El Murid peered at him again. Nassef, Im tired. Tonight and tomorrow we rest. The next day we resume our work. You, your wars. Me, my preparations for the Kingdom they will establish. Ill want you to find me scribes and architects. I want to set down a code of laws, and I want a special palace built to house the Malachite Throne. Also, I want to erect a stele in the meadow. On it Ill inscribe the names of the faithful who fall in the Lords cause, that their names be immortal both here and in Paradise.

As you say. I like the stele. Perhaps if you set aside the top for the Invincibles?

Yes. Have somebody remember the names of everyone who died here. Theyll be the first inscribed.

Later, before he retired, El Murid led Meryem, and carried his daughter, to the highest rampart of the old fortress. My loves, he said, one tiny splinter of the dream has come to life. The Kingdom of Peace exists, although its bounds lie no farther than I can see. Someday all the earth will acknowledge the Lord.

Cradling the baby in his left arm, he slipped his right around Meryems waist. She leaned against him, shivering in the cool mountain breeze.

Come, she said after a time. Let me remind you that youre also a man. She smiled up at him. The spoiled brat of the el Habib had grown into a woman who loved him as a man.

That night they conceived a boy-child.

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

A Fortress in Shadow

Megelin Radetic walked the stony slopes below the tired walls of el Aswad, the Eastern Fortress. Haroun tagged along, scattering his attention as small boys will, yet clinging to the one adult who had time for him. A scarred old veteran dogged them both, his sword always in hand.

Haroun had not spoken for days. He had become lost inside his own young mind. Now, at least, he chose to speak, as Radetic paused to stare out across the sere, inhospitable land. Megelin, is Father going to die?

I dont think so. The physicians are hopeful.

Megelin?

What? It was time to be gentle. He knelt.

Why did he kill them? The pilgrims at the shrine.

Radetic resumed walking. I dont know. If anyone but El Murid had given the order, Id guess for spite.

They moved round the flank of the mountain. On its eastern face they encountered Harouns brother Ali. Ali was seated on a boulder. He stared at Jebal al Alf Dhulquarneni, as if his thoughts might conjure the Hidden Ones from their secret strongholds.