Hope - Chapter 20 – Imprisoned
It had been months since Amal had been able to walk in the fresh air above. She had been given leave to have candles and a book to write a journal, but Abbas had never once come to see her as she walked around the cell with Malik to keep her strength up.
She had become used to the bread, water, and thin soup that was brought to them to sustain them. Amal had been watching Malik. The elder was weakening and she had made sure he had more of the food to keep his strength up.
He had begun to cough and though it was clearly spring by the birdsong outside, it was still chilled in the dungeons. The damp was not good for the elder and his cough worsened.
Amal finally could not stand it after watching the poor man cough so hard blood speckled his lips. She shook her head and determined she would help him as he slept. She had saved Darim. Why could she not save this man? He was clearly suffering.
Malik's shoulder bones showed under his robes and his skin had become gaunt against his bones. She shook her head. As night feel she watched him ease asleep as she wrote the last words in her journal before she waited.
As he softly snored she moved to him and closed her eyes. She had no idea how she could call upon this power again, but she dearly wished to. She laid a hand on him and he stirred lightly. The words on his lips were the names of his son and wife.
She took a breath and looked at her hands. She would save him!
Light swirled around her hand and she closed her eyes allowing whatever this was to fill her. It was a warm and comforting embrace. She welcomed it as she concentrated. She had to do as she had for Darim. She had done that out of love. Now she did this out of respect for a man she looked up to and knew was slowly dying. His lungs were the problem and she knew this place was horrible causing problems with the skin and with the body. As a young and healthy woman, she was not yet showing signs other than the occasional rat bite while she slept.
She touched his chest and looked at him. After a few moments she could feel him breathing easier. She took a breath and then felt suddenly rather ill as she had when she had touched Darim. Altair had told her she was a Chalice and the power to both heal and cause pain came from her bloodline, but even he had been skeptical of such claims he had read by Templar scholars until he had seen her. Even had admitted he was not sure what this meant.
She blinked and dropped to the hay beside him.
Malik gasped and realized he was able to take a full deep breath. He had not been able to for at least two months and it had been getting worse. Now he could breathe again and he looked about. He sat up and blinked and then looked down.
Amal looked to be sleeping on her stomach, but then he noticed the hay beneath her face was stained red. Carefully he rolled her to the side and saw blood running freely from her nose. Gasping her lifted his hand to the bridge of her nose. He pinched it to try to stem the blood flow.
"Amal. What have you done?" He asked as he shook her and she would not wake. She lived clearly by how her life blood flowed from her, but still. After an hour it stopped and her own breathing was easier.
Malik sighed. Whatever she had done to help him had cost her.
Gently, he let her sleep keeping watch over her to make sure the rats did not attach her arms or legs.
ZzZ
Abbas visited a week later. He had the jailor open the cell and he looked at the pair as they weakly rose to their feet, their bodies protesting from ill use. "Amal. I have wondered if you have come to your senses. Come. Walk with me, child."
Amal looked at Malik who shrugged and nodded.
Sighing the girl walked forward her hands visible. An assassin with Abbas came and forced her to her knees. She did not fight, but grunted as her knees hit the cold stones.
Abbas clicked his tongue. "Gently, Hammon." He said.
The guard nodded and then reached down and bound her hands. He helped her to her feet and they walked out. Abbas shot a look to Malik who remained where he was, watching.
Amal walked with Abbas and he walked with her up out of the dungeons and to the courtyard. She ducked and closed her eyes against the light and then found a hand helping her. She looked up and noticed Abbas standing there.
"Forgive me. I did not wish you or myself to be harmed while you were here." He said.
"What do you want?" She asked.
"I wish to speak to you now that our tempers have cooled." He said spreading his hands. "Come. You have not bathed in weeks. I know you have wished to wash."
She followed him proudly. The idea of cleaning the layers of filth from her was appealing. She found herself before the hot spring room. She looked at Abbas.
"Surely, you do not intend to join me, Abbas." She said.
"Heaven's no, but I will allow you to refresh yourself if you wish. There are robes within for you to wear that are clean."
She nodded and then looked at him. "Can I be unbound?"
He smiled. "How clumsy of me." He said. He lifted a knife and cut her bonds before pressing her inside. He closed the door and she sighed looked about.
She stripped her once white robes away. They were caked in dirt, dried blood, and her own body stench of being without a proper bath for months. She then sank gratefully into the heated water. She took the sands and other products that had been laid out for her and used them. She scrubbed until her skin was red and raw.
