Thus, I break my Hiatus.
Chapter 12:
Nudge rinses Max's hair with a pail of warm water and it runs clean. Today, Max is leaving for Acre to execute Garnier de Naplouse. She knows nothing about him or what he does, just that he's in Acre and he needs to die.
"You're clean. I swear the amount of dirt in your hair could patch a house." Nudge grumbles, and Max steps out of the water.
"Thank you. Now I can smell like a rose when Garnier de Naplouse breathes his last." She says and sighs. Her shoulders are still sore, but not so sore that she would face the wrath of Al Mualim if she continued to hang around the sanctuary.
"Your assignments aren't something to talk about over bathwater." Iggy says lazily from the next pool over, his head resting on his arms and his eyes closed lazily. Max dries herself and pulls her white tunic over her head.
"Not all of us like to sleep in here. We'd may as well talk." Nudge counters, leaning back and soaking her hair in the steaming water. Max puts on the rest of her armor in the steamy room and shakes the water out of her short hair. Nudge and Iggy continue to bicker while Max pulls her hood over her head and she heads for the door.
"Goodbye!" She calls behind her, and Nudge and Iggy both chime in with,
"Good Luck!" Max steps from the bathhouse into the hot Florence sun and leaves at a jog towards the city gates.
Acre takes a little over four hours to reach, and the sun is making her woozy. She slides from the shoulder of the horse and under a tree, pushing her hood back and tying her now dry hair tighter away from her forehead. She could really do for water right now, but she has to focus on getting into the city first.
Max pushes herself out of from under the tree and takes the reins of the sweating horse. The walls of the city are too high to climb, and there are too many guards for her to fight without getting hurt. She sighs and pats the horses neck, and it hangs its head, tired. She leads the horse to a trough surrounded by three other horses, and slips its bridle off.
The horse dips its head and drinks the cold water in gulps, and Max cups her hands and raises handfuls of water to her lips. The water seems to cool her stomach and she licks her lips and squats in the dirt, resting.
"Please stop, I haven't done anything!" There's a shout from behind her, and Max snaps up, drawing her hood lower over her face. There's the sound of flesh being hit, and the pained grunt and whimper of a man. Max creeps away from the horses and past a woman, another shout and whimper from behind a makeshift wooden barrier.
"Please!" The voice simpers again, and Max peers around the edge, three guards and one man are behind it, one man beating the shit out of him while the other two just stand and watch. On the wall, none of the guards will be able to see her, and she steps out, silent footsteps to the first guard and her hidden blade slices his neck without a sound. She catches him before he falls, and she's on the next one before they can turn, her blade biting his jugular and throat. The third one turns away from the man, and his lips curl back at the sight of her, and she's on him before he can shout or draw his sword. A quick leap and a jab to the throat is all it takes.
"Are you alright?" Max asks, holding out her hand to the man cowering, shaking in the dust.
"Thank you, thank you friend." He cries, taking her hand and letting her pull him up. The side of his face is badly bruised, and he's holding his elbow delicately.
"It's no trouble." She says, and his eyes widen when he see's she's a girl under her hood.
"Please, if there's any way I can help you." He says, hurried, and drops her hand to hold her sleeve.
"If you can get me into the city, I would be thankful, friend." She says in a low tone, and he grins.
"Oh yes, There's a group of scholars coming. I'm sure you'd blend right in with them. There! There they are now!" He points over her shoulder, and sure enough, a group of four scholars are coming from a path in the east.
"Thank you, I won't forget your aid." She puts a hand on his shoulder and smiles at him warmly, and he grins back, still shaking. Max turns and free runs to the group of scholars, and bows her head to join them. They part, and move in formation around her. She bows her head and folds her hands like them, and hopes that she really does look like them like the man had said.
As they near the gate, she sees a guard let the man through, and her heart picks up pace. If the guards are to notice her, she's probably going to have to fight the entire city guard. When they near, she watches her feet, waiting to be stopped, but she never is. The guards part wordlessly and she slips through, completely undetected. She lets out a deep breath and breaks away from the group, weaving through the crowd of noisy people as quickly as she can. She needs to get away from them, and she swings up onto the roof of a building and climbs up to where the city flag waves in the slight wind.
At the top, she looks over the city, remembering and mapping out the buildings, alleys, and possible viewpoints. She breathes in the dusty air and watches the eagle circle over to the right. Sighing, she lets herself fall forward, flipping once before she sinks into the golden hay. She just lays there for a second, enjoying the fresh scent of the hay. She should take a nap, just lay there for an hour or two and catch up on some sleep, she could really use that...
