Maryam and I froze. Ahead of us, Robard waved frantically, motioning us back the way we had come. With no clouds and the light of the half-moon, we could see well enough to pick our way back through the trees on the trail we’d just traveled. The sound of hoofbeats grew louder, but it was impossible to tell who might be about to ride down on us. It could be Saracens or Crusaders. We needed to make ourselves invisible.
Robard scurried back to us. “This way! Hurry,” he whispered.
We followed Robard a few paces toward a small thicket. The bushes were dense and close to the ground. It would provide good cover. We wormed our way down through them until we lay on the ground, facing the clearing we’d just left.
Before long, a group of horsemen rode into view. Saracens. I felt my heart rise to my throat. It appeared to be a single detail of ten men. They reined to a stop and the leader of the group began talking to his second in command.
We lay still, not twenty yards from where the men sat astride their horses. Maryam lay between Robard and me, studying the men intensely. Robard had managed to draw an arrow and nock it in his bow, which was on the ground in front of him. He was ready to rise and shoot in an instant.
Moving my hand to the sword at my belt I managed to silently draw it while keeping it at my side. We barely dared to breathe.
“What are they saying?” Robard asked in a quiet whisper.
“The second in command is explaining that he heard voices here,” Maryam whispered back.
“Shh!” I hissed. I wished them both quiet. This was no time for a conversation!
We watched the patrol as they talked, their horses prancing and whinnying, impatient to be under way again. After a moment, four of the men dismounted and began studying the ground. They each walked outward from the group in a different direction. I held my breath. If they discovered our tracks, they could follow them right to where we were concealed in the thicket. The half-moon was lower in the sky now as morning approached. It would make it difficult, but not impossible, to find our footprints. The men took their time, moving farther outward from the main patrol, which stayed mounted in the clearing.
I turned my head facedown into the ground so the moonlight would not reflect off my face, but still tried to keep an eye on the patrol. The four dismounted men were examining the bushes. To my dismay one of them headed straight for us. He walked slowly, looking carefully at the ground, his hand on the scimitar hanging at his belt. His eyes swept back and forth through the underbrush, and with each step he grew closer and closer to our position in the thicket.
Robard and Maryam were completely silent. The sound of my own blood thundered in my ears. In a few more seconds the Saracen would be upon us. I squeezed the hilt of my sword, certain that he must be able to hear my heart beating.
Slowly, agonizingly, he walked toward us. Then, when he was so close I could reach out and grab his ankle, I heard a low humming sound-the same sound that had awakened me as Maryam and the Assassins attacked us in the rocks. It was coming ever so softly from the satchel, which now lay on the ground beside me. I felt sickness rising in my stomach. Surely the Saracens would hear it and discover us. Robard and Maryam were still and soundless next to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maryam, and if she heard the sound, she did not acknowledge it.
The Saracen drew closer. He was standing less than a foot away from me. In our dark clothing and what little moonlight there was, we blended in well with the ground cover. I tensed, expecting to feel the thrust of a scimitar at any moment.
The Saracen stood still. From the angle now I couldn’t see his face, only his feet. Surely he must be looking directly at us. Yet he remained motionless as the seconds crept by.
At a sharp order in Arabic from his leader, the Saracen turned on his heel, returning to the clearing. After a few more minutes of talk, the men remounted and rode off.
I let out a breath and felt like I might faint. We waited for several minutes, making sure they didn’t return. When enough time had passed, and the night sounds of the forest began again, we crawled our way out of the thicket. Robard returned the arrow to his wallet, and I sheathed my sword. I waited there a moment, bent at the waist with my hands on my knees, trying to relax myself. I had no idea how the Saracen had not discovered us.
“Did you hear that?” I asked, referring to the humming noise coming from the satchel.
“Hear what?” Robard asked.
“That noise…It sounded like…Never mind,” I said.
This was the second time I’d heard the noise, both times when I was in physical danger. But I had no wish to explain it. I couldn’t reveal how I had come to possess this thing I carried. I had lost my desire for that, at least for now. Robard was busy scanning the woods, apparently forgetting all about my question. For the time being, I let the matter drop.
“We must get moving,” said Maryam, an intense expression on her face.
She trotted off, heading north toward the coast. We followed quickly after her, without speaking. Before long the woods began to thin and I smelled salt air. The terrain grew rockier, slowing our pace somewhat. Finally, we crested a rise, and below us lay the sea. The half-moon was now barely visible over the horizon, and its light gave a blue shimmer to the surface of the water. It was beautiful, and had I not been so worried at the thought of Saracen patrols all around us, I might have taken time to enjoy it.
We had been running for a while, but Maryam did not even stop to take in the sight of the glimmering water below us. She immediately turned east and continued racing along the ridge.
Finally, Robard called out that we needed to stop for a moment. We halted near a rocky outcropping and leaned against the boulders, breathing fast. The wind had picked up, and the night air was cooler nearer the coast. Robard drank from the water skin and passed it to me.
