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Back A Burning Sea
Chapters (54)
  1. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  2. PART ONE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. PART TWO
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. PART THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. HISTORICAL NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘How can you say that after what I have given you?’

Al-Battal scoffed. ‘What have you given us? We are still waiting.’

‘I don’t understand. You’ve had the information for weeks.’ Katāros felt a horrible, gaping hole tearing open his chest.

‘We have had nothing from you. Only the corpse of the Jewish woman. It washed up on the shores to the west. But there was no sign of a boat, no information. Nothing.’

‘But. . . but,’ he stammered. ‘She had it all. . . Everything was on her. Drawings, procedures, formulae. It was all there for you!’ Katāros was babbling now, feeling his beautifully constructed plans crumbling in his fingers.

Al-Battal’s eyes looked even blacker than usual. ‘Evidently she failed. And so have you.’

Thoughts of what he had done to extract the information from Nikolaos flashed in his mind. . . all of it for nothing. Nothing! The chasm in his chest began to fill with rage. ‘No,’ he hissed, his long nails digging into his palm.

‘Ibn al Kalb!’ swore the envoy. ‘It is worse than I feared then. The Egyptian fleet is already in the Marmara Sea. It will be here in a day. Two at most! Do you have the information still? In there?’ He pointed at Katāros’s head.

‘I think so.’ His mind was scrambling. ‘Yes. Yes! I have it. But it’s useless now. It’s too late.’

‘We can still get you out of the city. You must come with me right now.’

‘I can’t just ride out of the city. I’ll be recognized.’ He shook his head. ‘No. Fate has destroyed that chance.’

‘Fate? Bah! You mean your own incompetence.’

Katāros ignored the slur, his mind already busy, seeking, seeking. There had to be something else, something to give them leverage over Leo, something of value to him personally. And all of sudden, he saw it. ‘There may be another way to get this peasant king to submit.’

‘The time for submission is passed. We will take the city with the strength that we have.’

‘Inshallah, sadiq,’ Katāros nodded. ‘Inshallah. . . But if it is your fleet that is destroyed, we need a piece on the board that keeps us in the game.’

‘Do you have such a piece?’

‘No. But we could get it.’

‘Can’t you speak with a straight tongue, serpent?’ The envoy glared at him. ‘Tell me!’

‘The emperor’s daughter.’ Al-Battal frowned, but in Katāros’s mind it was all slowly falling into place. He smiled. ‘Here is what we shall do.’

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Illustration

‘It’s him. It can only be him,’ said Lilla.

‘But we need solid proof before you accuse a man in his position.’ Even now, after all that had happened, Gerutha couldn’t break the old habit of fussing over the silk cushions on Lilla’s bed.

‘Can’t you leave that, Grusha?’ snapped Lilla irritably.

‘Aye, if you’ll leave off your pacing.’