Chapter 7
A few days had passed sine the event of Marco's death and Antonio had returned to Leonardo's workshop to plan the next steps to avenge Marco's death. The event of it was still taking its toll on Antonio's mind and heart; it was his father's training and guidance that had made Antonio who he was now. Vengeance was on Antonio's mind but now the lone assassin was finding out that he still had skills he needed to learn in order to not only kill his targets but to survive in any environment that he may find himself in.
"Leonardo, why can I not go and avenge the death of my father? Justice needs to be served." Antonio said feeling impatient.
"Patience Antonio that time will come but first there are a few things that need to be done before the deed can be done." Leonardo replied.
"What are they? I will see them done before Francesco the bittersweet kiss of my blade if it helps." Said Antonio eager to get out and get some fresh air.
"Well first of all guards are crawling round the city looking for you, you need to reduce your notoriety within the district so that the guards and the people forget your face and you can then return to walking among them without fear. When this is done I'll tell you what needs to be done next." Explained Leonardo wanting to aid his friend in any way he can.
"Very well I'll see to it that it is done, but how do I achieve this in the most effective way possible?" asked Antonio.
"This can be done in multiple ways; firstly you can pull down the posters that have been put up around the city but the district will do for now. Secondly, you can bribe heralds of the district to spread other words and direct attention away from you and onto other matters. Lastly you can kill city officials responsible for organising guard patrols and telling them who to look for. Complete any of these tasks till the people stop talking about you and the guards stop taking interest in you once this is done come back here and I'll advise you on the next step to take." Leonardo explained further.
"Grazie my friend hopefully I won't be too long." Antonio said.
Antonio made his way out onto the streets to find that indeed wanted posters had been put up around the district with Antonio's face on it. This worried Antonio as he had never been in this kind of situation before in his life so he made a quick start into taking them down off the walls and notice boards around the district. Antonio had removed at least a dozen posters within the first hour and he could start to see the effect it was having on the surrounding public. Next thing he wanted to take care of was rumours that some of the local heralds were spreading, so Antonio thought he'd take Leonardo's advice and bribe them with coins to turn their rumours towards others knowing that the guards often listen into their rants to see if they can get any leads into the whereabouts of any suspects so bribing them with a few coins would greatly help his cause in getting the guards off of his back. Antonio knew where a couple of heralds liked to preach their information to the people of the Milan, Antonio decided these would be who he would bribe first, he knew he was going to be spending a fair amount of coins to achieve this but money was no longer a concern to Antonio as he no longer felt he needed it, it was only a tool to be used to help get him to where he needed to go. He located them with ease and after losing a small sum of coins to each of the heralds they soon turned their attentions to other matters regarding other people, and just like the posters the effects of the bribes were quickly taking affect on the people within the district. Antonio decided not to kill any officials as looking for them would be too time consuming and would only kill them if he came across them on his travels across the city. Upon returning to Leonardo's workshop to find the artist in some sort of discomfort, so he thought best to ask what was wrong.
"Is there anything I can do Leonardo? What is wrong?" asked Antonio with concern towards his friend.
"I don't know how to put this Antonio but I have some bad news for you." He replied
"What is it? What have you heard?"
"It's your mother and sisters, they need your help. I have received word that your mother has gone into shock after hearing the news of Marco's death and your sister's are in need of your help I have their whereabouts written on this piece of paper." Leonardo handed the piece of paper to Antonio and he scanned the address written on it. "Go help your family Antonio they need you."
"Thank you for the news my friend, I will return as soon as I have dealt with this problem and see that my family are safe" said Antonio.
"Stay safe my friend" said Leonardo as Antonio turned to leave the workshop.
