Greetings, everyone. I'm back (surprisingly) with the next chapter, after what actually felt like ages.
I have good news and bad news for you. The bad one's that I've been looking all over my room for the notes I've made about every upcoming chapter. Unfortunately, I haven't found them and without them I might leave out good plot or details that I really liked. But it looks like I do remember most of my plans, so no worry.
The good one's that I will finish this story. It might not seem like that when it takes months for me to update once in a while, but I am honest. I will finish it.
Until then, I apologize for my lazyness and I wish for you a happy reading. :)
- GadGet (MeliZ)
"Excuse me?"
The bureau leader of Acre stared back at her with almost as much shock in his eyes that is was in hers.
"You dare to speak before spoken to? Altaïr, what is the meaning of this?"
The assassin started to explain the matter, but Maiid interrupted him by slamming her fist in the wooden desk.
"What in hell's name are you taking me for?" she hissed at the old man. "I am no more of a wench than you are!"
The bureau leader gasped, but anger followed with clear visible streaks of red in his face.
"How dare you insult me? Do you not know who I am?"
Maiid was just about to tell the man about who she actually was, but Altaïr decided to put an end to the hostile situation by putting a hand over the furious girl's mouth.
"Rafiq, this is no woman of the street - but a quest of ours. Her name is Shadiyah al Janan and she is with me to help us defeat the warlord and his allies. Janan, this is the Rafiq of Acre; Kareef. He is the brother of Al Mualim…"
Kareef and Maiid stared at the assassin, then at each other. A moment of silence fell over the Bureau and Altaïr decided it was safe to release his friend. The girl pointed a finger at the Bureau leader and made a funny face.
"Al Mualim has a brother? What in…" she shook her head confused, but could not look past the resemblance. The man looked older than the other Bureau leaders, and he had the same cold eyes and white beard as Al Mualim.
Kareef looked at her thoughtfully and stroked his beard. Then he lit up as if he remembered something.
"Ah, the she-male…"
"WHAT?" Maiid roared and a smug smile appeared on the older man's face.
Altaïr put a hand on the girl's shoulder and pulled her backwards in case she decided to leap at the man. Maiid twitched at this handicap and glared at the man beside her. When she saw the look on his face, she decided to try to calm down for his sake. Apparently Altaïr disliked this as much as she did.
"Maybe we should get on with your mission, Altaïr," Kareef said and faced the younger assassin.
"Your man is heavily guarded. The news from my brother told me that I should try and assist you in finding out information about this Imad al Husam. However, I found the task too difficult because of the status of the man. I am afraid that you are on your own in this matter," Kareef finished and nowhere in his appearance was there even the slightest of sympathy shown for Altaïr. Maiid noticed this and took an angry step closer.
"If not even you can find out information about the target, then why are you even placed in a position like this?" she asked between her teeth. The man looked at her with disgust.
"Because I am not my brother, and therefore not the one in charge. He needs someone to look after all the members of the Brotherhood that have not yet found their rightful place among us. Those who are doomed to fail their tasks and questioning their superiors…" He twitched his head at Altaïr behind her, and the girl felt how the hand on her shoulder tensed.
"The likes of him, for example," Kareef said and smirked arrogantly.
"Enough!" Maiid roared at the man. "I do not wish for anymore of your insults – towards me nor Altaïr. We have done nothing to deserve this hostility, and I do not in Allah's name care for how much more superior you might be than me. If you have no good to speak of, then speak no more!"
Kareef started to laugh and Maiid felt how her blood started to boil.
"How amusing," he wheezed in between his gasping for air. "Altaïr, you have gotten yourself a woman for protection! Strangely, I could not yet see that coming…"
The girl took a deep breath to be able to tell the man a thing of two, but she hesitated while thinking of what Kareef had said. Maybe she did defend him, even though he was just as capable to handle the situation by himself. Maybe she had insulted him in the progress?
