Altair grasped my arm and whirled me around, half-dragging me towards the back of the alley. I glanced behind us to see Husam charging, hand propped on the hilt of his sword, with all of his Templar lackeys at his tail. Panic swept through me as we dodged crates and buildings, winding through alleys at a frightening pace. I was no runner. There was NO way I could keep this up as long as Altair could. For half a second, I considered telling him to go on without me like everyone says in the movies. I was only a hindrance to him, anyway. But then it hit me.
Why were we running in the first place?
Altair was a perfectly able fighter, and I was confident that in any other situation, he would have drawn his sword. So why not now? Why was he so anxious to escape?
"Altair!" I panted, heaving to catch up to him as he dipped under a clothesline.
"Not now!" he barked.
I chanced another peek at our pursuers and shrieked involuntarily. They were gaining on us. I swallowed hard as my throat closed up on me and my lungs began to ache. I tried to breath out another pathetic attempt at speaking, but my voice gave out on me and left me choking on dry air.
We ran for another five minutes or so until I was sure that my heart would explode if we went any further. I couldn't even see the buildings around us. There was only the thick miasma of my exhaustion that preyed on my every nerve.
Suddenly, Altair stopped, throwing his arm out to block my path before I ran into the wall that stood before us.
"Damn it!" he hissed, looking around for another way.
There wasn't one. It was a dead end.
He had a choice. He could either leave me in the alley and scale the wall, or he could stand and fight like he should have done eons ago. But neither option seemed to occur to him as he stood there, watching the bricks so intently I thought for sure they would move for him any minute.
I stared at him incredulously. What was he doing? The Templars were a few turns behind us, weighted down by their bulky armor, but they were bound to show up soon.
"Can't you scale this?" I spat, slapping my palm against the wall.
"I cannot," he said simply.
"What?" I yelped.
What did he mean he couldn't scale the wall? He was Altair for crying out loud! All in one instant, everything I thought I knew about him vanished in the ugly haze that stood before me.
"Well…" I stammered, still trying to catch my breath. "Can't you fight, then?"
"I cannot," he repeated.
"What is wrong with you!" I cried, wary that the Templars were only a heartbeat away.
Suddenly, he turned to look at me through those abyssal irises of his. "I was injured while trying to help you escape from their camp." He glanced up the looming wall like it was about to topple down on top of him. "I cannot climb this and I cannot fight them."
He was injured? That explained why he was 'forced' to leave the camp and go back to Masyaf. But then, where did that leave us? We had no options left, save to lay down and die. I shook my head. That was no option. There had to be another way.
"Well, we can't just sit here a-"
"Hah! You thought you could run from me forever?" a cold, raspy voice growled.
Altair and I both turned to face the dark, blood-thirsty Templar who skidded to a slow saunter behind us. His men rounded the corner with him, panting and sweating like mules.
"And you, sharmouta! I'll be sure to keep you in irons this time!"
I flinched as he pointed his knobby finger at me, grinning wickedly.
"Watch your tongue, Templar," Altair snarled, making no attempt to reach for his blade.
"Or what, Hashishin? Are you going to throw a couple of knives at me? Your kind are all the same. All talk, no action. Instead of telling me to watch my tongue, why don't you try to cut it out?"
I felt the familiar pang of bile accumulating in my throat. This man was disgusting. Apparently, Altair felt the same way.
"I would hardly need to try," he spat.
Husam laughed his throaty laugh and glared at Altair through tiny slits for eyes. "I will make you a deal, Hashishin. You hand over the girl and I'll make sure your death is fast and painless! What do you say?"
I cringed. There was no way I was going back into that monster's captivity. Husam's men gathered around him in a semi circle, blades drawn. Try as he may, Altair could not stall much longer.
He adjusted himself to an appropriate combat position, his fingers playing at the air beside his belt. It didn't take a genius to see that he was going to fight this Templar, despite the wounds that bound him. It also didn't take a genius to see that he would lose. He was grossly outnumbered and outgunned…or rather outsworded.
I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I had to do something. I couldn't just sit back and watch Altair sign his own death warrant. I had thought earlier that there was another way, and I was right.
"Husam!" I called, vehemence stitched into my strained breath.
He averted his gaze to look at me, slightly startled by my outburst. Altair turned too, obviously surprised that I knew the Templar's name.
"I suggest you turn around and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of," I sneered. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."
Altair stood completely still, his expression boiling over with concern. I think he was under the impression that I was bluffing, and in that he was correct. However, Husam was not so serious. He simply scoffed at me, folding his heavy arms across his chest.
"Bold words, bintun. I might have to sew those lips of yours together."
I did not flinch. "This is your last chance, Templar. Leave." I paused to shoot a successful glare in his direction. "Now."
The overbearing polite side of me was surprised at my sudden vigor, but it felt too good, too empowering, to let go. I liked this attitude. It made me feel a little less lost in a world I knew virtually nothing about.
Anger twitched on Husam's brow. "That's it, girl. You're becoming more trouble than you're worth. Don't make me kill you, too."
