THE WORD SPREAD like fire from battalion to battalion. Get ready.... Full battle gear. We're going in,tonight !

Tonight, another charge? Weary and frightened soldiers around me moaned in disbelief. Do they think we can see at night what we cannot even shoot during the day?

No, this time it's different, the captain promised. Tonight you'll go to sleep fucking the emir's wife!

The camp sprang alive. There was a traitor inside Antioch. He would give up the city. Antioch would finally fall. Not from its walls crumbling but from treachery and greed.

Is it true? Robert asked, hastily putting on his boots. Do we finally get to pay them back?

Sharpen that knife, I told the eager lad.

Raymond ordered the army to break camp, giving the appearance that we were headed for a raid elsewhere. We pulled back two miles, as far as the river Orontes. Then we held until close to dawn. The signal was spread.Everyone be ready....

Under the shield of darkness, we quietly crept back within sight of the city walls. A sliver of orange light was just breaking over the hills to the east. My blood was surging. Today, Antioch would fall. Then it was on to Jerusalem. Freedom.

As we waited for the word, I put my hand on Robert's shoulder. Nerves?

The boy shook his head. I fear not.

You may have started the day still a boy, but by its end you'll be a man, I told him.

He grinned sheepishly.

I guess we'll both be men. I winked.

Then a torch waved over the north tower. That was it! Our men were inside.Let's go ! the nobles shouted.Attack !

Our army charged, Frank, Norman, Tafur, side by side, with one purpose, one mind. Show them whose God is One, the leaders cried.

Our battalions headed toward the north tower, where ladders were hoisted against the walls and wave after wave of men climbed over. The sound of shouts and vicious fighting erupted from inside. Then, all at once, the big gate opened.Right in fr............