She grunts and pushes herself up and climbs out, the muscles in her thighs protesting, she's so tired...Maybe if she gets this mission done she can have a full meal...that sounds wonderful.
She walks quietly among all the other civilians towards the Bureau safe point, ignoring the eyes of the guards. She's too tired to climb the ladders to the rooftops and run, and when she gets to the safe point building, she's relieved to find the ladder to the rooftop in in a back alley. Climbing up slowly and dropping down in front of the fountain, the fat Rafiq behind the counter's eyes fall on her.
"Ahh, Maria. A little bird told me you'd be paying a visit." He greets her with a kind smile when she pushes back her hood, and Max stands and straightens her back.
"Al Mualim has ordered the execution of Garnier de Naplouse and so here I am. What can you tell me about him?" She crosses the room from the fountain into the shade of the side room where the counter and slides onto the lone stool. The Rafiq reaches under the counter and shuffles around.
"He is the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitalier. And surely keeps his quarters in their District. Beyond that, I cannot say. I suggest you search the city, see what you can learn from the people." When he stands again he has a plate with fried veal, sausages, and a bread roll. He slides it across the counter to her and she falls upon it ravenously after uttering thanks to him.
"Tell me where they gather and I'll see what I can find." She says between mouthfuls as he turns away to pour her a cup of wine. She happily takes it and her first mouthful of it is warm and welcome.
"The public gardens north of here...or what's left of them...are as good a place as any to begin. There's an abandoned market northwest as well that merits watching. And Mara of Jehoshaphat's Church to the west remains a popular meeting place. These three locations should be sufficient for your needs." Max starts on the sausages and the Rafiq smiles when she picks it up with her hands and bites off half of it. She chews and swallows.
"I appreciate the information, Rafiq. It will be put to good use."
"See that it is."
The Rafiq taps his knuckles on the counter and turns to feed the pigeons in the cage behind him.
"I know you're tired. It's almost dark Maria, no one with information will be out now. Eat and rest." He says, and she bows her head as he leaves through the back door. She eats in silence, and rests with her head on the counter until the sun disappears behind the opening of the bureau.
She moves her body from the counter to turn to the cushions and freezes at the shadowed from perched among them.
"You must really be tired if you let me sneak up on you." Max grits her teeth and stomps towards the cushions, plopping down on the edge of them and lying down facing away from him.
"Why are you here, Altair. I thought you had business elsewhere." He chuckles and tries to ignore the sting in her words. Is she really so upset that she won't even use his name?
"I have information for you, on Garnier." He says, and she turns on her back, looking up at the ceiling, refusing to look at him.
"Tell me then." She says, closing her eyes and nestling into the cushions. It feels so nice to not move, even if she is getting a little cold without the sun.
"He's set up a horrorshow inside the Order hospital, northwest of here. Conducting experiments on people he picks up on the streets. He kidnaps them from Jerusalem, the templars are helping him cover it up." Fang tells her, shifting closer to her. Her eyes are open and she glares at him.
"How do I know you aren't feeding me lies so you can take my assignment again?" He stands and moves next to her, sitting so their thighs are touching. Max forces down her fury and shifts away from him. he doesn't deserve to touch her, not after he left the way he did, right when she needed him.
"I gain nothing from your assignments but the information from them. Do you not wonder why Al Mualim sends you to these targets?"
"Al Mualim sends me to exterminate the corrupt. I do not ask questions." She replies stiffly, and she whips upright when he chuckles.
"What happened to you? You used to have a free mind, as a free assassin you've become caged by an old man." Max's lip curls and her hands ball into fists.
"He's sending you out to kill the nine templars of the holy land. He's staring with the ones you don't know, Garnier, Tamir." Fang counts the two of them off on his fingers. Max is listening now, watching him with the rapt interest she used to listen to him with.
"And building you up to your ultimate kill." He pauses, and she feels bile in her stomach. She suddenly remembers the meetings in her home, her mother's insistence to keep her away from those halls.
"He's going to have you kill your own father, Max. Can you really do that?" He asks, and she just stares. Should she cry? Curse Al Mualim for having her follow him so blindly. Fang just looks at her, mildly concerned.
"I couldn't." She chokes, and the dam bursts, months of tears falling. But they only fall, she can't make any sound, she can't choke on sobs, she can only cry.
