Pillars of Light

Copyright © 2016 Jane Johnson

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.

Doubleday Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House Canada Limited.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Johnson, Jane, 1960-, author
Pillars of light / Jane Johnson.

ISBN 978-0-385-68262-6
(pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-385-68263-3
(epub)

I. Title.

PR
6060.
O
357
P
54 2016       823’.914       
C
2015-901989-3
                                                                
C
2015-901990-7

This is a work of historical fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.

Cover images: (floral pattern) © Rchicano |
Dreamstime.com
;
(woman) © Hugh Sitton/Stocksy United
Map by Kelly Hill

Published in Canada by Doubleday Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

v3.1

For Abdel

Lovers find secret places within this violent world wherein they may make transactions with beauty
.

R
UMI

I
N
E
NGLAND

The Moor, traveller (origins unknown)

John Savage, foundling

Enoch Pilchard, also known as Quickfinger

Mary White, also known as Plaguey Mary

William of Worcester, also known as Red Will

Michael and Saul Dyer, twins going by the name of Hammer and Saw

Edward Little, also known as Little Ned

Rosamund, also known as Ezra

Reginald de Bohun, the Bishop of Bath and founder of Wells Cathedral

Savaric de Bohun, also known as Fitzgoldwin: cousin to Reginald

Abbess of Wilton, presides over the shrine of St. Edith and the Nail of Treves

Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife to King Henry II of England and mother to his sons, including Richard, known as the Lionheart

I
N
A
CRE
(also called Akka)

Emir Beha ad-Din Karakush, Governor of Akka

Baltasar Najib

Nima, his wife

Sorgan, their eldest son

Malek, their second son, serving Sultan Salah ad-Din

Zohra, their daughter

Aisa and Kamal, youngest twin sons

Yacub of Nablus, a doctor

Sara, his wife

Nathanael, their son

Various aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbours, soldiers.

T
HE
A
RMY OF THE
F
AITHFUL

Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, Commander of the Faithful and Sultan of Egypt, known by the Christians as Saladin

Imad ad-Din, the Lord of Sinjar, brother to the sultan

Al-Adil, the sultan’s younger brother

Al-Afdal, Salah ad-Din’s older son

Al-Malik az-Zahir, Salah ad-Din’s younger son

Baha ad-Din, the Qadi (judge and senior officer) of the Army

Imad al-Din, the sultan’s scribe

Taki ad-Din, Prince of Hama, the sultan’s nephew

Saïf ad-Din Ali al-Mashtub, a warlike Kurdish chieftain

Keukburi, known as the Blue Wolf, an emir from east of the Euphrates

Various messengers, commanders, soldiers.

T
HE
C
HRISTIAN
A
RMY IN
S
YRIA

King Philip Augustus of France

Guy de Lusignan, deposed King of Jerusalem and the Latin Kingdom

Conrad of Montferrat, Lord of Tyre, an Italian nobleman: his rival

Count Henry of Champagne

Gerard de Ridefort, Master of the Temple

Robert de Sable, knight of Anjou

Archbishop of Auxerre

Bishop of Bayonne

King Richard I, known as The Lionheart and by the Muslims as Malik al-Inkitar

Ranulf de Glanvill, Chief Justiciar of England, also known as the King’s Eye

Geoffrey de Glanvill, his brother

Baldwin of Forde, Archbishop of Canterbury

I
N
T
HE MOUNTAINS OF
S
YRIA

Sidi ad-Din Sinan, known as the Old Man of the Mountain, Grand Headmaster of the Hashshashin, a sect of Nizari fundamentalists, often called the Assassins