Searching Corona for any lead on the leader of the Crusaders was not going an easy thing to do. Altair was having to try and blend in and act like a monk or a scholar so no one in the city, especially the Crusaders, would suspect him of being the one who kidnapped Rapunzel. It was working so far but people were still muttering and talking about him behind his back so he was going to have to stay on his guard and just hope for the best.

Flynn and Rapunzel were also having difficulties. He was being viewed with slight apprehension by some of the people in the city because of the rumour that he had led a man who looked almost exactly like the one who had tried to kidnap Rapunzel to the library and had been seen heading off towards the castle with him. Though many dismissed this and believed this was a scholar or a monk, many just wanted to keep an eye on him to see if he was telling the truth or not.

Rapunzel, meanwhile, was being watched as if she was a high security prisoner, though not because there was fear she would become bad, but because the people feared for her safety. Virtually everywhere she had gone so far around the city, people had watched her every move as if they feared that someone would try and grab her again. Even about fifteen feet behind her there were two soldiers tailing her like guard dogs. It seems that the city was literally trying to shield her from anyone they might deemed a threat.

All of these difficulties were beginning to put a strain on the three and their mission to find out anything about this lieutenant of Robert's and also how they would be able to stop him from taking Rapunzel away, but there was little they could do about it. They would just have to find a way around it and continue on with their job to find out anything about him.

Near the market

The market today was packed busy with shoppers, buyers, traders and such. A new shipment of pottery and spices coming in from the Holy Lands had arrived here and as these were considered top class, many people were looking forward to them being brought here. One man was bargaining with a woman for several small boxes of pots for her daughter. Another was calling out for people to come and taste the spices and see what they thought of them. Money was flowing in all ways so it was a good day for traders.

Among the crowd, Altair worked his way through. The noise of people talking, clattering of objects or the thudding of boxes filled the air, making it difficult for him to hear anything, only making his mission more difficult. At least he was not being watched as much at the moment. Luckily, though, his life in the Assassin's Creed had something to help him get through this.

Gently pushing his way through the crowd, he moved over to a small gap between a stall and the wall of a building and turned to face them. Breathing in deeply, his mind clicked into eagle sense and he began to scan the crowd like an eagle would do when it was scanning the horizon with It's amazing pin-point eyesight for prey. This was similar to what Altair was doing now, but this time the prey he sought was not to kill, but to use them to find even better prey.

As his eyes scanned the crowd, several guards, whom through his eagle vision he saw as red, stood at the edge of the crowd near a pathway, looking through the crowd for a hooded man they had seen a moment ago in the street. Damn! Looks like these two guards had decided to look for him and ignore the orders of their captain. Altair saw them through the moving people and decided it was best to move on. As he went to disappear into the crowd, he quickly glanced up again for one more look to see if there was anyone here. No there was no-wait!

He froze and looked back up. Squinting a little, he looked through the crowd at two people standing near the side of a stall that was selling holy things such as holy water, crosses etc. and who were engaged in conversation. If it had not been that one of them, a medium height man with brown hair and dressed in a grey top and trousers and with brown boots on, was looking around occasionally in case someone might be watching him and his friend, who was slightly taller and had blonde hair and was dressed in a cream coloured top and grey trousers with small shoes on, Altair would have just passed them off as normal people, but what the man was doing, and that his eagle vision was making them appear a shade of white to him, drew him to them. He had found something that may help him in his mission. Now he had to get to them.

Without alerting those guards he mentally added as he looked at them to see them looking about in the crowd still. How was he going to get past them?

Then, as if on cue and in response to his plea, a group of white figures in robes began to move in his direction. Looking at them, Altair saw they were Christian women in white hoods and their heads bent forward in pray. Yes! Now was his chance to get close to the two men. He would have to be quick if he was to fool the guards but that would not be a huge problem, if even it would be one at all, he had done this many times, but experience had taught him never to let his guard down. Even experienced assassins like him could easily be found out when trying to blend in with the crowd so he was going to have be quick nonetheless.

As the women neared him, he took a step forward, looking for a gap between them for him to enter the group and quickly join them in a fake pray in order to evade the eyes of the guards. He found one as the woman on the front moved forward a little too quickly for the others and became separated, though the other three did not seem to notice the leader moving on ahead of them. Altair took the chance and moved in front of them, quickly bending his head forward a little to look as if he was praying and moved on with them, quickly joining up with the first Christian women. As they moved on, he quickly glanced over his shoulder and saw, through a small gap in the crowd, that the two guards were still searching the faces of the crowd. He breathed a light and quiet sigh of relief. He had thwarted them. Now all he had to do was get close to the two men and try and hear what they were saying.

The group moved through the crowd further on into the market. As they went, Altair glanced up to see them gradually getting closer to the two men, but even though they were getting close to them, the women were moving on down the market towards a small church, which Altair saw by looking ahead of him. He was going to have to break out of this group, but he had to do it discretely in case he inadvertently attracted their attention and also that of the guards.

