Smoke soiled the sky, turning the sun orange and drifting
over the walls of the citadel to drop cinders and ash upon the thousands of
refugees crowding the ward. The breeze also brought shouts, cries, and the
raised voices of men quarreling, along with the sound of things being dragged,
broken, and smashed. Many children were crying in terror, held by mothers
hardly less terrified themselves, while priests chanted in a half-dozen
languages, and men murmured and argued and looked anxiously to the thin walls
around them.
Maria Zoë, who had been looking out of the interior window
of the hall, drew back, closing the shutters. Her household knights, Sir
Constantine and Sir William, were discussing urgently the best defensive
strategy for the citadel, but there had not yet been an assault, and the fires
suggested there would be none today. The Saracens appeared to have taken the
bait of plunder over the risky business of attacking the citadel—no matter how
weak it was. She had bought them time, but how much?
“Water, food, and latrines,” she said out loud, turning back
to face the men in the room.
“How many people are sheltering here? Do we even
have a head count?” For this she looked not to her steward, who was
conspicuously lurking in the shadows trying to avoid her eye, but to her
confessor Father Angelus and the Abbot of St. Sebastian, an energetic and
competent man.
“A head count?” Father Angelus answered with a glance toward
the abbot. “No, but we estimate eleven thousand.”
“That would be the entire Christian and Jewish population of
Nablus,” Maria Zoë responded dismissively.
The churchmen looked at one another and nodded. “Yes, madame.
Except for the Muslims, who consciously remained outside, the entire population
is here: Christians, Jews, and Samaritans.”
“We can’t possibly feed eleven thousand!” Maria Zoë
protested next, after she absorbed the magnitude of her own success at getting
the residents of Nablus into the citadel.
“Not for long, no,” Father Angelus admitted.
“For how long?” Maria Zoë wanted to know.
“The castle was stocked to feed fifty fighting men and
twenty others for a year,” Father Angelus answered. “That means we can feed eleven
thousand for …” he pursed his lips as he did the math in his head, “three to
four days at the most—on short rations.”
“Is that long enough?”
“That depends on what has happened to the Christian army,” Sir
Walter replied, coming up beside her with the other knights in his wake. “If
the Saracens are here because they have already defeated the forces under King
Baldwin, we cannot expect relief at all.”
Maria Zoë had been far too focused on the immediate threat
to think about that.
“How do we find out what has happened to King Baldwin?” she asked,
carefully avoiding the question about her husband, brother-in-law, and
son-in-law.
Silence answered her question, and as she looked from man to
man, they dropped their eyes. “I see,” she answered her own question. “Either
someone comes to our relief—or they don’t.”
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