She looked at her friend and saw his blank face stare back. Maiid felt a lump in the throat, and she stared down in the ground confident of saying no more.
"If you have no information to share with me, I shall go search for it myself," Altaïr said and pushed Maiid out of the door with him, the chuckling from the Rafiq fading as they left the Bureau behind.
Altaïr started to climb out of the hole and Maiid hurried to following him. She managed to get a hold of his robes before he had sprinted of, causing him to turn around.
"I… I am sorry for my outburst," she started; the lump of regret in her throat wasn't helping. Altaïr kept his blank face, waiting for her to continuing.
"I know you can take care of yourself, I just went mad at what he said…" she sighed ashamed and waited for his response. The assassin closed his eyes and nodded.
When he turned to leave, Maiid called for him again.
"Wait! Can I not go with you?"
"It might be too dangerous for you. Stay in the Bureau and await my return," he replied.
Maiid said nothing and when the assassin had gone out of sight, the girl fell to her knees.
She felt horrible. The lump in her throat grew and she put her face in her hands. She didn't even know why she felt so bad. She must've hurt him in some way, though she hadn't intended to of course.
A skriek from above made her to gaze up in the sky. There, flying high and free in the air, there was an eagle. Maiid watched the beautiful animal, and suddenly a tiny glimpse of hope came to her thoughts. Maybe she could help Altaïr to gather information.
Not that I have tried something likely before, but I might as well try, she thought as she leaped over the rooftops, searching for a marketplace. That was her own idea, because she thought that in such a place it might be easier to eavesdrop of people. The eavesdropping however, was something that she had read in the notes of Altaïr. At some time he had written some about investigation an alike, and Maiid now thanked Allah that she had read it all.
The girl in robes decided to climb down from the roof before entering a nearby market place. She was lucky enough to find a ladder which she hurried down with and walked out on the street with her head bowed. She felt exposed when not being above everyone anymore, and therefore she decided to embrace the disguise as a scholar as much as she could. I did work too well in fact, because when she was walking around looking for a couple of people to eavesdrop from, she felt a tugging at her sash. Turning around in an instant, she found that is was a young, dirty boy with his hand at one of her pouches. His eyes widened when realising that he had been caught and he tried to run of, but Maiid was quicker. She grabbed him by his tiny arm and pulled him back easily. The thin boy didn't weight that much.
He struggled for a moment, but soon decided it wasn't taking him anywhere. The boy refused to look at her, fully aware of the punishment for stealing was immediate execution.
Maiid thought for a second, and suddenly recalled another thing from Altaïr's hidden notes.
"Hey, what is the name of yours?" Maiid asked as gentle as possible. She didn't bother to try and change her voice to a masculine one.
The boy looked into her hood and stared again when he realised that she was a woman.
"My name is Bishr, madam," he said dryly, unsure of why she bothered to ask him such a question if she was turning him in.
Maiid nodded and smiled when she saw the thoughtful expression of him.
"I see. Now, Bishr, I have an offer. If you agree to do what I ask of you, then I will not hand you over to the guards." She waited patiently for the boy to think, she knew that it was of importance that he agreed fully.
"That do depend on what you ask of me, madam," he answered in his light voice. Maiid nodded.
"Well of course. What I want you to do are to hand over to me any letter or such that you have picked from the pockets of others."
At her request, Bishr gave her a strange look.
"Letters?" he asked to make sure that he had heard her right. Maiid nodded again and smiled.
The boy started to look through a small bag on his back and handed her a small pile of papers.
"This is what I have got today, madam," he said and put his bag back on.
The girl put the letters in her own pouch and let go of the boy.
"Thank you Bishr. I hope we see each other again."
"I am not sure about that, madam," the boy shrugged and with a last gaze at the girl he went off back into the overflowed street and disappeared.
Maiid smiled widely, much pleased with herself as she headed to the closest couple talking to try and take out more information.
She made it back to the Bureau only minutes before a tired Altaïr sat down beside her on the roof.
