Alamut Part 22

"You leave the city soon, then, prince?"

Aidan nodded. "The day after tomorrow, sire.".

169"So soon." Saladin sounded as if he regretted it. "Wll you still do as you swore to do?"

"I must," Aidan said.

The sultan nodded. His fingers sought the scar of the a.s.sas- sin's dagger, rubbing it as if it pained him. "You cannot in honor do otherwise. As I cannot, by my given word, grant you aid."

"You know I ask for none."

"I know," said Saladin. "But what I know and what I could wish ..." He sighed, gestured as if to thrust the thought away. "You who are royal know what choices royalty can force : upon us. You who are ... more than that . . . know why I do what I do. I've pondered you, prince, and all that we spoke of. This is what I shall do." He smote his hands together.

A pair of servants came, burdened with what looked like a bolt of silk. They shook it our. It was a coat, a robe of honor, black but for the bands embroidered high on the sleeves: the 1. tiraz, the graceful flow of Arabic in letters the color of blood.

' Aidan's name, and the sultan's, and the greatness of G.o.d ? woven through the word for honor.

', And it was more than a coat. Its weight was steel weight, mail weight-the Syrian fashion, to conceal mere naked armor in the beauty and subtlety of silk. It was like the scabbard of Aidan's sword, damascened. Gold shimmered through its blackness.

The others looked away for their modesty's sake while the ?, servants clothed him in it. It was lighter than his Prankish mail, and more supple, yet he suspected that it might be stronger.

They bound it with a silken belt, and hung his sword from a baldric worked with gold. He looked barbarically splendid: quite properly civilized, to the eyes which saw him now.

The sultan smiled, and clapped again. Swift feet sounded. A ? company of mamluks entered at speed, in cadence. They all . wore scarlet coats which, Aidan was certain, concealed the C weight of armor. One of them was the Turk who had brought ; him here. They dropped down in the grovel of Muslim obei- sance, but not to Saladin. They kissed the floor at Aidan's feer.

"These," the sultan said, and his expression was frankly wicked, "are yours. What you choose to do with them is your affair. They are," he added, "most well trained. And they have reason not to love our common enemy."

Aidan could not say that he had ever in his life been truly 170.

Jwiith Tarrdumbfounded. He had always been able to find something to say.

He contemplated the row of scarlet rumps and ab)ect tur- bans. Each coat bore the tiros which marked his own. The bodies within suffered none of the prized oriental plumpness.

They were all youths-the eldest could not have been past twenty-lean and awkward-graceful as young wolfhounds. One or two might be as tall as he. Several were certainly broader.

One long braid beneath its turban was the color of wheat in the sun.

"But," Aidan said at last, "what in the worid would I do with a company of mamluks?"

"Whatever you please," said Saladin.

"Then I give them back to you." Aidan raised his hands, pressing on before anyone could stop him. "Sire, this is a gift worthy of a king, and I cherish it for the splendor that it is- But these are soldiers of Allah. How can you so endanger their souls as to give them to me?"

"I trust you," said Saladin, "not to forbid them their salva- tion."

Aidan flung up his head. His eyes were wild. "You know what I am!"

The sultan nodded once- Even half-mad, Aidan could not seize a king and shake him till he came to his senses. Nor would it do any good at all to blast the pavilion to its foundations. He clutched the rags of his temper and made himself speak quietly. "My lord. If I speak to them-if I give them the truth-will you allow them to choose?"

"It is not my part to allow or disallow. They arc yours."

Aidan bit his tongue. He clapped his hands. Sparks flew. He ^ started; cursed. Only the sultan seemed to see, and he was more amused than not. "Up!" Aidan commanded this army which had been thrust upon him.

They obeyed with laudable alacrity. Boys, yes. Some were still beardless, or too fair for the down to show. He scanned their faces. Tallest to smallest. Clear blue eyes in a face that was pure northern snow. Grey eyes; green, below ruddy brows.

Blue again, like ice, but startling in a face as olive-smooth as any Syrian's. Brown, thereafter, and eastern certainly, Turkish braids, Turkish ornaments, round Turkish faces. And on the end, as like as two reins on a bridle, a pair of broad-cheeked, 171.

yellow-skinned, slant-eyed imps of h.e.l.l who dared him outright to remark on their manifold oddities- In spite of himself, he smiled. "I, too," he said, "am twin- bom. And 111 wager I'm odder than you."

"How much?" one demanded promptly. He would be thefire-twin. He was, perhaps, a shade the stockier, a whisper the shorter.

"Your freedom," Aidan answered him. "&u lose, you choose. Whether to follow me or go your ways."

"That if odd," said the other, the water-twin, with interest.

"Where's your brother?" the first asked: always one for the essentials, he.

"Home in the west, being a king, poor victim."

"Odder and odder," said the water-twin.

The others did not move, but the air about them rippled with impatience. Aidan addressed them all. "Your sultan has told you that you arc a gift. Now you know that you are given to a Christian and a Frank. What you arc given to do, you may well guess. Do you fear the a.s.sa.s.sins?"

