Hey, so I got a comment inquiring if I was still continuing this story and yeah, I am. I have the next chapters boarded up until the end, so I'll keep (slowly) updating until it's over. Again, thanks for everyone who keeps reviewing, I'm sorry I've been shit at updating but between classes and work I haven't had much time to write. I love you guys, thanks for being patient with me.
-Z
16:
Max darts around a corner and drops into the sanctuary, heart pounding in her chest. It must have been a miracle that none of the guards saw her pull Sibrand down and slash his throat. After watching him murder a scholar and fire arrows into a crowd of people, her empathy for her target was at an all time low.
"Did you kill him?" The voice of the Rafiq echoes through the sanctuary to her, and she hunches over to heave a few breaths before she straightens again and moves to sit across the counter from him, brushing her hood back away from her eyes.
"I've done as requested. He's dead." Max says, taking the blood soaked feather from her pocket and sliding it across the wooden counter to him with a bloody smear. He takes it gingerly with his finger and thumb and wraps it in cloth.
"So it is! So it is! You should ride for Masyaf and inform Altair of your success!" The Rafiq sounds delighted, and she's once again taken back at his positivity. Four months ago, when she'd agreed to help Fang find the Apple of Eden, the attitudes of everyone changed. She's not sure if it's because Al Mualim's dead, and the new leadership has inspired people or if it's been her string of successes that's driven up morale. It might be just be her imagination, but the Rafiq seems to like her better now, even calling her friend and eating with her sometimes.
And Fang…she'd last seen him a month ago, before she'd left for Acre to kill Sibrand. To say she missed him was a vast understatement. She missed speaking with him, and the few nights she would spend nestled into his side, his fingertips raising goosebumps on her skin.
She shakes her head to get rid of the thought.
"Yes... I should return and speak to him... of this and other things…" She trails off, and immediately has to fight away a blush. She did NOT just say that aloud to the Rafiq…she had may as well just melt into the floor and die.
"Is everything alright, my friend? You seem... distant." He says, and she raises her head to squint at the Rafiq, he has a face of mild concern, but doesn't seem stirred from where he's preparing a plate of food for her.
"It's nothing, Rafiq. Just a lot on my mind." She tried to evade, taking the plate he hands her and rips a bite out of the bread roll with her teeth, savagely filling the aching hollow in her stomach.
"Talk to me then, let me help." He says, taking a seat at the stool behind the counter and fixing her with expectant eyes. She's backed into a corner now. There's no way that she can just belt out, 'Oh yeah, I'm involved with the head of the guild we serve, you know, Altair'. There's no way that wouldn't strike a rift between them. Before, Rafiq treated her coldly because she was so close to Al Mualim, they would be worse if they knew she was even closer to Fang.
"I need to make sense of myself first. But thank you, for the offer." She mutters through a mouthful of lamb. His face contorts in disapproval and she blanches. 'Oh god, he knows, he sees right through me". She avoids his eyes and he leans closer to her. If her heart was hammering in her chest before, it's about to break out of her ribs now.
"It is the men you kill, isn't it? You feel sorrow for them." The Rafiq says, and her shoulders tense in surprise, then relax in relief. She swallows, and looks up at him.
"How…" He raises her hand to cut her off. 'Did you reach that conclusion?' She would have asked, but he's nodding, looking the part that he thinks this is what's bothering her.
"Ah, my friend. You are not meant to enjoy these grim tasks. Regret, uncertainty, sympathy... This is to be expected." The Rafiq nods with his eyes closed, and Max finds herself nodding along. Sure, she worries about those things, but it's not what's bothering her. She'll play along for now, to keep the Rafiq's nose out of her troubles.
"I shouldn't fear these feelings?" Yeah, that seems like the right things to say. The Rafiq's eyes fly open and he stands dramatically, pushing his stool back with a loud scrape.
"You should embrace them! It is what makes you human!" He declares, throwing his arm out to the side before he drops to retrieve another roll for her from under the counter. While he's out of her line of sight, she cracks a mischievous smile.