"Max, he's going to drive this bearou into the ground if I don't do something. But I need your help." She wipes at her face with the back of her hand and peers at him, nodding shortly.
"When you finish this, go back to Florence, while you're speaking to Al Mualim, I'll get the drop on him. I need you to be ready, he hasn't been in work for many years, but I have no idea how much he's still capable of." Max just watches him silently, and he grabs her face in his hands, yanking her roughly towards him.
"Tell me you can do that!" He needs a response from her. She's the only one he can trust to do this. Iggy and Nudge have been in this life too long to be able to fully support him. Max is new, she's had her own thoughts before, she can bring them back. She grips his wrist and tries to pull his hands away, but he hold onto her like a vice.
"I can do it. Let go." She wipes at her face again when he releases her. Her shoulders relax when he lies down facing away from her. She thought he was going to kiss her again, and she couldn't tell herself how she felt about that. No, she was glad he didn't, she couldn't want that.
She lies down next to him, and her body submits to fatigue.
-
When she stirs in the morning, Fangs place is cold and the Rafiq is rustling around behind the counter.
"You seem to work in your sleep, Maria. I heard you moving this morning." Max frowns and sits up. Was Fang making noise to make it seem like she'd been up early to gather information? The Rafiq presents her with another plate of food, and she crosses the room to it.
"That Al Mualim, treats you and your kind worse than his pigeons." He grumbles under his breath, and Max's jaw tightens at the mention of his name. After Fang spilled his information on Al Mualims intentions, she was less than happy to hear about how he treated them.
"How fares your search for Garnier." He asks, busying himself with his books.
"I know when and how to strike." She alludes, and the Rafiq clicks his tongue impatiently at her answer.
"Share your knowledge with me then."
"He lives and works inside the Order's hospital, northwest of here. Rumors speak of atrocities committed within its walls. It seems the good doctor enjoys experimenting on innocent citizens, most of them kidnapped and brought here from Jerusalem." The Rafiq nods with his eyes closed.
"Clever. By stealing his subjects from another city, he avoids arousing too much suspicion here. But back to the matter at hand. What is your plan?"
"Garnier keeps mainly to his quarters inside the hospital, though he leaves occasionally to inspect his patients. It's when he makes his rounds that I will strike." She finishes the last bite of sausage and gathers the last few crumbs with her fingers.
"It's clear you've given this some thought. I give you leave to go." The Rafiq reaches under the counter and draws out a feather for her. She flaps it down when the breeze threatens to take it. The Rafiq turns away from her, but pauses in the doorway.
"Remove this stain from Acre, Maria. Perhaps it will help you cleanse your own." He leaves and shuts the door behind him while her fist shakes. How dare he bring up her "Stained past!" He is only a Rafiq, not even an assassin, but a coward! Boiling, she shoves her stool back and climbs out of the sanctuary and onto the rooftops, taking the same ladder down as she took up the day before.
"Max." Fang is standing at the opening to the alley, his hood drawn and out of the sight of the road beyond.
"Stop following me, Fang." She growls, striding near him, intending to walk past, but he grabs her and throws her against the wall next to him.
"No, you won't be able to get in without my knowledge. He has more guards than all your targets before. Let me accompany you." He murmurs, and she shakes his hand off her wrist.
"You'll help me get in. I won't thank you." She hisses, and he flasher her a smile behind the hood that hides his eyes. She yanks her own over her shorn hair and steps into the streets. There's an almost instant smell of anxiousness among the people, and few of them are walking north, like something's happening south...
Max reroutes, following a particularly thick group of murmuring girls. She can feel the eyes of the guards, and keeps her eyes down. She peers to the side on a wide street, and catches a flash of Fangs white cloak among a group of scholars and hangs her head again. Up ahead, she can her shouting, and eases herself through the crowd more quickly. There's a group of people outside the great doors of a church with jade domes. She moves to push through the growing crowd, but Fangs hand on her shoulder steers her away from the scene and to a wall they can climb.
"Too many templars around the group. We need to get higher." He growls in her ear, and she leaps to grab onto the rotting wood of the first ledge. She turns when the great doors creak open and the crowd screams and move to the side as the stench washes over them, along with the figure of a naked man.
"No, Help! Help me!" He cries, holding his arms out to the crowd, but none of them move to hide him. Fang swats at her ankle and she goes back to climbing, next windowsill...next protruding stone.