Slowly, as the group moved further down the market path, he moved out of the group through a gap between the front woman and the woman to his left, managing to manoeuvre himself around them and into the crowd, moving steadily towards the two men. The movement and noise of the crowd, however, stopped him from hearing them so he pushed his way to the building they were standing against and turned his back to them and bent his head forward to resume his praying motion, though his ears were still open and he listened carefully to the two men as they spoke.

"Can't believe that bastard did that to you," the brown haired man said to the blonde haired man, who nodded.

"Yeah, but he's a Crusader and you know what they're like," he replied. "You criticise 'em or take the mickey out of 'em and they act as if you're a blasphemous person," he sighed. "Don't know why the King has to put up with 'em,"

"Well, we are in Italy and the Pope loves these soldiers so he can't really do anything about them,"

The blonde haired man nodded. "Yeah I suppose," he sighed in annoyance. "Not looking forward this afternoon though,"

"Why?"

"That leader of those Crusaders is coming through 'ere later on and I'll be working late and the market'll be almost empty by then. Apparently, he harasses people,"

"Why don't you report him?"

"Well, like you said, can't really do anything about 'em. At least I can be thankful he only spends some time here before he goes off,"

"Yeah. Anyway, best be going. Got a bit of shopping to do,"

"Alright see ya,"

The two men left. Altair smiled to himself a little in gladness. So Geoffrey comes through here every day. That was good. He had the location of him, but there were two more questions that would need to be answered and they were when he would be coming through here and if he would be doing so alone?

"I wonder how Eugene and Rapunzel are doing?" he muttered to himself at the thought.

Meanwhile, near the library

Eugene quietly snuck towards a small alleyway between two buildings opposite from the library. He had been searching around the library for anyone who may have some important information after separating from Altair and Rapunzel at the library. Where they were now he did not know but he hoped they would were having as much luck as him.

He was sneaking towards the alleyway because he had seen two Crusaders enter it when there were few people in the street. Obviously, they knew something and even though there was no one listening to them, but they were not going to take any risks. There were less prying eyes and ears in an alleyway.

Eugene stopped near the side of the alleyway and pressed his back towards the wall of the building behind him and moved his head a little nearer to the corner of the alleyway, listening in to what the Crusaders were saying.

"What is the commander doing commin' into this city every bloody day!" he heard one of them groan. "Waste's his time and he's riskin' his life as well after what happened,"

"Ya know what he's like," the other replied in an reluctant, but truthful voice in having to accept the way their commander was. "Him and Harry are always tryin' to act like the hardest,"

The other Crusader scoffed. "Hardest? Never like that when they were at Assaf! Berks legged it. Surprised King Richard didn't have 'em killed!"

"They should have been! They waste our talent and our little time off we have here by having us guard 'em almost wherever they go,"

"Apart from a few days ago. They insisted they came here alone and didn't tell us why," a pause hung in the air for a moment. "I reckon they're up to something," the Crusader whispered.

"Yeah, I bet they are," the other replied. "But we can't ask 'em. Ya know how they'll react. Why don't we get those who go with him today when he goes into the market to ask him why they were here?"

"We could do, but I doubt It'll work. He'll probably have 'em killed or beaten up and there's no doubt they'll squeal and tell him we asked 'em to ask him,"

As they talked, Eugene moved his head away from the corner, a small smile of success coming onto his face. So this Crusader commander came here with bodyguards. That was going to be invaluable for when they were to start going after him, but he did not know where he would be and when. Maybe Altair and/or Rapunzel had found that out. He would have to ask them.

Just then, the sound of marching feet coming closer snapped him back into reality. They were coming back up the pathway. Oh no! What was he to do? What was he to do?

The two Crusaders emerged from the alleyway back into the sunlight that beamed down from the sky onto the island. They were going to have to head back to the camp soon and try and find out who would be going with Geoffrey into the city later on and see if they could get them to see why their commander had come into the city days ago.

Just then, movement from their left caught their eyes and they looked to see a Eugene leaning against the building with one foot on the ground and the other, which was barefoot, resting on top of the knee of that one, his hands holding the boot that had been on the barefoot. He shook it slightly and some pebbles, which he had put in there, unbeknownst to the Crusaders, fell out onto the ground.

"There we go," he muttered to himself in a relived manner. As he went to put the boot back on his foot, he saw the two Crusaders staring at him with a look of displeasure. He held up his hand. "Hey guys," he greeted friendly.

They just shook their heads, believing he was an idiot to let that happen to him, and walked off back down the path in the direction of the bridge. When they were gone, Eugene put his boot back on, breathing a quiet sigh of relief.

That was a close one he mentally said to himself.

At the dockyard

"Thanks, Vladimir,"

Rapunzel hoisted herself up the side of the end building near the stable onto the roof as her large muscular friend, who was about 6ft 5, had huge pulsating muscles and was wearing a kind of rag top with the sleeves cut off and a pair of trousers, that looked to be on the verge of splitting from the sheer size of this man, and a pair of boots and had a large Viking-like helmet on his head, hoisted her up on his shoulders. She grabbed the side of the roof and pulled herself up onto it. Pascal held on tightly to her shoulders so he would not fall off.

