will send spies to search out the castle. We will once more try to get a written message to Rolf Redwan.”
“In the meantime,” Leif said, “the common soldiers are going without much food. What news do you have from the Greek city, Bishop Nicholas?”
Tancred suspected that the emperor had long ago abandoned them, withholding provisions because the western princes and nobles refused to surrender the villages conquered along the way since the fall of Nicaea.
“Do you blame them for not yielding the booty to him?” Leif complained. “They remember the Byzantine treachery done them at Nicaea. And there will be treachery anew over Antioch. General Taticus is here now as legate of the emperor. Again, he wishes to secretly negotiate the surrender of Antioch to Byzantium before any of the princes take the city. But Bohemond has plans to thwart General Taticus.”
The news was not surprising to Tancred or Nicholas. Tancred told him of the Genoese fleet. “By now St. Symeon is in the hands of the Byzantines. Captain Rainald will waste no time setting a course for Cyprus to gain supplies, but the arrival of the Genoese to reinforce the knights will do little. The problem of food will continue as the princes have even more fighting men to feed.”
“Rumors abound of hope,” Leif complained: “By summer, there will be food,”
“In three more weeks we will be in Jerusalem.”
Tancred gestured his impatience. “Words of hope, when not based on facts, circle like falcons, but never land. Rumors also persist that the emperor will send his engineers with siege weapons as he promised at Nicaea. Whether the feudal princes truly believe this is doubtful. Bohemond wishes to take Antioch and become its seigneur.”
“So does Count Raymond,” said Nicholas. “Adehemar mentioned it to me. Duke Godfrey, however, seems to have mellowed. He speaks more of the glory of God than of his own. That, by itself, is a miracle!” Nicholas said wryly.
The pride, arrogance, and bold ruthless courage of the western princes were well known to Tancred and the others. If there were a breed of warriors who could take Antioch and Jerusalem from the well-protected Moslem Turks, it would be these men, he thought.
Leif now became aware of something he apparently had not at first noticed. “Norris should have joined us here by now.”
Nicholas looked up from his cup to meet Tancred’s gaze. Tancred remained silent.
“We bring you dark news,” Nicholas told Norris quietly, and went on to explain Philip’s further treachery in making Tancred a slave to the baron corsair, and the death of Norris near the summer house. “He and Tancred went to a bungalow near the summer house thinking to aid Rufus and his son Joseph. It was a well-laid trap. They were met by swords and spears from Philip’s guards. Norris was slain.”
Leif’s sense of loss was great, for he and Norris had grown as close as brothers with Tancred.
“I will avenge Norris,” Leif gritted, forming a fist. “And for what he did to you, Tancred!”
“There is no need. Philip is now dead,” Tancred stated flatly.
“The duel took place in the Hippodrome,” said Nicholas.
Tancred stood and left the tent. The memory brought him no satisfaction, but rather a determination to find Helena, then to leave the fields of death behind, and to return to Palermo—if he could ever clear his name in the death of his half-brother, Derek Redwan.
Behind the Veil / The Royal Pavilions boo k3 / Linda Chaikin
Chapte r 10
Kerbogha’s Cavalry
As the famine worsened, bands of ribald French vagabonds, who were poorer than most of the stragglers following the army of knights and soldiers, began to feast upon the dead carcasses of the Turks outside the walls of Antioch. They would disperse and hunt out several bodies, then bring them back to their encampment to
“In the meantime,” Leif said, “the common soldiers are going without much food. What news do you have from the Greek city, Bishop Nicholas?”
Tancred suspected that the emperor had long ago abandoned them, withholding provisions because the western princes and nobles refused to surrender the villages conquered along the way since the fall of Nicaea.
“Do you blame them for not yielding the booty to him?” Leif complained. “They remember the Byzantine treachery done them at Nicaea. And there will be treachery anew over Antioch. General Taticus is here now as legate of the emperor. Again, he wishes to secretly negotiate the surrender of Antioch to Byzantium before any of the princes take the city. But Bohemond has plans to thwart General Taticus.”
The news was not surprising to Tancred or Nicholas. Tancred told him of the Genoese fleet. “By now St. Symeon is in the hands of the Byzantines. Captain Rainald will waste no time setting a course for Cyprus to gain supplies, but the arrival of the Genoese to reinforce the knights will do little. The problem of food will continue as the princes have even more fighting men to feed.”
“Rumors abound of hope,” Leif complained: “By summer, there will be food,”
“In three more weeks we will be in Jerusalem.”
Tancred gestured his impatience. “Words of hope, when not based on facts, circle like falcons, but never land. Rumors also persist that the emperor will send his engineers with siege weapons as he promised at Nicaea. Whether the feudal princes truly believe this is doubtful. Bohemond wishes to take Antioch and become its seigneur.”
“So does Count Raymond,” said Nicholas. “Adehemar mentioned it to me. Duke Godfrey, however, seems to have mellowed. He speaks more of the glory of God than of his own. That, by itself, is a miracle!” Nicholas said wryly.
The pride, arrogance, and bold ruthless courage of the western princes were well known to Tancred and the others. If there were a breed of warriors who could take Antioch and Jerusalem from the well-protected Moslem Turks, it would be these men, he thought.
Leif now became aware of something he apparently had not at first noticed. “Norris should have joined us here by now.”
Nicholas looked up from his cup to meet Tancred’s gaze. Tancred remained silent.
“We bring you dark news,” Nicholas told Norris quietly, and went on to explain Philip’s further treachery in making Tancred a slave to the baron corsair, and the death of Norris near the summer house. “He and Tancred went to a bungalow near the summer house thinking to aid Rufus and his son Joseph. It was a well-laid trap. They were met by swords and spears from Philip’s guards. Norris was slain.”
Leif’s sense of loss was great, for he and Norris had grown as close as brothers with Tancred.
“I will avenge Norris,” Leif gritted, forming a fist. “And for what he did to you, Tancred!”
“There is no need. Philip is now dead,” Tancred stated flatly.
“The duel took place in the Hippodrome,” said Nicholas.
Tancred stood and left the tent. The memory brought him no satisfaction, but rather a determination to find Helena, then to leave the fields of death behind, and to return to Palermo—if he could ever clear his name in the death of his half-brother, Derek Redwan.
Behind the Veil / The Royal Pavilions boo k3 / Linda Chaikin
Chapte r 10
Kerbogha’s Cavalry
As the famine worsened, bands of ribald French vagabonds, who were poorer than most of the stragglers following the army of knights and soldiers, began to feast upon the dead carcasses of the Turks outside the walls of Antioch. They would disperse and hunt out several bodies, then bring them back to their encampment to
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