Hello again :)

Just a little warning: Chapter 40 is the longest one in the entire story, so it´s going to take a while to translate it. But I really enjoyed your reviews to the last chapter. I guess everyone was waiting for it. :D

To Guesty: You´re too kind. :D I´m surely no celebrity but I´m glad to hear that I can make you happy with my story. But you don´t need to worry about the end of this one. Does it reassure you that I´ve published the 70th chapter of the (german) sequel just yesterday? ;) No end in sight yet.

To C: Well, the two of them really needed some time. :D But I guess it fits their characters. Connor´s and Lillian´s. I´m glad you like that.

To Tina: Thank you. :) It´s always good to hear that no one is out of character.

To Betterdays623: Sounds weird but I´m happy that I was able to "make you cry" or better to say: That I was able to affect you. Guess that should be the aim of every author. :) Lillian´s hair is dark brown, by the way. I know that I´m not describing her so often but somehow I want to give the reader the chance to create his own image of her. But the short discription is: Hip-length, dark brown hair. Grey eyes. Quite small and petite. ^^

They are going to pay for this

Caleb came from the direction of the salt lake, running, totally pale, the hair still wet from the rain that had just ended.
"What happened?", asked Connor and kneeled down in front of the boy, placing his hands on Caleb´s shoulders. Caleb panted and when I stepped to him and the assassin, I saw that he was trembling.
"They...they suddenly appeared. They wanted to know from grandfather where some kind of Shroud is. Grandfather sent me away and they wanted to hold me but I just ran away and hoped to find you."
"Who do you mean with "them"? What kind of people?" I could hear that Connor tried to stay calm but probably he knew as good as I did who Caleb meant.
"I don´t know their names. Their boss was quite tall and had creepy blue eyes and the one who always ran after him was fat and smarmy. They had at least ten armed men with them."
Connor glanced at me over his shoulder and our gazes met. We knew who had appeared at Caleb´s and Noel´s. Gardner and Tibbet. But how had they found us? Had they searched for us anyway?

"Did they ask about us?", I wanted to know from Caleb but the boy shook his head. So it really was about the Piece of Eden? But how had they learned that it was on this island? Connor stood up, his face marked by grim determination. "I will go back immediately. You will follow me but stay away. I do not want them to come too close to you, if they are still there."
I nodded, before the assassin adjusted the bow on his back and ran off, back to the house. Caleb stood there like frozen, staring to the ground while he was still panting. He must have run the whole way. Cherry, who I was holding at her rope, snorted quietly and I led her to the boy who instantly buried his hand into her thick mane.
"Come, let us leave the baskets here and you sit on her back. I will lead her and you can rest a bit", I said gently and put a hand on his shoulder. The boy just nodded before he climbed on the little mare´s back and cocked his legs so that his feet didn´t drag over the ground. He wasn´t quite himself but I did understand. He was worried about his grandfather and Ale because the dog hadn´t come with him as usual. I hope they are fine, I thought and turned my gaze into the direction Connor had disappeared in.

Even from the distance I could see the white of his coat. He ran amazingly quickly and with determination and I hoped that he would make it back in time before something terrible happened.
Shortly I made sure that Caleb sat safety on Cherry´s back before I went off and tried to hurry. My feet carried me as fast as I thought that Cherry´s short legs were capable of it, but she seemed to feel that something was wrong. I barely had to drive her on and sometimes, she even fell into a slow trot so that I could quicken my steps, too. I always had an eye on the boy but he was just sitting there silently and looked onto the little mare´s mane. I wanted to reassure him but I was too churned up myself to find the right words. How fast the situation and feelings could change. Just moments ago I had floated in bliss and had wished that the time in Connor´s arms would never end. But now I was on my way into a fearful uncertainty. The only thing I knew was that our enemies were here now, too and surely were anything but peaceful minded.

Gardner was an ice-cold bastard and in the past, he had already done everything to get the Shroud. What was he capable of, when he was close to his aim? I was going to learn it earlier than I wanted it. Soon I could see the dark clouds of smoke, soaring up in the distance and as we had left a small hill behind us, we were looking down to a burning house and an also burning stable. Not a living soul was to see. Caleb uttered a quiet whimper and I instantly turned to him, put my hands on his shoulders.
"Stay here with Cherry, hide behind this rock there. You won´t move an inch, do you hear me?"
The boy looked at me trembling, tears running down his cheeks, but he nodded. Shortly I took him in my arms before I pushed the mare´s rope into his hand and ran down the last metres to the house.