“We can’t rest long,” Maryam said. “We need to keep moving.”
“Why?” Robard asked suspiciously.
“Because, Archer, where there is one Saracen patrol, there are many. We were nearly spotted once. Our best chance to reach Tyre is to keep moving.”
Maryam was breathing hard, and the fading moonlight revealed that her face was flushed and damp.
“Maryam, are you feeling okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she said, “but we need to go.”
“You seem in quite a hurry,” said Robard. “Is there something you aren’t telling us?”
“Robard…,” I said.
This time though, Maryam didn’t answer, but merely handed me the water skin and took off running again along the ridge.
Robard and I trotted after her.
“Something is wrong,” he said. “She heard those men say something. She’s not telling us everything.”
“We don’t know that, Robard. She may just be trying to get us to Tyre as quickly as possible,” I said.
“Yes. Remind me of that again when we are hanging in chains from the wall of the Saladin’s prison,” he said.
“Robard, do you see a conspiracy behind every tree? Is the entire world aligned against you?” I asked.
“Not the entire world,” Robard answered.
We caught up to Maryam before long and continued running in silence. The moon set and the sky lightened to the east. It would be daybreak soon.
“I think we should stop,” I said. “Without the cover of darkness, we are too exposed. We should find a place to camp for the day and continue tonight.”
“We don’t have time to stop,” Maryam said. “We must keep going.”
Her statement brought Robard and me to a stop. Maryam continued running.
“Wait,” I hissed.
She stopped and turned.
“Why? Why can’t we stop?” I asked. “I think you owe us an explanation.”
Maryam paused. She looked at the ground for a moment. Then at me.
“Tristan, did I not make a promise to you that I would see you safely to Tyre?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“I will keep that promise, but we must keep moving,” she said.
“Why is that? What did you hear those men say?” Robard asked.
Maryam paused for a moment, glancing back and forth at us. She sighed.
“You’re right, Archer. I did hear something. They were arguing about whether to continue to look for us or rejoin their forces,” she said.
“So?” Robard said.
“The commander said that they needed to return to the main camp before the attack begins,” she said.
“What attack? That could mean anything. There is plenty of fighting going on to the south and west,” Robard said.
But I knew what attack the commander was referring to. “They’re going to attack Tyre,” I said.
Maryam was quiet and Robard looked at me.
“What? You don’t know that,” he said.
The look on Maryam’s face told me I was right.
“There is not just one regiment nearby,” she said. “There are more than thirty. With more arriving. They’ll begin moving units toward Tyre in the morning.”
It was just as I’d feared. The Saladin was moving quickly toward Tyre.
“How do we know she’s telling the truth?” Robard said. “Stop a minute, Tristan. Perhaps she wants us to think that Tyre will be attacked while the real attack happens elsewhere.”
“We can’t take a chance on whether it’s true or not. Knights in Acre discussed this many times. If the Saladin takes Tyre, the main road to Jerusalem and the interior is lost. King Richard will be forced to move even farther east and will not be able to resupply his forces on the plains. Maryam is right. We can’t wait. We must get to Tyre and find the Templar Commandery. We must warn them,” I answered.
“Have you even considered that she could be part of this?”
Maryam laughed. “Let me see if I understand you, Archer. By your way of thinking, I am a spy, privy to all of the Saladin’s plans. To make his elaborate scheme work, I and my Hashshashin brothers leave our encampment and find you in the woods. During the attack I manage to get myself severely wounded, knowing in advance that my intended victims will nurse me back to health. When I am well enough, I promise to repay my debt to you and see you safely through Saracen lines to Tyre, but in reality it is all a ruse to provide false information to the Christian commanders in the city, and then deliver you as prisoners to the Saladin himself. Does that about sum it up?” She looked at Robard and her obsidian eyes blazed, glinting in the moonlight.
Robard’s face clouded, and he moved until his face was just inches from hers. She did not flinch.
“Excuse me for assaulting your tender sensibilities, but we only just met you. You tried to kill us. And I shot you,” he reminded her. “You could be setting us up…”
Maryam’s anger flashed across her face. “It was a lucky shot!” she said.
“It was not a lucky shot!” he shouted.
I cut in. “Robard, it doesn’t matter anymore. There are Saracens within a few days’ ride of Tyre. If we wish to make our way home, we must get there quickly and find a ship before we are trapped.”
“I still think she’s lying about something,” he said.
“She isn’t,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Maryam looked at me in gratitude. I understood what she had done. She had promised to get us safely to Tyre. With the city under siege she knew we’d not be able to get home. She had shown me that her oath meant something to her.
As we ran, I thought about how just a short while ago we were cowering in a thicket, a few feet away from a detachment of Saracens. Lying there exposed, outnumbered, with nowhere to run if we were discovered. She could have easily betrayed us, but she had kept her word.
At least for now.