Krak de Chevaliers
When I slowly opened my eyes, I did not know where I was at first. There was a strange pain throbbing in the back of my head. I could neither move nor feel my limbs. Lying on my side on the ground, I was looking at a wounded Saracen warrior. He was lying on the ground as well only a few feet distant from me, bleeding heavily from beneath his clothes and armour. He was gazing at me, his breath quick and shallow.
“You have killed me, crusader”, he gasped with blood between his teeth, “my life is trickling out of me and into the sand… Allah have mercy!”
Suddenly, the memory returned to me. The Saracens had assaulted the walls of our fortress at Krak de Chevaliers. Some of them had managed to scale the battlements with ladders. I had engaged one of them in a melée, and before long my trusted sword had found its way past his armour and into his body. Mortally wounded, he had thrown himself against my shield and, loosing my footing, I had fallen down into the courtyard with him. Even now, I could hear the sounds of others fighting high above us.
“You were a fool to come here”, I whispered, “the walls of this beacon of Christianity are impenetrable. Did you really think you and your kin would be able to take them?”
“Your words are true, crusader. It was pride and folly that brought me here only to find my doom. And it seems I have taken you with me…”
He fell silent, his breast heaving heavily. He seemed to look right through me now and into some strange distance. After a while, he asked, “so what are your last thoughts, crusader?”
“Of my fair lady Genevieve, far away in the Kingdom of France... who was promised to me when I would return from the holy lands… whether she will weep for me…”
“Allah”, the Saracen moaned, “and my thoughts are with my beautiful Surajyah, who I shall never see again…”
He was breathing in fast, thick pants now. Then suddenly, with a much different voice and with a strength I would not have expected to remain in him he exclaimed, “Crusader! Our lives have been wasted in vain! I can see a day when my muslim brothers will hold this place… but other muslims will lay their claim on it! And muslim shall fight muslim over these walls! Their hatred will cry out to the heavens, and they will spit lightning and thunder at one another all over this realm! And their hatred and lightning and thunder shall tear these walls asunder for all eternity!!!”
And as suddenly as this surge of strength had come forth it dissipated again. His eyes broke, and life left his body.
I felt my head go light. Whatever we did – this Saracen and I – and whatever words we had exchanged in these last moments… it meant nothing anymore…
TotW 214: Krak de Chevaliers - Winner!
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