"What if I'm wrong? What if these men are not meant to die?" She cries out, playing up the drama to match him. He looks at her with eyes glistening with tears, moved that she's bothered by her lifestyle of killing. She struggles to smother a grin, twisting it into a distraught pout.
"I am but a Rafiq, Maria, and such things are beyond me. Perhaps Altair can help you make sense of it." Max stands and makes her way back to the fountain to climb out. Her pulse has calmed and the feeling of having food in her stomach is blissful. The Rafiq follows her over to the fountain.
"Yes, perhaps. Thank you, Rafiq." She says, fingers hooking onto intricate stone carvings and hoisting her up. The Rafiq stands under her as she climbs, calling up to her,
"It is my pleasure to have served with one as skilled as you." He shouts up as she disappears over the edge of the roof, letting out a sigh as she stretches in the bright sunlight. There's more commotion down in the streets, and she would be smart to stay out of the way for a little while. Leisurely, she walks across the flat rooftops to a curtained garden, rolling lazily over the edge into the hay. She sleeps for a while, and when the air is cool and the sun begins to sink she rolls back out and makes her way to the outer gate, mounting a horse and riding back to Masyaf.
If it were possible to fall asleep on the back of a galloping horse, Max would be dead asleep. A month of work with minimal sleep and food had taken it's tool, and now that she could relax, she felt her body bowing under the weight of exhaustion. Riding into the gully, a horse leaps down from the cliffs next to her.
With a full body flinch, Max yanks back on the reins, the horse snorting angrily and sliding to a stop. The horse and rider slow to a walk ahead of her, the broad shoulders and mouth barely visible under a white hood.
"Altair." The words are whisper, and there is the instant magnetic pull between them. Max squeezes her calves to the horses sides and it tosses it's head and passes Fangs horse at a canter, and he follows her, a lopsided grin plastered to his face. As they near the city, the sun sinks and they're plunged into darkness, giving them the cover to ride slowly. His knee is only a foot away from hers, and the curve of her mouth under her hood is familiar and his chest constricts.
"I worried you might be wounded, with how long you were gone." He says, and she turns her head towards him, a corner of her mouth quirking up in a smile. The squeeze of her heart under her sternum is almost painful, and prolonged from not being close enough to touch him.
"Sibrand was heavily guarded, and crazy. I'm surprised it didn't take me longer." Max says, and Fang has to keep himself from reaching out and trying to touch her shoulder. In the time she was gone he had his hands full training the children Al Mualim left behind, but he had enough time at night to miss her.
"I'm glad you're back. It's lonely without you to order around." He says, and she snorts through her nose.
"Please. You never ordered me to do anything I didn't already want to do." She says, and he hides his grin under his hood. The horses climb a hill and Masyaf lights up with torch fire in the valley, it looks almost beautiful, but the death and corruption in every city defiles their beauty.
"I try not too." He says, and they lapse into silence as Max clicks to her horse and starts down the hill at a walk.
"What have you been doing, while I was gone?" Max asks, and Fang scratches at his horses shoulders, trying to give his itching hands something to do.
"Al Mualim was keeping two apprentices, one of them fell injured under his instruction." Max frowns and looks down at her hands. She hadn't even known that Al Mualim was keeping other apprentices other than her. If one of them had fallen injured, she's sure Al Mualim would have abandoned them and considered them a failure.
"Are they alright?" Max asks, and Fang nods. It's true, Gazzy's made great progress in his recovery. He's not cold like Fang was at his age, probably from being able to train and socialize with his sister. Gazzy and Angel both spar, but neither of them go for the instant kill like he, Max or Iggy would. If Fang can keep them merciful, he will.
"Yes, better than I would have thought. It's a tremulous time to be training to be an assassin, with Al Mualim dead, and with the Templars holding the Apple, none of them are safe, even with the cover of the sanctuary. They're either oblivious, or they trust me to take care of them." He says, trailing into a sigh. Max tries to reach out to squeeze his shoulder, but her reach falls short and she can only brush his bicep with her fingertips.
