The crusade on Alexandria was to be known as the "Madmans expedition". 3/4 of the English army sailed for Egypt to entertain the king. Silvester insisted on sailing with them and so, England was once again placed under regency while its ruler was crusading.
After landing near Alexandria Silvester quickly destroyed the local muslim levies and continued unopossed all the way to the city of Alexandria. The english forces were greeted with silence and sadness which made the king very upset. He expected to see a city of a thousand lights. A city filled with laughter and celebration. What he saw was a big town covered in dust, its whole population silent and unfriendly. As always Silvester decided to solve the problem by himself as his forces took control of the city and guarded the walls.
As he looked at the city from the balcony he thought about how to implement his idea into live. The reason of this whole invasion was to crown himself Pharaoh. And he was greatly saddened when he found out that the people of Egypt have became muslims and the ancient gods have been destroyed. He didn't mention it to his generals, it was supposed to be a crusade after all. He already decided it would be best to do this by spy's and rebels. But it wasn't easy when the whole population was hiding away in their hovels. Instead of celebrating as he presumed. He sighed as he went back inside, maybe this whole thing wasn't a good idea after all. But that was a thing of the future. He still had to take control of the rest of Egypt and make sure the Fatimid caliphate staid out. And then he could put his plans into live, and then return home. Home.... To Victoria. Silvester smiled and closed his eyes. He could see her, he could almost touch her. But that was the future, he thought as he opened his eyes, and this is the present.
The crusade went smoothly. The army continued onwards to Cairo and that's where they met the biggest resistance yet. A ten thousand strong army commanded by some important infidel as the english thought, was in fact commanded by the son of the Caliph. Silvester once again shined, destroying the whole army with minimum losses on the side of the english forces. After taking the city of Cairo the army split into three forces. King Silvester with his guardians marched towards Giza as the king insisted on seeing the Piramids. The second force marched south to secure the back of the crusaders. The rest of the armies continued towards Kolzum near the Sinai, in hopes of establising a short, easy to defend border there.
The second force commanded by Edward de Galles, a prominent young general that hoped to gain much in the crusade, swiftly liberated the rest of Egypt and the orthodox Nubia that recently fallen under the yoke of the fatimids. However, de Galles didn't stop there. Without orders commanding such action, he continued southward certain that there were riches to be found. Leaving only five thousand of his fiteen to defend the newly conquered lands, he ordered the troops to wait for him as he would be back in two to three months. He never came back. Ten thousand men and one of the best generals England had, just vanished. And Europe wouldn't hear of them anytime soon.
The third force succeded in creating a defensive border at the Sinai peninsula, but they felt what was coming. The Fatimid Caliphate was returning from Arabia, and it was bent on retaking the heart of their empire. The fifteen thousand men prayed that the messengers sent to Giza would reach Silvester and the finest swords of England in time.
The object of Silvesters fascination
Charles smiled. "And how can you prove that? I am after all one of his majestys closest friends" Humphrey grimaced and threw some coins on the table. "Not many people have acces to coins that haven't been released to the market yet. Charles looked at Silvesters image on the coin. It seemed as he was looking at him, and it was a sad look. The smile vanished from his face and he looked back up at Humphrey. "I'm not the only one with acces to those. This is prove only to one thing." He stood up from the table and looked at the spy master. "And that's being a very important person of the english court. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more important things to do than answer your false accusations. Humphrey smiled and shouted as Charles walked out of the room. "We'll continue this conversation later!" He did exactly what he wanted to do. He saw the smile dissapear from his face. He had him. He had the murderer, and it wasn't really a suprise to him. Charles never really liked Silvester, he was sure of that. The thing is, Silvester didn't know about that. And he had to deal with the traitor before the king came back from the crusade. But it wasn't really a challenge. Now that Charles didn't feel so sure, he was bound to make some mistakes. Leave some clues. And he would find them.
