Hope – Chapter 6 – A New Hope

Darim Ibn-La'Ahad shifted in the bed and connected with something with his hand. It was warm and pliable. He felt the mattress beneath him as well. He had not had such a soft bed since he had been a young child. The pallets in the dormitory were stuffed with straw and took getting used to. This bed lulled him and he felt at peace.

It was early in the morning and he blinked. He lifted his head and saw he was not alone in the bed. There was a slim backed girl with him. He gasped. Was he dreaming again? He reached out his hand. No, she was real. The blankets were down about her hips. She was shivering a little and he reached out. Her skin was cold. He blinked again fighting the cobwebs in his mind. He had not remembered going to see the courtesans in the town below the fortress.

There had been a party, for him and…

He remembered.

This was Amal. His wife, Amal. He reached for her and pulled her closer and shifted the covers over them. She woke and rolled onto her back looking at him. She looked at him too tired to speak and not fully awake. She looked so young with her hair tousled about her head and not in its normal ponytail she had taken to wearing. He liked the silky feel of it as he brushed away from her face.

He smiled tenderly and pulled her into the warmth of his body and the covers. She almost immediately closed her eyes and sighed before falling asleep again. He pressed a kiss to her nose and fell asleep as well.

ZzZ

Bird calls woke Darim the second time.

His body was wrapped about Amal. She was still, but he realized as he moved she was awake. Wrapped in the cocoon between his chest, arms and legs, which he realized he had a leg hers and an arm about her midriff, she did not seem to wish to move. He sighed as his youthful body began to wake.

He moved and stretched looking at her tender skin of her throat. He then pulled her into a hug. He sighed into her hair. "You let me sleep long, Habibti." He smiled. He had always wished to call a girl that. It was the endearment his father had given his mother. He liked it. He sighed. He was only sixteen and now a married man. He needed to grow up. He was no longer one of the boys, but a man with a wife and a family soon to care for. He looked at his wife. She was very young. Part of him did not like having a girl so young as a wife. She was in many regards still a child. Though only five years apart, there were many things he had yet to learn, and now she was a woman and would grow into a woman's body.

He smiled his hand touched her abdomen. He wondered when a child would come. He had watched several of the master's wives become heavy with children. The women were always beautiful despite their body swelling as the child grew within them. He knew his mother would love a grandchild.

"We are newly married." She said.

"What time is it?"

"I heard the noon bell only a few minutes ago."

He sat bolt upright. "The noon bell?!" He moved to get dressed.

She watched him. "Darim…"

"I am late!"

"Darim!"

"What!" He asked as he paused pulling up his leggings. He looked at her.

"Your father gave you a day to be with me." She said looking at him.

"But my lessons. I would love to be with you, love, but…"

She knew he likely had skipped a few lessons and had his ears boxed for it. She sighed sitting up. The sheet fell from her and his eyes riveted to her breasts with the nipples tightening in the cool air of the room. She stretched her lithe, almost catlike body and then sighed looking about heedless of her nudity.

He came back to her in his everyday clothing. His mother had thoughtfully brought his clothing before they had come to bed. He sat beside her and kissed her softly. She leaned into his kiss and his hands went up her willow thin arms to her breasts. He cupped them and caressed them. She broke his kiss to look down at his hands.

"You can..." she smiled a little and her cheeks flushed. "You can enter me again, husband, if you wish." She said taking his hand and pulling him over her. He threw his leg over her narrow hips and planted a hand on either side of her shoulders. He looked down at her and she leaned up to kiss him. Her small hands were shaking a little as she pulled him down. His chest pressed to hers as he kissed her and pulled back resting his head against hers.

He was sorely tempted. Who would not be with a willing female under them? He kissed her breathless and then moved to sit next to her a moment, looking at her his hand resting on the taut flesh of her abdomen.

She shifted and hissed. He suddenly took her shoulders, searching her face for the pain he had seen there. She looked at him startled. "What?"

"You are in pain, Amal." He said softly. "Where?"

He nuzzled her face and looked at her.

"It is nothing."

"Tell me." He said insistently.

"My…pelvis." She said. She was colored again.

He threw back the sheet. She gave a startled cry and then tried to squirm away from him as he looked at her where no one had seen since she had been in swaddling clothes. He looked up at her and then went to where there was a kettle over the stove. The barely warm coals kept the water inside warm, but not hot.

He poured some of the warm liquid into a basin and then pressed a cloth into it. He then wrung it out and walked back to her. She realized his intention and she clapped her thighs together. "You wouldn't dare." She gasped.

