Swords From the Desert Read Online Free Page A

clad in a beggar's cloak and hood, yet moving away with a stride that was no beggar's discouraged shuffle.
    Whereupon the Arab waited until the alley was deserted. Then, muffling himself in his kaftan, he vanished silently in the other direction. John of Burgundy had eyes and ears that served him well for hire of nights, even, perhaps, in the rogues' alleys.
    Jeanne did not go to her room, in a neighboring attic. While Giron and Pied-a-Botte snored in their cloaks, she sat in the straw to tend the fire, and ceaselessly her eyes strayed to the face of the sleeping stranger. At times she reached out to touch his bandaged head and run her fingers timidly through the yellow hair dark with dried blood.
    Hugging her knees and wide awake, she played a game of pretending-that this unknown man belonged to her, and looked at her with eyes of love.
    Early the next morning Ibn Athir answered a tap at his door to find Jeanne standing by the curtain. The girl had made a hasty visit to her quarters and had washed carefully, adding a touch of rouge to her cheeks and a flimsy bit of lace to the throat of her dress. She said nothing as she wandered about the alchemist's room, glancing idly at the brick furnace, the crucibles and glass vials and the piled-up folios.
    "Is it true, Master Athir," she asked at last, "that you make draughts of magic for the great Marks-the noble dames?"
    "Sometimes."
    Jeanne's tongue seemed to fail her, and she flushed. "I mean the things they call-love potions. You know well the draughts that make-other people-love these ladies?"
    "Verily, I know them." Athir sold talismans and potions to his patrons, while he smiled inwardly at their superstition.
    "And such a draught will work no harm to him-to the one that drinks of it?"
    "Little Jeanne, such potions are for the seigneurs' ladies, who pay for their whims."
    "My father was a seigneur even as they, but a minstrel of the southland with an empty purse and a great thirst in him, which brought him down to singing ballades to the crowds while I fiddled among them, thanking them for the silver. A year ago he died, and I have made good shift for myself. I can pay only a small price, but, please, Master Athir, mix me the draught with magic in it for I need it sorely."
    The Arab looked at her curiously, seeing anew the soft hair, the clear, troubled eyes. And he wondered, as he went to his table, what minstrel had caught the fancy of so fair a girl. He measured out a little red fluid. "Juice of the root of manna," he explained, and added a pinch of dark powder that vanished from sight. "'Tis star dust brought from the Egyptian desert where the heart of a flying star fell. It hath power to arouse great love in a human, but be sure that you keep near to him who drinks it."
    "I will do that." She nodded gratefully and hastened away with the red elixir in a vial.
    In the cellar the wounded man, alone, was pacing restlessly by the embers of the fire-he had been asleep in Giron's charge when Jeanne had left him to seek the alchemist.
    "What hole is this?" he cried. "Who brought me hither?"
    Jeanne lowered her eyes and clutched the vial tighter. "Messire-I did. Truly, you are sore hurt and have not strength to venture forth."
    "Thy name is Jeanne-I heard it spoken last night-and meseems I owe thee much." The boy smiled impulsively. "Wil't help me more?"
    "Aye, but first," she added warily, "you must eat, and drink."
    She hurried to place bread and cheese on a clean cloth, and to pour wine into a cup. After a second's hesitation she emptied the vial of red fluid into the wine and brought it to him. He gulped it down and chewed at a fistful of the bread, while Jeanne sat in the straw pretending to eat, but watching him breathlessly.
    The drink had an effect upon him, for his eyes brightened and he seemed to throw off his weariness. "Thou art no rogue's girl," he said. "Nay, an elf-maid, thou, escaped from Merlin's tower."
    Jeanne lowered her eyes swiftly, and choked on a bit of