The Hermit of Monte Perdido
📍 Monte Perdido, Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, Aragón
Blood ran black in moonlight. Martín de Fanlo knelt in the mud outside Barbastro, his sword fallen from nerveless fingers, staring at the man he had just killed. The body wore merchants' robes—silk from Granada, dyed the deep blue that only Moorish craftsmen could achieve. But beneath those robes was a Christian cross, and clutched in cooling hands was a letter bearing the seal of the Count of Sobrarbe. The year was 1178. Alfonso II reigned in Aragón, called "the Chaste" for his celibacy, though there was nothing chaste about the border warfare that consumed these lands. Martín had ridden out with his company to intercept Moorish raiders. In the chaos of the skirmish—horses screaming, steel ringing against steel, dust turning everything into ghostly shapes—he had seen a figure in foreign…