Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Those Lazy Days
1772
"Mister Faulkner, loose all the sails," Ratonhnhaké:ton ordered his first mate.
The grizzled former-captain of the Aquila nodded and took a deep breath. "Release all sails, boys! Let's catch that wind!"
I grinned as the ship lurched, picking up speed. We'd be back to Davenport Homestead in a week at the most. My hand wound into the rigging as old memories poured back, but they were good ones. After all, serving under Edward Kenway was a good memory in itself.
"Cap'n!" Both Ratonhnhaké:ton and I looked at the sailor, who pointed to the cliffs. "The gulls!"
I had to squint and climb more of the rigging, but I noticed the seagulls crying out and beating their wings for a quick escape.
Ratonhnhaké:ton turned his eyes upward. "What say you in the Crow's Nest?!" he hollered.
The sailor at the top of the ship in the Crow's Nest smashed his telescope onto his eye. "I see sails, sir! An ambush!"
"Templars!" Ratonhnhaké:ton cursed in his native tongue. "Mister Faulkner, do you suppose they have seen us yet?"
Faulker shook his head. "I doubt it, Cap'n. They'll wait for the Aquila to get into view before firing, as well." He pointed to the cliffs again. "My advice would be to pull along those cliffs and hide 'er. You can trek across the cliffs come nightfall and ambush the enemy."
Ratonhnhaké:ton turned his gaze to the horizon, where the sun was already setting. He deliberated for a moment, and then nodded. "Your plan is sound," he commented, "and I will be taking Sara with me."
Faulker snorted and shook his head. "Bad enough you brought a woman on the Aquila lad, but now you're bringing her for a raid?"
"I resent that!" I called back to them.
Ratonhnhaké:ton laughed, and then shook his head at Faulkner. "Sara has taught me a great deal of what I know as an Assassin. She is an ideal choice for a stealth attack by land."
Faulkner shrugged. "You're the Cap'n, lad."
"I assure you that everything will turn in our favour." Ratonhnhaké:ton studied the cliffs with his dark eyes as the Aquila sidled along them. "Do you suppose a scouting party will appear over those cliffs when we do not appear?"
"I suppose so, boy." Faulkner rubbed his greyed beard. "It'd be wise to capture 'em quietly. I'll send some o' the boys onto shore with you."
"I would be grateful for that, Mister Faulkner." Ratonhnhaké:ton nodded to me as the sailors dropped anchor and stabilized the ship so she wouldn't hit the jagged rocks of the cliff. "I will scout ahead for possible ambushes. Mister Faulkner, please ensure that the men you send on shore will speak with Sara beforehand."
"Aye, Cap'n." The old sailor locked his gaze with mine and then began shouting orders to a few of the men.
I hopped from the ship's rigging as Ratonhnhaké:ton changed from his captain's outfit into the Assassin robes he inherited from Achilles. I found it odd that his robes had so much blue on them, but it worked for him. I'd been used to the red and white for so long, I supposed it was time for a change.
I decided to continue wearing the robes that Ziio had made for me years ago, before Ratonhnhaké:ton's birth. It had a few tweaks, like less fur and a bit more modesty, but it was, essentially, the same, beaked hood and all.
"Connor!" Faulkner called as the youth vaulted over the railing of the Aquila and onto the cliffs. "Be careful, lad! The Aquila and her crew still need a cap'n!"
"That is why you are first mate, Mister Faulkner!" Ratonhnhaké:ton called back. He looked at me, waved, and then began to scale the cliffs. "I will be back shortly. Await my signal if there is an ambush coming too soon, or I am in need of aid."
"Will do," I replied, playfully saluting him. He grinned and continued to scale.
Eventually, Faulkner got four men of the motley crew of sailors armed and ready to ambush the Templars. These men were the only ones able to climb the cliffs with guns in hand or slung over their shoulders, and they looked well-enough in the fighting department, so I shook each of their hands and began climbing.
We reached the top of the cliff and silently snuck into the woods, using the bushes as cover. We didn't know who was out watching, but anyone could be, even if it was just Ratonhnhaké:ton.
I stopped the men as we descended further into the brush. Our trek upwards would soon end, and we'd begin to descend to the other side, where the enemy ship laid in wait.
"D'you see the Cap'n?" one of the men behind me asked.
I scanned the trees quickly and shook my head. "He's gone farther ahead. Perhaps he noticed something?"
"Well, there be no ambushes yet, and for that I'm thankful."
"Indeed." We only took a few steps more before I halted them again. "Sh!"
We waited in the bushes as we listened to the sounds of footsteps approaching. Eventually, a troop of five men came over the hill and marched towards the Aquila. I motioned for the men to get behind them once they passed. The first three were taken down silently, but the second-last's call wasn't muffled. The officer leading them whirled around and shouted just as my hidden blade punctured his throat, killing him.
Dragging our kills out of sight, we hurried forward. Ratonhnhaké:ton hadn't called us yet. There was a sinking hole in my stomach as I realized that the further we went, the less I saw of any disturbances in the brush or the trees, which meant that Ratonhnhaké:ton had likely gone off the trail...
"Something's wrong," I said quietly. "Stay here. I'll go ahead. If you hear fighting, join in. I don't care if you have to shoot your weapons to alert everyone, just be careful about it!"
