We arrived in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem a mere sen'night before The Event. My brother went to his quarters and I to mine amongst the knights' ladies. On the eve of the great campaign launched to crush the Saracen in Egypt, my brother came to me and begged me to relay his love and honor to our family in the event of his death. I refused to believe that any harm would come to him and refused his request. Much to my relief I was proven right, my brother had the blessings of the angels with him. When he returned - a full two months before the return of his knightly comrades - he had with him a native woman. He was unwilling to tell me who she was, other than that he had received the blessings of the church in his union with her. He required of me that I provide a place for her to sleep and introduction to the true faith. It was some time before I was able to get her story, for I had no knowledge of her language nor she of mine. Below is her story of how she came to be married to my brother.
At the age of 15, in the year 546, I began the journey from Baghdad to Cairo that was to culminate in my marriage. I cannot say that I relished the thought. I had met my intended husband but once, when I was 8, and had instinctively disliked him: he was old, and fat, and breathed as heavily as an over-laden camel. Moreover, while my mother was always careful to speak well of him, I had overheard my father curse the man.
During the trip, under the care of my father and youngest brother, I saw as much of the country as could be seen between the curtains of a palanquin, and that only occasionally for fear of attracting attention. I began to hope that when I married I might perhaps cover the same ground, for my betrothed was a textile merchant. Little did I suspect that I would soon travel to far more distant lands, in circumstances of much greater freedom, if more danger.
When we arrived in Bilbays, a few miles from Cairo, my father thought it best that I should rest for a few days, to recover from the journey. He accordingly traveled on to Cairo to announce our arrival, leaving me together with my dowry in the care of my brother. I was almost completely unprotected when the Franks arrived in force and seized the city.
I know little of the battle, for at the first alarm I hid myself away within the carpets, completely wrapped within my chador. I heard the shouts of men, the crash of weapons, the screams of women and children, and prayed for delivery. When the sounds of battle began to die away, and none had yet entered my chamber, I began to hope that my prayers had been answered. Suddenly, however, I heard someone enter the room - a Frankish knight, to adjudge from the clash of his armor. Scarcely daring to breathe, I peeked between two carpets. I saw him sit heavily on a cushion, and bury his head in his hands. Covered with grime and blood, with his over-tunic hacked and torn, he barely seemed human.
Barely had I seen this, when another of the Franks entered the room. The face of this second knight was purple with battle-rage. He immediately saw me in my hiding-place, and with a roar drew his sword and rushed towards me. The first knight leapt from his seat, and stood between us. They argued furiously, and seemed near to blows, when the first knight threw his purse on the ground. The second knight lost his rage, it seemed, burst into laughter, grabbed the purse, and ran to the entrance of my chamber. From there, he hailed many of his fellows.
Soon, I had been dragged from my hiding place, and was surrounded by Franks on all sides. I was forced to kneel with the knight who had first entered the room - my protector, as I was already beginning to think of him. His drawn sword stood between us, and his young servant or follower kneeled to his side. One man spoke what seemed to be ritual words over my head, while the rest cheered and laughed. I trembled, able to think of nothing but the rumors of ritual cannibalism among the Franks - rumors, however, which my father had always denied. At the end of the ritual, my knight kissed his sword, and made signs that I was to do the same. This required that I set aside my veil. With no alternative, I did so. After I had kissed the sword, I saw that he was looking intently at me. I immediately hid my face again, in confusion.
The happening now seemed to be over, and the joking knights streamed from my chamber. My knight sent his young follower for a horse, and loaded me and much of my dowry upon it. As we returned to his camp, I reflected that to be the slave of an honorable man might be preferable to being the wife of a hard and corrupt one. I supposed that the ritual had been one of indenturing me to his service. I only discovered days later that I had, astonishingly, been married according to the Christian rites.
Entering the camp, I was horrified by the widespread drunkenness and debauched celebrations. My protector's anger seemed to revive at the sight. Our arrival at his tent turned my mind to other fears. He did nothing worse, however, than to clean himself of the filth of battle and to change his clothes. He then began to pack his belongings, sending his follower on errands at which I could not guess. I later found that, while as brave as any man in battle, he could not stomach the wanton massacre of innocents - including even local Christians! - which had occurred after the fall of Bilbays. He therefore determined to return to his sister, rather than continue on to the assault on Cairo. That same day, we were on the road to Jerusalem.
A twelvemonth passed after learning of her fate, in which time Sirinn and I became friends. During this time as well, my brother, Sirinn's husband, fought valiantly against the unbelievers. It came to pass that a terrible fever raged throughout the encampment and my brother Liam fell ill. Sirinn and I feared for his life and spent many days and nights tending to him. Alas, he only grew worse. Sirinn became morose and I asked her what the cause was. She told me that if Her husband died she would walk in great fear for her life. I asked why she should fear this, and she told that as long as my brother lived he was able to protect us from those of her family. But, if he were to die, both she and I would no longer have that protection. She translated for me a letter which she had received some time ago from her father.
O shame upon my household:
I believed that you had died a virgin, and were now in Paradise. I hear instead that you are alive and unchaste, having placed yourself under the protection of an infidel knight. This shame will be removed only by the deaths of you and the infidel Liam.
In the eyes of her relations, her union with my brother, an enemy and infidel, was unsanctioned and the shame of it could only be removed by their deaths. I laughed at this and explained to her that she was Scots now and free of those worries. The knights and men at arms in our encampment would protect us until escort was found to take us home to Scotland. Sirinn explained that beings Scots was no protection, only a LIVING male relative was. Sirinn also explained to me as well that as a European woman with red hair, I would be very valuable to her family and they most probably seize me while executing her. The only thing left to do was plan our escape to Scotland and into the protection of my elder brother, Angus.
