The Templar by P. C. Doherty

Author:P. C. Doherty [Doherty, P. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312576837
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2007-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Part 7

Antioch: The Feast of St Lawrence, 10 August 1098

Quo vulneratus insuper, mucorne diro lanceae.

(Where he was wounded by a thrust from the

sharp tip of that lance.)

Venantius Fortunatus, ‘Hymn In Honour of the Cross’

Full summer was now close. Water was plentiful in the city but the markets remained empty. Firuz, full of bitterness, had grown even more eager than Theodore for the Army of God to act. The situation in and around Antioch was worsening. The army were digging up bodies to eat, and cannibalism was rife in the camp, whilst in Antioch the price of food soared so high that people lay out in the streets begging for food. Violent clashes occurred around Bridge Gate and that of St George as Yaghi Siyan made a desperate attempt to destroy the makeshift forts and redoubts that had been thrown up, but still the Franks pressed their siege. News filtered through. Khebogha, Atabeg of the Caliph of Baghdad and Emir of Mosul, was fast approaching the city with a huge army, ready to crush the Franks. Such news heartened Antioch. Bohemond and the others only intensified their siege. Firuz made a fresh appeal to Yaghi Siyan for justice, but Baldur was needed to lead out sorties from Bridge Gate, and Yaghi Siyan refused to do anything.

By the end of May both besieged and besieger were searching for a way to shatter each other. The Army of God, deluded by certain merchants of Antioch into thinking that the city would surrender, dispatched envoys through Bridge Gate under Walo, Constable of France. These were immediately surrounded and killed, their severed heads catapulted into the Frankish camp. The bloody incident increased tension. Theodore, fearful of Yaghi Siyan discovering his plot, believed Firuz was ready. On the Feast of the Blessed Virgin, the last day of May, the Year of Our Lord 1098, he and Firuz went out along the ramparts of the Twin Sisters. Theodore loosed an arrow carrying a message into the darkness below; a lantern flashed three times in reply, a sign that the message had been safely received and understood. The die was cast. The Twin Sisters were to be betrayed on the night of 2 June.

The hours in between were both fraught and frenetic. The city was bracing itself for more attacks and greater food shortages. News came through that Khebogha, the leader of tens and tens of thousands, was only a day’s march away. The Army of God would be trapped before Antioch and utterly destroyed. Speed became the essence; the hours were passing. Early on the morning of 2 June, during the third watch of the night, Theodore roused Eleanor. Simeon was told to guard Imogene whilst she and Theodore followed Firuz up on to the fighting platform of the main Twin Sisters tower. The Armenian was quiet but resolute in what he intended to do, a man, according to Theodore, who had closed one door of his life and was prepared to open another.

Eleanor felt as if she was in a dream.

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