Ten minutes later

Rapunzel rushed back up the corridors of the castle, her heart pounding madly against her chest with fear and adrenaline rushing through her like water against a rock. She had just seen Eugene be taken away by several of the Crusaders from the execution courtyard. Just moments ago, he had been captured in the courtyard when Salad was about to be executed. Even though they had saved their friend, it was likely now to cost her lover his life because he had landed on Harry, the new commander of the Crusader force, and killed him, making the Crusaders believe that he was the one who was responsible for the deaths of commander Geoffrey and another Crusader soldier in the city over the last few days.

There just had to be a way to prove Eugene was innocent! There just had to be! Her father had called together the second-in-command of the guards and was talking to him in the room up ahead of her to try and get the captain to see reason. Hopefully, he was having some luck. She wondered about Altair as well. Where was he? She needed to ask him how this plan of theirs had suddenly gone completely wrong and resulted in Eugene being taken away. With him gone, Altair was the only one who knew the answer.

Rapunzel burst through the wooden door of the castle into the room where her father and mother were standing near the entrance onto the stone balcony that overlooked the city, talking to the second in command guard, who was tall and heavily built with short blonde hair and green eyes and a small beard growing around his chin and up the side of his face. They all turned to face her as she burst into the room.

"Rapunzel!" her mother exclaimed in surprise.

"H-have you managed to reason with him?" she asked her parents and the second-in-command guard desperately, her mind praying for a yes.

Sadly, it was not to be. Her father shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, Rapunzel," he replied with a sad voice. "The captain has just left now with Eugene and the Crusaders," he sighed. "There is no doubt to what his fate will be,"

Upon hearing these words, Rapunzel placed her hands over her nose and mouth, her eyes welling up with tears, some of which began to roll down her cheeks. She could not believe that her lover was being framed for something he did not do, at least not intentionally, but the Crusaders would not listen to them. As far as they were concerned, Eugene was responsible for the death of their commander and the Crusader in the alleyways two days ago and they were going to want to take revenge in any way they could.

Her mother rushed over to her and placed her hands on her shoulders and embraced her tightly. "Don't worry, Rapunzel," she soothed her gently. "We'll find a way to stop them. Everything will be alright,"

"H-h-how?" Rapunzel replied, her voice breaking slightly. "B-by the time we find them…I-It'll be t-too late!"

"Is there anything you can do?" the king asked the second-in-command hopefully, but he just shook his head.

"I'm sorry, your Highness," he replied. "But the captain's already left and even we could catch up to them, we'd have a hard time in trying to stop the Crusaders from wanting to kill him. After all, sire, we don't control them. Besides," he lowered his voice a little. "The captain didn't seem too depressed to want to kill him anyway. He's always held a grudge against him,"

The kind heaved a heavy sigh and nodded in agreement. It was true what the guard was telling him. The Crusaders, especially these ones who had come here, were not the type to forgive and forget. For the death of their commander and a member of their force, they would want retribution to be theirs and they were going to stick firmly to the belief that Eugene was the one who had committed the murders and they were going to execute him as punishment.

Just then, the sound of light thuds came from outside. The king and the second-in-command guard looked out onto the balcony to see a figure pull himself up from below and over the balcony edge. It was a man in white hood! Fear gripped the king and the guard, their minds immediately going to the belief that there were more of these men in white hoods. The guard whipped out his sword.

"Halt!" he barked in a commanding voice. The figure did so and Rapunzel and her mother looked over to see him. Upon seeing the man, Rapunzel realised it was Altair.

"No wait!" Rapunzel piped up, standing in front of the guard's sword. "I know him don't worry," she reassured them.

The three stared at her with shocked expressions. "What!" her father exclaimed. "How do you know him? Do you know who he could be?"

She nodded. "Yes, and your right, father," she replied. She looked over her shoulder at Altair, who walked over to them. "But he's on our side,"

"That is correct," he added, stopping next to Rapunzel. The guard lowered his sword, but kept it out just in case Altair suddenly turned on them. "Your majesty, to make a long story short, I am the one responsible for the murders of the Crusaders. Admittedly, your daughter and Eugene were involved as well but they did not spill any blood. All of it is of my doing,"

The king looked at Rapunzel and Altair with a confused expression etching across his face. "I-I'm sorry," he said, placing a hand on his forehead. "Can you explain what is going on here?" he asked them.

Altair nodded and told them everything about why he was here, how Rapunzel and Eugene had gotten involved and that the captain was involved in this as well.

"So you've come here looking for this lieutenant?" the captain asked, just wanting to make sure he was getting the jist of this story Altair was telling him.

"Yes," Altair answered. "The captain said these Crusader leaders knew who he is, but with both of them dead now, I don't know how we will find out who this lieutenant is,"

"Speaking of the captain," Rapunzel piped up, turning to her father. "Why did you have to go and speak to him just before we left for the courtyard?"