Antonio knew the location of where the remainder of his family were being held and was rushing to get to them before any harm could come to them. As he ran through the streets he took in the familiar surroundings to make sure he was going in the right direction and make any necessary adjustments to his course if and when he had to make them. The journey to the house did not take Antonio long as he knew this part of the district well with thanks to his dad sending him on constant errands before all of this happened. The life that he had once lived only a matter of weeks ago but felt like a whole lifetime ago to Antonio now. Antonio now found himself standing in front of a white brick house which was common for this area of town but this one had looked a little more run down than the rest of them in the street probably because no one had lived there for a while but then why would his mother and sisters choose here of all places to hide? Either way they were inside of the house and he was going to go inside and help his family. Antonio walked up to the door cautiously readily expecting the unexpected, he opened the door slowly and lowered his hood to reveal that the inside of the house had been kept in order, the chairs where all neat and tidy, the other furniture was a little dusty but nothing out of the ordinary, and candles where burning on the table but no one was to be seen in the house.
"is anyone here? Mother, sisters?" Antonio called out but there was still no reply, had they been captured or worse? This was son to be answered when there came a cry of anger from behind him but Antonio reacted quickly enough to turn around and face his attacker only to find his own sister coming towards him with a dagger raised above her head ready to strike.
"Antonio! What are you doing here? I thought you were caught?" said Lucrezia shocked to see her only brother once again.
"I received a message that you and the others were in trouble and came to help. How's mother coping?" replied Antonio.
"She's still in a deep state of shock she's upstairs in the bedroom but it's no good she hasn't changed since she heard the news about father. As for us, the guards are looking for us to lure you into coming after us and then arresting you too." She explained to Antonio who glad to see and hear that his family was safe and as well as could be.
"Ok I have some business to take care of before we can truly be safe again in this city if ever. Will you be ok laying low here until that is done and I'll come back as soon as I am able." He asked with concern for his family.
"Si we can do that just try and not be too long, I'll tell mother you stopped by and see if that makes any change in her condition." Said Lucrezia.
Antonio left the house and his sisters and mother behind to lay low and look after themselves while he took care of killing Francesco Almeo but first Antonio would have to go back to Leonardo's workshop and take care of the tasks that he still had to do before the deed could be done. On his way back Antonio was taking in the information he had received from his sister Lucrezia about what the guards were planning to do in order to capture him. Upon returning to the workshop Leonardo was deep into his studies which happened to be sprawled out over the table.
"Salute Leonardo, I have seen to my family and they are all safe for now, now what was the next thing that you wanted me to do before I see Francesco Almeo finally put out of his misery?" Antonio asked.
"Ah Antonio good to see you, ah yes I have a contact who is willing to help you in dispatching Francesco. She runs an escort business not far from here and is very willing to help you in your cause for justice." Said Leonardo.
"Bene, what is her name?" asked Antonio.
"Her name is Josephina and she is a sympathizer to our cause and is willing to teach you a couple of tricks to aid you in your journey's to come. Her establishment is located southwest of here, it's not far from here I suggest you get there sooner than later my friend." Said Leonardo.
"Very well my friend, grazie for arranging this meeting and aiding in me in avenging my Father's death. Do you know what things I am to be taught?" he asked before he readied himself to leave once more.
"I'm afraid not Antonio best go and find out for yourself my friend." He replied.
"Grazie again Leonardo I'll be back soon" Antonio said as he made his way towards the door of the workshop and left to find Leonardo's associate.
Antonio followed the streets in the direction that he was told to, and Antonio could tell that he was getting closer to Josephina's establishment as the number of courtesans standing about trying to attract business started to rise. The nearer he got to the building the more women he saw. Attractive women too. Before much longer he had found the building that Leonardo spoke of. Antonio walked up to the door and knocked on the door three times and waited for the door to open. A few seconds passed and then Antonio heard the lock in the door move and the door begin to open to reveal the most attractive woman that he had ever laid eyes on but he better not say that to Rosa-Marie or she might get a bit jealous.
"Buon pomeriggio signora I am looking for a woman named Josephina I hear she runs this establishment do you know where I might find her per favore?" Antonio asked, he could feel himself going red in the face asking such an attractive woman such a silly question.
"Si seniore, you have to look no further for I am Josephina and you must be Antonio Romero si?" She asked in what could only be described as a subtle yet kind of seductive tone of voice.
"Si, I was sent here by Leonardo Da Vinci an associate of yours, he said you would be able to teach me some skills I need to learn to be able to help adapt to surviving in any situation I may find myself in." Said Antonio to Josephina.
