chapter 9- turn to third

Max evades a blow and bends back at the waist, her trainers blade passing just centimeters from her nose. She leaps back and grabs his neck where her blade would pierce his trachea and carotid artery.

"Good, Maximum, again!" Her mentor shouted from the side of the ring, and she retrieves her short sword from the sand. As soon as she has the blade, the trainer rushes at her again, and she parries and allows him to disarm her. Balancing on her front foot, she dodges under his arm and slaps his back. Her mentor claps from the sideline and calls her over. She retrieves her sword and crosses the ring to where he's leaning against the rail.

"You're getting good." He says, and she gives a small nod and smiles. She's wary around him, her roommate Nudge told her that Al Mualim never personally oversees training, unless he has something really hard planned for her in the future.

"Thank you." She responds, pushing her hood back from her now shaved hair. She cropped her blonde hair on her second day of training when the strands would stick to her neck with sweat. Her life was upside down, but she didn't have time to dwell in it. She hadn't seen Fang in a month, she's been sore, cut and bruised, and learned about her father's treachery. That was enough to keep her from mourning.

"I'll meet you in my office." He says, and she's off at a sprint. Her mentor teaches her about the templars, their goals and their elite members. Her father is the head of a snake that threatens to make it impossible for anyone to be free or individual. She skids to a stop in front of his desk, not even winded, and folds her arms behind her back, waiting for Al Mualim to arrive.

"Your brothers and sisters would be killed the instant you show weakness." She remembers being told. At first, it was hard to dismiss her feelings, but after Fang disappeared without a word, her feelings became dormant. The only people who she wished to protect now were Nudge and Iggy.

"I have a small assignment for you." Her mentor speaks behind her and makes his way to his desk, sitting heavily in his chair. She just watches him, waiting for him to tell her what to do. Her heart jumped up into her throat at the mention of an assignment. She loves assignments, they're natural and exciting.

"Tomorrow, go to Limassol and seek out the black market merchant named Tamir. Let him be the first to fall. Be sure to visit the city's Assassin Bureau when you arrive. I'll dispatch a bird to inform the Rafiq of your arrival. Speak with him, you'll find he has much to offer." He releases the pigeon out the window and she nods.

"If you think it best." He waves her away and she turns without hesitation. She hates killing, with a passion, but once she knows why they need to die, she doesn't feel so bad any more. She never hangs around long enough to see any of the aftermath. Turning around the back of the bookshelf, she climbs the ladder to her room.

"New assignment?" Nudge is sitting on the floor when Max comes in, sharpening the blades of her throwing knives. Max undoes her belt and lets it hit the floor with a thud.

"Yes. Limassol this time." Nudge nods and scoots closer to Max, fingering the sleeve of her tunic.

"Your tunic is ripped again. Damn instructors always making holes." Nudge grumbles and threads a needle with white thread.

"Have you seen Fang recently?" Max asks while Nudge mends the hole of her sleeve. Nudge shakes her head and flicks Max on the elbow.

"No. He's been sent to Damascus in pursuit of nine men last I heard. Forget about him, Max, there's no space for love as an assassin." Nudge tells her with a wary eye, and Max sighs, tapping her fingers of her knee. She knows that, but that doesn't mean that can't be friends, right? He could at least stop by and make sure she's still alive.

Max falls asleep in her tunic on the floor next to Nudge, and startles awake again from the sound of footstep pounding down the hall. Iggy slams the door open, and Max jolts upright.

"What's going on?" Max asks, and Iggy shakes Nudge awake. She groans and rolls over, pushing herself up off the floor.

"The governor is here with his army." Is all Iggy needs to say for Nudge to startle awake. Max stands and straps on her belt and her blade cuff and follows Iggy down the ladder with Nudge behind her. The rest of the guild was gathered at the side of the church where the patio dropped off into a gully. Around the side of the sanctuary, the path to the sanctuary was filled with lines of guards and templars, Dylan and the governor mounted on horses at the front.

"We'll escape through the gully and through town. Max, get to Limassol, don't stop until you get to the sanctuary there." Nudge tells her, and the members of the brotherhood are leaping from the edge of the stone patio. Max creeps to the edge, and leaps, turning forward one time and landing in the stack of unpacked hay. She scrambles out, just as another apprentice hits the ground only a few meters from her. His legs crunch and he lets out a strangled scream.

"Shh! Be quiet!" Iggy shushes him, and Max backs away. Iggy plunges his hidden blade into his neck, and Max turns away from the gush of blood and sprints towards the rocks and building at the bottom of the gully. Nudge is halfway up the building when Max starts the climb. She latches onto the windows and joints in the stone, pulling herself up as quickly as she can. At the top of the roof, she crouches and scans the army.

With everyone out of the church, there's no people there for them to find. As long as Al Mualim gets out, the guild will stay alive and won't be stopped. Max turns from where she can see the army and runs across the rooftops. She's full of adrenaline and fear of being caught. She jumps and catches the lip of a rooftop with her fingertips, hauling herself up and continuing her sprint for the city's edge. A guard sees her, and she tackles him, plunging her blade into his throat before he can call out and draw attention to her.

