"We must move swiftly," Richard said to John of Chester as they made their way to the stables. "Marianne said that she had wandered in the desert for some days. Do you have any notion of how long that might have been?" He glanced back towards the local servant boy, who was bent double under the weight of Richard's arms and armour. "Come on!"

"It cannot have been too long." John frowned in though. "They were not yet knocking at death's door when we found them. Their skins had been seared by the sun, but in this heat?" He laughed, then was serious again. "Besides, delirium plays a man's senses so. It cannot have been more than two nights."

"And you recall where you found them?"

"Aye. And I can take you there just as easily."

"Good. We shall take a half-dozen men-at-arms and ride there as soon as we can."

The two knights arrived at the stables where their mounts were kept. While John went to fetch cavalrymen to accompany them, the Golden Knight prepared to ride into the wastes surrounding the city of Acre. First he put on a tunic of light cotton, to spread the force of any blows and to save the rest of his armour from biting into his flesh. Then, on top of this he drew on a surcoat of iron rings, bound together so as to block the blow from any sword or axe. Finally, on top of that, he wrapped himself in the flowing garments worn by the natives of the Holy Land. These would keep the worst of the sun's heat from him and, should he encounter any native bowmen, the robes would wrap themselves around any arrow that found him and blunt its impact. These preparations took some time, and so Richard had only just made himself ready when John of Chester returned.

The young knight looked at Richard of Warwick and burst out laughing. "I had forgotten how outlandish you looked. You should be careful! We do not want some honest Christian to mistake you for one of Salah ad-Din's warriors and spit you on his sword. That would be an unfortunate end."

Richard shook his head and smiled at his friend. "Ah, it would. But when we are riding across the sands in the burning sun, and your armour is hot against your skin, perhaps you will reconsider the wisdom of my example."

John rapped his chest plate with a mailed glove. "Perhaps. But we shall see how it goes for today, yes?"

"Come then. I want to find these raiders before the desert winds erase their tracks."

Before an hour was out, Richard, John and their men-at-arms had mounted up and left the camp. As John knew the way, Richard let him take the lead. The eight riders made their way across the desert, riding north with the sun at their backs. By mid-afternoon they had reached the ambush site. The signs of the skirmish that had taken place there were still evident. There was a line of overturned and broken wagons, the goods that they had once held now scattered hither and yon across the dusty ground. Bodies of men and women still lay where they had fallen. Few of them were intact as the heat and cold of the desert and the scavengers that came by night had taken their toll. All around the site, the sand had been stirred and trampled by the passage of horses and feet.

John of Chester surveyed the ground before them. "See. Everything a mess. I do not know how we should find those who did this. The signs of their passing are obvious here, but ... ." John shrugged. "Any other tracks that they left behind were obliterated - if not by the desert, then by the raiders themselves."

"A wily band, aye." Richard looked around the landscape, applying his knightly skills and the knowledge he had picked up since arriving in the Holy Land. Then: "There," he said and pointed to a line of dunes. "If I was to wait for pilgrims to pass by on this trail, there is where I would wait. Are you of the same mind?"

John looked north, in the direction that his fellow knight was pointing. "That I would. From there you should be able to see the comings and goings - and you would be able to conceal yourself."

The two knights spurred their horses northwards to the dunes to see if Richard's guess was right. As he had surmised, it was the perfect spot to wait in concealment. Indeed, there were black marks on the sand where the ashes from cooking fires had been stirred into the dust.

"Now what?"John inquired. "They were here once, but no longer."

"They had hostages. They will not have gone far. Tell me," Richard looked questioningly at his companion, "how far would you ride if you had hostages that you wished to hold for ransom?"

"Not far. Certainly no further than I could ride before nightfall. And I would continue north, keeping these sand hills at my back in case someone should come by and see which way I was going."

Richard laughed. "Then we shall ride north and see what we can find. Go - fetch the men - and we shall see what we can find before nightfall."

The band of men rode north, with the sun continuing on its journey to the western horizon. The day grew cooler and the shadows grew longer. Still there was no sign of which way the bandits had taken their hostages, and Richard of Warwick was beginning to despair. Still, he kept going. He had made a promise to Marianne - a promise that he intended to keep. So, the Golden Knight was relieved when, as the sun touched the horizon and turned the desert sands pink, one of the men-at-arms called out, "A light! I see a light!"

Richard reined his horse, King, in. The rest of the men followed suit. "A light? Where?" He looked in the direction indicated by the man. And - yes! Against the gathering night he could see the yellow glow of lamplight in the distance. Richard beckoned John of Chester towards him. "Do you know of any settlements here?"

John of Chester shrugged. "No more than you do, my friend."

"Then I think this is worthy of investigation. If we ride fast, we should be there before night has fallen. Come on." And, with that, Richard kicked his heels against the flanks of his steed and set off at a canter.

John of Chester looked after his companion, then raised his sword and called out to his men: "We ride on! With any luck, tonight we shall sleep under a roof, rather than under the stars!"