They paled. None of them, to do them credit, either moved or spoke- Aidan smiled a cold white smile. "Good- I sec that you are sane. I see also that you arc brave. Are you brave enough to serve me?"

He gave it to them whole, without Jnercy. The truth of his face. The truth of his power, piercing their minds, reading their souls. None of them was secret slave to the master of Masyaf. None of them was such a fool as to be unafraid of the creature who faced them. Ijrit, they agreed, implicitly. The twins had another name, but it meant much the same.

None of them had the wits to mm and bolt. The young Northman wore a berserker's smile. "This is better than a song," he said in a voice both light and startlingly sweet, a singer's voice.

The imps-Kipchaks, they called themselves-were grinning like mad things. "I like this," said the fire-twin with wicked relish.

Aidan had all their names. His finger stabbed at each.

"Conrad."Thc fair singer, who for all his size was one of the youngest.

"Andronikos." The grey-eyed Macedonian with the Byzan- tine smile.

"^anck." The Circa.s.sian, ruddy as a Frank.

172 Judith Tmr "Raihan." Half Frank, half Syrian.

The Turks: "Shadhi; Tuman; Zangi; Bahram; Dildirim; Ar- slan."And the imps last of all, wacer-twin, fire-twin, elder and younger: "Ilkhan. Timur."

They went down one by one as he named them, abject at his feet. But not in their minds; ah, no. In their minds they were giddy with the joy that is the heart of terror.

The more he strove to drive them away, the tighter they clung.

He spun away from them, upon the sultan. "They are all mad!"

"But most well trained," said Saladin, "and utterly loyal.

They'll serve you well."

d.a.m.n him. He had known what he was doing. He had chosen the best fighters and the worst h.e.l.lions, and the ones least likely to balk at serving a demon. They were all pagans; even the ones who were born Christian. Even under the yoke of Islam.

They were, Aidan had perforce to admit, perfectly matched to their master. Their entirely unwilling, utterly nonplussed master.

As he would be whether he kept them slaves or set them free. Once his own, always his own. He was obligated to them as they to him, while their lives should last.

It was d.a.m.nably like being a king. "What am I to do with them?"

"Use us," Arslan ventured to say. He was the eldest but one, and stood as their captain. "We all hate the one you hare. Our master before you-it was he who died when our sultan took his wound. He had no son; we pa.s.sed into the hands of our sultan. We asked him for the right to vengeance. He promised it. Will you break his promise for him?"

"You could die for it."

"Then we will go to Paradise, and Allah will reward us."

Aidan threw up his hands in despair. "Do you know who would be glad to see this? Half the High Court of the King- dom of Jerusalem. They wanted me with an army at my back.

And now, by G.o.d, I have one. But I'll not command an army of slaves, even if your law would allow a Christian to master Muslim souls. You'll be free, or you'll not follow me."

"It has been witnessed," the sultan said.

He was inordinately pleased with himself. His emirs were 173.

more than slightly puzzled. His brother did not know whatthere was to fail to comprehend, except that a Frank had been given a gift as far beyond his deserts as if a dog had been granted entry into Paradise.

Saladin rose; he managed, by sheer force of will, to stand eye to eye with the tall Rhiyanan. He said, "Now you go as well attended as any man may- I pray G.o.d that He may grant you His good fortune, and somewhat of His providence. Walk warily, my friend. Look always to your back. Ifou may know better than I what weapons of magic your enemy may wield, but that he has them, you may be certain. There may even-it is whispered-there may be some among his servants who are not merely human."

Cold walked down Aidan's spine. But he held up his head; he smiled. "Whatever his servants may be, he himscffis beyond all doubt a mortal man. I go well forewarned, and most well armed."

Saladin's smile was as brittle as Aidan's own- He embraced the prince, as if with his strength alone he could will it all to end as he would have it. "Allah defend you," he said.

Aidan bowed to the floor. The mamluks-his mamluks- followed him in a body. That made him laugh. Still laughing, with the sultan's wide and sudden grin to bear him company, he led them away.

17.

Joanna did not, as Aidan had half feared, react with horror to his new army. She was not even surprised. "Ismat told me," she said. "It was partly her idea. She thought you ought to have followers you can trust."

Aidan barely raised a brow. He was beginning to understand how these women ruled while letting their men believe that the world was in their own hands. No doubt Joanna was a traitor to her s.e.x, for leering him know what she knew; or she would have been, if he had been a human man. Sometimes he won- dered, a little bitterly, if that was why she accepted so easily what was between them. He was like a dream lover, not human and therefore not quite so mortal a sin.

174 Then he would look at her and upbraid himself for a fool.

She had begun in fascination with a creature out of Gcreint's stories. She was seeing him entirely and simply, now, as him- self; as no one not of his own kind had ever seen him, even his father.

