God's Warrior

by Hilary Green

  The trumpets blew and the men with the scaling ladders ran forward. The carpenters had constructed shields in the form of light wooden frames covered in animal hides and the men carried the ladders with one hand while in the other they held up one of the staves supporting the shield. If there had been any expectation that the defenders would be less vigilant than before through weakness, it was soon dispelled. Arrows rained down until the shields looked like the carapace of a hedgehog; but the men got through and the ladders were raised against the walls. Holding his shield above his head Ranulph raced for the foot of the nearest one. Others were before him, and he could hear the clash of weapons from above. He grasped the rungs of the ladder and hauled himself upwards, feeling the weight of his armour pulling him back. There was a scream from somewhere over his head and a body crashed past him. He climbed on until suddenly the man ahead of him cried out and slumped back, almost knocking him off the ladder. With a struggle he heaved the inert body off and realised that there was no one now between him and the rampart. He clambered the last few yards, wondering if he would get the chance to draw his sword before he was cut down in his turn. Two faces appeared, looking down at him, and for a moment he froze, not with terror but in a horror of recognition. Then hands grasped the top of the ladder and pushed and he felt himself falling into thin air.

  Ranulph opened his eyes to see Marc gazing down at him.’Thank God!’ his friend said. ‘We were beginning to think the fall had cracked your skull.’

  Ranulph twisted sideways and was sick. He was dimly aware that he was back in the tent and Dino was wiping his face with a damp cloth. He struggled to grasp a fleeting memory but oblivion claimed him once more. He woke again in darkness and tried to sit up, but Dino pressed him back onto his pillow.

  ‘Lie still, sir, please. All’s well. You can rest.’

  ‘What happened?’ he asked groggily. ‘Did we breach the walls?’

  ‘Not a chance.’ Marc’s voice came from somewhere nearby. ‘We always knew it would be pointless. They had to call the attack off soon after you fell. We were losing too many men.’

  Ranulph rolled over and propped himself on his elbow. Dino offered him a cup of water and he drank thankfully. ‘Something happened,’ he murmured, more to himself than anyone else. ‘There’s something I have to remember.’

  ‘Not tonight,’ Marc said, moving closer. ‘Is there anything you need?’

  He went to shake his head, and discovered that it hurt too much. ‘No,’ he mumbled and sank back.

  When he woke again faint light was seeping through the walls of the tent and the memory of a face was as clear in his mind’s eye as if the man was standing before him. He sat up sharply and groaned at the agony that shot through his temples.

  ‘What is it?’ Marc started up in his turn. ‘Are you in pain?’

  ‘Yes,’ Ranulph grunted. ‘But that is not important. I have to talk to Bohemond.’

  ‘At this hour? He won’t thank you for waking him. Go back to sleep.’

  Ranulph saw the sense of that and lay down again, but as soon as the camp was astir, ignoring the entreaties of his friends, he got up and dressed and went to the count’s tent.

  Bohemond was at breakfast and it was obvious at once that he was not in a good mood.

  ‘Hopeless!’ he said, banging his fist on the table.’You, me, this whole fiasco. Why has God abandoned us?’

  ‘I don’t believe he has,’ Ranulph said. ‘Yesterday, during the attack, I think he showed me a way to victory.’

  ‘What?’ Bohemond dropped the piece of bread he was gnawing and sat forward. ‘Tell me what you saw.’

  Ranulph sat unbidden, then realised his mistake and made to get up again. ‘Sit! Sit!’ the count growled. ‘Now speak!’

  ‘When I reached the top of the ladder, just before it was thrown down, I saw the face of one of the men grasping it. It was a man I knew – ‘he hesitated as a flood of memories threatened to overwhelm him.

  ‘Knew? How?’ Bohemond demanded.

  Ranulph collected himself. ‘When I came here as a merchant, years ago, I did business with a silk merchant, a Christian. He had two children, a... a daughter, and a son called Firouz. It was him I saw yesterday.’

  ‘Defending the city against fellow Christians?’ Bohemond said sceptically. ‘Surely you must be mistaken.’

  ‘No. I’m certain I’m not. I knew him well and in all the years he has not changed much.’