From then on we took turns tending to Liam, and working to gather what we would need for a long journey, all the while praying that he would recover his health. Alas, it was God's will that he not. A fortnight after contracting the fever, my brother Liam passed on. There was nothing for it but to flee for our lives.
The night after Liam's death, Sirinn, myself and Liam's young page gathered up what we had collected over the last sen'night in the way of supplies. We crept out of our tent in the dead of night and ran to the horses we had acquired from one of the knight's squires (under the pretext of teaching Sirinn to ride), and set off on the first leg of our journey. Because it would not be safe for two women to be on their own I was dressed in my brother's clothes and mail. Our only hope was that no one would discover our ruse.
The first leg of our journey was fairly uneventful with but one moment of fear. We had decided that until we had reached the port town of Asqalon (it being of lesser notice, we had great hopes that Sirinn's family would bypass it in their search for us) we would avoid villages, and towns. Our fear that Sirinn would be recognized was great. The second day of our great escape we came across a trader who was known to Sirinn. She quickly covered her face, in hopes of avoiding recognition. For while she had come to understand the true religion, she was unable to concede that I was right. We made it to the Mediterranean Sea in little under a fortnight and immediately set about finding passage to England and from there Scotland. We knew our journey would not ease in danger for we must continue pretending that I was my brother. We did not know the current state between England and Scotland and feared our reception in England. It took us a sen'night to finally find passage and then it was not of the best. But we had little in the way of coin, and our needs were immediate. I would not feel safe from the threat of Sirinn's family until we were on board ship and underway. Unfortunately, we would have an additional wait of two days before we were able to set sail. We greatly feared Sirinn's family would find us yet and this further delay would only give them that much more time. We must continue to hide until just before sailing with the tide.
The day of sailing arrived, and in much fear and trembling we left our place of hiding to make our way to the ship. Our premonitions were to be confirmed. Waiting at the dock were my father and two eldest brothers. It seemed that they were on the watch for a Frankish knight traveling with a Persian lady. They sighted us as we were a mere fifty paces from the gangway. We tried to run, but were cut off. My eldest brother grabbed me by the back of my chador, while my father drew his sword on Ealasaid! I shrugged off my chador, and ran for the ship unveiled. Our only chance was the ship's captain. The captain, seeing Ealasaid hard-pressed (she barely knew how to draw her sword!) called on his crew to assist us. The struggle caught the attention of many at Asqalon that day, Christians streamed in to help us, and Ealasaid was soon able to escape what had become a common dockside brawl. As she stumbled up the gangplank., I heard her name being called from the crowd! A knight ran to follow Ealasaid, and soon revealed himself as an old childhood friend of her brother Liam. He introduced himself and us to the captain, and aided us in gathering our belongings and bringing them onto the ship. This was barely completed when the time came to sail with the tide.
I was delighted to finally be on my way back to a civilized world and I looked forward to seeing once again my eldest brother Angus and his family. It was with great sadness however that I contemplated his reception of the news of Liam's death. To our continued distress we were forced to realize the changes to our circumstances now that it was known that I was actually female. As we were boarding, the sailors were eyeing us with impure intentions, and as the captain escorted us to our cabin he ordered us to stay there. While I had been accepted as my brother we had the freedom of the ship. Alas, now that my true identity was discovered we would only be allowed on deck but once a sen'night during our voyage. We were told that this was for our own safety as well as his control over his crew.
Our voyage through the Mediterranean Sea was uneventful; the seas were mild with plenty of wind to make good time. We made port In Naples as well as Valencia before making for the Strait of Gibraltar. It was while we were sailing along the coast of Portugal that we encountered our first storm. It lasted but a short while, however we sustained some damage to our sails and mast. We would have to attempt to make port in Lisbon for repairs. We were to never make it. One day shy of port, we encountered a second storm. This one was to last a whole sen'night and at the end, our way was lost. Several crew members had been swept overboard as well as several barrels of our fresh water supply. To make matters worse, there continued to be such a cloud cover as to make getting our bearings impossible, and as a result there was great fear that we would fall off the end of the world. We kept going in the direction that we felt was right, but we had no way of making sure of this.
It was a fortnight later that land was finally sighted. There was great rejoicing among the survivors, Sirinn and myself included. It took us an additional six hours to finally make harbor and drop anchor. To our dismay, there was a large town circling the harbor, its designs like nothing we had ever seen before. The local constabulary greeted us and escorted us to the inn where we were given rooms, food and drink. I must confess, it was hard to say which was of greater urgency to me. After our meal we were shown to our rooms and allowed hot water in which to bathe and we were able to sleep at last with no worries that we would never find our way. The next morning, the Baron of Madrone (for that is where we landed) cane to question us as to our identities and intentions in this great Kingdom of An Tir. We were able tell our story to a sympathetic ear and he invited us to reside in Madrone.
I miss my homeland of Scotland I do confess, I also miss my Brothers and the rest of my family. I regret not being able to tell Angus Myself of Liam's death as a result of the fever. But I thank God we survived and made it to this great land of An Tir. A few years after our arrival, Sirrinn met and fell in love with a franciscan monk and moved to the Land of Caid. The last I heard of her was that she was happy. I wish her well.
Ealasaid inghean Domnaill
Sirinn bin ta Bealidh