In 1099, a mysterious child of noble origin was taken in by Jews who had fled the Crusaders' arrival in front of Jerusalem.
Years later, Ada, the descendant of this child, travels through Palestine with her father. He's a merchant and knows medicin...
Aurel of Campémy returns from a long Templar expedition through Syria and Mesopotamia to the fortress of Alamut, high in the mountains and home to the powerful Assassin sect.
Aurel discovered that the Templar Order and the faithful of the Old Man of the Mountain, the sect's grand master, aren't so different despite the religious divide.
Like the Templars, Ismailis seek the truths hidden in the sacred books, and all of them demand limitless devotion from their adepts, even to the point of giving their lives.
Aurel and the other Templars drank a strange beverage and frolicked happily through wonderful gardens looking like paradise. Among lush plants, beautiful young men and women offered them heavenly food and pleasures usually forbidden for soldier monks.
But since they were in paradise, everything was allowed.
Aurel didn't know if it was the effects of the drink, but a pretty slave girl had large dark eyes and luxurious golden hair. He made love to her several times as if to be sure she was real. And while he worked her hard, she moaned aloud that the young Templar was a much better lover than a monk.
Some brothers preferred to choose the handsome boys after this trying expedition where they had crossed deserts but also vast plains flooded by waters often unhealthy, causing deadly dysentery.
Templars are strong warriors intended for battle and, as such, brave. They're also great drinkers and feasters. A few pleasures here and there is nothing compared to the sufferings and tortures they're ready to endure for God's service.
Several times, Aurel recalled his solemn welcome into the order and the triple kiss he had to give the initiating brother, coming into close contact with his lower back, his lips, and finally, his stomach.
That evening, in dormitories, the initiating brother explained that the embraces stimulated mysterious forces that the soldier monks needed to fight the Mohammedans. Then, admiring the harmonious muscles of the young recruit, imagining what was hidden under the boy's trousers, he suggested finding a quiet place, far from the fires lighting up the dormitories. Aurel kindly refused the Templar's offer. Not that he disapproved of anything or considered it evil, but just because he didn't feel like it.
The initiative brother didn't hold the rejection against him, and they remained good companions.
In Alamut fortress, deemed impregnable, the great masters discussed the mysteries and secrets hidden in the Koran and the Bible.
But the Old Man of the Mountain is worried because his spies reported that the Mongolians are getting closer to Alamut. So, in vain, he sent his best assassins to kill Houlagou, the grandson of Genghis Khan, and they all ended up massacred.
Houlagou commands a powerful army to storm Baghdad and destroy all the Ismailis' strongholds in his path.
In an awful dream, the Old Man saw Alamut fall stone by stone, and his magnificent library was in flames. The Templar Great Master also suffered from bad dreams in which many of his brothers were delivered to the fire.
Hassan ibn al-Sabbâh, the grand master of the Assassin sect, and Renaut of Vichiers, the Grand Master of the Temple Order, replaced the courageous Guillaume of Sonnac, killed in Egypt, greeted each other one last time before facing their fate.
In Acre, Aurel visits this pretty prostitute who doesn't charge him for his services, probably in love with the young Templar. He doesn't hesitate to have a good time with her, just as he did with Mistress Hersende. From the French kingdom, the midwife wrote him a long letter in which she told him about her marriage to the king's apothecary and acquiring a house in Paris with the rent Louis had granted her. In the missive followed passionate declarations of love, where Hersende confided that she would never forget her Aurel.
The Templar sees no reason to answer or let her believe he cares about her.
The truth was he had slept with Hersende to forget the beautiful Ada.
***
The young woman has her room in a discreet inn in the Pisan quarter, run by a matron whom the girls call their "abbess," not without humor. The pretty whore has regular customers, wealthy merchants, and notables of the city.
She opens her door to him, barely covered by a nightgown that doesn't hide much of her gorgeous body. Besides, she quickly removes it and then helps Aurel to undress.
The young woman is thin, with a pleasant face and long clear hair. Without saying anything, she kisses the Templar passionately on the chest and the stomach, going down boldly until his sex, running over it with her lips. Aurel lets himself make a moment, then puts the young woman astride him. The prostitute does her best, appreciating the gentleness he shows, compared to the nastiness of some pigs who boast that she will have trouble sitting down after passing through their hands.
One day she confided in him, confessing the loss of her virginity when she was thirteen years old. At that time, she was serving in the kitchen of a bourgeois, just like her widowed mother. The bourgeois had a son who harassed the girl, but her mother was there to protect her and gently send the boy away. One evening, her mother became very ill. So she went to get some leftover soup from the burgher. On the way back, she met a dozen rich scoundrels who boasted of hunting the bitch, and the burgher's son was with them. They chased her to a dark alley. That night, she was raped by these ten idle young men, who attributed her screams of pain to pleasure. She never went back to the bourgeois' house again. But she tried to look after her mother, spending their few pennies to buy her remedies. In vain, because she died after a week.
On the lookout for fresh young girls for her regulars, the famous "abbess" quickly offered the girl room and board in her inn.
***
Aurel got what he wanted.
He's about to return to his dormitory in the Templar quarter. This pretty whore, her kisses, her caresses, have little to do with the idea he once had of passion in love. The young man has taken final vows to find a purpose in this life, to forget his cousin's wife, her angelic figure, her goddess-like body. He hated she let him believe she liked him a little, but not as much as her beloved Reyn.
The Templar has no news of these two, repeating that he's doing well.
Daily!
"Are you already leaving?" the girl asks.
"Your customers will be here soon! Better to slip away," Aurel says.
"You're right! I'm very much in demand," the girl replies, laughing. "Do you know that our abbess is always looking for young and pretty girls, abandoned by all? She keeps talking about a castaway discovered unconscious on the beach in the Levant! A beauty, it seems! Well, if she survives serious injuries."
"A castaway," Aurel repeats. "It's strange! No pilgrims' boats are expected in Acre for these days."
"It's reported that a fisherman carried her almost dead to the St. John Knights' hospital. The damsel was naked, according to him. She had light hair and alabaster skin like a true goddess," she concludes by chuckling.
The young Templar leaves the room without a word, the worried mine.
Before going home to sleep, he thought of making a detour to the district of the St. John Knights and their great hospital.
"You're a relentless idiot," he mutters, pressing the pace.
***
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