Swords From the West (65 page)

As he pressed after the torches that flared and smoked in the gusts of air, Robert noticed that he was splashing through cold water. Reaching down one hand, he discovered that a cut on his forefinger smarted keenly; and, tasting the water, he found it salt.

Will merely shook his head when this was called to his attention.

"Aye, tall brother," he pointed out, "where water is salt, there a sea must be. What sea lies within the desert-save the Styx? Nay, we will sup wi' Satan and bed down wi' the ghosts this night. Seest thou yonder writing? How reads it?"

Glancing where the yeoman's finger pointed, Robert noticed first the portion of a ruined wall stretching athwart the pass, then a row of charac ters carved in the side of the cliff some distance over his head. The words were not Latin or Arabic, and he could make nothing of them; but a stalwart Kankali at his heels noticed his interest and enlightened him.

"'Tis but one word, 0 Cairene, and that is-

"'victory."'

"How old is the word?"

"Am I a prophet, that I should know? Some say it was carved so by the men of the hero Iskander, in the elder days, when news came to him of the death of his foe the lord of Parthia.*
But now leave your horse and climb, for these are the Gates."

Robert looked ahead and found that Will was already scrambling up what seemed to be a solid wall of rock, in reality a mass of boulders, up which the Kankalis were swarming. Whether the rocks had been piled there or had fallen from above, Robert cared little. So steep was the ascent that he was forced to use hands and knees, and water trickled down on his shoulders as he pulled himself up to where a line of men were standing with torches.

This proved to be the crest of the natural rampart, and the knight saw that a score of bowmen placed here could hold back an army. The wind smote him full force and staggered him. A spearman reached out an arm and steadied him, thrusting him beside Will, facing the leader of the guards.

On the other side the boulders fell away to the dark surface of water, and Robert suspected that the stream flowing down the gorge had been penned back by the wall of rocks, forming a pool on the upper side. He was surprised to observe a number of women ranged beside the defenders of the pass-veiled women, variously garbed, but all slender and long-haired, unmistakably youthful. He noticed, too, that the Kankalis had passed on save for Inalzig, who stood beside the captain of the warders.

Abdullah was not to be seen, although Will stared about hopefully.

"Would I had a good yew staff at hand!" the archer sighed. "Aye, to make the sign of the cross, and so-ha, look below!"

Near the surface of the water they saw a white face surrounded by a mesh of dark hair, and-in the glow of the torches-the silk-clad limbs of a woman moving gently with the currents of the pool. A moment more and she sank out of sight, but Will stared wide-eyed at the spot.

"You are from Egypt?" a courteous voice questioned the knight. "And alone-yet sent by the lords of Cairo? Verily, riders are coming from the far ends of the earth to the Throne of Gold. A strange sword!"

The speaker was a handsome Moslem, who made a respectful salaam and studied Robert with unwilling admiration.

"I had it from an unbeliever-who died," responded the knight quietly.

"And from the lords who sent you, 0 emir-have you a token or a written word?"

"The word is-victory. The swords of the faithful have scattered the host of the Franks, and the day of the unbeliever in Jerusalem is at an end."

"Ma'shallah! So, too, will the Protector of the Faith, the King of the Age, of Time and the Tide, smite the other infidels who dared to mount for war upon the northern border. And your token, 0 captain of men?"

Robert drew the chain of rubies from his girdle, and the chief of the guards glanced at Inalzig curiously. Others craned their heads to look at the miniature roses threaded on gold.

"Where had you that?" Demanded the Kankali, frowning.

"From one who brooks no questioning of his messengers, and who has a whip for a churlish slave," hazarded the knight, aware that this was a reasonably good characterization of any Moslem noble.

"Upon whom be peace," assented the officer. "Well do I know the ruby chain that is a token given by the King of kings, the Shah of shahs, the favored of Allah, the sword arm of the faithful, Alai ud-deen Mohammad, master of Khar. Aye, this token he gives to the anis-al-jalis, the favorites, the cup companions of his hours of pleasure."

He bowed profoundly.

"And the ruby chain admits whoever bears it to the Gates, but no more than one. Yet it is passing strange, 0 favored of the shah, that you, who have not passed this way going from Bokhara, should have the chain when you enter the inner country of Khar."

