relating what he had seen and heard, Sinclairâs face grew increasingly strained, but he made no attempt to interrupt until Moray eventually fell silent. Then he sat chewing on his lip, his features pinched.
âDamn them all,â he said eventually. âThey brought it on themselves, with their jealousies and squabbling. I knew it in my gut, from the moment they decided to stop the advance on Tiberias yesterday. There was no sound reason for doing that. No reason a good commander could justify. We had already marched twelve miles through hellish heat, with less than six remaining. We could have won to safety before nightfall had we but stuck together and continued our advance. To stop was utter folly.â
âFolly and spite. And arrogance. Your Master of the Temple, de Ridefort, wanted to spite the Count of Tripoli. And Reynald de Chatillon backed him, using his influence on the King and bullying Guy into changing his mind.â
Sinclair grunted from pain and gripped his broken arm with his other hand. âI cannot speak for de Chatillon,â he said between gritted teeth. âI have no truck with him nor ever have. The man is a savage and a disgrace to the Temple and all it stands for. But de Ridefort is a man of principles and he truly believesRaymond of Tripoli to be a traitor to our cause. He had sound reasons for his distrust of him.â
âMayhap, but the Count of Tripoliâs was the only voice of sanity among our leaders. He said it would be madness to leave our solid base in La Safouri with Saladinâs masses on the move, and he was right.â
âAye, he was, but he had made alliance with Saladin prior to that, and then reneged on it, or so he would have us believe. And that alliance cost us a hundred and thirty Templars and Hospitallers at Cresson last month. De Ridefort was right to distrust him.â
âIt was de Ridefort who lost those men, Alec. He led them, all of them, in a downhill charge against fourteen thousand mounted men. It was his arrogance and his hotheadedness that are to blame for that. Raymond of Tripoli was nowhere near the place.â
âNo, but had Raymond of Tripoli not granted Saladinâs army the right to cross his territory that day, those fourteen thousand men would not have been there to provoke de Ridefort. The Master of the Temple might have been blameworthy, but the Count of Tripoli was at fault.â
Moray shrugged. âAye, you might be right, but when we were talking about leaving the safety of La Safouri, Raymondâs own wife was under siege in Tiberias, and even so he said he would rather lose her than endanger our whole army. That has no smell to me of treachery.â
Sinclair said nothing for a while after that, then grimaced again, his teeth clenched in pain. âSo be it. There is no point in arguing over it now, when the damage is irretrievable. Right now, we have to find outwhatâs going on up on the crest. Can you do that without being seen?â
âAye. Thereâs a spot among the rocks. Iâll go and look.â
Moray was back within minutes, scuttling sideways like a crab in an effort to keep his head down and out of sight from anyone on the hillside above.
âTheyâre on the move,â he hissed, pushing Sinclair gently down to lie on his back. âTheyâre coming down. The hillsideâs alive with them, and they all seem to be heading this way. In five minutesâ time theyâll be all around us, and if we arenât seen and dragged out of here it will be a miracle. So say your prayers, Alec. Pray as youâve never prayed beforeâbut silently.â
Somewhere close by a horse nickered and was answered by another. Hooves clattered on stone, as though right above the two motionless men, and then moved away. For the next hour or so they lay still, scarcely breathing and expecting discovery and capture with every heartbeat. But the time came when they could hear