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Bulgars. Da ud chuckled.
Iskur yelled something at the guards lounging in front of a wooden gate in
Pliska s earthen outwall.
The guards yelled back. Iskur shouted again, louder this time. With poor
grace, the guards got up and opened the gate. They stared as they saw what
sort of companions Iskur led.
Jalal ad-Din gave them a grave salute as he passed through the gate, as much
to discomfit them as for any other reason. He pointed ahead to the stone wall
of Pliska proper. You see?
I see, Da ud said. The rectangular wall was less than half a mile on a side.
In our lands, that would be a fortress, not a capital.
The gates of the stone wall were open. Jalal ad-Din coughed as he followed
Iskur and Omurtag into the town: Pliska stank like stank worse than a big
city. Jalal ad-Din shrugged. Sooner or later, he knew, he would stop noticing
the stench.
Not far inside the gates stood a large building of intricately carven wood.
This Telerikh s palace,
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Iskur announced.
Tethered in front of the palace were any number of steppe ponies like the ones
Iskur and Omurtag rode and also, Jalal ad-Din saw with interest, several real
horses and a mule whose trappings did not look like Arab gear. To whom do
those belong? he asked, pointing.
Not know, Iskur said. He cupped his hands and yelled toward the
palace yelling, Jalal ad-Din thought wryly, seemed the usual Bulgar approach
toward any problem. After a little while, a door opened. The Arab had not even
noticed it till then, so lost was its outline among carvings.
As soon as they saw someone come out of the palace, Iskur and Omurtag wheeled
their horses and rode away without a backwards glance at the ambassadors they
had guided to Pliska. The man who had emerged took a moment to study the new
arrivals. He bowed. How may I help you, my masters? he asked in Arabic
fluent enough to make Jalal ad-Din sit up and take notice.
We are envoys of the caliph Abd ar-Rahman, come to your fine city Jalal
ad-Din knew when to stretch a point at the bidding of your khan to explain to
him the glories of Islam. I have the honor of addressing ? He let the words
hang.
I am Dragomir, steward to the mighty khan Telerikh. Dismount; be welcome
here. Dragomir bowed again. He was, Jalal ad-Din guessed, in his late
thirties, stocky and well-made, with fair skin, a full brown beard framing
rather a wide face, and gray eyes that revealed nothing whatever a useful
attribute in a steward.
Jalal ad-Din and his companions slid gratefully from their horses. As if by
magic, boys appeared to hitch the Arabs beasts to the rails in front of the
palace and carry their saddlebags into it. Jalal ad-
Din nodded at the other full-sized horses and the mule. To whom do those
belong, pray? he asked
Dragomir.
The steward s pale but hooded eyes swung toward the hitching rail, returned to
Jalal ad-Din.
Those, he explained, are the animals of the delegation of priests from the
Pope of Rome at the bidding of my khan to expound to him the glories of
Christianity. They arrived earlier today.
LATE THAT NIGHT,Da ud slammed a fist against a wall of the chamber the four
Arabs shared.
Better they should stay pagan than turn Christian! he shouted. Not only was
he angry that
Telerikh had also invited Christians to Pliska as if intending to auction his
land to the faith that bid highest, he was also short-tempered from hunger.
The evening s banquet had featured pork. (It had not featured Telerikh; some
heathen Bulgar law required the khan always to eat alone.)
This is not so, Jalal ad-Din said mildly.
And why not? Da ud glared at the older man.
As Christians they would be dhimmis
people of the Book and thus granted a hope of heaven.
Should they cling to their pagan practices, their souls will surely belong to
Satan till the end of time.
Satan is welcome to their souls, whether pagan or Christian, Da ud said.
But a Christian
Bulgaria, allied to Rome, maybe even allied to the Franks, would block the
true faith s progress northwards and could be the spearpoint of a thrust back
toward Constantinople.
Jalal ad-Din sighed. What you say is true. Still, the true faith is also
true, and the truth surely will prevail against Christian falsehoods.
May it be so, Da ud said heavily. But was this land not once a Christian
country, back in the days before the Bulgars seized it from Constantinople?
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All the lands the Greeks held followed their usages. Some folk hereabouts must
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