Robert glanced at the chain with some interest and returned it to his girdle. Then he turned suddenly on the Moslem.

"0 brother to a parrot, 0 pack-saddle of an ass-"

He had learned a fair flood of forcible insults during his captivity, and he called upon his memory for a full minute while the spearmen gaped, and the officer began to look doubtful.

"Another question," he ended, "and I will open thy breast to see if water or blood be in thy veins."

So indeed might a noble of Cairo have spoken to one who stood in his way, and it was clear to the warders that the Emir Arslan would like nothing better than to make good his words with sword-strokes. Inalzig's eyes blazed, and unseen by Robert he made a sign to men who stood back by the cliff.

"If the Caliphs themselves rode out of Baghdad to join the shah," he snarled, "the keeper of the Gate would cast them into the pool if they gave not a good account of themselves as Moslems. Look yonder!"

Robert did not turn, but Will Bunsley yelped like a hound viewing its quarry.

"Now praise be to all the saints and martyrs! Here be the demoiselle of Ibelin and Father Evagrius!"

Running to the ledge of rock that served as a pathway back from the buttress on which they stood, he tried to cast himself on his knees and seize the edge of the girl's robe to kiss. A spear-butt planted in his ribs by an alert guard sent him sprawling.

Ellen d'Ibelin stood between two warriors with drawn swords. Her torn hood and bedraggled smock had been replaced with rich silks and white cotton, bound about her waist by a velvet vest. A circlet of silver held in her black locks above the ears, and a transparent veil covered her face below the eyes. But eyes and hair and the poise of her young head were unmistakable.

Her glance showed that she knew Robert, but she did not break silence to make an appeal for help. Evidently she and the priest had been among the riders of the camels, and she must have seen all that passed on the edge of the pool.

"Aid, tall brother, for the maid!" cried Will hoarsely. "Draw and smitebows and bills! See, the dogs would cast her into the water."

Then Robert realized that Ellen's arms were chained and her ankles bound together with a girdle. With the priest and the two Moslems she stood on the brink of the ledge, swaying in the wind. The other women who had screened the captives until then had been herded ahead along the narrow path. This path, no more than two paces wide, ran between the wall of the cliff and the dark space of the abyss.

As he watched, Inalzig made another sign, and one of the guards seized the girl's long tresses, twisting them tight in his grasp. Her eyes widened in horror as the warrior, grinning, forced her to the very edge of the rock.

"Yonder maid," observed the keeper of the Gate reflectively, "was taken from among the Franks. We have other women, from Armenia and the Bedawan villages, and they are kept for the pleasure of the shah. Such is the custom of the forays beyond the border-yet, 0 emir, the redbeard may have touched her, and the touch of a dog of an unbeliever is defilement. So-thrust her over," he ordered the warrior who held her fast.

And Inalzig's white teeth flashed under his thin mustache.

"Ha! Would a Cairene act thus?"

Robert had leaped the space between the dam and the ledge. The warrior who stood over the girl released his prey and lifted shield and scimitar as he strode to meet the knight.

"Ah no, my lord!" Ellen cried, raising her chained arms eagerly. "Keep to your guise and your own purpose. No man's aid will serve to abate our misfortune, and you would be lost!"

She covered her eyes.

"The sweet Mother in Heaven give strength!"

The Moslem who opposed Robert took time for a swift glance at the two chiefs, who shouted an order at him, and the knight drew his sword. The guard's lips lifted in a snarl as he braced his legs for a leap forward. Then he flung up his shield.

In a gleaming arc the heavy blade of the crusader flashed, and the Moslem's scimitar was knocked down. His shield of hide and wood crumpled, and the blade hewed through his left arm, deep into his side. The man was swept over the ledge, and Robert freed his blade with a jerk as the body dropped out of sight.

"Well struck, 0 Nazarene!" applauded Inalzig. "Said I not you would be put to a test at the Gates? Ha, no guise will veil your heart hereafter. Like your follower, I had a devil from the first day, and the devil was doubt."

The second guard rushed low at Robert, to be met with the point of the sword and slain in his tracks. Will Bunsley scrambled to his feet, wrenching the scimitar from the hand of the falling slave.