  ‘But why would he be fighting against us?’

  ‘Compelled perhaps? Yaghi Siyan has the reputation of being a ruthless ruler. His family may have been threatened. The thing is this.’ Ranulph leaned forward. ‘We were friends once. I believe if I could get into the city to speak to him he might be persuaded to help us. As a soldier he must be able to move around without arousing suspicion. Perhaps he might be able to open one of the gates.’

  Bohemond stabbed his knife into the table top with a roar of triumph that brought his squire and his page at the run. ‘At last! Ranulph, I knew God had a purpose in bringing you to me.’ Then he sobered. ‘But how can you get into the city to speak to this man?’

  ‘I’ve been thinking about that. As I said, I used to come here to buy silk. There is no reason for anyone in the city to suspect that I am not still a merchant. If anyone challenges me I shall say that I have come looking for fresh merchandise. It will give me a perfect excuse to contact the men I once did business with.’

  ‘But how will you actually enter the city?’ Bohemond repeated.

  ‘The only way is through the Iron Gate. I shall have to make a wide detour to come at it from the other side of the mountains, through the pass that leads to the gate. I shall be justly indignant that your presence here has forced me to make such a roundabout journey.’

  He managed a smile and Bohemond grinned back. ‘You are a man of courage and ingenuity. Be assured, if you succeed, you will be well rewarded.’

  ‘All the reward I require is an end to the siege and the chance to get to Jerusalem,’ Ranulph replied. ‘But I must ask one thing. When Nicaea fell, the emperor made sure that the inhabitants were treated mercifully. Will you swear that the citizens of Antioch will receive the same treatment?’

  Bohemond met his eyes. ‘I value this city. I have no wish to see it reduced to ruins. As far as it lies in my power I will protect the people.’ He scrutinised Ranulph for a moment. ‘I heard you were knocked unconscious when the ladder fell. You must rest before you set out on this adventure. You will need to be in full health if you are to carry it through.

  Ranulph saw the sense of that. He went back to his tent and allowed Dino to fuss over him and slept a little. When Marc came back from exercise he sent the boy to make sure that Brand had been fed and explained what he intended to do.

  ‘It must remain a secret between the two of us. I would not have told even you, but I would not just disappear and leave you to wonder what had happened to me.’

  ‘I’m grateful for that,’ Marc said. ‘But the whole idea is madness. It must have come to you while you were still suffering from the effects of your fall.’

  ‘It’s not madness,’ Ranulph said. ‘It is risky, yes, but I see no reason why it should not work.’

  ‘You plan to seek out this man who was your friend all those years ago?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘A man who now fights for the other side.’

  ‘It must be under compulsion. I cannot believe he would do it otherwise.’

  ‘And you are going to ask him to betray the city to us?’

  ‘Yes. I have Bohemond’s word that the people will not be harmed. Is it not better for everyone that this siege should be brought to an end?’

  ‘And suppose he decides that his best course is to hand you over to the authorities. I don’t want to have to watch your naked body being hung from the ramparts.’

  ‘He would not do that. We were friends, good friends. Even if he will not help us, he will not stoop so low as to betray me.’
>
  Marc looked at him in silence for a moment. ‘Very well. I can see there is no reasoning with you. I will come with you.’

  ‘No! I thank you for the offer, but I must do this alone.’

  ‘Surely a wealthy merchant would not travel unattended. I will come as your squire, your servant, whatever you suggest.’

  ‘Part of my story will be that I have fallen on hard times and am desperate to restore my fortunes – otherwise why would I risk coming to a place like this?’ He leaned over and took Marc’s hand. ‘I am moved by your offer, my friend. Truly I think myself lucky to have such a loyal companion. But this is something I must do alone. Believe me, I will be safer that way.’

  10.

  Three days later a figure wrapped in a shabby seaman’s cloak and mounted on a scrawny mule arrived at the Iron Gate, at the end of the narrow ravine in the mountains backing Antioch. He was stopped by the guards, who demanded to know who he was and what his business was in the city.

  ‘My name is Ranulph. I am known to many of the merchants in your city as Main d’Or. I have come seeking to trade.’

