During the past month, the families of some prisoners from Aleppo delivered ransoms as promised, making some of the Knights a great deal of money. Other Knights, who had no prisoners, furiously denounced them for profiting in God’s name, calling their actions despicable.
Eric received a great deal of news, all of it brought by Brinyos. Emperor Alexios, with the help of another Crusader army, had won the Battle of Ankara and captured the capital of the Rum Sultanate. Suleiman Shah had ultimately failed to reach the battlefield in time.
What surprised Eric was the news concerning Emperor Henry. He had reached Trabzon along the Black Sea two months prior and had unexpectedly forged an alliance with the Kingdom of Georgia. He had engaged the Seljuk Turks in several battles in the Armenian Highlands and made some headway.
Many of the Crusaders, including a number of Knights, wanted to stay longer. Many of them had come to regard Hama as a second home. Even when they returned to their own lands, old and feeble, they would always remember fighting for the Lord in that prosperous city, blessed by His protection.
Eric told them that Palm Sunday was just a month away—a day commemorating Jesus Christ’s glorious entry into Jerusalem. A millennium ago on that day, the people had welcomed Jesus with palm branches as he rode a donkey into the city.
To glorify the Lord, it was best they set out on the road to Jerusalem before Palm Sunday.
Of course, Eric had other reasons besides this one.
The reason involved Shansi’s old men in black robes.
The group of old men in black robes claimed to be Shiite scholars and Sufi Practitioners from Syria. They had come from Damascus, following a prophecy from their Imam, to retrieve their future king from Hama.
Eric learned from them that there were still factions loyal to Aziz inside Damascus. The center of this support was in the Lebanon Mountain Range north of Damascus, in a small city called Baalbek.
The situation in the Duchy of Damascus was currently uncertain, and the Fatima Kingdom’s Vizier, Jamil, was locked in a fierce battle with Tutush in the Jaffa region. To ensure the ’King of Levant’ could smoothly claim his rightful place in loyal Baalbek, they hoped Eric would dispatch a small force. This force would escort them, along with the future ’King of Levant’ and ’son of Aziz,’ Shansi, to Baalbek. They promised a generous reward for his help and added that they held no prejudice against Christians, expressing a willingness to become friends.
Eric immediately declared that out of respect and awe for the ’King of Levant,’ and for the glory and prestige of the ’Lord of Damascus,’ he was willing to lead a grand army to escort them personally.
.....
On their last day before departure, Brother John held another mass, though it felt more like a sermon.
"Warriors of God, a miracle has been sent down! God Himself has opened the road to Jerusalem for us! All the killing, all the suffering, all the sin... for this one thing alone. Remember this: fight for the souls of this pilgrimage."
Brother John raised his hand. "Forgive one another," he said. "Take up the Holy Spear! It will follow you to Jerusalem!"
"Who can bring you victory?" Brother John asked the crowd. Then he raised his hand again, pointing to one nobleman, and then another.
Finally, he brought his hand to his chest and touched the figure of Christ on the cross hanging from his neck. "Only my Lord."
....
The Crusaders marched south, following the Orontes River through the valley between the Lebanon Mountains. The river flows north, running through the entirety of Syria and much of Palestine.
As they neared the region of Palestine, the ruins of a series of fortresses and walls from the Roman Era appeared to the west of the river—a truly astonishing sight.
Built of stone, it rose and fell with the hills, stretching on endlessly, resolute and unforgiving.
The Crusaders came across a shepherd who had never heard of the Romans. He told them the fortresses and walls had been built by giants in ancient times. He also proclaimed that when the end of the world arrived, Wildmen from the north would surge over them like a flood, bringing death and terror.
That afternoon, Eric saw a she-wolf running along the top of the great wall, her tongue hanging out. She glanced at the Crusaders, but upon seeing their massive formation and the forest of sharp weapons, she quickly bolted south.
Now, the stone blocks of the wall and fortresses were beginning to crumble. Flowers bloomed in the crevices and a thick carpet of grass covered the top. Still, it remained a staggering work of architecture. Some of the nobility had seen magnificent churches, exquisite stone monasteries, and even the Imperial Palace in Constantinople, but they couldn’t imagine how the Romans had been capable of constructing such a spectacular wall a millennium ago.
Next to the wall was a wide ditch, and beyond that, a stone road with watchtowers at regular intervals. Twice a day, they passed fortresses where Roman soldiers had once been stationed. The barracks were now roofless, the structures having become homes to foxes and ravens.
Belem had been using them as partitioned, open-air latrines. One day, he came running out of one as if he had seen a ghost. Inside, there was a naked man with hair hanging down to his waist.
He was very old, claiming to be over seventy, with a graying beard as long as his tangled white hair.
He was a filthy man, seemingly made of nothing but skin, dirt, and bones.
But Shansi’s old men in black robes knelt before him, for he was a famous hermit.
"He was once a Sheikh," one of the black-robed old men told Eric in an awed tone, after receiving the unkempt man’s blessing. "He had wealth, a wife, servants, and honor, but he abandoned it all to worship Allah in solitude. He is a very holy man."
"Perhaps he’s just a mad old man," Stephen quipped with a laugh. "Or perhaps his wife was so wicked she drove him away."
"He is a child of Allah," the old man in black said reproachfully. "He will one day be one with God."
The unkempt man held out a grimy palm, as if expecting money from Eric and his men. He didn’t seem to notice they were Christians, or perhaps he simply didn’t care.
Belem surreptitiously tripped him. The man bared his yellow teeth at Belem and muttered a curse.
Then the Crusaders moved on, leaving him behind with the wilderness, the sky, and his ceaseless prayers.
.....
"Aleppo is a fine place. My father used to rule it, and I will rule it too someday. But for now, we have more important things to do."
Shansi shaded his eyes with a hand, gazing around excitedly. This ’King of Levant,’ once a slave, now rode a mare. He wore two Iron Bracelets, the short links of their chains dangling in the air.
Eric could have easily unlocked them, but he figured this way, everyone—including his handful of black-robed old men—could keep an eye on him at all times.
’Whether he tries to run, or anything else.’
Shansi chattered incessantly to Eric, apparently already viewing him as a subordinate. "What we need to do," he said, "is gather an army. Then we’ll cross the hills and occupy Damascus."
"And then?"
Eric didn’t mind talking to Shansi; the young man seemed to live in a world all his own.
"North!" Shansi said enthusiastically. "To the north! We’ll have to take Aleppo first, then we can conquer Mosul, and from there press on to Isfahan! Oh, maybe I can become the next Malikshah. That’s what you want, isn’t it?"
"That might be a little difficult," Eric said with a shrug.
"A tough place, is it?" Shansi replied. "Like Aleppo? Fine, we’ll see about Mosul. After all, Mosul is practically part of the Levant anyway. But first, of course, we have to get rid of Tutush."
He said it as if destroying the most powerful Turkic ruler in Syria was a minor affair.
"So, we’ll deal with Tutush first," Shansi said, his expression suddenly brightening. "Or maybe the Caliph of Cairo would accept me as king? He’s in his forties, and I have a sister who should be of marriageable age. We could arrange a marriage alliance?"
"Does your sister look much like you?" Stephen asked, eyeing Shansi’s face. The young man was admittedly handsome.
"Not at all. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to marry her," Shansi said. "She has a face like a horse."
.....