After she rose, her hair cleaned as well, and found the robes. The robes were that of a matron. She was surprised. She had neither the years nor the marriage required to wear these, but rather than be naked she accepted the dress was tying the sash as Abbas walked into the room without knocking.
She stood hands on hips. "In my day, a man knocks before he enters the presence of a lady."
He looked at her and bowed slightly. "Forgive me, Amal. I had called out, but when I did not hear from you, I feared for your safety." He said.
She looked at him and shook her head. She then stepped forward. "Now what? I am washed, what do you intend to do with me now? Put me on display?"
"No." He said. "Come. You must be famished."
She followed him and was surprised he let her remain unbound. He led her to his private rooms. She looked out the window and realized just how much time had passed. It was high summer and the assassins were training in the courtyard training rings.
"I was imprisoned for six months?" She asked.
"A punishment the council felt was necessary for your attack on the Mentor." He looked at her. "I trust you have learned your lesson."
She sighed.
She sat in a bowl chair and regarded him. "Why am I here and not rotting in a jail?"
"I need your help." He said sitting down near her. He leaned forward. "I need your charisma to win over the people of Masyaf. They have proved somewhat…temperamental with my claim to be the new Mentor after we arrested Malik for Sef's murder."
"He is innocent of that."
"Perhaps." He said.
She watched Abbas carefully. "And what would I get in return for this…help?"
"Anything you desire." He said.
She sighed and turned to lift some grapes to eat them as she pondered this.
After nearly two hours speaking to Abbas, Amal returned to the cells. It had been her choice, but she refused to live in luxury while an innocent rotted in jail.
Malik looked her over. "Well met Judas." He said.
She sighed. "He is either beginning to see reason or up to something."
"You even question that?"
She nodded. She then smiled and lifted some food she had smuggled. "I brought you a present." She said smiling.
He took it and blinked. "Why?"
"I will get you free, Malik. I swear."
He smiled sadly before he moved to eat the grapes and goat cheese she had stolen from the table.
ZzZ
Abbas sat finishing the glass of wine he had started with Amal at his side.
Swami joined him. "You must move fast. Altair already returns."
"It will be months before he returns to Masyaf. I have time."
"She is…resistant to you, however."
"Naturally. However, women love gifts and kindness. She spoke to me without swearing at me." He said. "That is progress, Swami."
"Do you really think the plan will work?"
"So far it has been, would you not agree."
"I just worry what Altair will do to us if he suspects betrayal."
Abbas rose so quickly he nearly bowled his underling over. He slapped his face hard. "Listen. You are not supposed to think. You are meant to act. Have you taken care of Rauf? Altair sent in his last letter to Malik that he wanted Rauf to greet him when he returned."
Swami nodded holding his jaw. "I have."
"Good." Abbas said. "The next piece is to seduce the queen."
ZzZ
Over the next months Abbas worked hard at making Amal forgive him. Summer turned to fall which froze into winter which again melted into spring. Each night she would join Malik who was growing weaker in the dungeons to write in her journal about what she had learned and what was happening that she had witnessed. She had managed to have pallets brought for them to get them away from the rats that ran in the hay.
She had also managed to have Malik's family come to visit him in a less dank part of the dungeon. His son was a toddler now and actively exploring. Fatimah had been left alone and in fact had been being provided for by the assassins knowing well she had no part in the murder of Sef.
Malik was grateful.
Malik himself had become frail from being so confined for so long. Though Amal stole food to bring him, it was still not enough. His body needed the sun and the ability to move around more than the cell. He was slowly dying, more slowly than then before, but he was still dying.
Abbas bought her trinkets and jewelry that he had had made for her. She had resisted his charms as he tried to seduce her. He well knew that Altair would return and her husband with him and so he needed to act fast. He watched her walking along the parapet a moment before walking to her.
"I have something for you in my room." He said.
"More gifts?"
"Yes." He said.
She sighed and followed him. He walked into his room and she followed. She did not notice as he locked the door behind him and followed her to where she stood looking at a new set of jewels on his desk. "I cannot accept these. This is too much Abbas." She said.
He smiled and lifted a hand to her hair and brushed it back softly. "No more than you deserve."
She laughed. "My husband never gave me such things."
"Perhaps because he did not know you like them." He said.
"Perhaps."
He watched her turn. He then moved. It was now or never. He knew from the letters that Altair was less than a month from the mountain home. He gently turned her. "Enough of these games, Amal." He said. He leaned down and kissed her.