"That would be correct, come in and I will tell you what I can teach you." She said inviting him inside the building. The house was decorated with various paintings and pictures of things in various sized gold frames, the walls were a subtle shade of blue and couches where placed in suitable places to help make clients to feel more at home or it certainly had that effect on Antonio.
"Come sit Antonio and I'll begin" She said Antonio took a seat on a couch which was extremely comfortable to sit on. "Now to begin with I can teach you to blend into the crowd so that you may become invisible to even the most trained of eyes, and also if you find yourself in a bit of a financial tight spot I can teach to you how to steal from any unsuspecting person who happens to become your target. Now what do you think about that Antonio?" she finished up and then beckoned over one of the girls who bought over two goblets of wine for them to drink.
"I find that incredibly shocking Josephina, how can you possibly teach me those things without me getting caught by the guards?" asked Antonio feeling a twinge of suspicion from the offer at hand.
"That's simple Antonio, for the blending part I can use a large group of my girls and you can practise in the courtyard around the back of the building, as for the stealing bit I will have my girls attach purses to themselves and you can practise with them, but don't get any ideas mind my girls are more than prepared to defend themselves using non-lethal methods but only if they feel you trying to steal their money from the purses. Sounds simple si? So what do you say Antonio, do we have an arrangement?" asked Josephina.
"Si when can we start?" Said Antonio with enthusiasm and with eagerness to begin his new training, along with wanting to learn some new and exciting skills especially if they were going to help him become even more deadly.
"We can start now if you so wish Antonio my girls are willing to help whenever they are called upon" said Josephina eager to aid Antonio and begin his training sooner rather than later.
"May we begin now Josephina, I would like to learn more about this blending you spoke of, could you possibly explain it a little more and how it can be useful to me?" asked Antonio showing his keenness to learn.
"Certainly, blending into the crowd allows you to remain undetected to your enemies, it allows you to move silently through heavily guarded areas with ease, it allows you to become a wraith in the mind of your enemies and move towards a silent and more deadly kill. This skill is not an easy thing to just simply learn in a matter of minutes, if you are not careful a skilfully trained eye would simply spot you in a crowd, it takes constant training and practise to be able to master this skill Antonio now if you follow me into the courtyard we will begin your training with blending into a crowd." Finished Josephina and motioning for Antonio to follow her out of a door at the rear of the building.
The courtyard was a large area with pillared walls with arches allowing access into the streets either side of it. Inside the courtyard however Josephina had arranged her girls into various small groups and placed them in various places in the courtyard. Josephina turned to Antonio and explained on how the exercise would work.
"Ok Antonio here is how this training exercise is going to work, you see my girls here? I want you to blend in with them in their groups and make yourself invisible to me. If I see you then we will start again and so on however, if you succeed and I can't see you then I will take a group of girls away until there's only two groups left then I will move onto the next exercise you understand?" finished Josephina.
"Si sounds simple enough" said Antonio confidently.
"Bene, then I'll turn my back for a few seconds so you can choose a group to blend in to. But choose carefully because I will be looking very closely to try and spot you within the groups of my girls" said Josephina turning her back to Antonio allowing him to go blend using the girls in the courtyard.
Antonio scouted the group of girls and chose to blend in with the group along the right side wall of the courtyard and with his hood pulled up Antonio hung his head low and made himself look like he was part of the girls' conversation. He took a peek over the shoulder of the girl in front of him to find Josephina scanning all of the groups of girls very carefully trying to spot him in whatever group he me possibly be hiding in. As Josephina was approaching Antonio's group of girls so he bowed his head slightly and made himself appear to be talking like one of the girls. That was until he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, the sign to say that he'd been found out.
"Nice try Antonio but that was way too obvious a guard would spot that in an instant. I will allow you to hide again but this time try hiding in plain sight from within the group" said Josephina.
"Vene, I'll see what I can do" he replied.
Again Josephina turned her back to allow him to hide once more but he chose the group of girls right in front of Josephina and right in her eye line but he bowed his head just slightly this time so that he could still see her from under the cowl of his hood.. Just as before Josephina began scanning the groups once again. She scanned them once more.
"Come out Antonio, you've got me this time where were you hiding?" said Josephina.
