Chapter 3

Altair didn't know where to start. He supposed he should check Damascus first, then Acre, then Jerusalem.

Al Mualim had told him that Evangeline had never stepped foot outside of Masyaf in her life, therefore, she would probably have gotten lost, and would end up going to either Acre or Jerusalem.

He doubted very much that she would've gone to Damascus, it was too far away.

The Assassin left Masyaf, taking note that a dapple grey mare was missing, more than likely taken by the daughter in her escape.

He mounted his own white stallion, and took off into the desert, to find that the girl had made his job of tracking her a lot easier than he would have previously thought and his suspicion was correct, she had traveled across the longer of two routes, towards Acre and Jerusalem. And Altair could see heavy hoof-prints, along with female prints and the scrape of a dress on the sand. He praised that the wind had been light, as this made tracking much easier.

He tracked her until he reached a small village, and he was quickly greeted by a young boy when he approached the stables with his horse.

Altair tossed the boy a gold coin before turning to walk away. But he stopped however, once the boy cleared his throat expectantly.

"Two." The boy stated, grinning widely. "Two gold."

"You get what you're given." Altair replied, turning away again.

"But I was given two gold before," The boy stated eagerly, running to catch up with the Assassin. "She was pretty, kind too. She give me two gold coins, why won't you?"

Altair stopped walking and turned to face the boy, "What did she look like?" He demanded, making a show of dipping his hand into his coin pouch.

"Blonde," The boy mined running his fingers through long hair, "Very pretty." He repeated, "Blue dress, I show her to go there."

Altair turned to see where the boy was pointing, and upon laying eyes upon the brothel, he tossed the boy another gold coin before swaggering towards the long, narrow building.

He was immediately greeted with an appreciative look from a servant girl, instead of acknowledging the young lady, Altair made his way towards the bar where a very distasteful looking whore was standing.

"I'm looking for someone." He stated as he approached the woman.

"One of us, Sir?" She asked, flashing him a grin of lipstick covered teeth.

"No, a young woman." He replied, gesturing towards the servant who had looked at him on the way in. "Roughly her height, blonde, she was wearing a blue dress."

"Oh, she came in here alright." The woman stated, "Pretty little thing, she was. Why do you want to know?"

"Is she here?"

"No." The woman stated, "She wanted a room for the night, I said she could work for food and shelter, she left right away."

"Where did she go?"

The woman shrugged, "I don't know. Can I help you with anything else?"

"No, thank you for your time." Altair turned and left the brothel, the servant girl followed him out and gently placed her hand on his arm.

"She spoke to that man, over there." She gestured towards the Templar standing with his back to them. "I heard him giving her directions towards Jerusalem, you should look there."

Altair acknowledged her information with a single nod of his head before making his way towards the stables once again. The young boy was nowhere to be seen, but his horse had just finished drinking, and there was very little hay in the trough which suggested that his horse had been fed.

He swung himself onto his horse and galloped out of the stables, setting off in the direction of Jerusalem.

"Assassin!" The Templar yelled from behind him as Altair stormed passed on his stallion.

He barely looked over his shoulder at the Templar, simply continued to ride towards the city. Once the sight between him and the Templar had been broken, Altair pulled on the reins to halt his steed before diving into a nearby hay cart.

Once he was certain that the Templar would not follow him any longer, Altair appeared from the hay and mounted his horse again to resume his journey into Jerusalem.

He rode into the stables, and dismounted. His amber eyes immediately landing upon the dapple grey mare who was missing from the stables in Masyaf. Altair led his stallion towards her, and tied his reins onto the same hitching post.

Then, he left the stables and made quick work in finding an entry into the city. He hoisted himself up onto a stack of wooden crates before climbing onto a wooden beam. Once he was sure he had the right balance, Altair leapt onto the beam situated above the soldiers guarding the gates of Jerusalem. He leapt across four beams before landing with practiced ease in the courtyard.

Where should he go first? The Bureau. What else was an assassin supposed to do when they first arrived? Altair wasn't in the mood to visit a brothel.

As he easily reached the top of the ladder, Altair dropped inside the Bureau.

Malik looked up upon his arrival and rolled his eyes. "Oh, I see Prince Charming has arrived."

Altair growled, "Stay your tongue, Malik. As your superior, I deserve more respect than that."

Malik scoffed, "Al Mualim informed me of your task." He stated, "I didn't think picking up young women was in the job description of Master Assassin."

"Al Mualim assigned me this task because he knew I would see it be done."

The Dai rolled his eyes, "She can't be that difficult to find. She's just a woman."

Altair wasn't so sure about what Malik had stated. Al Mualim obviously knew what she was capable of if he had assigned him to retrieve the girl. She had not received any combat training, and only the basics of sword play, so Altair knew it would be easy to stick her on a horse and get her back to Masyaf. The majority of women in Jerusalem had dark hair, so she would be easier to spot. If she had gone to Acre, it would have been a lot more difficult to find the girl in a crowd. The girl wouldn't be doing any labour that the women of Jerusalem usually did, therefore, he only had to search for someone possibly looking around the market stalls.

It seemed much simpler than Altair had previously expected. But if Al Mualim had assigned the most accomplished, strongest and stealthiest assassin, then surely this girl was a lot more troublesome and smarter than he had expected.

Never underestimate a woman.

A/N: So here is the third chapter of my Assassin's Creed fanfiction :) I hope you're enjoying it, please review and let me know xx