We Are All Earth
Chapter Seven
Kadar returned to his room. The map was where he'd left it on the table, though the wind had intensified and blown free the fine damask hangings that draped the window grilles. He closed the shutters, plunging the room into semi-darkness, and tucked the map into his sleeve just as the zuhr prayer call wailed into the sky.
Maria was waiting as she had promised. She had disguised herself, which did not surprise him, but she had chosen the dress of a Seljuk mercenary from the Sultanate of Rum, which did. The costume suited her well, and allowed her to keep her sword, although she had wrapped a piece of silk around the hilt to disguise the straight-edged Crusader blade. She folded her arms as he approached. "Will it do?"
Kadar made a show of examining her costume. "You could stand to be darker. But many of the Turks are nearly as fair haired as you." He touched his own head. "The hat is a nice touch. Nobody will be looking at your face."
She smiled and adjusted the folded white turban. "I like the hat. I think I shall wear it often."
"You should reconsider. It will look very odd with your strange Frankish clothes."
"It would look odd with anything," Maria said, glancing carefully up at the sky. "If you think that I can pass upon the streets, then we should go. You said you wanted good light for the search. I am sure Robert will have more work for us when we return."
It was the first time she had referred to herself and Kadar as 'we', and it made him like her a little more. He slipped a scarf around his face to hide his features and followed Maria out into the street
"Where do we go?" She spoke briefly, voice lowered in case anyone should hear, but the sound was half-lost in the bustle and hubbub of the streets.
"Northwest. It's not far from here." Kadar pointed in the direction they were walking. "Do you know of a high place near Pearl Street?"
Maria considered. "One or two. How high?"
"High enough. A minaret, for preference, or the bell tower of one of your Christian churches."
Maria looked around and her gaze softened. "I remember when the whole of this district was Christian. When the Kingdom of Jerusalem was centred on Jerusalem itself..." Her voice trailed off, her gaze softening as she glanced around.
"Do you miss it?" Kadar asked.
Maria laughed, covering her mouth as she glanced around. Her self-conscious gesture drew more attention than the sound itself.
"Don't worry," said Kadar. "They'll just take you for a eunuch."
Maria abruptly stopped laughing. "Really?"
Kadar pushed past a stall covered with leather that, by the smell of it, had been very poorly tanned. "The Seljuks are famous for it, you know."
"No," said Maria. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't think I needed to," Kadar said.
Maria scowled at him before her face split in a smile. "Maybe you didn't. It's the perfect disguise. And, as you asked, no, I don't miss the old kingdom. The memory of its fall reminds me why we fight for peace."
"And the tower?"
"The old Saint Anne's Church has one, and it's not far from here."
"That should be perfect," Kadar said. "Leave the talking to me. It will raise less attention."
"Really? From what I've heard about the As-about your order," she corrected, "you are no more Muslim than I."
"That's...partly true," Kadar allowed, not wishing to engage in a conversation about the finer points of the Assassin's Creed while walking the streets of Jerusalem with a foreign Templar woman.
"Besides, I shall just explain away my strange ways by telling whoever guards the tower that I am a stranger to this city." She shot him a sly glance beneath the border of her turban. The white cloth made her skin look darker than it was. "Don't worry. They'll just take you for my catamite."
Kadar stopped dead. A woman carrying a basket of oranges slammed into his shoulder and cursed as her fruit spilled into the dusty street. "I –what?"
"Not mine, at least." Maria grinned. "You should have been more careful with Robert. The Templars have risen in the world since their foundation. Just because our flag was once two men on a horse doesn't mean the Order approves of two men to a bed. Although they do order men to avoid at all costs the embraces of a woman. The outcome of that tenet is more than obvious."
Kadar's brain seemed to have shut down. Somewhere very far away, the sharp scent of citrus fruit filled the passageway. "How-who else knows?"
"Nobody," said Maria. "You forget that I am Robert's steward." She twisted the ring he had given her, a heavy signet emblazoned with his crest of a sword above an anchor. "His penchant for waifs and strays is surprising, for a Templar. He has an eccentric streak that's unusual for one so highly placed. Nevertheless," she shrugged, "he took me on."
"You don't mind?"
"Why should I?"
"I thought you would be jealous."
"Why? Maybe he shares my bed, on the nights he's not in yours. Did you ever think of that?" he smiled at his expression. "Don't look so surprised. You know that he does not. I have had my fill of men for now, and besides, Robert is not my type."
"I'm glad to hear it." Kadar said.
She sniffed. "He could do worse. You fit in well, considering." Just as Kadar was wondering just what he should say to that, and whether she had given him a compliment after all she looked up and said brightly. "There's the tower. Here we are."