"I was right in front of you looking right into your eyes, i was hiding in plain sight just as you advised." He said as he walked out from his group of girls.
"Very good Antonio you are learning slowly what it takes to blend in with a group of people" she said. "Now as before go and hide but this time I want you to move in between the groups without me seeing you ok?" she said wanting to try and expand his skills and challenge him in his new skill all at the same time. So this time Antonio hid in another group of girls and then waited for Josephina to start scanning the groups and then Antonio made his move into the next group to the left of him but he made it look obvious in an attempt to hide it in plain sight but instead of moving while Josephina wasn't looking he moved between groups as she turned her head his direction but he kept his back to her to try and break up his outline and to his surprise it worked but only just.
"very good Antonio, a bold move I must say but it worked but it will not always work like that sometimes the most obvious move is to wait till no one is looking and this can be the most effective when done correctly. If a guard has been on duty for a long period of time his vigilance may begin to faultier and getting past him may become easier than normal." Said Josephina "One last thing about blending in to tell you Antonio, in certain circumstances when blending in with groups of people you can move along with them if you do this correctly then you could sneak past guards to get into certain restricted areas in the city where targets could be hiding themselves. It is growing late Antonio I'm sure you would like a good night sleep we can continue your training in the morning." Said Josephina noticing that the time was growing late and she had to start preparing her girls for the up and coming night.
"Si you're right I could do with a rest have you a room where I could stay the night?" he replied.
"Of course I do Antonio, I'll make sure you are very well rested" she said with a suggestive tone in her voice, she led Antonio back into the building and then asked one of her girls to show Antonio to his room for the night. Antonio looked over to see her whispering something into her ear before the girl came over to him but it was too quiet for him to hear anything. Antonio was being led by a very attractive brunette haired woman in a full length sky blue dress which hugged all of her attractive curves.
"Here you are Antonio this is one of the best rooms that we have to offer, please make yourself comfortable and do not hesitate to ask for anything if you so need it" she said as they stopped in the middle of the room "I'll be back in little while to check to see if you're still ok but Madonna needs to see me I will return shortly" she said as she was turning to leave the room and Antonio.
"Gratzie seniora I look forward to seeing you again soon" he said just as she was leaving.
"Oh don't worry about that Antonio you'll see me sooner than you think" and with that she left the room and Antonio to reflect on his days training from Josephina and what lay ahead of him in the days to come.
Antonio looked at the time to see that it later than what he had thought so he decided to have a quick bath to help him relax before going to bed only to wake up to more training from Josephina. A half hour had passed and Antonio thought he'd better get out of his bath before he fell asleep in it but as he was getting out there was a knock on his door followed by a familiar voice that he knew but couldn't place on who it belonged to.
"Antonio are you ok? Can I come in?" said the woman's voice.
"One moment please I'm just coming" he replied as he quickly dried his hair with a towel and found a larger one to wrap around his waist to cover himself up and be more presentable for his possible female guest, whoever it was. Antonio opened the door to find the same brunette haired girl which showed him up his room not even an hour ago, but this time she wasn't wearing as many clothes as he'd remembered. The dress had been replaced by lingerie of the same colour but before he could say anything she stopped him.
"I was instructed by Josephina to make sure your stay was, very enjoyable" she said as she slowly ran her finger down his body just feeling the contours of his body tense up at just her slightest and most gentle feminine touch.
"Well funny enough I was just heading for bed maybe you would like to join me" he replied knowing what she was implying and he was going to make sure he made the most of the things that Josephina had to offer him. Antonio led her to the bed and laid her down on before getting down to a type of business that he hadn't done in such a long time.
The next morning Antonio awoke to find himself mysteriously well refreshed after yesterday and so quickly had a wash and freshened up his appearance before heading downstairs to find Josephina and get some breakfast before completing his training. After a little looking around the place he found her in her office seeing to some paperwork, he knocked on her door as to get her attention politely.
"Ah Antonio I gather that you slept well?" she asked putting her papers to one side.
"Si very well thank you, I am eager to know what training we will be doing today?" he asked in return.
