Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE ASSASSIN AND THE LOVE SLAVE He is Daoud ibn Abdallah. A warrior who is not afraid to go alone amid multitudes of enemies. The servant of a very great ruler. Though young, a wealthy and powerful man in his own land. A spy and a thief in the lands of others. He is the man whom Sophia Karaiannides, accomplished courtesan and mistress to a king, is to serve without reservation. The alliance has been struck. The adventure begins.... _Also by Robert Shea:_ ILLUMINATUS! (With Robert Anton Wilson) SHIKE ALL THINGS ARE LIGHT* *Published by Ballantine Books THE SARACEN: LAND OF THE INFIDEL ROBERT SHEA BALLANTINE BOOKS . NEW YORK Copyright (C) 1989 by Robert Shea All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States of America by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 88-92191 ISBN 0-345-33588-0 Manufactured in the United States of America First Edition: March 1989 Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant spellings remain as printed, whilst inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. Thanks to Michael Shea for giving Project Gutenberg permission to distribute _The Saracen: Land of the Infidel_. TO MICHAEL ERIK SHEA _who helped me learn many things about the art of storytelling_ BOOK ONE LAND OF THE INFIDEL _Anno Domini 1263-1264 Year of the Hegira 661-662_ "Whoso fighteth in the way of God, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward." --The Koran, Surah IV "Nothing is true. Everything is permissible." --Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah, founder of the Hashishiyya I In the mist-filled plains around Lucera, cocks crowed. Daoud ibn Abdallah pushed himself slowly to his feet. After days and nights of walking, his legs ached abominably. Tired as he was, he looked around carefully, studying the other travelers who rested near him on the road, peering at the city wall a hundred paces away with its shut gate of iron-studded oak. In his stomach he felt the hollow ball of dread that had not left him since he landed in Italy. _I am alone in the land of the infidel._