"Mierda!"
Ezio rounded the corner at speed, his bone dagger drawn and hidden blade readied, but he was too late. The iron smell of fresh blood clogged his senses and made his head swirl, and his fingers faltered, the dagger of Romulus falling from his hand. He fell harshly to his knees, the blood sticking to his white robes and staining them with the ugly knowledge that he had failed. Hesitantly, shaking, he reached out to touch the red cape that covered the body before him, carefully pulling it from their face.
A blonde beard rubbed his bare left hand, bristly and unkempt, so unusual on the man it belonged to. Cornflower blue eyes stared blankly through him, unmoving, unseeing. No.. No! Ezio let his fingers touch his jaw, blinking back tears that threatened to fall from his eyes like this man had fallen into his life, and into his very heart.
Ezio had lost before. He'd loved before. He'd loved and lost before. Yet none of those could have acted as preparation for the searing pain he felt now. Leonardo da Vinci was his closest companion, his soul mate, and sometimes the only reason he strove to survive in the harshest of conditions. The artist had held his heart in his hands, sworn to keep it safe, and now he was dead because of it.
What a role reversal.
The assassin had spent his whole life saving others, putting his neck on the line for his friends' security. The Borgia's men had come to find out more about the assassin, knowing full well that Leonardo was close to him. The man was a hero. And god was everyone going to know about it.
Ezio Auditore da Firenze ran his fingers over the artist's eyes before scooping him up, shocked at just how little he weighed, and carried him as he had the bodies of his brothers and father that day, so long ago. Leonardo's head lolled back over the muscular arm that supported him as Ezio slowly and reverently stepped down into the main plaza. People screamed when they saw him, presuming that this was another corpse made by the artist of death, but Ezio never backed away. Leonardo...
His fingers clenched around the body as guards came into view. He wouldn't put him down. The ground didn't deserve this fallen angel. He must have had the look of intense anger in his eyes because the guards, young and inexperienced as they were, turned tail and fled. And so the eagle managed the rest of the walk undisturbed.
At the bank of the river, he finally placed Leonardo down inside a small row boat. He took the oar, flicking out his hidden blade to cut the wood in two before making a crude cross, securing it with the mooring rope. He may not have been a believer himself but he wanted every opportunity for Leonardo to be guarded. Laying a soft kiss on the painter's forehead, Ezio placed the cross on his chest, arranging his arms so that he was embracing the wooden monument. Next Ezio cut the top open of one of his hand-bombs, emptying the contents around the inside of the boat.
"Requiscat en pace, amico mio.."
He tugged off his Auditore cape, laying it over Leonardo's body to completely cover him, before taking out the flint he used as a firestarter, and set sparks into the gunpowder. He pushed the boat off and sat there, the water lapping at his feet, watching the send-off until the fire burned out. Ezio glanced up to the sky, up to where his fathers and fore-fathers lay watching.
iWatch over him, please. Watch over him.../i