"Well today I will be teaching you how to steal from other people if you find yourself stuck in a tight financial situation and you need to get some money in a fast way. So what I've done is arranged a handful of my girls to stand outside in the courtyard for you to practise with. I must warn you Antonio they are instructed to strike you if you don't do it correctly, meaning you must steal the purses attached to them without them knowing you've done it, if they feel you stealing from them you will know about it so I suggest that you learn this one as quickly as you learned to blend in." Explained Josephina looking at Antonio in a way to ask if he was ready for the challenge.
"Vene, from what you have said it sounds harder than what I first thought but I guess the best way to learn is from the best. Can I ask how am I going to steal these purses from your girls without them knowing?" he asked before they started wanting to know a good technique to begin with.
"The purses will be attached to the girls the same way as everybody else's in the city all you need to do is casually walk up to a girl and swipe the purse without her knowing what you've done, just a bit of advice for you, if you pull to soft the purse will not become yours but pull too hard and it will earn you a swipe round the head from the girl who you where taking the purse from so judge the pull just right and it'll come free without her knowing it's gone from her possession. Now shall we begin Antonio?" she asked him.
"Si I am looking forward to this one, let's begin." He said with enthusiasm.
Antonio began to walk slowly around each of the girls assessing them to see if which one would the best target to choose to steal from, after a little deliberation he decided to go for the giggling blonde girl which looked like she wouldn't notice her purse missing according to the way she was laughing it seemed her marbles had long gone so what difference would a purse make to her? Taking note of where the purse was secured Antonio began his approach to the blonde girl and as he cautiously brushed passed her he allowed his hand to fall back in an attempt to secure the purse at her waist.
"Hey! What are you doing? Get off me you creep" screamed the blonde girl and then as Antonio spun around he caught a swift slap round the face for his troubles just as he'd been warned of. So after the stinging died down on his face a little he tried again. Another slap round the face this time slightly harder but from a different girl in the group. Antonio tried over and over until he was thinking what did he have to do so he could steal something so simple as a purse from one of these girls, then it hit him if he could avoid being seen from guards by blending into a group then surely it had the potential to work with stealing from within the group that you could use to blend. Antonio used his new technique that he had learnt the previous day to move into the group without raising any kind of suspicion from any of the girls. So far so good. Antonio spotted a purse close to his hand and looked to the owner's face and began to distract her gaze until he smiled and left the group of girls with the stolen purse in his hand.
"Very impressive Antonio, I'm amazed that you managed to combine both of the skills to be able to complete the steal" said Josephina.
Antonio showed her not one but two purses and she was amazed that as she was praising him he was swiping her purse from right under her nose. After a little bit more praise Josephina was ready to allow Antonio to return to Leonardo satisfied that he'd learned the skills he needed to be able to complete the task of avenging his father's death. Antonio said his farewells and thanked Josephina and her girls for teaching him these techniques and then he turned to leave for Leonardo's workshop once more. It was now midday and Antonio was talking a steady walk through town taking time to reflect on the past 36 hours that he had just spent in Josephina's care and tuition. Sometime later he found himself at the familiar door to Leonardo's workshop and Antonio took a deep breath before knocking on the door and walking inside to find his friend.
"Antonio, I wasn't expecting you back for at least another day. Josephina must be going soft nowadays, but anyway tell me what brings you here so soon?" said Leonardo still trying to get over the shock of seeing hid friend back so soon.
"I'm a fast learner my friend, now I'm here to finalise plans on getting back at that rat who killed my father, it's time he paid for the crimes he committed against me and my family. He needs to die" said Antonio with fire in his eyes and venom in his words.
"I see where you're coming from Antonio, well now I'm not going to stop you now. You have the training, you have the motivation, and you have the blade. Now all that's left is the deed." Leonardo said as he looked Antonio in the eye giving him permission to go and get his retribution. Antonio left the workshop with the fire of revenge in his heart and the need to exact such vengeance. Antonio was one step closer to killing the man who killed his father, hid friend, and his mentor; but little did Antonio know that killing this one man was only going to be the beginning of a long and mysterious journey in which killing was going to become a second nature and where he would create his own legend in the Assassin brotherhood.