"No, don't make me kill you," I corrected, presenting the leather-cased device from my pocket.
Before I could flip open the case however, Altair reached out and snatched the ipod, tossing a cold, nervous glance in my direction.
"Hah! What is that?" Husam jeered.
Before anyone could respond, a dark arm reached around one of the Templar's necks and pulled him away from the group. Altair instantly shoved my ipod back into my hands, simultaneously reaching for his knives. I stood perfectly still, mind whirling. Had someone come to our rescue?"
"Khara!" Husam screeched.
The remaining Templars drew their blades, wheeling around to witness their stolen comrade's death. His armored corpse fell to the ground with a distinct "clud" as a bleared figure stepped from the shadows. Laleh.
Altair half-grinned at the backs of the men who stood before him. He sent a string of knives at the napes of their necks, and one after another they fell before they could even try to attack Laleh. Eventually, Husam and his last three lackeys were backed against the wall, eyes twitching between the Assassin and the whore.
"You've nowhere to run, Templar!" Laleh taunted ominously.
I had never even considered that such a side of her existed. She held a glimmering dagger in her right hand, ready to slice Husam to pieces in a heartbeat. But how had she even known that we were here?
"What are you doing here?" I called, careful not to use her name. I was not about to make the same mistake I had made in the bazaar.
Laleh kept her eyes on the squirming Templars. "I came to see what all the fuss was about in the street. When I arrived, someone told me that a man in white with a pale girl had been chased into the alley by the Templar scum. I was not about to let you two get killed."
"Sharmouta!" Husam yelled.
He launched himself at her, blade raised high. Altair immediately sent another knife at the rampaging man, but it glanced off his helmet and smashed into the building beside him.
"Laleh!" I screamed.
I sprinted towards Husam, all but forgetting that there were still three armed Templars standing at the wall, but I was too late. Laleh tried to dodge his incoming sword, tried to slide out of his range…
She was not fast enough, and he successfully jammed his weapon through her ribs. She cried out in pain as he tossed her to the dirt and reclaimed his sword. Almost instantly after he straightened himself again, I came toppling into his back, sending him to the ground beside her.
Dimly, beneath the haze of my fury, I could hear blades clashing against each other behind me. But it did not matter. Nothing mattered but the faltering breath of Laleh as she reached for her dagger with trembling fingers and ran it through Husam's throat with all the strength she had left.
He twitched frantically for half a second, then went limp under my weight. I flinched as I felt his muscles die beneath me, his breath slowing to a halt.
He was finally dead. But at what price?
"Are…you a-alright, habiti?" Laleh coughed, staring at me through collapsing eyes.
Tears spilled from my cheeks and splashed on her bloody abdomen. I had only known her for a few days, and here she was giving her life for mine, wanting to know if I was alright.
"Hold on, Laleh," I breathed. "You're going to be alright!"
Altair appeared at my side, his hands stained with scarlet. "Get out of the way," he ordered.
Something in his tone commanded compliance, so I heaved myself fro Husam's stiffening body and backed away swiftly. I glanced behind me to see the sad corpses of Altair's victims rotting beside each other in the dust.
When I looked back, Altair had Laleh in his weakened arms and was heading out of the alley at a focused pace.
"Where are you going?" I choked, still not fully conscious of what all had happened.
"Zafar," he answered frigidly, disappearing behind a building.
I wiped a palm across my cheeks and ran to catch up to him, praying constantly that we would get there in time. Laleh had to survive. She just had to.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Altair stalked into the alley that marked the entrance to Zafar's den, Laleh whimpering pathetically in his arms.
"Get the door, Shabah," he breathed.
Sarah's expression went from bad to worse when she fixated er eyes on the ancient port. She approached it hastily and tried to push it open, but it would not budge.
"I knew it!" she gasped. "He keeps it lo-Wait!"
She pulled her strange device from her pocket and jammed it into the bitten hole in the door. After a few aching seconds of fiddling, there was a distinct crack from the other side and the door slid open. She smiled a little to herself as she dunked the black object back into her robe.
"You're not the only one with a key, Zafar," she mumbled.
"Move," Altair hissed, barging into the musty room. "Zafar! Where are you?"
The aged doctor appeared from behind his crates with an armful of incense. At first, he simply looked surprised, but when he caught sight of Laleh, he dropped what he was holding and went straight to his table.
"Bring her here," he commanded. "And shut the door."
~.~.~.~.~
"Don't you think she's been through enough already? This may alter her susceptibility to the implant."
"Well the Assassin survived, didn't he?"
"His liver wasn't punctured."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying we don't need her to lapse into some emotional episode. We could lose her completely."
"Is there anything you can do?"
"We could pull her out."
"Absolutely not! That's more dangerous than letting her go through this in the first place!"
"So you're willing to risk this?"
"It looks like we don't have a choice. The implant will just have to be delayed for a day or two longer."
"But what if she's traumatized for the long haul?"
"Then we'll just put it in regardless. We don't have time to wait for her to stop crying. That implant will save her life."