To the East

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: We are but warriors for the working-day; Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd With rainy marching in the painful field; There's not a piece of feather in our host- Good argument, I hope, we will not fly- And time hath worn us into slovenry: But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim. However, I don't own Castle.:. Rating: K, mostly. Time: See below.

Authors Note: The first three parts of the adventures of Richard Castle and Katherine Beckett in Renaissance Italy are in After A Deadly Affair, chapters 989 to 1004, 1005 to 1020 and 1026 to 1040. But I decided to write this as a standalone story.

It is the year of Our Lord 1365…..

"We're all dead." She said.

Lord Richard Castle put his arm around his wife's trim waist, finding the unaccustomed hardness of a chain mail hauberk rather than the silk that normally covered her soft skin. "You should leave. A company of archers on fast horses, with remounts could…."

"Never." She said with finality. "I will never leave you. Our fates are entwined, Richard. Even death will not stop my love of you."

Lady Katherine Castle was a beautiful woman, born of an English father and an Italian mother. In other circumstances she might have led an entirely peaceful and relatively conventional life, but that was not her fate. A French adventurer name de Braquenne and his army had taken her home city of Pola in the Duchy of Istria, and noting the beauty of both mother and daughter had had them brought to him. He had raped both women. Kate managed to escape, but her mother was murdered by de Braquenne. Kate had hidden in the woods of Istria for months waiting for a chance for revenge.

Her revenge came with the help of a humble captain of English archers named Richard Castle. Castle had come to Italy to serve as a mercenary to whoever could pay him and his men. A peace had been declared between England and France, throwing many men, who had no trade but that of soldier, out of work. Castle had been attracted to the lovely English lass at once. Kate had taken a bit more convincing.

Castle had held off a pirate attack on Pola, then led an army to the south to punish pirates who had infested the coasts of Dalmatia since time immemorial. He had defeated a band of pirates led by a man called Demming who had also lusted after Kate. Kate had had Demming burned at the stake.

Then he had served in the war against de Braquenne. De Braquenne had been defeated and Kate had had her revenge, killing the man who had murdered her mother and dishonored them both.

For his services, Rodrigo, Duke of Istria, had first knighted Richard, then made him Lord of Pola and commander of Istria's army of the southern marches. Lord Castle's army, the Company of St. Katherine of England, numbered between ten and fifteen thousand men, depending on whether they were on campaign or not.

"Excuse me." Said a feminine voice. A slender redhead in a long black cloak pushed her way between Lord Castle and Duke Rodrigo.

"Shouldn't you be wearing armor, Alexis?" Castle said, only half teasing.

"There's enough armor already here, Lord Richard. I have my own weapons." Lady Alexis Beckett opened her cloak to show that she wore only a diaphanous red silk gown. It was so sheer that Castle could easily see her stiff pink nipples and her shaved nether regions.

"Put your cloak on, for God's sake." Castle said, scandalized.

"Of course, Lord Castle." Alexis said, very slowly closing her cloak.

Alexis had been born in an English army camp. No one was quite sure who her father was and her mother had died young. Alexis had very little memory of the woman. She had been raised by Martha, her grandmother. Martha was a thief, a cheat and a whore and she had taught Alexis everything she knew and then Alexis had learned more. No one knew why Alexis had attached herself to the Castles with such iron clad devotion, but the young redhead had become the very efficient head of Lord Castle's intelligence service. She had spies all through Italy and the Balkans and as far afield as Egypt, Andalusia and the Byzantine Empire.

With Lady Kate's assistance, Alexis also ran the Castle's finances, investing cannily in trading ventures that made both short voyages across the Adriatic Sea to Italy and as far as the lands beyond the Pillars of Hercules and onto Africa to the south and the Baltic in the north. She also made investments that it was perhaps better that Lord Castle knew nothing about.

The men of Castle's army had begun referring to her as Lady Alexis and Duke Rodrigo had given her the formal title when he raised Castle to a lordship. Alexis had gone undercover as the flighty, not very bright but very rich cousin of Lady Kate, and so adopted the surname, Beckett. Never having had a proper family name, or rather having had hundreds, depending on her needs at the time, she had kept the name Beckett and continued to act as Lady Kate's cousin. In fact, she regarded Kate as a combination mother, sister and best friend, the more so since Martha had died the year before, worn out by her hard life.

"How many of them are there, Richard?" Duke Rodrigo asked, although he already knew the answer.

"Your Grace, the Turks have some two hundred and fifty war galleys and transports that carry over fifty thousand troops. They've been destroying every pirate base from the Peloponnesus to here, and now they're here."

The Duke sighed. "I had hoped that by bringing my army south to join with yours that we could stop the damned Turks. It seems that was a vain hope."

Sir James Walden, who commanded the English portion of Duke Rodrigo's army nodded. "We can but die well."

"There's a small boat setting off from what I take to be the Turk's flagship." Said Huw of Llandovery, a sturdy Welsh archer who had become Richard's second in command now that Will Fox, Castle's one time mentor, was too old and too ill to take the field.