"Let us show them our heels, brother," he muttered excitedly. "Do thou take up the maid and run along the path."

Robert, however, knew that this was just what the Moslems must desire him to do. Moreover the blind priest could not run, and there was no time to release the girl's bonds. He had been tricked and well tricked.

And fierce exultation warmed his heart. No need, now, of racking his brain for the words of deceit. He had jumped to aid the maid instinctively, and even now he might have explained his cutting down of the guards-if Inalzig and the captain of the warders would listen. But he had no desire to try them and for their part they prepared readily to make an end of him. There was the gleam of steel, red in the torchlight, before him and the feel of his sword-haft in his fists.

"Stand clear," he growled at the archer, and stepped to meet the first two spearmen who crossed from the dam to the pathway.

Ellen had slipped to her knees and was moving toward Father Evagrius, who was trying to draw her back to the cliff, his face upturned in the patient questioning of those who cannot see what goes on about them.

As Will pushed forward stubbornly beside him Robert swept him back with his left arm and slashed at the nearest spearhead. The steel point flew humming through the air, and the crusader dodged the thrust of the second. The Moslems crouched and reached for their long knives. They had not yet learned that the round targets of bull's hide were no protection against the long weapon of their foe. Robert cut through one shield and the skull of the man behind it.

The other warrior shouted and leaped, and Robert missed catching his dagger arm as it came down. But he stepped forward, and the man's knife snapped on the chain mail of his back.

Robert caught hold with his free hand on the man's shoulder blade and-sensing Will's presence behind-jerked him back, to be dealt with by the yeoman's sword. A snarling grunt that changed to a scream sounded from the path, and presently a splash in the water below.

"Sa-ha!" chanted Will. "Another knave a-swim in the Styx. Guard thee, tall brother-so! Pretty work-yeomanly struck."

A third Moslem had followed close upon the other two and raised his scimitar. Robert, caught with his blade down, jammed the heavy hilt into the man's beard and took the scimitar stroke on his helmet. The blow sent flames flying before his eyes, and the light steel cap spun from his head. But the Moslem was down, choking, and the knight took another pace forward, leaving Will to dispose of the injured warrior.

A spear splintered against the mail on his chest, and he reeled, coughing, for the point had lodged in his breastbone. The man who had flung it shouted and whirled up his scimitar. The knight parried one cut that would have hacked a knee in half and staggered again, when another spear tore into his left shoulder. The guard-a big-boned Turk-pressed forward too hastily and was dashed down when his legs were cut out from under him by a slash of the long blade.

"By the ninety and nine holy names!" swore Inalzig, who had followed the fighting with glittering eyes. "Here is one who should be brought alive to Bokhara, for he is not as common men. See, he strides forward again."

"Then, do you, take him alive, 0 khan," snarled the captain.

Will was feverish with exultation. Only three men beside the two chiefs stood on the dam, and these held the torches. Behind them the Kankalis had vanished from sight and hearing. If the strength of the knight could crush these five as well as the six who had died, they would be free, for the moment, in the gorge. But he did not mark how the two wounds had bitten into the thews of his companion.

Inalzig Khan rushed as a falcon stoops-warily, quick of eye, and with his long cloak sweeping about him. His scimitar glittered above his shield. Someone behind him hurled a torch at the knight.

Bending low, Robert moved to meet the Moslem, and the two swords grated. The scimitar bent nearly double and whipped clear-whipped down on the crusader's sword arm, cutting to the bone. Robert stumbled forward, threw himself against Inalzig and felt for the Moslem's knife hilt, while Inalzig felt for his throat and found it.

Jerking the curved dagger free, Robert thrust with failing strength at his foe's thighs under the mail. Inalzig's eyes glared into his, blood-seared and protruding. The knife-blade slipped upward on the Moslem's thighbone, and the curved point caught within his ribs.

His grip on Robert's throat fell away, and the knight gasped for air and felt himself drop through space. Instantly the torchlight faded, and he crashed into water, still locked with his adversary. Blackness grew denser, and then red flames shot up before his eyes and his nostrils stung. Blood flooded his throat.