"It's okay, Rapunzel," he replied.

She nodded. "Good luck with unicorn display later on," she told him.

"Thanks," and he walked off back into the street.

Keeping low, Rapunzel crawled across the rooftops towards a small, but wide chimney that was big enough to conceal here. She was here because she had seen three Crusaders, one of them the blonde haired Crusader who they had seen talking with the captain earlier, walk behind here. She had wanted to try and listen in to them, but it was going to be difficult with the guards watching her every move. She had managed to lose them at the courtyard at the end, but there was a chance they would start looking everywhere and that someone who had seen her with Vladimir would tell them. She would have to be quick.

As she neared the chimney, the sound of talking from below reached her ears. It was the Crusaders. They were standing a little out from the wall of the building directly below where the chimney was and they would easily see her if she tried to listen in by staying where she was.

"Pascal," she whispered to her chameleon friend sitting on her shoulder. "Can you see if It's a good vantage point?" she asked.

He nodded and crawled off her and across the roof to the chimney and looked out from behind it. He could hear them clearly as they were close enough. He nodded to Rapunzel to say: "It's good," and she crawled over as quietly and quickly as she could, holding her breath a little when she reached the chimney as if fearing they had seen her. One second passed. Two seconds. No, she was fine. She put her head near the corner of the chimney and tried as best she could to listen into the Crusaders. Pascal crawled onto her head and did the same, listening intently to what they had to say.

"Is there even any point in us guarding him?" she heard one, one of the other two with the blonde haired soldier, of them ask.

"Yeah," the other piped up. "Why doesn't he just stay in the camp? It's not like the damn assassin or killer is gonna come and get him!"

"Well, as I've told you, he has to come into the city on regular business with an important friend," the blonde haired Crusader replied.

"What sort of business is it?" the first of the two Crusaders asked.

"Nothing that will interest you,"

"Ah now c'mon, sir," the second of the two Crusaders said. "You are our second in command here. We do have a righty to know why Geoffrey's coming into the city every now and then,"

"Well, It's important and it has to be confidential," the blonde haired Crusader was sounding like he was trying to weed his way out of that one. "Now, you two will have to stand guard with him later and escort him back. You know how paranoid he'll get,"

One of the two Crusaders scoffed. "Why? Ya heard what the guards said. They got the guy who killed one of our men and kidnapped the princess, so what's there to worry about?"

"Well the one killed was an associate of men and Geoffrey, and again you will not know why. Now, I've given you your order for later on today in the evening and you'll follow them. Understand?"

Two sighs filled the air. "Yes, sir," the tow Crusaders said in unison.

"Good. Right, let's get back to camp. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this place as well as Geoffrey is,"

The three left, turning the corner back onto the street and off towards the bridge. Rapunzel sat up from behind the chimney when they were gone, processing what she had heard. So he had guards and came into the city in the afternoon. That was going to be useful for when they went after Geoffrey. Hopefully, Eugene and Altair had managed to find out where he would be going in the city.

"Okay now," Rapunzel muttered to herself, realising something. She looked around and saw that she had a little flaw in her plan. "How do we get down?" she asked herself.

Just then, a slight thud made her look over her shoulder to see the end of a ladder on the other side of the roof facing the street. It began to shake slightly and she heard a voice say: "Let's see if the princess is up here," which mean only one thing. Guards!

"Oh no!" she gasped silently and she and Pascal began to look around frantically for a way off the roof. They were going to have to be quick or they would be taken back up to the castle if the guards caught them up here.

What do we do? her mind asked her frantically.

Pascal prodded her on the head with his tail and pointed down at the ground near the end of the roof. She looked and saw it was a cart of hay he was pointing at. Her eye lit up with hope. Yes, that was going to be perfect.

Quickly and keeping low, she crawled over to the end of the roof and, grabbing Pascal and clutching him tightly in her hand and taking a deep breath, she jumped from the roof onto the haystack. The cart shook slightly as she landed within, sending the hay flying into the air and onto the ground. She buried herself as much as she could under what was left of it kept as still as possible.

Voices a second later made her hold her breath in fear and caused her heart to beat madly like a drum against her chest as if it were trying to break out of it.

"You see anything?" one voice asked.

"Nah," another replied. "She's not up here,"

"Strange, I thought someone said they saw her being hoisted up onto the roof,"

"Must have been playing a joke on us,"

"Yeah maybe,"

The sounds of footsteps from above echoed down for a few moments until they died away. When they were gone, Rapunzel pulled herself out of the cart of hay, brushing it off her.

"Nice one, Pascal," she thanked him. He replied with a squeak. "Now let's head back to Salad's and wait for Eugene and Altair," and with that she headed off back into the direction of the carpentry.