Yussuf leaned back, also drawing his mantle closer around him, and signaled to his brother and emir that they were allowed to speak. But they both hesitated, accustomed as they were to sitting an entire evening and just listening. Since neither of them made any attempt to speak, the Templar knight leaned toward his sergeant and carried on a brief whispered conversation in Frankish.

“My sergeant wonders about one thing,” he then explained. “Your weapons, your horses, and your clothes alone are worth more than those unfortunate bandits could ever have dreamed of. How did it happen that you chose this perilous road west of the Dead Sea without sufficient escort?”

“Because it is the quickest route, because an escort arouses a great deal of attention…” replied Yussuf slowly. He did not want to embarrass himself by again saying something that wasn’t true, so he had to weigh his words. Any escort of his would certainly have attracted attention because it would have consisted of at least three thousand horsemen to be considered safe.

“And because we trusted our horses. We didn’t think a few worthless bandits or Franks would be able to catch us,” he added swiftly.

“Wise but not wise enough,” the Templar knight nodded. “But those six bandits have been plundering these regions for almost half a year. They knew the area like the backs of their hands, they could ride faster on these stretches than any of us could. That was what made them rich. Until God punished them.”

“I would like to know one thing,” said Fahkr, who now spoke for the first time and had to clear his throat because he was stumbling over his own words. “It is said that you Templar knights who reside in Al Aksa have a minbarthere, a place of prayer for the faithful. And people have also told me that you Templar knights once struck a Frank who tried to prevent one of the faithful from praying. Is this really true?”

All three of the faithful now gave their full attention to the enemy. But the Templar knight smiled and first translated the question into Frankish for the sergeant, who at once nodded and burst out laughing.

“Yes, there is more truth to that than you know,” said the Templar knight after thinking for a moment, or pretending to think in order to spur his listeners’ interest. “We do have a minbarin Templum Salomonis, as we call Al Aksa, ‘the most remote of prayer sites.’ But that is not so unusual. In our fortress in Gaza we have a majlisevery Thursday, the only day possible, and the witnesses then swear on God’s Holy Scriptures, on the Torah, or on the Koran, and in some cases on something else entirely that they regard as holy. If the three of you were Egyptian merchants as you claimed, you would also know that our order conducts a great deal of business with the Egyptians, and they do not share our beliefs. Al Aksa, if you wish to use that name, is where we Templar knights have our headquarters, and where many people come as our guests. The problem is that every September new vessels arrive from Pisa or Genoa or the southern lands of the Franks with new men filled with the spirit and the zeal, perhaps not to enter paradise at once, but to kill unbelievers or at least lay hands on them. These newcomers create great difficulties for the rest of us, and each year, shortly after September, we always have disturbances in our own quarters because the newcomers turn against people of your faith, and then of course we have to deal with them harshly.”

“You would kill your own kind for the sake of our people?” gasped Fahkr.

“Of course not!” replied the Templar knight with sudden vehemence. “For us it is a grave sin, just as it is in your faith, to kill any man who is a true believer. That can never come into question.”

He went on after a brief pause, his good humor restored, “But nothing prevents us from giving rogues like that a good thrashing if they refuse to be persuaded. I myself have had the pleasure on several occasions…”

Quickly he leaned toward his sergeant and translated. When the sergeant began nodding and laughing in agreement, a great sense of relief seemed to come over everyone, and they all joined in with hearty laughter—perhaps a bit too hearty.

A gust of air, like the last sigh of the evening wind from the mountains near Al Khalil, suddenly carried the stench of the Templar knights toward the three faithful, and they shrank back, unable to hide their feelings.

The Templar knight noticed their embarrassment and rose to his feet immediately, suggesting that they change sides and wind direction around the muslin coverlet, where Emir Moussa was now setting out small cups of mocha. The three hosts complied with his suggestion at once, without saying anything offensive.

“We have our rules,” explained the Templar knight apologetically as he settled into his new place. “You have rules about washing yourselves at all times of the day, and we have rules that forbid doing so. It is no worse than the fact that you have rules permitting hunting while we have ones forbidding it, except for lions; or that we drink wine and you do not.”

“Wine is a different matter,” objected Yussuf. “The prohibition against wine is a strict one, and it is God’s word to the Prophet, may peace be with him. But we are not like our enemies; just consider God’s words in the seventh sura: ‘Who has forbidden the beautiful things that God has granted His servants and all the good He has given them for their sustenance?’”

“Well, yes,” said the Templar knight. “Your scriptures say many things. But if, for the sake of vanity, you want me to expose my modesty and make myself fair-smelling like worldly men, I might just as well ask you to stop calling me your enemy. For just listen to the words of your own scriptures, from the sixty-first sura, words of your own Prophet, may peace be with him: ‘Faithful! Be God’s disciples. Just as Jesus, the son of Mary, said to the white-clad: “Who will be my disciple for the sake of God?” And they answered: “We will be God’s disciples!” Among the children of Israel, some came to believe in Jesus while others rejected him. But we supported those who believed in him against their enemies, and the faithful departed with victory.’I particularly like the part about the white-clad…”

At these words Emir Moussa sprang to his feet as if he were about to reach for his sword, but halfway there he restrained himself and stopped. His face was red with anger when he stretched out his arm and pointed an accusatory finger at the Templar knight.

“Infidel!” he cried. “You speak the language of the Koran; that is one thing. But twisting God’s words with blasphemy and ridicule is another matter that you would not be allowed to survive if it weren’t for His Majes…because my friend Yussuf has given you his word!”

“Sit down and behave yourself, Moussa!” shouted Yussuf harshly, regaining his composure as Moussa obeyed his command. “What you heard were indeed the words of God, and they were from the sixty-first sura, and they are words you ought to consider. And don’t think, by the way, that the phrase ‘the white-robed’ refers to what our guest spoke of in jest.”

“No, of course it does not,” the Templar knight hurried to smooth things over. “It refers to those who wore white robes long before my order existed; my clothing has nothing to do with it.”

“How do you happen to be so familiar with the Koran?” asked Yussuf in his customary and quite calm tone of voice, as if no disruption had occurred, and his high rank had not been almost revealed.

“It is a wise thing to study your enemy; if you like, I can help you to understand the Bible,” replied the Templar knight, as if trying to joke his way out of the topic, seeming to regret his clumsy invasion of the faithfuls’ territory.

Yussuf was about to utter a stern reply to his lighthearted talk of entering into blasphemous studies, when he was interrupted by a long drawn-out, horrifying scream. The scream turned into something that sounded like scornful laughter, rolling down toward them and echoing off the mountainsides above. All five men froze and listened; Emir Moussa immediately began rattling off the words the faithful use to conjure up the jinni of the desert. Then the scream came again, but now it sounded as if it came from several spirits of the abyss, as if they were talking to each other, as if they had discovered the little fire below and the only people in the area.