"Help me! Please! You must help me!" The man is crying now, and two Acre city guards step out to restrain him. The doors are thrust open the rest of the way no, and Garnier appears. Max's heart leaps into her throat, and Fang hits her leg again when she pauses.
"Keep moving!" He shouts, and she scrambles up to the rooftop. Peering over the edge, she watches with rapt attention. Would Garnier kill him in front of the citizens? Her gut tell her to drop and kill him now, but Fang grabs the back of her tunic as soon as she moves.
"Enough, my child! I asked you to retrieve the patient, not to kill him! There, there. Everything will be alright." Garnier motions the guards away and the crowd begins to think, thinking it just another mad outburst from one of Garniers patients.
"Don't even think about jumping down there. Not until I signal." His fingers dig into her shoulders painfully, and she shrugs him off, and looks back to glare at him.
"No!" the man shouts again, trying to wriggle away when Garnier puts his arm around his shoulder and tries to help him up.
"Give me your hand." Garnier removes his arm but offers his hand.
"No, don't touch me! Not again! The man cries, scuttling backwards across the sandy ground. A guard behind him picks him up and shoves him forward, back towards the gate. From where she's crouched next to Fang, Max is radiating fear like a fire, but Fang stays calm. She wonders if he's in the same state now as when he's sleeping.
"Cast out this fear, else I can not help you!" Garniers voice is become tense, and Fang moves to creep along the east wall, and Max follows him, keeping her eyes on the scene below.
"Help me, like you helped the others?! You took their souls! I saw! I saw! But not mine! No! You'll not have mine!" Garnier steps forward like lightning and drives his palm against his cheek, the sound of the slap echoing through the inner courtyard. The man simpers and stumbles back, continuing his loud disapproval.
"Take hold of yourself! Do you think this gives me pleasure? Do you think I want to hurt you? But you leave me no choice." Garnier shakes his hand like a disappointed parent. The man tries to pull away from the guard holding onto him, but he can't, he's too weak.
"Every kind word...matched with the back of his hand! All lies and deception! He won't be content until all bow before him!" The man screams, and Max nudges Fangs side with her elbow, and he nods silently.
"You should not have done that. Return him to his quarters! I'll be along once I've tended to the others." The guards drag him by the arm into the courtyard, right into their line of sight.
"You can't keep me here! I'll escape again!" He shouts, and Garnier laughs, a deep, hysterical laugh.
"No. You won't. Break his legs, both of them." The world seems to pause in front of Max's eyes. Her breathing stops, her lungs contract, her heart skips a beat. She's killed men, but she can't watch this, her training never extended to this.
"Close your eyes." Fang growls, and his arm goes around her shoulders and draws her into his side in a flash, hiding her face from the scene. Fang watches as the four guards hold him down, and Garnier stomps on his knees, one cracks, bending back, the bone splintering and breaking through the skin. The man arches his back and screams like an animal. Max trembles under his hand.
"You have to learn no block him out." Fang whispers as the other knee is smashed. It dislocates first, the lower bones moving just so that Garniers stomp crushes the top of the joint, he pulverizes it in four stomps. Max's hand clenches his tunic as the screaming begins again.
"I am so sorry, my child. Have you people nothing better to do?" He barks at the guards, and they drag him away, his bent legs dragging uselessly on the ground. Fang thinks fleetingly that he hopes that man will pass out.
Garnier examines the bottoms of his shoes and leaves the courtyard to go into the building. Fang removes his arm from Max and she sniffles.
"We'll follow him into the building. We can contain teh chaos if you kill him there." Fang says, and the two of them are off, sprinting across the roof towards the line of open windows. Max ducks and slides through, into a loft with beams stretching over the expanse of the ceiling. When she hears Fangs soft footsteps behind her, she steps out onto the beams with a cats balance. Below her feet, there are patients lying in beds. Some are tied down, other are free but lie still.
"There." She points when she spots him, around a corner and down a long room, going from one bed to the next, tending them. She creeps along the rafters, avoiding the eyes of the guards positioned at every corner of the building. Max's blood boils as she watches him hovering over the bed of the man who's knees he'd just crushed, lying deathly still and grey. She creeps closer, and Fang leers over her shoulder.
"You take the kill, I'll cover you." He whispers, and her body goes hot, her hands shaking before becoming still, pupils dilating as she watches Garnier turn away from her. She leaps, toes pushing away from the beam, blade sliding between her finger, time passes in slow motion.