The wind blew the acrid smoke towards me, that seemed to lie over the whole terrain. It burned my eyes and I coughed several times while I blinking tried to perceive my environment in detail. I heard nothing but the crackling flames. No voices, no screaming, not even the noise of weapons hitting each other. The only human beings were the bodies of four men who were lying scattered on the courtyard. Obviously they had fallen victims to Connor. But where was he? Where were Noel and Ale?
I slipped out of my waistcoat and pressed it against my mouth and nose, hoping that I wouldn´t keep breathing in the smoke like that. I crossed the courtyard with quick steps and despite the fire´s heat, I felt a shiver running down my spine. It wasn´t possible that I didn´t meet anyone. Unless...

Frightened I jumped to the side as the roof of the barn next to me collapsed with a loud crack. Sparks and dust flown up and I had to turn my face away to get nothing of it into my eyes. The fear inside of me became superior as I thought that the men could have been inside the barn. Or the house. That they maybe...
No, Lillian! You will go to the street now. Maybe they are there somewhere.
I would have followed my own order if I hadn´t heard a whimper from the collapsed barn. Ale!
I ran into the direction the noise had come from, to a smoking pile of rubble where there had used to be the gate of the barn. The whimper became louder and it tore my heart into pieces as I pushed a wooden plank aside and found the jammed Ale. His fur was covered with soot, his lips bloodstained but the worst was the hand-sized wooden splinter that had plunged into his side. The animal whimpered in agony and tried to lift his head to look at me but he hadn´t the strength anymore. Tears rose into my eyes as I reached out my hand and stroke over the small head, completely helpless. How I had cursed this dog sometimes but he had always been such a brave animal, full of life and on top of everything: Caleb´s best friend. How should I tell the boy that Ale would never run over the meadows with him again? The dog wouldn´t recover and stand up anymore. While I was stroking him, the whimper quietened down, his breath became shallow and finally came to a standstill.

"Poor calf-biter. I hope you have it good wherever you are now", I whispered and gently let his floppy ears slid through my fingertips. He had loved it when Caleb or Connor had done that and I wished that I would have spent more time with him, too. Now it was too late but what should I do? Recover him from the rubble? It would be better if Caleb didn´t see his friend like that. The loss would hurt him enough but there was still the question: What happened to Noel?
And to Connor.
I stroke over Ale´s small head for a last time before I stood up and looked undetermined to the house. In contrast to the barn, it was still intact, at least it was built of stone, but even from the distance I could hear the cracking of the wooden beams which were supporting the roof that was already half collapsed. What if they were in there?
Then you can´t help them anymore.
And as if the roof had heard my thoughts, it now collapsed completely. I bit my bottom lip to suppress the tears which were unstoppably finding their way into my eyes again. The home of the boy and his grandfather was destroyed. And why? Because there were men who were doing everything to satisfy their greed for power. They are going to pay for this!
I clenched my fists and spun around in the same moment, as I heard steps behind me.