"Come now, you are in pain. This will help you, Habibti."

She stared at him and when he did not back down she finally relented. He gently pressed it to her smarting flesh. She gasped at first and then it soothed the dull ache. He sighed. "I am sorry for causing you pain." He said. He was well aware of the stain on the white sheets near her.

She reached for the covers to cover herself and looked at her teenage husband who watched her every move. She sighed. "What are we going to do?"

"I must go find Master Malik."

"But…"

"Soon, Habibti. My studies and then I will return to you."

She smiled up at him and nodded. This was what he was. An assassin. The son of an assassin and the mentor himself. He moved off the bed and she watched him. He finished dressing and moved toward the door. "Darim." She said sitting up.

He turned back to her. "Yes?"

"I love you." She said. She was still blushing. She held the sheet to her breasts as she leaned on her side.

He smiled. She was trying so hard to be a good wife. "I love you, too, Habibti." He said as he opened the door and walked out. He closed it behind him and leaned against it a moment. How easy it would be to return to her arms. He shook his head and walked toward the training yards.

ZzZ

Darim walking outside surprised everyone including his brother and father. It was Sef who saw him first and Altair followed his younger son's gaze. Father and son looked at each other and then walked to where Darim was coming towards them.

"Forgive my tardiness, father." Darim said bowing to Altair.

Altair folded his arms. "Where is your wife?"

"In bed."

"And you are not with her…"

"I had training. We had an exam today and…"

Sef laughed and shook his head. His elder brother was occasionally too driven to be like their father.

Altair shook his head and smiled. "You are in your wedding honeymoon, my son."

"I will return to her after my exam."

"Is Amal all right with you being here?" Sef asked.

"She understood."

Altair shook his head. "Very well, join your class." He said stepping out of the way.

Sef watched his brother go to his classmates and looked to his father. "He left her alone?"

Altair chuckled. "He is my son. Perhaps she needs rest."

Sef's mouth opened in shock and then clapped shut as he blushed at his father's words before he moved away his lessons over for the day.

ZzZ

Sef found his sister-in-law eating under a great Turkish oak that had lived in Masyaf for untold years. She had some cheese and dried fruit with bread. She was looking out over the town.

"Hello, sister."

"Sef!" She smiled. She held a book in her lap.

He bent and kissed her cheek. "Are you well?"

"Yes." She said. She offered him some of the food and he took it gladly. He sat beside her. "How do you find my brother?"

"He is caring, charming, and gentle." She said. "Perhaps you should learn some of his charm, brother."

"Perhaps, but I am charming enough." He wiggled his eyebrows at her playfully. He chuckled. "Not sure where he got those properties. Father is a master assassin and mother is an ex-Templar."

She playfully smacked his arm as she laughed too. "That is terrible."

"Yes, but true." He said and both laughed again.

ZzZ

It was spring and Darim had been a good and faithful husband. The cold months always were hard on Amal and he often found her weeping because her family had been taken from her on Christmas day a holiday her mother had celebrated and she got small presents until Epiphany and candy on St. Nicholas Day.

Darim was not used to the wails of women or their tears, but had been there to hold her. He had sought the advice of some of his elder friends as to how to please his wife. She had laid there and allowed him to have her until then and Darim wanted her to enjoy it otherwise it was akin to rape.

One friend told him many things he had learned from courtesans in Acre. His own wife loved them and when Darim had tried his startled wife had been shocked and then begging for more. Darim and Amal spent many nights of passion together, but at times they would talk. Darim had an amazing mind and liked to learn. Amal told him stories and would show him patterns in the stars. Altair had taken to speaking with her as well while his son was in training.

Winter changed to spring. The girl had hated being cooped up in the fortress, but after she had slipped while coming down from the battlements, Altair had forbidden her from going up there while the snows and icy remained. She had been injured, a cut on her hand and a large bruise on her back, but thankfully two guard assassins had come when she had hit her head and brought her to the infirmary. Her head bled most of all along the side, but the healer made sure all was well. Darim came to her when he had heard from Sef who had been sent to find him. He had held her tenderly and almost smothered her with kisses and gentle caresses to sooth her.

The girl had knowledge she should not have at her age, but she thought it was normal. Altair allowed her to continue to believe that as he watched her draw star maps and plant a small herb garden of her own.

Three days after Christmas the pair had had a terrible row about him not liking her being alone when she wondered the halls. His protective nature had made her cross and she was cross already from having a novice forget to bring her food she had called for. She had left the room only to pass out cold in the hallway. Sef had caught her to him and then brought her back to her room. Darim was still fuming, but it was ridden by concern when he realized his wife had fainted not been forced back Sef to reason with him. Altair had come since the healer was below in the village helping deliver a child.