The horses at the outside of the gate are nervous, and she mounts the nearest tan gelding. She digs her heels into his sides, and the horse leaps forward, down the dusty road at a gloriously fast pace. The wind pushes her hood away from her scalp. The horse pricks his ears happily and lower his neck to plunge up a hill, happy to stretch his legs.

Max turns the horse in the direction of Limassol, the horses choppy gallop smoothing out into a canter. Two hours later, Limassol rises from the distance. The horse is tired, and Max is going to be sore from sitting in the saddle for so long. As Max nears the gate, she starts to see the number of guards standing at the gate. She pulls the horse to a stop, and dismounts, leaving the sweating horse to find water. She scans the area; the group of at least twenty guards around the gate is way to many for her to take, but the group of monks slowly making their way towards the gate proves promising. She stretches quickly, yanks her hood over her head, and takes off at a run to join them.

"Don't mind me." She whispers and stands at the center of the four monks, her head bowed and hands folded. As they get closer to the gate, she can feel the eyes of the guards on her, but she doesn't flinch. The guards part and the monks slip through easily. Once inside, she breaks away from the monks, and walks quickly through the city. She needs to find the merchant.

"There's too many guards here." She grumbles, gently pushing past a woman carrying a painted red pot. She climbs up to the rooftops, and runs towards the tallest building. She scales it easily, hands and fingers holding her to window ledges and grates like the talons of an eagle, and looks out over the city. It's cleaner than Florence and the few plants and trees planted make the place look pretty. She finds the sanctuary mark, and tips off the front of the haphazard wood stand. Her stomach churns before she hits the hay, and she listens for a second before jumping out and taking off full sprint towards where she saw the mark. She rounds a corner, and collides with a man carrying a box.

"Hey! What are you doing! Oh...my flour." The man laments, and three guards have their eyes on her. A month and a half ago, she would have apologized and helped him, but now she stays silent and climbs a barrel and pulls herself up onto the roof. At a slow jog, she heads to where she saw the insignia painted on the roof, the guards up here watch her with wary eyes, but don't act, and she's thankful for that. She's tired, and she just wants to get the sanctuary and lie down.

It doesn't take much time before she arrives at the sanctuary, and the robust man behind the counter gives her the location of the merchant and a feather.

"Stay the night. You look tired." He offers gruffly, before he disappeared into the back room and leaving her alone, only the cage of pigeons cooing softly in the quiet room. Max sighs, loosening her heavy belt and letting her muscles relax. She should be used to these mindless, tired days, but the fatigue still sets in. She finds half a loaf of bread and dried meat under the counter and snuggles into the mess of cushions on the floor under the rectangle cut out of the roof where she dropped in. Tearing off chunks of the meat with her teeth, she shifts on her side, trying to get comfortable with her sword's pommel against her hip. She falls asleep when the bread is gone, and the stars start to appear.

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When Fang drops into the sanctuary, and does his best to ignore the sleeping girl on the pile of cushions in the corner and goes right to the counter where the agent has left his assignment out on the counter. He tucks the feather into his sleeve, and peeks around the corner at where Max is sleeping. He's surprised she didn't wake up when he came in, but she must be exhausted after what happened back at the church in Florence. Her hood is covering half her face, but what he can see of it is bathed in the moonlight.

"It's been a while." He whispers as he sinks into the cushions next to her, careful not to shift her and wake her up. He was worried she wouldn't have been able to get out in time, or that she wouldn't be able to climb out of the gully, but she surprised him. She was fast, and skilled, he could hardly believe the girl in the white tunic beside Nudge was her. He watched her escape from afar, but had to cut his line of vision from her when he went to get Al Mualim out.

"I'm sorry I had to stay away. You had to learn fast." He whispers, and reaches forward to brush her hood back from her hair. It's short, and is stuck to her scalp with sweat, but it still shines gold and bronze in the moonlight. She's tanned, and her eyebrow is split with a thin white scar. He wants to touch her hair, but he can't lift his hands. He shouldn't touch her, he doesn't deserve to, after he left her for so long. She's probably mad at him, he didn't even stop in to see how she was doing or how her first assignments went.

But his assignment in Damascus, that was what kept him away. For two months he gathered information, found targets, and eavesdropped so many meetings that he thought his head was going to explode. When he was done with his assignment, he stayed for another week. He had to know what they knew about Max. They didn't know anything about her location, but they knew about the guard she pushed off the edge of the roof. And they were looking to kill her.

"Her punishment is death, but can't we just punish her! She's your heir!" He remembers hearing her mother cry. Max never talked about her mother, but from what Fang could see, she didn't look like the type to cry. She was a sharp looking woman, but at the time she looked like a mess. Her husband wouldn't look at her, he just dressed and left his crying wife alone. Max shifts and turns away from Fang, hiding her face again, and he lies down on his back beside her. He'll sleep just long enough, and then he'll be gone before she can wake up and see him.