"They'd be smart to trust you." Max tells him, hoping that it's the right thing to say. He smiles back and pulls his hood lower when they approach the gates, dismounting and letting the horses walk to water on their own. Max silently curses the guards standing at the gate, watching them like hawks. She wants to walk closer to Fang, or be so bold as to take his hand, but she's tired, and she doesn't have the energy to tangle with guards and come out unscathed. She settles for walking a few paces behind him, watching his shoulders move under his robe.
Masyaf is quiet, with only a few people and guards still out in the streets, and the walk up to sanctuary feels nostalgic after being away for so long. The fear that lived in her spine leaves, and she jogs the few steps between them to take a fistful of Fang's robe when they're close to sanctuary, on the narrow path. He tries to look over his shoulder at her, but she's barely in his peripheral vision. He speeds up his pace, and as soon as they're in the empty sanctuary he turns and grabs her, crushing her in a hug.
"Ugh, you're squishing me. And I smell." She grumbles into his chest, her arms reluctantly winding around his waist. She's still covered in a fine layer of month old sweat and grime that she would be all too happy to be rid of.
"Quiet. I'm just glad you're not hurt or dead right now." He says, nuzzling her hair. As if he would care if she was sweaty or her hair oily, she's here and he's hugging someone. Being physical with someone is still new to him, and from what he knows from observation, people in families all hug each other to show they care about them. Does he consider Max family? He would consider Iggy Family, maybe Nudge, but his relationship with Max is entirely different from theirs.
"Okay. But I'd like a bath when you decide to let go of me."
"The water will be cold."
"I can handle some cold water, I just want to be clean and out of these clothes." She says, and Fang chuckles.
"I can arrange that one." He says smugly, and Max wrestles her way out of his arms to punch him in the arm, and he laughs and pretends to cower.
"You!" She snarls, but is unable to keep herself from smiling. She punches him a second time, for good measure, and he brushes his hood back away from his face, revealing his eyes and rumpled hair. He steps close again, lazily laying his arms over her shoulders.
"I'm not sorry." He says, and she rolls her eyes.
"Of course you aren't." He leans in slowly, almost timid, pressing their lips together quickly before pulling away and standing again. She feels like she didn't have enough time to react.
"Unfair, Fang." She says, and he dips his head to push his forehead against hers.
"Then take a bath, Maximum." He says, and she pulls away from him reluctantly. His fingers slide from her shoulder down to her wrist, where they remain until she needs her hand to climb the ladder to the loft.
"I'm getting clothes before I go, unless you want me parading around naked." She teases as she climbs the ladder, Fang frowning at her butt overhead.
"No, I would detest that." He says, and she laughs, wiggling her foot in front of his face like she's going to push him back down the ladder.
"I know, I know." She says, and he grabs her ankle and pushes her up. Instead of going to her shared room with Nudge, she marches into Fangs room and snags one of his tunics. He doesn't argue, just snickers and pushed her back into the hallway.
"Go, hurry and bathe." He says, and she retreats down the hallway to go down to the baths. Fang stands in the middle of the room for a moment while her quiet footsteps retreat down the hall and down the ladder. She's back, and he feels grateful for her to be, but he also feels dread for the last leg of his plans. They have two of the head templars left to eliminate, and neither of them are going to be easy, especially because one is Max's father.
They agreed that Fang would go after the King, and Max would go after Robert De Sable, the last man standing between them and the last leg of their mission. It won't be easy, Robert De Sable commands soldiers and will be quick to strike back, but that's not what's bothering him. He knows that if either he or Max are caught by their targets they will be killed, but there is an opportunity to be at peace with them. The templars seek to find peace, and to restore the balance in the people using the apple, but while their goal is noble, they kill and purge the weak to achieve their goal. And for that, Fang cannot let them live.