She grips the side of his head, her hidden blade sinks between his ribs and pierces his lung. He hits the ground, her feet of his back press the air out of his pierced lung before he can cry out. He coughs, blood leaking out of the corner of his mouth. She twists the blade, a smirk finding it's way onto her lips.
"Assassin!" She hears the call, but it doesn't register, Fang drops behind her, blade drawn. Max rolls Garnier onto his back, slices a nick in his neck and draws the feather across the fresh wound, coating it in blood.
"Let go your burden." She mutters grudgingly. She hold his face so he's forced to look her in the face, no recognition is behind his eyes.
"Ah... I'll rest now, yes. The endless dream calls to me. But before I close my eyes, I must know... what will become of my children?" She chokes out a laugh, and a man screams as Fang counters him smoothly and drives his blade into his stomach, his organs spilling onto the dirty floor with a wet plop.
"You mean the people made to suffer your cruel experiments? They'll be free now to return to their homes." She mutters, crouching to hear his quiet, wheezing speech. His hands are shaking.
"Homes? What homes? The sewers? The brothels? The prisons that we dragged them from?"
"You took these people against their will." She hisses, better to live poor than to live an experiment, less than a worm.
"Yes, what little will there was for them to have. Are you really so naive? Do you appease a crying child simply because he wails? "But I want to play with fire, father!" What would you say? "As you wish." Ah, but then you'd answer for his burns." He says, coughing up a bubble of blood. She presses her knee into his ribs, and his face twists in pain.
"These are not children, but men and women."
"In body, perhaps, but not in mind. Which is the very damage I sought to repair. I admit without the Piece of Eden...which you will steal from us...my progress was slowed. But there are herbs, mixtures and extracts. My guards are proof of this. They were madmen before I found and freed them from the prisons of their own minds. And with my death, madmen will they be again." He wheezes, his words are almost silent, and her ear is poised right above his mouth.
"You truly believe you are helping them?" She asks, curious. Could he possibly think that? That he's really helping the people he kills?
"It's not what I believe. It's what I know." His eyes shake in his sockets before Max drops his head onto the dirty floor right as his labored breathing stops. She stands as Fang kicks a simpering body from his blade. There's a pause, and she just examines the bodies of the guards.
"He really believed that he was helping them." She whispers, as Fang wipes his short sword clean of blood and sheathes it again. The sheath is hidden behind a curtain of the fabric of his white tunic.
Max drops back into the sanctuary. Fang was long gone now, he split with her as soon as they were back outside. He didn't give her enough time to say goodbye. He'd taken the Apple of Eden with him, to hide with the others he'd stolen.
"What news, Maria?" The Rafiq is standing over the counter, peering with curious eyes around the corner at her. She pushes her hood back from her head and runs her hand over her sweaty hair.
"Garnier is dead." She mutters, standing in the center of the room, the sun still on her shoulders.
"Then you should return to Masyaf with news of your victory." He says with a smile, and she grimaces. If this is a victory, it sure doesn't feel like one. It feels like a door has been opened, a door that's the equivalent of pandoras box. Full of mysteries she shouldn't know, and doesn't want to know.
"There is something else." She says, tapping her ring finger and middle finger against her palm.
"Speak it then, or would you have me read your mind!" he laughs loudly at his own joke and goes back to writing on parchment. She crosses the room to him and steps up onto the stool.
"What do you think he wanted from these people, that he would keep them and experiment on them as he did?" She asks, tapping on the counter now instead of her palm.
"Yours is not to ask, but to act, Altair! It doesn't matter what he did or why. Only that he's dead." She grinds her teeth when he shakes his head and carelessly speaks. He's in some place to be telling her how she should act! She thought the life of an assassin was one that was lived free, like the falcons, but she's under the thumb of Al Mualim wherever she goes.
"But Ganier seemed to believe he was helping these people!" She replies, her voice raising an octave. The Rafiq raises an eyebrow, and she reins herself in. She shouldn't be angry about this, anger isn't something she should need to feel.
"Is that what you saw?" He asks quietly, more withdrawn that the happy boisterous man he was a minute ago. Max guesses it's because he's afraid of her, and her anger.
"No, What I saw was not a place of healing, but of pain." She says, her tone laying out a fact. He frowns and shakes his head.
"Then why are we having this conversation?" The Rafiq asks, looking puzzled. His arms are crossed and he's standing away from the counter, defensive. Max sighs and hangs her head.
"I...I don't know. Forget I spoke of it."
"I already have."