A Destrier’s Tale
Balian d’Ibelin’s
Destrier “Centurion” Tells his Story
Part XVI: Siege and Sortie
I wasn’t given
much time to enjoy that victory though. Just a couple days later the largest
host of Horse-Haters ever seen was attacking Jerusalem. At first they just
charged at the walls, but the Christians — men and mares both — fought them
back. The Christian archers were on the walls all day firing at the Horse-Haters,
and Lord Balian rode me around and around the city so he could tell the humans
what to do.
But then the
Horse-Haters found giants willing to throw boulders and flaming balls over the
walls and into the city itself. Those rocks were so huge they made the earth
shake when they struck they smashed anything that got in their way — masonry
or flesh. Most of the horses had been taken out of the city, of course, or were
protected in stables, but I didn't like those boulders roaring through the air. Worse, however, were the flaming balls. They set the
shops and many a roof on fire and I saw one person go up in flames too. After a
couple days of this the whole city seemed to be on fire.
That night
Georgios, who had replaced Gabriel as Lord Balian’s squire, woke me up. Dawit
and Mattheows were there too, tacking up their own horses, and as soon as we
were ready, Lord Balian mounted me and we all rode to the Postern of Mary Magdalen. Here
we three were joined first by three strangers in funny clothes, and then by a
pack of about two score of those colt-knights that had panicked so badly in the
last fight before the siege started. They were riding their horses, who were
nickering among themselves and generally behaving badly.
Lord Balian ordered
everyone to be silent, then he closed the chainmail flap over his mouth and
chin and took a lance in hand before leading that pack out of the postern into
the night. Just beyond the postern, Lord Balian pointed me not at the bridge
but the ditch. I hesitated, but he urged me forward and so we descended into
the dry ditch surrounding the city and walked along the bottom of that ditch
along the north side of the city. The ground was very uneven and there were
rocks littered around down there too so you had to be careful about your
footing. Lord Balian trusted me and gave me a long rein so I could find my way
but progress was slow.
Eventually,
however, Lord Balian signaled a halt and jumped down. He flung the reins over
my head and led me up the steep bank out of the ditch. We emerged just beside
the Leper Pool, and here he remounted. Then we just sat there doing nothing. It
was hard to see in the dark, but I was pretty sure there were Horse-Haters up
to the hill to our right and they appeared to be guarding the terrible giants
that flung the stones at us. But there were Horse-Haters on our left too. They
were crowded around the giants that were leaning right up against the corner
tower of the city.
Suddenly there
was a lot of shouting from that direction, and several of the young colts
behind me shied at the noise. You could hear the clang of metal and then
screams of pain. Lord Balian wasn’t happy at all. His muscles tensed and
although he wasn’t telling me what he wanted, I could sense that he wanted
action of some sort. I stamped and slapped him with my tail. I even flung my
head up to try to make him pay more attention. The next thing we knew a huge
flame shot up into the air with a roar. We all jumped and some of the younger
colts bolted in panic. Lord Balian seemed oddly relieved, and with a shouted “now”
he tightened his calves on my sides. I didn’t need any more urging than that.
We started charging up the hill toward the sleeping giant.
Unfortunately some
of the Horse-Haters who had been rushing to put out the fires behind us, now
turned and starting running to take us in the flank. Lord Balian saw the danger
the same time I did, and he turned to face them while some of the other knights
continued toward the sleeping giants. There were no mounted Horse-Haters and we
ran these footmen down pretty easily.
But then somehow
that sleeping giant went up in explosive flame too. When that went up, we all
bolted and soon we were just racing back for the comparative safety of the
barn. Along our left flank, however, the camp of the Horse-Haters was alive
with shouts of alarm and anger. Soon they started charging down at us, firing
their arrows blindly. Fortunately, the Christians were manning the wall to our
right and returned fire. I knew we had to let the archers fight it out and just
stretched out my neck to flatten my stride and make us a smaller target.
Galloping across
open countryside in the dark is pretty risky. A wrong step will break a leg and
as we turned the corner to get around to the eastern wall, one of the horses
did just that. Even in all the noise of the stampede you could distinctly hear
his leg snap. Then he crumpled up, flinging his rider off as he fell, but we
just kept going. We didn't have a choice.
I could see ahead
of us the bridge to the Jehosaphat Gate was down and the gates were open.
Humans were lining the wall cheering us on. Some of those younger stallions
were trying to get ahead of me in their panic, but I shouldered them out of the
way. Lord Balian had led this sortie out, and Lord Balian would lead it back!
We thundered over the bridge in a pack and into a city that was wild with
jubilation: cheering men and women, singing black-robes, and children jumping up-and-down
and screaming with excitement.
A landless knight,
Knight of Jerusalem: A Biographical Novel of Balian d'Ibelin, Book I, is a B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree and finalist for the 2014 Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction.
The siege of Jerusalem is described (from human perspective) in Book II of my Biographical Novel of Balian d'Ibelin:
The three part biography begins with:
A landless knight,
a leper king, and the struggle for Jerusalem!
Knight of Jerusalem: A Biographical Novel of Balian d'Ibelin, Book I, is a B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree and finalist for the 2014 Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction.
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