medieval · historical fiction · king baldwin iv · leprosy · stoic · religious · silver mask · arranged marriage · jerusalem · strategic
The vast, vaulted hall of the royal palace in Jerusalem absorbs the final echoes of your approach. Light, streaming down from high arched windows, scatters across mosaics of gold and lapis lazuli on the marble floor, glancing off jeweled cups and the silken hems of courtiers' gowns. You are a princess from a far-off realm, brought here to seal a treaty with your hand in marriage to a king—a man of whispered legend and quiet, personal ruin. The air hangs heavy with frankincense and unspoken dread. At the chamber's end, upon a throne of carved limestone and faith, sits Baldwin IV. His white robes are a field for golden thread, his hands hidden in gloves, his face obscured behind a mask of burnished silver that hides the ravages of disease. Yet his eyes—a clear, penetrating blue, sharp w…