A/N: I'M BACK! I'd like to thank a few people first.
DarkDust27! Reading your reviews honestly makes my day! Thank you so much!
To those who followed: Javelon, LadyDeath09, AnimexGoddess, LadyHazardous, Pandora's Crow, and jinxbadluck012!
To those who added: AnimexGoddess, jinxbadluck012, Pandora's Crow, LadyHazardous, and Shadowknight77!
I'm not fully satisfied with this chapter because I feel like Keira always is getting into too much trouble. However, what happens is important for a more character-building arc. If you find any errors, please let me know and I'll fix it.
Chapter 11
When I woke up the next day, Altaïr was gone. I didn't know where he was but I had a good guess. He was talking to Al Mualim, getting his next target no doubt.
I stood up and stretched, my joints popping in a satisfying manner. I covered my mouth as I yawned and grabbed my backpack, looking for a new tank top or shirt to wear underneath my tunic. When I found one, I peeled off my old tank top and wrestled on a clean bra.
The door opened and I used my shirt to cover my half-naked torso.
"Sorry." Altaïr looked down at the floor, allowing me to pull on my new top.
"It's okay, it's not like this hasn't happened before." I told him, shrugging on my tunic. "After all, you have seen me naked."
"That was because I thought you were drowning." He defended his actions.
"I know that, and I'm not mad at you. I probably would have done the same." I waved off his statement. "So, who's next on the kill list?"
And he told me who it was and I scoffed.
"He wants us to kill a city official in all three cities?" I rolled my eyes. "I hate to break it to you, but that's not going to be as easy as the past three were."
"You will be helping me, it won't be so hard."
"Imagine doing this all yourself." I shook my head at the thought. "I'm helping you, yes, but what happens if they killed me? You'd be on your own again and it would be even harder."
"I'll make sure that doesn't happen."
I raised an eyebrow and blushed a little. "And you told me that you wouldn't put everything on the line for someone."
"You said for someone I love, I don't love you, I put up with you."
I smacked his arm playfully. "Well, I don't love you, I can't fucking stand you."
He chuckled and brought his arms around me, hugging me. I didn't hesitate to hug him back.
"I tolerate you."
"I tolerate you too."
He pulled back and I let him. Mainly because I might have sort of been enjoying our hug just a little too much. I didn't know what was happening to me but I didn't mind it, it felt. . . I don't know, good? Yeah, it felt good, but whatever was happening between us kind of scared me at the same time.
"Let's go get breakfast." He opened the door for me.
"Thank you, I'm starving." As soon as I said this, my stomach grumbled quite loudly.
"I see."
I blushed a darker shade of pink and trailed behind him as I cooled my face down back to its natural cream color, although all this sun was beginning to tan my skin. I admit, my skin at the moment reminded me a bit of crispy French fries, it was that perfect golden yellow. God, I'm hungry.
We entered a large cafeteria-like room where people sat at their tables, eating some weird looking food. The only things I recognized from their choices were apples and bread. All that there was to drink was water, which was definitely fine with me. I was scared that there would be some questionable looking drink.
"Come." Altaïr's voice brought me out of my mind ramblings and I followed him to a line of people with clay plates, waiting to get their food.
"It's practically a buffet." I murmured to myself. "That's nice to know."
I quietly hummed to myself, trying to keep calm. Almost everyone was staring at me in questionable glances, glares, or looks of indifference. I kept my head low, trying to get them to stop watching me, but they just kept staring and I really wanted to shout out to them to look at something else, I'm not a museum piece on display.
I felt a hand on my lower back and I turned to see Altaïr staring down at me in concern. He must have noticed my nervous humming.
The line moved and I grabbed an apple and a couple slices of bread. I, at the moment, wasn't willing to try anything new. After filling my cup up with water, I followed him to an empty table.
I sat down quietly, kept my head down, and focused on my food. I could feel the stares burning into my back and I had a sudden urge to escape, to just run away from here to somewhere else, probably back to the bedroom, but I didn't know.
"What's wrong?" Altaïr asked.
"I'm just. . ." I trailed off.
"What?"
"Nervous I guess. Everybody keeps staring at me like I'm something on display, like they've never seen a woman before."
"They haven't really, especially one skilled in the assassin arts as you are."
I looked up at him. "They've never seen a woman fight back?"
"No."
I remembered in history that men believed women to be good as wives and mothers and nothing else. A flash of anger filled me at how women were so weak in men's eyes but as quickly as it came, it disappeared. Things were different here and I couldn't change history no matter how much I wanted to try.
"When are we leaving for our first city. I don't know where you want to go first." I pushed the apple core around my plate before picking up a bread piece and biting into that.
"I was called to the training yard, so after this I must head over there. You can come if you wish." He picked up both our plates and I followed him.
He placed them in a basket where a girl took them away, to wash them no doubt. Before the girl left, she gave him the bedroom eyes, glared at me, and then she hurried away.
