Excerpt… Milano, fall, 1324 “She lied to us!” Alaric said. “We owe her nothing!” “Alaric!” Jaufre’s voice cracked like a whip. “She bargained herself for us, traded herself for our freedom. There was nothing to stop him from killing us and burying us there. No one would ever have known.” Alaric’s gaze dropped and a…
Read more “She’s his wife. She has no choice in the matter.”
Excerpt… “Your eyes,” Jean de Valmy said hesitantly to Shasha. “These are how eyes are made where I come from,” she said. “And where would that be?” “Cathay.” “Cathay!” Jean de Valmy’s eyes lit up. “Is it true that jewels rain from the skies in Cathay?” “Only when the moon is full for the second…
Read more “Is it true that jewels rain from the skies in Cathay?”
Excerpt… Gaza, October 1323 IN BAGHDAD, AN astute Firas arranged for them to leave with a caravan en route for the port of Gaza. He explained, not unreasonably, that he didn’t want the Baghdadian euphoria over North Wind’s month-long winning streak to erode into ennui and jealousy, which could lead to attempts at retaliation by…
Excerpt… October, 1324, the Holy Land THE CONVULSING WOMAN screamed again. She had a painfully loud and piercing scream which the rock walls of the cave only enhanced. Everyone in earshot cringed. Some cursed. And there were those who looked as if they would as soon murder the woman out of hand than endure another…
Excerpt… On the road to Damascus, late summer, 1323 TEN DAYS OUT of Kerman their caravan was hit by raiders, a group of some thirty or forty men, a number equal to or out-numbering their own troops of guards. They struck in the hour before dawn, just after Rambahadur Raj had sent out scouts to…
Read more He tried frantically to stuff a rope of shining entrails back into his belly.
Excerpt… Between the Hindu Kush and Baghdad, summer, 1323 Johanna was no match for Firas in upper body strength, but he made her practice with a heavy wooden practice sword for a month before he found a small sword in another market which weighed half of what the practice sword did. She discarded the first…
Excerpt… On the Road, summer, 1323 “TELL ME ABOUT the Templars,” Jaufre said. Alaric sighed. To Jaufre’s ears it sounded a little theatrical. “First, I beg you, please rid yourself of the habit of calling me Alaric the Templar,” the older man said. “Ram will have his little joke, but the farther west we travel,…
Read more “I beg you, please rid yourself of the habit of calling me Alaric the Templar.”
somewhere in the Hindu Kush, summer 1323 They had had considerable difficulty in finding exactly the right village to help them. Many were too small, without enough men. Others weren’t poor enough, having staked out the only arable land in a day’s walk and therefore capable of feeding themselves and their families without resorting to…
Balkh, summer 1323 A scream from the hollow below spun her around. She leapt down the loose scree of the knoll and slid into camp in a scatter of loose gravel, barely managing to stay upright. There she found Hayat and Alma clinging to each other as they watched two young men, ragged and dirty,…
Kabul, spring 1323 “LAPIS LAZULI,” JAUFRE said. “Emeralds,” Shasha said. She hesitated. “Copper? I’ve never seen so much copper for sale in one place as I have here in Kabul.” “Heavy,” Jaufre said. “Depends on how much copper and how far we have to carry it. We should take counsel of Grigori the Tatar.” “One…
Read more “Even the priest has succumbed to our wicked influence.”