Who are you?" the man repeated.
"I am Fuad ibn Hassan of the Bani Ibrim, but I am in the service of Guy d'Orleans."
The head disappeared and a few moments later another man appeared and stood looking down at me silently for the space of a few breaths before leaning foward.
"What do you want?" he shouted.
"Ya Feranj," I shouted back. "I bring you news. There has been a great battle and the Franks are defeated. Look to your defences."
"What?" The man sounded incredulous. "What do you say?"
"Open the door and I will tell you," I shouted.
"Wait there."
The man disappeared and I went back to my horse and waited. After a time I became aware of movement at the arrow slits on either side and muttered voices inside the gate. More men appeared on the battlements and scanned the ground behind me.
"Are you alone?" someone called.
"I am alone," I shouted.
Finally the postern gate opened and two men came out, armed and ready for battle. They approached me cautiously and halted at arm's length.
"You are a Muslim, aren't you?" one of them asked.
"I am of Islam," I said, nodding my head in the Frankish manner. "But I am also a squire of Guy d'Orleans in Jerusalem. Before the battle he sent me away to watch what would happen and to bring you news if the outcome was bad."
"And you say our army has been defeated?" the other man asked.
"With my eyes I saw it," I said. "While they were still a great distance from Tiberias they were surrounded by the Sultan's men and forced to stop. They spent last night in the open, with no water and this morning the Sultan's men attacked. I saw them capture the king's tent."
The two men glanced at each other, their eyebrows raised.
"Did no one escape?" the first one asked.
"Some of the cavalry escaped about an hour after sunrise," I told them. "They charged at the Sultan's men, but when they had passed through them they could not return and so they rode away towards the lake. I do not know what happened to them then. Inshallah they have escaped."
"Was the king there?" the second man demanded.
"The king, the masters of the Hospital and the Temple, everyone."
"Come within," the first man jerked his head towards the castle. "Most of our men and our commander went to join the army, but there are enough left to hold the castle at need. Come, tell your tale to the deputy."
I was reluctant to enter a Frankish castle, but with bowmen watching from every slit and machiolation, I dared not refuse. I led my horse through the postern and grooms came to take him away to the stables. The two men guided me through a maze of passages and up a ramp to a large room high up in the keep where a young man in mail waited for me and eagerly questioned me about the battle.
When I had told him all I knew he thanked me and dismissed me, charging the two men to give me food and a lodging for the night. They escorted me to the refectory and set food before me and I ate hungrily, even though I was sure that the meat was not halal - may Allah forgive me. I did, however, refuse the wine they set before me and drank only water. When I had eaten they took me to a cell in one of the towers, but they themselves stayed outside the door, by which I understood that they were also there as guards to see that I did not wander around the castle.
I slept soundly all night and when morning came the men greeted me with smiles and great friendliness, for during the night three men from the castle had returned, having escaped in some manner, and their story confirmed mine. While I broke my fast the young deputy himself came to speak to me and wish me a safe journey.
"Now where will you go?" he asked me.
"I am charged to travel along the valley, warning all I meet," I told him. "After that I must return to Jerusalem and help my lord's household. Inshallah there will be ransoms to pay."
"Inshallah," the man repeated, smiling at me. "See, I know a little of your language."
When I had eaten I was escorted with honour to the gate of the castle and my horse was brought to me, together with a saddlebag of food and a bulging water skin and much advice on the best road to take. I thanked them and hastened back down the hill and then along the valley floor, passing Scythopolis at mid-morning and pausing to tell my tale to the governor there.
In the evening of the second day I came to Jericho and sought the house of Abd al-Wahid. I was the first to bring him the news and there was much rejoicing as he summoned all the Muslims in Jericho to his house and told them of the Sultan's victory, but though sweetmeats were distributed and men crowded into the mosque to give thanks to Allah, we could not rejoice openly because of the Frankish garrison in the town.
In the morning I rode towards al-Quds, stopping to spend the hot part of the day with my family, warning them that I would return soon with es-Sitt Trudy.
"Poor girl. May God grant her refuge," my mother said. "She will be welcome."
"She can stay with us for as long as needed," my father said. "All the women will take the veil so that no one will ever know that a Frankish woman is among us."