On this last day in Damascus, she had d.a.m.ned the propri- eties and come out of the women's quarters. She wanted to see the city plain, for once, before she left it. She saw it from horseback, wearing a veil to keep from being spat on, but she was a Frank and that was obvious. Aidan had his doubts of her wisdom, but in the circle of his mamluks-his; G.o.d's bones; he was sritt not used to it-and with him at her side, she was a.s.safe as she could ever be. His h.e.l.lions were unsure of her, as yet. Raised in Islam as they had been, and drunk with their young blood, they did not like the thought of a woman riding like a man- Even if she was as tall as one, and a Frank.

She had enough Saracen in her, and enough Norman n.o.ble- woman, not to care in the least what a pack of freed slaves thought of her. She was more interested in seeing this jewel of earthly cities. Sometimes she was even more interested in sec- ing how close she could ride to Aidan without either being seen or rousing her mare's dislike of being too close to a male, even a male who was a gelding- Aidan, who was hardly that, encouraged his horse to snake his head and sidle. Otherwise he would seize her then and there and overwhelm her with kisses, and that would not be wise at all.

The astrologer was gone from the Gate of the Clock. Aidan smiled to himself.

Joanna wanted to go inside. It was not forbidden to a woman, but a Prankish woman was hardly welcome. But she was stubborn. She caught his eyes and held them. "Why docs anyone have to know? Do they all know what you are?"

His breath hissed between his teeth. That was boldness be- yond belief. No mortal had ever asked-ever dared- She said none of the things she could have said, that would have presumed on what was between them. "I'd like to see,"

she said.

After a long moment he spoke. "We are," he said, "emirs come to pray for success in our enterprise. It would help if you tried to walk accordingly."

Her grin was too wicked to stay angry at, her swagger too 175.

perfectly like that of a Seljuk princeling with a fine sense of his own importance. One of Aldan's mamluks-not a Turk-snick- ered. He left that one, and five more, on guard over the horses. The others fell in about the two tall figures who might have been good Muslim captains come to pray in the holy place. Aidan at least had no need to pretend to more than his usual semblance of humanity. He was still full of Joanna's reac- tion to him in his splendid new coat.

The mosque was as much a city as a place of worship. Its galleries were full of merchants: perfumers and sellers of bread waging a war of scents, and bookbinders and jewelers and crafters of gla.s.s like jewels sending forth a manifold dazzle of light, and all of them raising their chants to beckon the pilgrim in. The western minaret was full of holy men, and the higher they were, the holier they grew, until the highest seemed to sit directly under heaven. In the regions below, circles of boys chanted the Koran round their teachers, and men stood guard over the first Koran that ever was made, and a veil concealedthe cell from which Aisha, beloved of the Prophet, had kept his word alive when he was dead. About them all, the mosque was like a garden of stone: many-colored marble to twice man- high, then the jeweled gutter of the greatest mosaicwork that was ever made or conceived of, every city of the dawn of Islam set living on those walls to endure, it was said, beyond the end of the world.

The center was peace, and the ornate simplicity that was Islam. It was vast, the hall of prayer, and empty, its lamps of gold unlit but glimmering in the gloom, its ma.s.sed carpets glowing between the pillars, and the golden vine winding round its mihrab. There were people here in numbers enough, but the s.p.a.ce was wider than they, and quiet. Somewhere, someone chanted the Koran.

It seemed most logical, and most natural, to sit on the carpet by a pillar, face toward the niche of prayer, and simply be.

Joanna sat close. With no one to see but the mamluks, whom he trusted, Aidan wound his fingers with hers. She smiled at him, a quick smile, with promises in it for later. "This is holy,"

she said softly, "even if it is not our holiness."

He nodded. It was like her, to understand without needing to be told. They needed it, this peace. He had no great gift of prescience, but because he was what he was, he could know that they would not have such quiet again.

Almost he clutched at her, to hold her, and this hour, and 176 all that they must lose. She had turned from him; she was taking in the purity of the s.p.a.ce. It was Roman once; then it was Christian, full of the chants and incense of the Greek rite.

Now it was Allah's.

He kissed her fingers one by one. She smiled, although she did not look at him. Her hand curved to fit his cheek.

Ishak saw them down the length of the mosque. At first he thought that his eyes were failing him. The mamluks were clear enough in their scarlet livery, but the two in the middle blurred and wavered like heat-shimmer in the desert.

It was only that they were in black and the hall was dim, and he was winded with tracking them down. Aidan, he could see well enough once he set his mind to it. He wondered vaguely who the other was. Another Frank, maybe; or someone from the House oflbrahim.

He could not spare breath to care. He had tried hard, so hideously hard, to forget what he knew; and he had succeeded.

He had never even been tempted to tell the Frank his family's secret.

Tomorrow the Frank was going. Probably he would never come back. Ishak was not moved, except as a child is, wanting what it knows it cannot have, to beg the Frank to take him on the caravan. There was the family to think of, and Masud, andthe sultan.

But the Frank had been Ishak's guest, and Ishak thought that they might be friends. The Frank was exotic and splendid and more apt for mischief than anyone else Ishak had ever known. Ishak was going to miss him sorely.