I had to screw up my eyes some more, because of the smoke and the tears didn´t make it easier for me to see something. But nevertheless it was quickly obvious that is was neither Connor nor Noel, who was stumping towards me. First I only spotted the silhouette of a pot-bellied man who had a rapier in his right hand and I was already suspecting who he was but I couldn´t make my legs move. I stayed like I was frozen as the man finally stepped out of the thick smoke and I saw this sweaty, glittering face which had aroused my disgust so often. Walter Tibbet, whose mouth twisted into the dirty grin, I had already seen him with during our last meeting.
"Well, well, what a surprise", his unpleasant voice sounded while he was further approaching me. "A face which I didn´t expect to see again."
"I could have done without your sight, too", I hissed and did a few steps back what made him quicken his pace, not without losing the grin.
"You really became rude, Lillian. I think your new contacts have a bad influence on you." He lifted the rapier and waved it like a person who had lifted his index finger in a didactic manner. The shining steel flashed in the light of the burning house and I began to feel unwell with the thought that I was unarmed against him. Where the devil was Connor if you really needed him? My gaze flitted shortly over my shoulder to the street, what didn´t escape Tibbet´s notice of course.
"When you´re hoping for help, it´s a waste of time. Nobody´s here to help you." He chuckled while I had to swallow the lump in my throat. Connor would have never left without Caleb and me. But where should he else be if not in one of the burning buildings?
"What is it? You´re looking worried. Are you afraid of me, now that no one´s there to watch over you? So alone out here in the wilderness. Far from home."
The scorn in Tibbet´s voice was unmistakable and angry I looked at him again. I certainly wouldn´t give him the satisfaction to mock at me. Yes, I was afraid but my hatred for him outweighed. He was also responsible that a ten years old child had lost its home.
"I think your stench is more frightening than you", I snapped back with the same scorn in my voice.
Tibbet´s eyes narrowed but the grin was still there. He quickened his path while I kept stepping back. But I didn´t pay attention to where I was going to and tripped over the leg of a body. I fell backwards onto my bottom but before I could stand up, Tibbet had reached me and held the rapier against my throat.
"Actually Gardner would want me to let you live. But what he doesn´t know..." His grin became diabolic but before he could hurt me with the blade, I had grabbed beside me, took a load of dirt into my hand and threw it into his face.

Tibbet stumbled back swearing and gave me the time to leap up and run off. I ran towards the coastal street but Tibbet had recovered sooner than I had expected it. He was close behind me and amazingly quick for his body weight. He shoved the pommel of his rapier against my back, made me stumble with that action and I fell down. This time I landed on my belly but I kicked out at him before he could come closer to me. Now I was really afraid and instinctively I crawled to a body that was lying in the dirt not far from me. I reached out my hand for the blade next to the dead man but before I could get it, Tibbet was over me, shoved his foot into my side and brought me onto my back.
Now I saw his face again, covered in the dirt I had thrown at him. Unfortunately it made him look even more frightening and he laid his rapier against my neck again, let it wander down to my neckline.
"How tragic that you have to die in man-clothing. You looked fantastic in this red dress." He pressed the rapier point against the sensitive hollow over my collarbone and I gasped as I felt the pain it caused. But I certainly wouldn´t let him kill me while I was lying in the dirt. My hand felt for the rapier again and it was more a reflex than a conscious action as I grabbed the blade, hoicked it and shoved it into Tibbet´s direction, who had bent down to me.

I could feel how it ran through his skin, cut through his flesh as if it was butter but I also felt the disgusting scarping as it brushed his rips. Tibbet´s eyes almost poured out of his head but the grin was finally gone. He dropped his own rapier, stumbled backwards and hastily I let go my weapon which was just stuck in his chest. The man stared at the forged piece of steel that was swinging up and down with his movements before he uttered a rasping sound, fell onto his knees and finally to the ground. The eyes opened wide but without life. I couldn´t do anything else but staring into his face while I began to breath hectically. Panic lacing my chest up.
I had killed a man! I just had pushed a blade into his chest, had felt how it speared him. His skin, his flesh, I had even felt the touch with his bones and believed that I was still feeling it in my hand.

Hastily I crawled backwards, away from Tibbet´s body and I screamed as I was grabbed by my shoulders. I hadn´t heard that someone had approached me and in panic I began to struck at this someone until my wrists were grabbed firmly but gently.
"Lillian! Lillian, it is alright. It is me."
My hands trembled but came to a stop and I looked with wide eyes into Connor´s face which was hidden under his hood until he pushed it from his head.
"What are you doing here? I told you to stay behind." The reproach in his voice was unmistakable and also his frown was showing his disapproval in face of my next disobedience. But this expression vanished quickly as I burst into tears and only now he noticed Tibbet who was lying only a few metres away.

