Adventure Magazine Cover — page 70: what you’re looking at

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60 He perceived that the shadows were clos- ing in upon him. He must get the friars away and with them a message to his mas- ter. For himself there could be no return, ‘for he could not shame his king, who had trusted him. In the bestial twilight of this barbaric court the memory of Louis shone like a star. He must attempt to reach Kublai, of whom men spoke well, though the journey cost him his youth and his life. -It might mean years of wandering, but there was a fragment of hope in it. There, in the bleak hut, he suffered the extreme of mental anguish. A heavy door seemed to have closed between him and all that he held dear. . He fell on his knees and prayed to the saints to support his loneliness. And ‘then he found comfort, for had not God’s son suffered even as he and left the bright streets of paradise for loneliness among the lost? Next morning he faced the world with a clearer eye. It was not difficult to provide for the Franciscans. They, honest men, understood nothing save that the Tatar king had not the love of holy things, for. which they had hoped. They explaired the offices of the Church as well as they could to ribald and uncomprehending auditors and continued placidly in their devotions. As it chanced, a convoy was about to start for Muscovy, whence by ship they might come to Constantinople. The Tatars made no objection to their journey, for they had some awe of these pale men and were glad to be quit of foreign priestcraft. With them Aimery sent-a letter in which he told the king that the immediate errand had been done, but that no good could be looked for from this western Khakan. I go (he said) to Kublai the Great, in Cathay, who has a heart more open to God. If I re- turn not, know, sire, that I am dead in your most loving service, joyfully and pridefully as a Chris- tian knight dies for the cross, his king and his lady. He added some prayers on behalf of the little household at Beaumanoir and sealed it with his ring. It was the ring he had got from his father, a thick gold thing, in which had been cut his cognizance of three lions’ heads. This done, he sought an audience with the Ilkhan and told him of his purpose. Houlagou did not speak for a little, and into his set face seemed to creep an ill-boding shadow of a smile. “Who am I,” he said at length, “to hin- Adventure der your going to my brother Kublai? I will give you an escort to my eastern borders.” =e Aimery bent his knee and thanked him, but from the courtiers rose a hubbub of mirth which chilled his gratitude. He was aware that he sailed on very desperate waters. Among the Tatars was a recreant Gen- oese who taught them metalwork and had once lived at the court of Camgaluc. The man had glimmerings of honesty and tried hard to dissuade Aimery from the journey. “Tt is a matter of years,’ he told him, “and the road leads through deserts greater than all Europe and over mountains so high and icy that birds are frozen in the crossing. And a word in your ear, my lord. The Il- khan permits few to cross his eastern marches. Beware of treason, I say. Your companions are the bloodthirstiest of the royal guards.” But from the Genoese he obtained a plan of the first stages of the road, and one morning in Autumn he set out from the Tatar city, his squire from the Boulonnais by his side and at his back a wild motley of horsemen, wearing cuirasses of red leather stamped with the blue wolf of Houlagou’s house. 3 OCTOBER fell chill and early in Se those uplands, and on the fourth 1 day they came into a sprinkling of snow. At night round the fires the Tatars made merry, for they had strong drink in many skin bottles, and Aimery was left to his own cold meditations. If he had had any hope, it was gone_now, for the escort made it clear that he was their prisoner. Judging from the chart of the Genoese, they were not following any road to Cam- baluc, and the sight of the sky told him that they were circling round to the south. The few Tatar words he had learned were not enough to communicate with them, and in any case it was clear that they would take no orders from him. He was trapped like a bird in the fowler’s hands. Escape was folly, for in an hour their swift horses would have ridden him down. He had thought he had grown old, but the indignity woke his youth again and he fretted passionately. If death was his portion, he longed for it to come cleanly in soldier-fashion. One night his squire disappeared. The EOLPMIGLOOO SS (E@)