"Why would they send someone to talk to us?" Kate wondered.

"They may want to tell us that they'll spare our lives if we convert to Islam. We'd be slaves of course." Castle replied.

Kate tapped the dagger that hung on her right hip, balancing the sword on her left. "I'll not spend the rest of my life in a Turkish harem."

"Kate…"Castle began.

"One man is getting off the boat." Huw interrupted. "He's headed for the sea gate. He's well dressed. He must be important."

The man reached the sea gate and looked up at the people clustered on the top of the city wall. "Richard, how have you been, my friend? And your dear lady? Is Kate now clad in armor? Is this the latest fashion for Christian ladies? I do not approve. And Duke Rodrigo, will you not let me in so we can talk?"

Alexis leaned over the wall, allowing the top of her cloak to fall open. "Hamid ibn Jinnah, is that you?" She turned to Duke Rodrigo. "Your Grace, you should let him in. He's been a friend to Istria and to all of us. We need to hear what he has to say."

Hamid ibn Jinnah was a powerful man among the Turks, but he had been captured by pirates and chained to an oar as a galley slave. When rescued by Castle he had agreed to help Castle. He had his own reasons for wanting revenge against the pirates. His two sons who had been captured with him had been too young to pull and oar, so they had been castrated and killed. He eventually got his revenge, and rose to command the small but powerful Istrian navy. Eventually, he had returned to the service of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Duke Rodrigo looked down at Hamid ibn Jinnah, then at the massed Turkish fleet. He leaned over the wall. "I'll be right down, Hamid."

Rodrigo ordered the drawbridge dropped and the portcullis opened. Hamid strode through confidently, as if he'd come for meeting with friends and not at the head of an armada. "Duke Rodrigo. The last few years have been good to you. The power and influence of Istria has never been higher and I understand you now have a son?"

"Yes, Carlo is one year old. And how is your family, Lord Hamid?" Rodrigo asked, somewhat stiffly.

"As the Prophet allows me four wives, I'm blessed with five sons now. The oldest is nine and will become a page at the court of my master, the Sultan."

Hamid turned to Castle. "And my friend, I understand you have a daughter? But I am sure your lovely wife will gift you with many fine, strong sons."

"I'm sure she will, Hamid. But we are as happy with Lily as we could be with a son."

He then turned to Kate and kissed her hand in the European manner. "You are even more lovely than ever, Lady Castle. But do Christian women now wear armor?"

Kate smiled. "We had heard rumors that a large unfriendly fleet and army was nearby. Obviously, the rumors were false."

Hamid laughed. "With a large unfriendly fleet and army on one side and Lady Kate on the other, any sensible man would place a wager on Lady Kate."

Hamid's eyes went to Lady Alexis. "Lady Alexis, how did you not know that it was merely your old friend Hamid coming to visit, with the so many eyes you have everywhere."

She smiled and allowed her cloak to fall open. "I have more than one talent, Lord Hamid." She said suggestively. "I had hoped to purchase a squadron or two of your galleys for Istria."

"And you would have probably gotten a very good deal from me."

He turned back to Rodrigo. "And now, dear Duke Rodrigo, should we adjourn to the Ducal Palace and discuss things?"

As they walked to the palace, Hamid smiled and called to people he had known from his time living and working in Pola. He suggested to one and all that they would soon be happier, wealthier and more peaceable than ever before.

Before they got to the palace, Duke Rodrigo spoke to Alexis. "It would be best if you returned to the Castle's home and changed your gown, Lady Alexis. What you have on is not suitable for court attire."

"Oh, I keep many gowns placed conveniently around town. There are twelve in the Ducal Palace. I'll just need a second to change, Your Grace."

Alexis sped ahead and was waiting for her friends in the Duke's office, now wearing a blue cotton dress that covered her, but allowed no one to doubt she was a woman. She had had the palace staff bring wine and sweets to the office and had piled pillows in the Turkish fashion throughout the room.

She bowed as Duke Rodrigo and the rest entered. "I hope everything is to your satisfaction, Your Grace."

"I'm sure they are, Lady Alexis."

They all sat on the pillows and Duke Rodrigo played the host, pouring a cup of wine for Hamid and for the ladies and pointing out some choice morsels of food to his Turkish guest.

After a bit of small talk, Rodrigo got down to business. "May I ask why you have come to Istria, Lord Hamid?"

"Why, to ask for your help as an ally, of course." Hamid said, smiling.

"You brought a rather large escort for an ambassador." Castle remarked.

"The Sultan has been troubled with Dalmatian pirates sailing into waters under his control. It seems the fellows have no stomach to go up against the redoubtable Lord Richard Castle and the Company of Saint Katherine of England. And the Istrian Navy. The Sultan asked me to discourage them on my way here."

"You wish to ally yourselves with Istria?" Alexis asked, a slight note of disbelief entering her voice.

Hamid's face became serious. "Have you heard of a man called Timur the Lame, sometimes called Tamerlane by Christians?"