"I´ve killed him", I uttered in a tearful voice. "I just killed him and it was...too easy. It happened too quickly and...and I..." My voice broke and my chest tightened convulsively with my sobs. Connor wrapped his arms around me and pulled me to his chest, his forehead leaned against my head. "It is alright", he said quietly. "You had to defend yourself. There was nothing else you could do."
"But he´s dead. I´ve killed him." This was the only thought I had. Of course I had only defended myself because if I hadn´t, I would be the one lying there now. But the fact that I had ended somebody´s life, outweighed in this moment.

"Now calm yourself." Connor laid his hands on my shoulders and held me a bit away from him. His gaze fell onto the spot on my collar bone, where Tibbet had pressed down his blade. I felt a dull throbbing there but as Connor stroked with his thumb over the spot, I noticed that I was bleeding.
"The wound is not deep, it should soon stop bleeding", he said objectively but I heard the tension behind this words. Maybe he would have killed Tibbet himself if I hadn´t got in ahead of him.
"Do you have other injuries?"
I shook my head silently while I tried to keep my tears under control. The assassin laid a hand on my cheek and gently stroke their wet traces away. "I am sorry that I was not here earlier", he said quietly.
"Where have you been?"
Connor pulled back his hand and his gaze became sad as he looked to the street. "With Noel. He fled from the house but was already wounded and did not come far."
My heart began to beat painfully in my chest and I bit my lower lip as it began to tremble. Tears rose into my eyes again. "So he´s...?"
Connor nodded. "He just died. They wounded him badly to learn what they wanted to know. He told them but...he could tell me where the Shroud is, too."
I stared at him with wide eyes while he held his gaze down.
"So we have to go there now. Gardner surely is on his way already."
He nodded. "I tied two horses by the street. We should leave soon even though I do not like the thought that you and the boy are coming with me. But I guess there is no place where you are safe enough."

Oh God, Caleb.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trembling. Noel was dead, just as Ale. He had nothing and no one anymore.
"I just found Ale. He´s also...we have to tell Caleb. But I don´t know..." My voice broke again.
"Where is he?"
My eyes opened with the question and I nodded into the direction, where I had left the boy behind. Connor stood up, helped me on my feet, laid an arm around my waist, because my legs didn´t obey me and silently we walked back the way I had come from. Caleb had hid behind a rock, like I had told him and leaped up as he heard us coming. He stared at us with wide eyes, his gaze slit back and forth between Connor and me. "Where´s grandfather? And where´s Ale?"
Connor took his arm from my waist and kneeled down in front of the boy whose gaze became more and more afraid.
"They are both dead, Caleb", Connor said calmly, directly, without further ado and laid a hand on the child´s shoulder. "I am sorry, I...could not help them."
They boy stared at Connor with disbelief and I could see the pain on his young face. The eyes filled with tears and he burst into loud sobbing as he wrapped his arms around Connor´s neck. The assassin put his arms around him and stroke with his hand through the blonde hair. He kneeled with his back towards me but I could imagine that this situation wasn´t easy for him. Like before, when he had apologized to me, I had heard the self-reproach in his voice. He hadn´t been able to spare the boy the grief like he hadn´t been able to protect me from the experience to take somebody´s life.

Slowly I stepped closer to them, put a hand on Connor´s shoulder and squeezed it gently.
"We should go. Caleb, we will follow the men who did this and they are going to pay for it. I promise."
Connor turned his head towards me and looked at me completely seriously. "But you will hold yourself back." He freed himself from the embrace and looked into the boy´s eyes. "I promise that they will not get away with it. But if the two of you come with me, you will have to stay in the background. These men are dangerous."
Caleb whipped his sleeve over his tear stained face and nodded. "But what about Cherry?", he asked hoarsely and our gazes slid to the little mare.
"She is tough. She will cope alone. We cannot take her with us."
The boy nodded again but reluctantly. But Connor was right. Cherry would be in our way but she was strong enough to survive on her own. So we freed her from her harness and Caleb cuddled her for a last time before he gave her a slap on the croup. The animal seemed to understand, neighed quietly before it turned on its heel and ran off. We looked after her only shortly before Connor led us to the horses he had told me about before. We went the long way round the farm on purpose because we wanted to spare Caleb this sight. Connor mounted one of the horses, me the other and Caleb climbed behind me. He was totally silent. Different than usual and I was worried about that. But what should you expect from a child who had just lost everything what it had known in his life?