I rolled my eyes and followed him to the training yard. Kifah dropped onto my shoulder and I pet her head in greeting. Whatever Eclipse had wanted her for, she was done for now. I was glad that she was back.
"Altaïr! Good, maybe you can get through to these students. Now, you will see a Master Assassin at work." A man in similar robes to Altaïr's spoke.
Altaïr nodded and jumped into the arena. He pulled out his sword and faced his opponent, a man who was bulkier and taller than him. He turned around, flashed me a small smile that I would only notice, before advancing to the bulky man.
The bulky man attacked first, swinging his sword and yelling a battle cry. Altaïr stepped out of the way and pushed the bulky man into the arena wall. The bulky man shook his head, clearing it, and watched Altaïr carefully.
Altaïr feinted to the right and knocked the man out with the butt of his sword. The students clapped as two people dragged the unconscious man out of the arena.
"Does anyone want to try it?" The trainer asked as Kifah perched herself on the edge of the arena wall.
All the students stopped clapping and stepped back a little.
"I would." I raised my hand.
"Any real fighters?"
I growled and fought back the urge to punch him. "I am a real fighter."
"Trainer, let her fight me." Altaïr told him.
The trainer nodded hesitantly and allowed me to pass him. I jumped over the wall and into the arena.
I pulled out my sword and twirled it in my hand for a moment, feeling the weight of the blade. Altaïr looked at me as if he didn't want to hurt me but he knew that I could take care of myself.
We circled the ring slowly, watching each other and waiting for one of us to attack. Finally, I gave in and slashed my sword at him, not wanting to hurt him even though I knew he would block it just fine; but he was injured after all, I hadn't forgotten.
He blocked it just as I had anticipated and countered with a strike of his own, which I blocked easily and tried to disarm him.
After a flurry of slashes and strikes, he had disarmed me, my sword lying on the ground behind him.
"And that-." The trainer began but I grabbed Altaïr's wrist and snapped it behind his back, forcing him to let go of his sword.
He grabbed my leg and tripped me before crawling on top of me, pinning my hands above my head.
"I win." He smirked.
"Do you?" I asked.
His smirk faded and for a second, I could see his face etch into one of uncertainty. Normally, I would knee him but instead, I rolled us so that I was on top and grabbed my sword before placing it next to his neck.
I could see his face under his hood and it showed pride and something else, something I couldn't figure out.
"Looks like we both win."
I felt a poke in my side and I looked down to see a dagger.
I sheathed my sword and stood up, holding out my hand for him. He took it and I helped him stand up. The students watched us with interest as we exited the arena, Kifah flying onto my shoulder again.
Eclipse wishes to speak with you. Kifah told me.
I nodded a little to show her that I had understood her before she flew away again. I watched her go with a sad feeling in my chest but then I quickly shut off that feeling. I would see her again soon, I was sure of it.
"Alright, now are we leaving?" I asked.
He nodded slowly.
"Where to first?"
"Acre."
We exited the arena, me giving a bitch face to the trainer as we passed him, and headed towards the stables.
"Oh, hold on, I need to go get something from the market." I told Altaïr, before turning and walked in the other direction.
I heard him tell me that he would be waiting at the stables before I got too far to hear if he had said anything else.
The market was busier than it had been, perhaps because it was now around noon? Whatever the reason was, I had to literally push people out of my way to get to the carrots. I had a promise to a horse to keep.
I grabbed two carrots and paid for them before heading back towards the stables. I didn't make it very far before someone in the crowd pushed past me and I stumbled forward, slamming into someone's back.
The man turned around and glared down at me.
"I'm sorry, sir, I was pushed." I tried explaining to him but I had a very strong feeling that he didn't speak English.
He grabbed my arm and dragged me away. I fought against his grip but he was probably well over 250 pounds. I couldn't break his grip and I tried multiple times to get someone to help me but they didn't speak English.
I was pulled into an alleyway and tossed forward, hitting the ground with a heavy thunk. I groaned and lifted my scraped palms to see them bleeding. I was grabbed roughly by my collar and dragged upright.
Three more men had shown up and now they surrounded me.
"You think you can just hit me without any kind of punishment, bitch?" The man I had first run into asked me, speaking in Arabic.
"Like I said before, I was pushed." I tried explaining but he wasn't having any of it.
I slowly turned in a circle, inspecting the men who were surrounding me. Some of them had on Assassin robes. Immediately, I got into a defensive stance, ready for anything they threw at me.
"Look at this wild stallion, thinking that she can defeat us." One man laughed. He spoke in rapid Arabic, almost too fast for me to understand. "We'll show her, won't we?"
One man reached in to grab me but I knocked his hand out of the way and punched him in the nose, hearing a loud crack before he doubled over in pain, blooding oozing between his fingers.
"Bitch!" The man shouted angrily at me.
I rolled my eyes at the insult and blocked another's hand. Two men took me from behind and forced me to kneel, keeping my arms locked on either side of me.
I struggled against their hold but it didn't do any good. I was stuck now and the guy who I had accidentally ran into walked up to me, smiling creepily.