The kiss was not gentle and she was so startled she did not fight back. He pressed her backwards to the bed and she fell backwards looking up at him in shock. He held her arms and he bound them with silk to the headboard of the bed.
She looked up and gasped. "What the hell are you doing?" She asked.
"Since you will not allow me to woo you as a man should, there remains force." He looked at her as he sat on her midsection looking at her. Her struggles only made him harder. "With my child in your womb, I will be able to both claim you as wife and gain the Apple."
She struggled and she looked at him as he gently pulled at her robes. "You have enticed me with your youthful body for months." He said looking down as he exposed skin. "Since you will not let me have it willingly, I will take what I wish."
She tried to kick him off and cried out.
He laughed. "Yell, scream, as you will, Amal. No one will come to help you." He said. He bent and kissed her as she tried to bite him. He laughed and pressed her back as he exposed her breasts. "I will show you what a real man can do to worship this body of yours."
"My husband is a greater man. He never took it by force. He asked." She growled.
He smiled and cupped one of her breasts. "More the pity. Stolen fruit is always so much sweeter." He smiled as he sucked her nipple between his lips a moment and watched her fight as her body began to betray her. Too long had she been without pleasure that her body leapt at the chance to feel it again and well he knew it.
There was suddenly a knock at the door. Abbas ignored it until it became more frantic. Abbas growled and rose from the bed. He grinned at her. "Don't go anywhere, my pet."
She spat at him.
He opened the door and found Swami there. "Oh this had better be good, or I swear by Allah I will…"
"Altair, Maria, and Darim are just south of the village."
Abbas cringed, but only slightly. "No matter. We have everything we need." He looked at his lackey. "Go to the town and greet them. Tell them what we have discussed."
Swami nodded. "As you command."
Abbas shut the door and then bellowed. He threw a pitcher and it shattered against the wall.
Amal looked at him. "Problem?" She asked.
The smirk on her face caused him to grit his teeth. So the vixen had heard. He looked at her and then lifted a hand and slapped her heard across the face. She gasped, feeling her lip and nose start to ooze blood.
"Feel like a man now that you can beat a woman?" She asked looking back at him defiantly.
He reached above her and tied silk into her mouth to make a gag. "A woman should know her place when to speak." He said his face near hers. "Unfortunately, Altair spoiled my plans with you, my sweet, but I will give you a gift to remember me by."
He pulled her to her feet after binding her hands together. He then lifted his hand and slapped her again. This time she blinked.
"When you fall to the floor, I will stop, but your nature will take as much as you can to try to prove you are stronger than I am."
She straightened her shoulders. "Altair will kill you." She yelled. It was muffled, but he could hear.
"Not if I kill him first." He kicked her side. She yelped again, but refused to drop.
ZzZ
Altair, Darim, and Maria dismounted at the city gate. A groom too their weary mounts. The three looked up at the city that they knew as home, but had not returned to for a more than a decade.
Swami moved from where he sat under a tree waiting. Altair regarded the younger man. Altair had grown a small salted beard, but his dark eyes were watchful. None of the townsfolk had greeted them as they normally would assassins.
"Hail." Swami said.
Altair took a breath. "The city is so still. Why is Rauf not here as I requested?"
"Rauf died of a fever some months ago I regret so say."
"You are the one the call Swami, son of Farim, are you not?"
"Yes, Mentor."
"I would speak to Sef, my son, and Amal, my daughter-in-law. Neither has written in months. Where are they?"
"Forgive me, Mentor. They have gone to Alamut."
"Why?"
"There have been a great many things that have happened. Malik is imprisoned."
"On what grounds?"
"Not here." The younger man said lifting his hand.
Altair watched the younger man who seemed nervous. Perhaps the man was in awe of Altair whom had not been there for so long, but also perhaps it was he was lying.
Darim looked to his father. "I will travel to Alamut to fetch them father."
Altair nodded. "Very good. Now." He looked at the fortress. "I wish to refresh before I join the council and see what is amiss."
Swami nodded. "Your village home is waiting."
Altair nodded. "Thank you."
Maria walked after him as Swami moved away. She leaned close. "Masyaf has changed."
"And not for the better." He said in agreement.
"We have been away for a long time." She said.
"We need to sort out what has happened. Malik would never betray the order and least of all me." He said.
"So sure are you? He hated you once for the loss of his brother."
"We all change, Maria." He said looking at her.
"Indeed."