  The guards conferred. Then one of them went off into the town and returned shortly with a grey-haired man in a fine cloak. Ranulph recognised him with relief as one of the elders of the guild of silk merchants. He peered short-sightedly at Ranulph and exclaimed, ‘It is you! We thought you must have been killed or taken by pirates, since you have not been back for so many years.’

  Ranulph smiled. ‘Greetings, Alkhas. I am glad that you remember me. As you say, it has been a long time and you spoke more truly than you knew when you guessed the reason. You will have noticed that fate has not dealt kindly with me in the interim,’ he indicated the shabby cloak, ‘but now I hope to retrieve my fortunes by trading again.’

  ‘You come at a bad time,’ the old man said. ‘You can see that no one can get in or out of the city because of the accursed Franks. Trade has become almost impossible.’

  ‘So I have found out,’ Ranulph agreed with a rueful laugh. ‘But if mules can negotiate the mountain tracks, then bales of silk can still be carried – and poor though I may look I have the necessary gold to pay.’ In confirmation he produced from under his cloak a heavy purse which clinked as he shook it.

  Alkhas looked at the guards. ‘You can let him pass. He is a friend.’ Then turning to Ranulph he went on, ‘I fear we can offer you little in the way of hospitality. We have scarcely enough food to keep ourselves alive. Do you have friends here in the city?’

  ‘I understand the position,’ Ranulph said, ‘which is why I carry my own supplies.’ He indicated the pack fastened behind the mule’s saddle. ‘And I hope to find friends here who will take me in.’

  ‘Then you will be doubly welcome,’ Alkhas said. ‘I wish you success.’

  Ranulph thanked him and headed down one of the steep streets that led to the heart of the city. Every corner, every doorway, every stone in the roadway were fraught with memories; memories that seemed to rise up and catch at his throat as if to choke him. Yet at the same time the city was strange to him. Where he remembered throngs of people, traders crying their wares, strings of mules loaded with goods, now there were empty streets. A few people hurried like shadows into the alleyways and twice detachments of soldiers crossed his path with shields slung on their shoulders and bows in their hands. Apart from that it seemed the citizens had taken refuge in their houses, whether out of fear or hunger, or both, he could not know.

  He came eventually to the door of the house he had known so well, all those years ago, and had to stand and swallow down hope and fear and regret before he could knock. The door was opened by the same porter, whom he remembered as a fat man but whose flesh now hung on him in loose folds, like oversized garments.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Do you remember me – Ranulph Golden Hand? I used to come here eight or nine years ago.’

  The man blinked and then Ranulph saw his expression change from mild curiosity to hostility. ‘I remember well.’

  ‘I wish to speak with your master. Is he at home?’

  ‘My master Dmitri died, three years back.’

  Ranulph drew a slow breath. ‘I am sorry to hear that. He had two children. Farouz and Mariam. Are they here?’

  The porter stepped back reluctantly. ‘Master Farouz is here. I will tell him you have come.’

  Ranulph followed him into the central courtyard and waited while he shuffled away to one of rooms leading off it. A moment later a man appeared and he knew he had not been mistaken in the face he had seen looking down from the battlements.

  Farouz crossed the courtyard to stand before him. ‘You! You dare to come back here – after all these years?’

  Ranulph bent his head. ‘Farouz, you have good reason to be angry with me. But if you will give me a few minutes, I should like to explain why I did not return as I promised.’

  For a moment the other man stood undecided. Then he said, ‘We were friends once. I owe you that chance.’

  He led the way back into the room he had come from. It was the room of a wealthy merchant. Rich carpets hung on the walls and there were couches covered in embroidered silk, but seeing it again Ranulph noticed that the fabrics were fading and there was dust in the corners. Farouz walked to the centre of the floor and turned.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘When I left here last time, I promised to return within the year. It was an oath I swore to your sister Mariam and I had every intention of keeping it.’ In as few words as possible, he told Farouz the story of his capture by the corsairs, his years in the galleys and his eventual rescue.

  Farouz looked at him stonily. ‘And you have come back now – why?’

