Chapter 64: Pressure on All Fronts
Date: March 10th, 1180Location: Damascus
The wind over Damascus carried a chill that had little to do with the season. Within the walls of the Citadel, Saladin sat in silence, staring at the maps unfurled before him—maps that told of the Kingdom of Jerusalem's sudden boldness.
Reports from the coast piled on his desk like creeping rot. Acre. Tyre. Jaffa. Sidon. Ships with foreign coats of arms arrived weekly. Soldiers of many tongues, but a shared cause, stepped onto the soil of the Levant in growing numbers.
Saladin's fingers traced the northern roads on the map, stopping at Baalbek and Homs. Baldwin, it seemed, had chosen his path. The Christian king, disfigured by disease but strengthened by growing unity and newfound vision, was preparing for war—and not in the way the Ayyubid court had anticipated.
"This is not like the past crusades," Saladin said finally, his voice steady, but carrying the weight of suspicion and concern. "This time, they are not stumbling across the sea in blind zeal. This one has a mind behind it."
He stood, slowly. The commanders gathered in his chamber bowed slightly—Amir Khalil of Damascus, the fiery Shams ad-Din of Baalbek, and his nephew Al-Afdal, newly returned from Cairo.
"They are coming with order, not chaos," Saladin continued. "Cohorts, provisions, a unified banner. They even offer land to draw more men—nobles and their retainers."
Shams ad-Din scoffed. "What does land mean when we crush them before the mountains of Syria?"
Saladin turned his gaze sharply to him.
"We have not crushed them," he said. "In truth, they have crushed us—at Montgisard, at Jacob's Ford. And now, we hear Acre is swelling with warriors."