"Aye, ma'am," a sailor complied.
I hurried out of the brush and scaled a tree, jumping from one to the other in a flash. I eventually settled at the edge of the cliff, but I was concealed generously behind some leaves. I spied a figure in white at mid-deck on his knees, his hands bound behind him and hood thrown off his head, revealing ebony hair. Ratonhnhaké:ton...
"I ask you again, savage..." The captain of the Templar ship knelt to Ratonhnhaké:ton's level, throwing his tri-corn hat to one of the sailors so it wouldn't get in his way. "Where are your people? Who trained you to use those weapons?!"
Ratonhnhaké:ton was silent and stared straight ahead, denying the captain any hint that he even understood what he'd said. I grinned, but the smile vanished from my face when the captain drew his pistol and smashed the butt of the weapon into the side of Ratonhnhaké:ton's head. Ratonhnhaké:ton shook his head to clear it, and the crew members grabbed his shoulders to straighten him once more.
"Your hands are soft," Ratonhnhaké:ton said as I leapt from the tree branch and onto the mainmast, procuring a throwing knife and lodging it into the throat of the sailor in the Crow's Nest. "You seem used to others doing your work for you. Have you ever broken the will of a man by your own strength?"
"I don't answer to you!" the captain sneered as I traversed the rigging to the mizzenmast. He cocked his gun and pressed the barrel against Ratonhnhaké:ton's head. "Now, one last time, boy! Where are the other Assassins?!"
Ratonhnhaké:ton smirked at the captain. "Me and mine are on top of you, captain."
I leapt from the mast, unleashing my hidden blades, and landed on top of both the first mate and the captain, sinking the blades into their skulls. Ratonhnhaké:ton leapt up when the sailor's holding him cringed and smashed his head against one of theirs, and then kicked the family jewels of the other sailor. I pulled my blades out of the bodies and quickly cut the rope binding Ratonhnhaké:ton as a cry of outrage came up from the remaining sailors. I tossed Ratonhnhaké:ton his tomahawk and hidden blades off of the corpses of the captain and first mate and went to meet the furious sailors as Ratonhnhaké:ton fastened the hidden blades around his wrists.
We fought for all of two minutes, blood washing among the sea-spray that showered into the ship, before the four sailors from the Aquila that Faulkner had sent with us opened fire from the cliffs. A few enemy sailors realized that they wouldn't win and abandoned ship. The rest stayed to fight, however futile it was, and made more so when the Aquila herself appeared from around the cliffs and opened fire as soon as she came alongside the Templar ship.
Ratonhnhaké:ton grabbed me as the Aquila's cannons were primed and tackled me to the ground, barely avoiding the cannonballs that smashed into the ship and the cliff. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard a cheer from the Aquila, signalling our victory. Ratonhnhaké:ton smiled down at me.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
I nodded. "Fine, thanks. Nice line of yours, by the way." Ratonhnhaké:ton stood and offered a hand to help me up. "How'd you know I was there?"
Ratonhnhaké:ton shrugged. "I did not. I took a Leap of Faith."
I grinned, and playfully punched his arm when he'd hoisted me onto my feet. "Now you're getting it, Ratonhnhaké:ton."
Smiling, Ratonhnhaké:ton opened his mouth to say something more, but Faulkner unintentionally interrupted him. "Cap'n!" the first mate called from across the gap of water that separated the Aquila and her enemy. "Thought you'd abandoned ship when we opened fire!"
"I did not, Mister Faulkner," Ratonhnhaké:ton replied, amplifying his voice so it would carry to the older man, "but I am gladdened that you chose to fire upon the ship. We will search for anything of value here before she sinks, and then we will join you aboard the Aquila."
"Of course, sir!" Faulkner looked up at the cliff. "You lot! Get your sorry hides down here! We've a deadline to make!"
"Aye, Mister Faulkner!" the men cried, and then precariously began the descent from the cliff.
Ratonhnhaké:ton opened the door to the captain's cabin and began to sift through papers and chests. I leaned against the doorway, smiling at him. "What makes you think that the captain had anything of value?"
"I heard him speaking with his first mate before I was discovered," Ratonhnhaké:ton said. "He mentioned a manifest of some Templar cargo that would be sent to New York and Boston to my father. I plan to learn of it and sink it."
I left the room and quickly searched the captain's body, and quickly discovered a bloody letter on his being. Grinning, I returned to the captain's cabin and held it up. Ratonhnhaké:ton plucked it out of my hands and gingerly opened it.
He frowned. "It is written in code. It will take time to decipher it."
"Achilles is good with these things," I told the youth. "He has nothing better to do, anyway."
"I suppose so." Ratonhnhaké:ton pocketed the letter. "Perhaps there is a key here that will aid him?"
"I'm willing to bet that it's in a secret compartment," I said.
Ratonhnhaké:ton nodded, and began to check behind some of the paintings. Finding nothing, he looked at me, as if waiting for instruction. I grinned and pointed at the desk.
"Try underneath," I suggested.
He did so, and held up the paper triumphantly. "This will bring us closer to ending the reign of the Templars on the sea."
"Slowly, yes, but eventually."