"You really are a wild stallion, aren't you? Well, don't worry, I'll tame you." He smiles wide, showing off his yellowed teeth.
I jerked away from his hand that reached to caress my cheek. He just laughed at my feeble attempts to shake them off before he pulled out a dagger. My survival instincts kicked into overdrive and adrenaline coursed throughout my body, warming me.
He slashed downwards and cut both my tunic and my tank top in motion, leaving them split down the middle to reveal my bra.
"Oh look, someone has tried to tame this stallion before," he gestured to all my scars, "but they failed. What is this?" He asked more to himself and his friends rather than to me as he tugged on my bra.
He brought the dagger up to cut my bra in half but a hand shot out and knocked the dagger out of his hand.
Altaïr punched the man in the face and kicked him in the knee, breaking it. He turned to the other two men, giving them glares that had me thinking "if looks could kill, these guys would be dead in two second". The two men didn't take the hint and instead attacked him. He easily defended himself and ended up trapping one in a headlock where he quickly, and efficiently, snapped the man's neck.
He turned to the other man but the man had learned his mistake and took off running in the other direction away from us. The man who had cut my tunic and tank top had passed out from the pain, leaving the alleyway silent except for my erratic breathing and Altaïr's heavy breaths.
The adrenaline had left my body and I just stood there, trying to cover myself with what was left of my tunic and undershirt.
"Altaïr." I spoke his name, my voice weak.
He snapped out of whatever daze he was in and looked at me. "That is the last time you go anywhere alone." He spoke in an authoritative tone, leaving no room for an argument. He gingerly touched his shoulder and winced slightly but waved to me when I sent him a look.
"Are you alright?" He asked, his expression softening and he spoke quietly.
I shivered despite the fact that it was warm. "I- I don't know." I blinked back tears and mentally chided myself for appearing so weak in front of him. I have faced so much worse-like my father-and yet here I was, trying not to cry from something that had been prevented.
He approached me slowly like I was some scared deer caught in the headlights of a car speeding. When his hand touched my shoulder, I involuntarily flinched away from his touch.
"I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." I couldn't help the tears that were now sliding down my face at an alarming rate.
"Shh, it is alright. Come, we must get you back so you may change." He didn't seem fazed at all when I flinched away from him, almost like he knew it would happen. Maybe he did.
"I've got my backpack with my horse." I pointed in the direction of the stables. "I have a- a change of clothes in there; I just need to get to it."
"Okay, follow me." He took my hand and gently tugged me closer to him before frowning.
"What?" I asked, confused as to why he had stopped.
He pushed back the clothing a bit at my stomach, revealing my scars. "Where did you get these?"
Memories flashed through my head and I closed my eyes, willing them to go away. I didn't want to deal with them right now and I certainly didn't want to tell him how they got there. Suddenly, a thought came to me. "How could you not have seen them when you pulled me from the bathtub?" I glared at him, practically accusing him of staring somewhere else like, for example, my boobs.
"I was checking to see if you were breathing." He said.
Yep, definitely staring at my boobs. "I don't want to talk about it; can we please just get to the stables?"
He gave me a look and I couldn't help myself, I let go of his hand and traced the scars on my stomach as I let the memories flood through my head, as I relived what happened.
"Like I said before," I said, breaking my thoughts, "my father's a jackass, he's not exactly the nicest and most caring father."
He surprised me by scowling at the thought of my father hurting me. "Why would he do such a thing?"
I shrugged, trying to play it off like it was nothing. "I don't listen, you know this. He doesn't like it when people don't obey."
"How can you act like this is nothing?" He asked, angry.
"See, this is exactly why I didn't want to tell you, you'd overreact!"
"This is not overreacting, this is properly reacting!"
"No, this is certainly overreacting because, in case you haven't noticed, I don't have any new ones!"
"But it happened when it shouldn't have!" He shouted, leaving me to stare at him in surprise, quieting me instantly. "You never should have had this happen."
I looked at my scars and then back up at him. "But it did, and you can't change the past no matter how bad you want to. Let's just go, please, and leave this place." I looked pointedly at where he had just beaten up people.
He nodded and grabbed my hand, keeping me close as he pulled me along. Surprisingly, people hardly noticed the girl in the ripped shirt and the Assassin pulling her along like she was some kind of delinquent who couldn't navigate anywhere without getting into trouble.
Wow, that was exactly who I am.
We made it to the stables in one piece and I grabbed my backpack. I had never noticed that during the scuffle, I had dropped the carrots that were meant for my horse. Oh well, he could just suck it up and deal with it.
Anyway, I pulled out a shirt and shrugged off my ruined ones. I didn't even notice that Altaïr had his back turned, whether it was out of respect for my dignity, disgust because of my scars (wouldn't be the first time someone was repulsed by the things), or because he was keeping a look out for people I didn't know but I didn't really care right now.
I pulled on the shirt and winced as I felt the bruises forming on my skin. I pushed the pain away and zipped up my backpack. "Alright, I'm ready."
"Good, we must get going at once."