All Things Are Lights
By Robert J. Shea
The two men on watch with him that night, a sergeant from Champagne and a young man-at-arms from Brittany, were talking in low tones about the women to be had far below, at the foot of the mountain. They seemed not to see the activity about the Cathar stronghold on the upper peak of the mountaintop opposite their fort.
But, knowing Diane was in the besieged fortress, Roland could not take his eyes off it. He knew he had to act soon. Each day, the Crusaders grew more robust and the Cathars weaker. Once the Cathar stronghold fell, the Crusaders would slaughter all within, including Diane. The sergeant, chuckling, was offering his young companion a wineskin. The Breton never received it. A considerable thump came from behind the Cathar wall as if a giant’s fist had pounded Mont Segur. Roland recognized the sound and fought panic as he thrust his arms out, trying to push the other two men toward the ladder. But there was no time for them to climb down to safety.
The thump was the counterweight of a stone caster, and the whistling noise that followed fast upon it was the rock it had thrown. A shape as big as a wine barrel blotted out the stars. The stone hit the parapet beside Roland, and the whole barrier shuddered. Roland caught a glimpse of the sergeant’s horrified face and heard his scream as the boulder struck him, crushing him to the ground.
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Robert J. Shea
Robert Joseph Shea (February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994) was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!
Biography
It became a cult success and a marathon-length stage show at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In 1986, it won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. Shea went on to write several action novels based on exotic historical settings. Shea wrote several historical action novels, including Shike (1981), a two-volume novel set in Ancient Japan about the warrior monk Jebu and his love Lady Shima Taniko, All Things Are Lights (1986), and The Saracen, a novel published in two volumes in 1989 depicting the struggle between a blond Muslim warrior called Daoud ibn Abdullah and his French crusader adversary, Simon de Gobignon. His last published book was the Native American tale Shaman (1991).
All Things Are Lights and the outline for the unfinished novel Children of Earthmaker have been released under a Creative Commons license and are available to read and copy at Robert Shea’s website. Lady Yang was finished but never published; a Creative Commons online version is in the works by Shea’s son, Michael. Three of his lectures and two-panel discussions he participated in were recorded when he was a featured speaker at both the Starwood Festival and the WinterStar Symposium (both with and without Robert Anton Wilson) and produced by the Association for Consciousness Exploration. For several years, Shea edited the anarchist zine No Governor. The title comes from a quote attributed to Zhuangzi, “There is no governor anywhere.” The zine was mentioned in and read by one of the characters in Illuminatus! Robert Joseph Shea attended Manhattan Prep, Manhattan College, and Rutgers University and worked as a magazine editor in New York and Los Angeles. In the ’60s, he edited the Playboy Forum, where he met Robert Anton Wilson, with whom he collaborated on Illuminatus! After publishing Illuminatus!, Bob left Playboy to become a full-time novelist.
His novels include Shike, set in medieval Japan; All Things Are Lights, a story that entwines the fate of Cathars of southern France with the occult traditions of Courtly Love and the troubadours; The Saracen, describing the intricate politics of medieval Italy through the eyes of an Islamic warrior; Shaman, tracing the fate of the survivors of the Black Hawk War in 19th century Illinois; Lady Yang, a tragic story of an idealistic empress of medieval China. Shea was a resident of Glencoe, Illinois. He was survived by his son, Michael E. Shea, and his second wife, author Patricia Monaghan.
Robert J. Shea