  ‘To make amends, if possible. And to ask for your help.’

  ‘Amends! What possible amends could you make after so long?’

  ‘Farouz, tell me, please. Where is Mariam? What has become of her?’

  ‘What do you expect? A young girl, cheated by the man she loved? She married the man our father had chosen for her, before you came through our door.’

  ‘The Turkish silk merchant?’

  ‘Who else? As it happens it was a lucky thing for both of us.’

  ‘Lucky?’

  ‘You do not know how things have been here since Emir Yaghi Siyan became our ruler.’

  ‘I have heard rumours that he suppressed the Christians.’

  ‘So. An alliance with a Moslem Turk has spared us from the worst.’

  ‘I understand. Are there … are there children?’

  ‘Three. Two boys and a girl.’

  ‘And Mariam … has she been happy?’

  ‘Married to a man she hated? What do you think?’

  Ranulph hung his head. He felt his whole body sag as if someone had just placed a great weight on his shoulders. ‘I would have done anything … anything. But when I was finally free again a fellow merchant told me she was married. I thought it better to stay away.’

  ‘Quite right. If you had come when my father was alive he would have had you killed. I should kill you now, with my own hands.’

  ‘And you would have been justified, if I had forsworn myself and forgotten my promise. But fate made it impossible to keep it. There was nothing I could do, no way to get word to you.’

  Farouz’s eyes narrowed. ‘I have only your word for that. You are thin and poorly clad but I can see that you are strong and healthy. You do not have the look of a galley slave.’

  ‘You doubt my word?’ Ranulph lifted his hand to the brooch that held his cloak at the shoulder, undid it and let the cloak fall to the floor. He unfastened his belt and pulled his tunic over his head and turned his back. ‘Perhaps this is proof enough.’

  He knew from the reaction of Tancred’s men by the river that the scars of the lash were still clear to see. From behind him he heard the sharp hiss of breath indrawn through the teeth, then a hand was laid on his shoulder.

  ‘Forgive me. We were friends once. I should have known better th
an to doubt you.’ His tunic was held out to him. ‘Please, put your clothes on again.’

  While Ranulph dressed Farouz went to the door and shouted to the porter. ‘Bring wine, and what refreshment you can find for our guest.’

  Returning, he indicated one of the couches and when they were both seated he said, ‘I am sorry I doubted you. When you failed to return the next summer we put it down to contrary winds or illness or shipwreck. When the next summer after that came and there was still no word from you, we concluded that you must be dead and mourned you. It was then that Mariam finally gave in to our father’s insistence and married the Turk.’

  A little of the weight lifted from Ranulph’s shoulders. ‘Then she did not believe I had willingly forsaken her?’

  ‘No. She never thought that.’

  The porter came in with a flask of wine and two goblets, and a small dish containing a few walnuts and some wizened apricots, which he set down on a small table in front of them. At Farouz’s nod he bowed and withdrew.

  Farouz said, ‘I apologise for the poor fare. It is all we have left. You will have seen the army camped outside our gates, intent on starving us.’ He poured the wine and handed a goblet to Ranulph. ‘But tell me what has been happening to you since you regained your freedom. From your raiment I would guess that fortune has not been kind – except that …’ He glanced at the fat purse hanging from Ranulph’s belt.

  Ranulph set his wine aside untouched. He had established his honesty about one matter. Now he had to admit that he was lying about another.

  ‘The truth is that I have prospered in the years between. These poor garments are a disguise.’

  ‘Ah, I suspected as much. To deter brigands who might attack a wealthy merchant.’

  ‘That, but much more. I have not come here to trade. I am here on behalf of those men encamped outside your gates.’

  ‘You! You have thrown in your lot with the Franks?’ Farouz stared at him in disbelief.

  ‘I have chosen to throw in my lot with my fellow Christians.’ Ranulph leaned forward intensely. ‘I had a vision, Farouz, a vision sent from God to tell me that he required my service in a great enterprise. For years I did not know what that enterprise was, until I heard of the Holy War promulgated by His Holiness the Pope. Is it not a worthy thing, to free the city where Christ was crucified from the hands of the infidel?’