The Emperor Strikes Back (The Rebels of Outremer) by Schrader PhD Helena P

Author:Schrader PhD, Helena P.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cross Seas Press
Published: 2020-12-16T06:00:00+00:00

Nicosia November 1231

The Lord of Beirut lay face down on the chapel floor, his head toward the altar and his arms outstretched like a cross. At first, he recited all the prayers he knew by heart, but when he ran out of words, his thoughts wandered. They took him back to the tense and horrible days after the Battle of Hattin.

John and his three siblings had been left in Ibelin with a tiny garrison when their father went to face Saladin’s invasion and their mother went to defend her dower lands at Nablus. The town and castle of Ibelin was on the coast and considered safe, while the Sultan’s entire army was concentrated in the northeast at Tiberias. John had not been afraid. His father was a powerful lord and the Christian army was magnificent. He had grown up hearing stories of their victories at Montgisard, Le Forbelet, and Kerak.

Then quite suddenly everyone was panicking. To this day, John didn’t know how the news of Hattin had reached them, but suddenly everyone knew that the Christian army had been obliterated. The King and all his nobles were captured, the Templars and Hospitallers slaughtered, the commons dead or enslaved. Acre had fallen. The Sultan’s victorious armies were marching down the coast gobbling up the cities and towns that stood in its way.

It had happened so fast that John had felt bewildered and angry rather than afraid. He was certain people weren’t telling him everything. His sisters’ nurses were weeping and incoherent, and the garrison commander, Sergeant Shoreham, was grimly rushing about giving orders. It wasn’t until he was told they were leaving the next day for Jerusalem that John learned that his mother had sent for them—and that his father was still alive. “Your father is acting Regent of the Kingdom,” Shoreham had told him. “He is holding Tyre.”

John remembered asking, “Then why don’t we go there?”

“Because the entire Saracen army is in the way!” Shoreham had snapped back, and John had never felt so stupid in his life.

So, they had loaded every wagon they had and put panniers on every horse as well. With linens from the beds and tables; with candlesticks, cutlery, plates, and lamps; with jewels and glass and books; they had laden not only the wagons and packhorses, but the palfreys, brood mares, and stud stallions too. It was a large long train with just a dozen armed men to escort it, while the whole household and their families walked along beside it.

The sight of that train of people had made John think of the people of Israel following Moses out of Egypt. Only Moses had led his people out of slavery to the Promised Land, while he had been leaving home and safety for uncertainty. John remembered looking over his shoulder at Ibelin with a sense of disbelief. He had never seen it without the banners of his house waving gaily from the towers. It had been very eerie to just abandon it.

The image of Ibelin merged with that of Beirut and the Lord of Beirut moaned unconsciously.

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