Kadar looked up at the squat building, its heavy lines and right angles a stark contrast to the elegant Dome of the Rock upon its hill. The tower did not look extremely tall, but a cross still jutted from its turret, and there was a joist perched on the roof in case he needed to climb to gain more height. He nodded. His mouth felt dry. "It'll do."
"Excellent," said Maria, and headed for the door.
The church had been converted to an Islamic seminary. Kadar never knew what explanation Maria gave to the head of the seminary that convinced the man to let them climb the tower. Maybe the fat purse she pushed into his hand sufficed. He summoned a servant who beckoned them into the entrance of the seminary and unlocked a narrow door with a great iron set of keys. "Up," he said, and gestured.
Maria and Kadar followed his direction. They climbed the staircase into silence. The heat, dust and constant shouting in the streets faded with the ascent. When they arrived at the top of the tower the air was cool and clean. Maria leaned upon the sill while Kadar unrolled his map upon the tower's floor. She peered down as he wrestled the paper against the wind. "Have you got your bearings?"
Kadar shook his head. "Help me hold it up," he said.
Together they unrolled the map upon the tower's wide stone sills. Kadar aligned the streets carefully, searching for the streets he had marked upon the map. It was more difficult than he had expected. The wind tugged at the corners of the parchment, creasing the paper and smearing the ink. The buildings blocked his view despite their vantage point.
Maria frowned. "I can't see it," she said.
"Wait," Kadar said. He glanced at the streets that spread around them, then down at the map, then back at the city again. At last the lines in front of him began to make sense. Pearl Street ran north to south, by the mosque, which meant that that was Bookseller's Row, and that-
He sketched a rough triangle in the air and stabbed his finger at the map. "It's there. The Bureau is there. Somewhere between the bath-house you can see upon the rise and the market to the north."
Maria frowned, shading her eyes beneath her massive turban. "We'll have to hurry. They won't wait for long. Can you see it?"
Kadar shook his head. "I have to get up higher." He climbed awkwardly onto the belfry sill, testing the stones for footholds as he went. The masonry around the tower's arched windows gave him small but secure handholds. He stretched, hissing as his muscles cramped from the strain, and grabbed the joist with both hands. Tensing, he arched his back, hauling his weight bodily onto the tower roof with his arms as his leg protested and his new shirt tore across its seams. The clothes the Templars had given him were not as loose as Assassin whites. He stretched belly-down upon the warm tiles of the roof and reached down to Maria. "Hand me the map."
Maria handed him the roll of paper. "Be careful," she said. "Majd Addin would be devastated if you were to fall."
Kadar stifled a chuckle. He rolled over and spread the map out on the tiles, rechecking the location. He was sure he had the right spot, and the map confirmed it. Squinting, he wedged the toe of his boot upon the paper and stood, leaning out with his other boot upon the joist while his hand shaded his eyes against the sun. The Bureau would be marked, and the mark would be visible from the air. He was nearly sure of it. He scanned each building carefully. Nothing. Nothing. N-
He paused, and saw the mark. It was a curved Assassin A, tiled into a flat roof, and half-hidden buy the shadow of a roof garden to the west and a pile of dead leaves to the east. The apex of the A pointed like an arrow towards a roof trellis shaded with vines.
Kadar had found the Bureau.
He wondered what to do about it. The search had been a game at first, the research similar to countless Assassin assignments. But the game had turned dangerous. If Kadar told the Templars, Assassins would die.
That is no concern of yours, a voice that sounded like De Sable's whispered in his ear. Not anymore. The Assassins are wrong. Only the Templars know the truth.
Not wrong, he thought. Misguided.
He looked down again, to make sure he had not mistaken, but the Assassin emblem was still there. Like many things, it was easy enough, once you knew the way of it.
Hide in plain sight, whispered a memory in Kadar's ear.
He cleared his throat and spat dust upon the tiles. "Maria," he said, "I've found it."
She stiffened like a hound questing for a scent. "Would you be able to find it again?"
Kadar nodded. He glanced down at his map and used the tip of his finger to poke a hole in the paper over the crude black square that marked the building. From his viewpoint, it looked like a small shop, a building of no particular interest or distinction. "I've marked it."
She nodded. "Climb down. We'll go in."
Kadar nodded.
"Kadar?"
He realised that she could not see him. "I will come down," he said but he held his position a moment longer. He watched the sun melt towards the horizon and knew that he had taken an irrevocable step towards the Templars. He could have explained away his absence from Masyaf, but no longer.
Kadar sighed, crouching with his head upon his knees. Maria called his name once more, and this time he went to her, the map clutched tightly in one hand.
