The Saracen: The Holy War Read online

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  THE CHARGE TOWARD DESTINY

  Daoud slung his bow across his back and drew his long, curving saif fromthe scabbard. The noonday sun flashed on it as he held it high. His menroamed and brandished their own swords.

  The band had caught up with them, and the trumpets and hautboys screameddeath to the enemy while the kettledrums rumbled.

  There was nothing left to protect Charles d'Anjou now. There was noteven time for the French leader to run. He seemed to know it. He had hissword out and he held up a white shield with a red cross.

  Urging the Arabian on, shouting the name of God, Daoud raced towardtriumph....

  _Also by Robert Shea:_

  ILLUMINATUS! (with Robert Anton Wilson)

  SHIKE: TIME OF THE DRAGONS

  SHIKE: LAST OF THE ZINJA

  ALL THINGS ARE LIGHTS*

  THE SARACEN: LAND OF THE INFIDEL*

  *Published by Ballantine Books

  THE SARACEN: THE HOLY WAR

  ROBERT SHEA

  BALLANTINE BOOKS . NEW YORK

  Copyright (C) 1989 by Robert Shea

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American CopyrightConventions. Published in the United States of America by BallantineBooks, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously inCanada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-92181

  ISBN: 0-345-35933-X

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition: April 1989

  Transcriber's Note:

  Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant spellings remain as printed, whilst inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised.

  PROLOGUE

  A summary of _The Saracen_ Book One, _Land of the Infidel_

  _A.D. April 12, 1264 / 4th day of Jumada, A.H. 662_

  Feverish, his arrow-wounded leg throbbing, Daoud ibn Abdallah lies inbed after a night of battle and defeat. As dawn lights theeggshell-white windowpanes in his room, he recalls the events that ledhim to this bitter hour.

  Daoud was born to an English crusading family that had settled inPalestine. Captured by Muslims as a child, he was taken to El Kahira,Cairo, chief city of Egypt, and selected for the Mamelukes, the elitecorps of slave warriors gathered from all parts of the Middle East toserve the sultans of El Kahira.

  He became a favorite of a leading Mameluke emir, Baibars. Young and inneed of comfort, he converted to Islam. He came to love the faith ofMuhammad, totally and humbly dedicating himself to its tenets and to thewelfare of the Muslim people. He studied with Sheikh Saadi, a Sufimystic, and with the Hashishiyya, the dreaded sect known in Europe asthe Assassins.

  In those years the Tartars, invincible legions of mounted barbarians,had come out of Asia, invading the Islamic world. A huge army led byHulagu, grandson of the Tartar conqueror, Genghis Khan, had alreadyconquered Persia and Syria and was poised to attack Egypt. And Hulaguwas sending ambassadors to the pope to urge Christian Europe to joinwith the Tartars in destroying the Muslims.

  Should Tartars and crusaders strike at Egypt simultaneously, the peopleand faith Daoud has come to love would perish. Daoud has seen with hisown eyes how the Tartars obliterated Baghdad, its 200,000 men, women,and children slaughtered to the last soul, the city leveled, awasteland. He is determined that the same fate not befall his adopted ElKahira.

  Baibars--having made himself Sultan of El Kahira--sent Daoud into theland of the infidel. Because Daoud is blond and gray-eyed, no one wouldever suspect him to be a Saracen, as Christians call all Muslims.

  Daoud's mission was to go to the court of the pope and use every meansnecessary--from intrigue and bribery to assassination and outrightwar--to stop Christians and Tartars from forming an alliance againstIslam.

  He went first to Manfred, king of southern Italy and Sicily. KingManfred's family, the imperial German house of Hohenstaufen, had been atwar with the popes for generations, and Manfred had among his subjectsmany Sicilian Muslims. Manfred agreed to help Daoud. But to protect hisown interests Manfred insisted that Daoud take with him Lorenzo Celino,a middle-aged Sicilian warrior, and Sophia Karaiannides, a beautifulByzantine woman. Lorenzo brought along his huge, formidable dog, Scipio.Journeying northward, the three rescued Rachel, a Jewish girl, fromtavern ruffians. Daoud agreed, with misgivings, to let her travel withthem.

  The pope, threatened by political violence in Rome, had moved hisresidence to Orvieto, a strongly walled town built on a huge flat-toppedrock. Here, Cardinal Adelberto Ugolini, a Sicilian churchman who hadlong been secretly sending information to Baibars, was horrified to findBaibars's agent on his doorstep expecting hospitality. But the cardinalreluctantly agreed to help.

  Hulagu Khan's ambassadors to the pope, Christianized Tartars named JohnChagan and Philip Uzbek, arrived in Orvieto two weeks after Daoud. Ayoung French nobleman, Count Simon de Gobignon, commanded their militaryescort. Daoud had arranged for garbage-throwing hecklers to mar theambassadors' procession. The arrogant Cardinal Paulus de Verceuil,accompanying the Tartars, was hit by excrement. He ordered the hiredVenetian crossbowmen to fire into the crowd, killing two innocentbystanders.