When she came to she was almost combative, but Altair had made the boys hold her arms while he made her drink so juice citrus they had on hand. She had struggled and some came from her lips, but when her body realized it needed it, she drank it eagerly. After a few moments she went limp and they laid her back.

Darim had asked his father how he knew what to do and Altair commented the girl had not eaten all day and Darim needed to watch her. Their little bird would often skip meals if she got busy with tasks and when the body had enough it would stop working. Fruit juice contained something that would help the body he had noticed. He had seen it in Maria as well that she would perk up after drinking juice after a day of eating sparsely.

They let her sleep until the next morning when Altair woke to her gasp as she woke. He had slept in a chair at her side. Darim had slept beside her and Sef in a chair by the fire. She had been touched by their concern. Altair kept it to himself that such attacks happened far more commonly to women who were with child since the baby would steal from her body what it needed. He had smiled wondering if they would have a child born to them soon. She was not showing other signs, yet, but perhaps it was early and she was young. However, Altair was keenly aware that pregnancy changed women and varied from pregnancy to pregnancy. Maria had been vastly different between carrying Darim and Sef.

Darim was often weary from his sparing and she would rub his muscles to relax him when he would come home. At times she had to force him to eat before he fell headlong into bed only to wake and find her doing repairs to his shirts and leggings by candlelight. He would then eat his supper with her and speak with her as she worked. He liked having a woman to come home to. It made life seem to have more meaning.

Comfortable now Amal walked around the gardens of the fortress. Winter had lost her grip and buds were on everything. She had noticed Maria was often watching her carefully and she well knew Altair was as well, he was just more subtle about it. Maria would ask her pointed questions about her health. It made Amal feel strange to have her in-laws so concerned after her, but she did not mind. Altair and Maria were like the mother and father she had wished she remembered she had. She had been five when her parents had been killed and she could now barely remember their faces.

Altair had once asked about them on a cold winter evening and she had been in thought before she burst into tears. Altair had been tolerant and gentle when he asked why she wept. She told him she could not remember her mother's face. Altair well knew that pain. His own father had been put to death when he had been eleven years old and his mother had died giving him life. He hugged her to him as she cried and he wondered if she ever had truly mourned the loss of her family. When she quieted, he told her he was her father now and he would care for her as any father would. She had nodded and kissed his cheek before returning to her husband who had wondered where she had been. At least he had been angry by her tears wanting to know what had happened, but calmed when she told him his father had helped her remember what family was about. All Darim could do was hug her.

Altair was watching two advance students sparing when he looked across at the garden. Amal was seated on a bench watching the life around her. Darim was walking towards her holding a small handful of fresh new flowers he had gathered from around the village. Altair smiled. Like his father, Darim well knew how to win over a woman's heart.

Darim came up to her and gave her the small bouquet. She smiled up at him and he sat down with her and kissed her gently before speaking to her. To many they appeared to be courting young adults not two people who had been married nearly six months.

Amal would soon turn twelve. His son was already seventeen having been born in March. He looked at her his wife well, though she was best friends with Sef, his younger brother. At least Darim had been slightly jealous until together the pair told him they were friends and nothing more. Darim knew his brother would never betray him and neither would Amal.

Spring had come and all was new. Altair watched and smiled as Amal laughed at something and Darim kissed behind her ear playfully causing her to gasp and stand up. She ran from him and he chased after her and eventually playfully brought into a soft bed of clover as he kissed her. He could not resist touching her ribs and she shrieked. He laughed as she struggled, reduced to fits of giggles.

"They seem very much in love, Altair." A voice said.

Altair nodded looking at the man who can come up beside him. Abbas was his age and he regarded the man a moment. "Have you ever thought to find a wife and have children?" Altair asked.

Abbas lifted a sealed letter and shook his head. "I have not found the right woman." He chuckled and turned to leave again. "Perhaps I should have you find me a love match." He said nodding to the two rolling in the grass playfully.

Altair chuckled. "Perhaps old friend."

Abbas left him shaking his head.

After a time when they were both breathless they lay looking up at the sky, hand in hand. She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it and then pointed upward at the clouds.

Altair turned back to the two sparing as he broke the seal on the letter. The love he saw between his son and Amal was as much if not more than the love he had with Maria. It did him well to see that his son was a good husband, lover, and friend to his wife. Challenges were ahead, but already a foundation was there and Darim would never forsake her for another. He had too much honor as his father and grandfather before him.