"You had any luck?" the girl asked her friend. The Master assassin lay down and rested his head with his hands.
"Barely. I know now where the man called Imad al Husam will be present tomorrow, but I know nothing of the patrols of guards, nor any ways to get to him…" he faced her when she stretched and lay down beside him. Maiid rolled to the side to be able to reach her pouch, pulling out a certain letter that she had kept from the pile. Altaïr followed her movements with his sharp eyes, watching in silence as she held the letter above his hooded head and waving it forth and back.
"I do not know about the way in or out, but in this paper you will find out all about the guards' positions," she said proudly and dropped the letter that was immediately snatched in the air by the assassin. He quickly pored through it and then slowly put it down.
"Where did you get this from?" he asked and narrowed his eyes. Maiid lay completely still on the stone roof.
"I wanted to be of help, so I went out to search out information just like…"
"…I described in my notes," Altaïr finished, a frown growing in his handsome face.
"Why did you read them?"
He was just curious, and who wouldn't be in his case? Maiid could only think that he deserved an honest answer, but somehow it felt hard to tell him the truth. It felt… rather awkward in fact.
"Well…" she began, but after that she didn't knew what to say. Altaïr moved slightly.
"You were looking for vulnerable sides of me, so that you could use them against me and escape?"
Maiid frowned at his suggestion.
"No, nothing like that," she managed to let out before stopping again. The girl sighed loudly.
"It just feels strange to say, but… I was curious about you and I wanted to see more from your point of view." She swallowed and kept her gaze at the very beginning of his hood, avoiding his gaze.
"You have taking good care of me and I began to feel fond of you. But you never spoke much of what you thought of much, and I wanted to know more of you. It was wrong of me to read your notes, but I simply could not…resist."
Maiid raised her gaze and looked into his dark eyes.
"You actually want to know what I think?" he asked in a hoarse voice. Maiid noticed the difference in appearance, but answered him as if she hadn't.
"Why, yes?"
Altaïr then got to his knees, leaning over her with an annoyed expression.
"I think you were very stupid by running off by yourself into Acre - especially when I told you to wait here!" he growled and got to his feet. Maiid looked at him in surprise and slowly got to her feet as well.
The assassin was facing the rest of the town, his back turned towards her. The girl bit her lip, thinking of what to say. Then it hit her.
"Altaïr?" she asked carefully, afraid of making him even more upset.
"Yes, Janan?" he answered tiredly. The girl slowly moved closer to stand beside him.
"Are you worried for my safety?"
Maiid mentally shook her head at the question. It was too much emotion – again. And it felt stupid. But at the same time, the thought of him saying yes made her stomach to feel warm and happy. It must be that compliment thing again…
Silence embraced them for a moment, and Maiid breathed in the fresh air from a bypassing wind.
"I am confused in your presence," Altaïr suddenly said. The girl looked at him and found that a smug smile was playing on his lips. She smiled half a smile back.
"I guess that is the only thing about you that tells us of your gender."
That night both of them spent their night outside of the Bureau among the many pillows. Maiid lay close to the fountain and in the opposite of the place Altaïr rested.
It was the first that Maiid would actually sleep here in the entrance; usually she had always been offered a bed in the Bureau. This time however, she wouldn't sleep inside of there even if the rafiq had offered her a bed. It felt good to finally be out of reach for the mean remarks.
Altaïr started to chuckle again over the joke about her female sides and Maiid threw a pillow at him.
It was funny, that she could agree with him. But the joke had made her think about herself a bit more. Maybe she wasn't that womanly as she should be? Maybe she acted too much as a man to ever…
She could have hit herself if it would sound so loudly in the night. What was she thinking? As if her gender would matter anything right now? Altaïr must think of her to be such a child...
Maiid gazed over at him, not knowing if he was asleep or not. She yawned and smiled for herself at the thought that maybe, just maybe, he really did care for her.