  Calling himself David of Trebizond, a merchant from the eastern shore ofthe Black Sea, Daoud appeared publicly for the first time at a councilof Church leaders called by Pope Urban. He spoke from firsthandknowledge of the horrors committed by the Tartars. But Friar Mathieud'Alcon, the Tartars' interpreter, testified that in his opinion theTartar empire was no longer a danger to Europe.

  The Tartar ambassadors and their entourage were guests at the palace ofOrvieto's most powerful family, the Monaldeschi. When Contessa Elvira diMonaldeschi gave a reception for the emissaries, Daoud drew them intodrunken gloating over their atrocities and boasting of their plans forworld conquest. Pope Urban and many other Church dignitaries wereappalled listeners.

  With Ugolini's help, Daoud was able to persuade the influentialDominican philosopher Fra Tomasso d'Aquino to write and preach againstthe alliance. But then, subjected to unknown pressures, Fra Tomassosuddenly changed his position.

  Daoud now felt that he could do no more through intrigue. He had been incontact with the Filippeschi, an Orvieto clan who were hereditaryenemies of the Monaldeschi family. And through Lorenzo he had beenquietly recruiting a company of bravos--armed adventurers. Offering thehelp of his mercenaries, he persuaded the Filippeschi to attack theMonaldeschi palace. With de Gobignon and the Tartars' other guardsdiverted, he could enter the palace and kill the ambassadors.

  While the Filippeschi prepared for the attack, Daoud discovered thatAndrea Sordello, one of his hired bravos, had been set to spy on him bySimon de Gobignon. In Tilia's brothel, Daoud subjected Sordello to aHashishiyya initiation, using drugs and women to make the spy his slave.He implanted in Sordello's mind a command that if he should see a silverlocket that Daoud keeps on his person, he would immediately kill Simonde Gobignon. And henceforth Sordello was to give Simon only theinformation Daoud wanted him to have.

  After the initiation Daoud was troubled. He had been taught how to dothis, but had never done it before. Had he truly and completelysubjugated Sordello's soul?

  On the night of the attack he was dismayed to discover the Monaldeschiready for a siege. But, garbed in black as a Hashishiyya fighter, Daoudwent ahead and slipped into the Monaldeschi palace.

  The Tartars, with Simon de Gobignon, Friar Mathieu, and four guards,were in the most secure room in the palace, the cellar pantry, wherecostly spices from th
e East were kept behind a thick door with a stronglock.

  Trained by the Hashishiyya to use his senses other than sight to fightin the dark, Daoud forced his way into the spice pantry and put out thelantern. He struggled with Simon in pitch blackness and came close tokilling him. Swords thrust at him from all directions. He had theTartars' lives almost in his grasp, but de Gobignon was thwarting him.He tried frantically to kill de Gobignon and was no more able to do itthan if the man were a djinn.

  Then the old priest escaped from the cellar and came back with a lightedcandle. Gripped by the terrible fear that he would be caught andexposed, Daoud raced up the cellar stairs. Despair almost killed himwhen he felt the searing pain of a Tartar arrow in his leg.

  He felt terror when he saw the white-bearded friar on the stairsblocking his way, even though the old man held no weapon in hisoutstretched arms.

  He had been about to stab the friar, who was too useful to the Tartarsand the Christians to be allowed to live. But his arm could not move. Itwas as if a powerful hand held it, and he seemed to hear a voice boomingin his head, _You dare to murder a priest?_

  In his dread he hesitated, but if he did not escape Sophia would die.The moment of paralysis passed, and instead of killing Friar Mathieu, hethrust him aside, to fall from the banisterless stairs.

  As he lies in bed the following morning in Ugolini's mansion, Daoudforces himself to think. He has extended himself to the limit of hispowers and failed, but he must try again. He has to find a new plan,lest his faith and his people, his whole world, meet annihilation.

  In a room near Daoud's, Sophia Karaiannides kneels before an icon ofSaint Simon Stylites that she herself painted. She is thankful thatDaoud escaped alive from the Monaldeschi palace. She is glad that Simon,who coincidentally shares the name of her favorite saint, is alive, too.But how much longer, she wonders, will she have to live here in themidst of enemies with the fear of a hideous death as a spy and an enemyof the Church dogging her day and night?

  Sophia was born in Constantinople during the years when it was ruled byFrench invaders. As a very young woman she had seen her parents and herlover slaughtered by rampaging French troops. She went on to serve theByzantine general Michael Paleologos, who drove out the French andbecame the Basileus, Emperor of Constantinople.

  Michael sent Sophia as a confidential envoy to his ally, Manfred, andshe and Manfred became lovers. But when the blond Saracen who calledhimself David of Trebizond arrived at Manfred's court, Manfred told hershe must help David in his mission of preventing the Christian-Tartaralliance. Manfred hinted at danger to her if she stayed with him. Thoughheartbroken at being sent away by Manfred, Sophia accepted theundertaking because another French crusade might well lead to anotherFrench attack on "the Polis," her beloved home city.

  When Rachel joined their party, Sophia, remembering her own orphangirlhood, befriended her. But Daoud insisted, to protect the secrecy ofthe mission, that after they arrived in Orvieto, Rachel be sent to thebrothel run by Tilia Caballo, Cardinal Ugolini's mistress.

  After a few months in Daoud's company, Sophia felt powerfully attractedto him. The Saracen admitted that he was likewise drawn to her, butinsisted that they deny any loving feelings, because he must use Sophiato corrupt and defeat the advocates of the Tartar-Christian alliance.

  And he did so at the Contessa di Monaldeschi's reception for theTartars, sending Sophia to lure Simon de Gobignon away from the greathall of the palace while he tempted the Tartars to discredit themselves.Sophia and Simon went for a walk in the atrium, and in a dark corner shelet him kiss her.

  A month after the reception Simon and she had a clandestine tryst in herroom at Ugolini's. Though she was ready to take him to bed, Simoninsisted that they remain chaste, according to the customs of courtlylove, thereby endearing himself to her all the more.

  She is surprised to realize that she has come to care deeply for theidealistic, innocent young Frenchman. But her feeling for the Saracen isstronger. More than once the ruthless things Daoud has done in pursuitof his mission have made her almost hate him. Even so, when Sophia iswith Daoud she feels a fire building in herself to match the fire sheperceives behind those gray eyes.

  She glances at an hourglass, sighs, and rises from where she has beenkneeling before the saint's icon. It is time to prepare a fresh poulticefor Daoud's wound.

  * * * * *

  Morning at the Palazzo Monaldeschi. The dead are laid out and wept over,the debris of the siege cleared away, repairs begun on the damagedwalls. Simon de Gobignon strips off his mail shirt, about to step into ahot bath. He is profoundly grateful to be alive and relieved that hesuccessfully protected the Tartar ambassadors from being murdered by theman in black. But relief turns to anguish each time he is reminded thathis friend and adviser, Friar Mathieu, has been cruelly hurt by his falland may yet die.

  Count Charles d'Anjou, brother of King Louis of France, commissionedSimon to guard the Tartar ambassadors. King Louis wants to go on crusadeto win back the Holy Land with the help of the Tartars. Pope Urban,however, is not interested in a crusade in the Middle East, but wantsthe help of the French in wresting southern Italy and Sicily away fromManfred von Hohenstaufen. He has offered Manfred's crown to CountCharles, but King Louis so far has not agreed to let his brother makethe attempt. So the two strongest leaders in Christendom are stalemated.

  Simon is desperately determined that the alliance of Tartars andChristians succeed. As he has confessed to Friar Mathieu, he bears adouble dishonor. The world despises him as the son of Count Amalric deGobignon, whose treachery caused the disastrous defeat of his king andthe death of thousands of his comrades on crusade in Egypt fourteenyears earlier. But only Simon and his parents know that Simon is intruth the offspring of an adulterous affair between his mother,Nicolette de Gobignon, and the troubadour Roland de Vency. UltimatelyRoland killed Amalric in a duel and Nicolette married him. And Simon,though not Amalric's son, inherited the title and the domain of theCount de Gobignon. Simon has undertaken the task of guarding the Tartarsas a way of restoring the honor of the name de Gobignon and proving tohimself his right to bear that name.

  The cause of the alliance has met with many setbacks in Orvieto, andSimon suspects a secret enemy is behind them. But in recent months theinfluential Fra Tomasso became a vigorous supporter of the alliance. AndSophia, Cardinal Ugolini's lovely niece from Sicily, responded favorablyto Simon's attentions. Events seemed to be taking a turn for the better.

  But then Sordello warned Simon that the Filippeschi were planning toattack the Monaldeschi palace. Preparing to defend his hostess, thecontessa, Simon insisted that the Tartars, despite their desire tofight, be kept safe in the spice pantry. Directing the defense of thepalace from its tower, Simon suddenly sensed that the attack must beonly a diversion, that the Tartars were the real target of whoever wasbehind the Filippeschi. He abruptly left the tower and rushed down tothe spice pantry.

  He had barely gotten there when a man all in black forced his way in anddoused the lights. In darkness the stalker killed two of the Tartars'guards and almost strangled Simon.

  Simon fought off the killer long enough to give Friar Mathieu time toopen doors and let in light. One of the Tartars managed to wound the manin black with an arrow. The attacker threw Friar Mathieu from the stairsand vanished into the maze of rooms on the first floor of the palace.

  Now, Simon thinks as he eases himself into his bath, he has met thehidden enemy whose presence he felt ever since coming to Orvieto. Evilas Satan, powerful enough to throw an army against a fortified palace,subtle enough to strike at victims no matter how well protected. Abeing of almost inhuman strength and skill. Cruel and pitiless, ready tomurder anyone who stands in his way.

  Certain as the judgment of God it is that Simon and the man in blackwill fight again. This is war to the death.