The king sighed. "He said that he would solve this crisis with the Crusaders and put an end to this threat of a white man in a hood," he explained. "He added that he knew the ways these men work because they were Assassins. His old master, when he was out in the Middle East, had told him of them and taught him how to fight them. Then as we left, he reassured me again that he would solve this problem, and I'm quite sure he muttered someone's name as I left but I couldn't hear it," he concluded.

"Wait," Altair intervened. "He had been taught how to fight us from his old master out in the Holy Lands?" he repeated. The kind nodded.

"Yes, why?" he asked.

Altair placed a slightly curled fist over his mouth, his mind putting together what he had just heard and everything he had learned over the last few days. If the captain knew of these Crusaders and how they knew, or apparently did, about this lieutenant and that he had been out in the Middle East… He put that together with what he had just heard now and the fact that he knew about Robert de Sable, apparently from this Crusader who had stopped by weeks ago. Yes, it was slowly coming together, all of it was connecting. If the captain knew all of this…then there was only one explanation for it.

"What is it, Altair?" Rapunzel asked him. He looked at her.

"I think I know who the lieutenant of Robert de Sable is," he answered to her, his voice a little shocked at what was mostly likely the answer now.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. It opened and another guard stepped in.

"Excuse me, sire," he said. "Sorry for interrupting, but there's a man here who wishes to see you,"

Those in the room exchanged confused glances with each other. Who wanted to see the king? More importantly: why did he want to see the king?

"Let him in," the king replied after a few seconds.

The guard nodded and disappeared back out into the corridor. His voice, followed by another, one that sounded very familiar to Altair, reached their ears and the man stepped in. He was an elderly man slightly shorter than Altair who was dressed in the same kind of uniform as him, but rather than having a completely white hood, he was donned in a kind of black robe. He had a long grey beard that came down from his chin, stopping just above his chest. He looked to be in his late fifties/early sixties. It was Al Mualim.

"Master!" Altair exclaimed. "W-what are you doing here?" he asked, surprised to see him.

"Remember you sent me the letter yesterday," he reminded him. "And I did tell you that I would be coming here when you had written back to me," he added.

"Oh," Altair felt a little embarrassed upon remembering that, but it was quickly brushed aside when the king stepped forward.

"Wait, you know this man?" he asked Altair, who nodded.

"Yes, he is the master of the Creed," he replied. Al Mualim stepped forward and shook the king's hand. "Al Mualim, your majesty," he greeted. "Sorry for the interruption, I have only just arrived here and I had to find my best man," he nodded towards Altair, releasing the king's hand.

"Well…why are you here?" he asked.

"I'm here because I had tasked Altair with finding this lieutenant, hence all the trouble over the past few days," he explained. He looked over at Altair. "Have you managed to find out who this man is we're looking for, Altair?" he asked him.

"I think I have now, master," he replied, but just as he went to explain, a young maid knocked on the open door, a box in her hand.

"Excuse me, your majesty?" she inquired. Everyone in the room turned to look at her.

"What is it, Michelle?" the queen asked.

The maid walked in and held out a box to the queen, who glanced up at her, as if uneasy about taking it, before she took the box and opened it gingerly and peered in. She gave a little gasp upon seeing what was inside and turned to face her daughter.

"R-Rapunzel," she said in a tone that sounded a little shocked.

Her daughter walked over and looked into the box as he mother showed it to her. She gasped as well at what she saw.

Lying in the bottom of the box was Pascal. His eyes flickered several times as he raised his head, rubbing the side of it with his paw. The pain was still there after he had been hit in the head.

"Pascal!" Rapunzel breathed, reaching into the box and gently picking him up. "Are you okay?"

He groaned slightly and looked up and saw Rapunzel. As soon as he did, he jumped as if receiving an electric shock and began to squeak at her very quickly, trying to explain something to her.

"Whoa-whoa! Pascal, calm down!" Rapunzel tried to calm him. "Now, tell me slowly, what happened?"

He squeaked something at her and she gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?" she asked.

He squeaked at her again and she looked up at her father with slightly wide-eyes. "Father," she said. "Pascal said that he overheard everything when you went to talk with the captain," she said. "Then, he said the captain knocked him out,"

The king went a little wide-eyed. "What?" he asked, his mind going blank. "Why did he knock you out?" he asked Pascal.

The chameleon squeaked something to Rapunzel. "He said because the captain saw him and that he heard him mutter something like…oh, what was it Pascal?" she asked him and he squeaked at her. "He heard him mutter that he would finally get rid of two pains in the neck with what was happening," she repeated.

Upon hearing these words, Altair and the king looked at each other. With what they had just heard, both were beginning to think of the same thing. The captain…he…he was...the lieutenant! Rapunzel felt the same way. Her mind went blank with shock. All this time they had been getting help from the man Altair was looking for and now Eugene was going to-Eugene!

"If he's got Eugene, then what do we do?" she asked.

"Well, if he is this lieutenant, then why does he want Eugene?" the king asked.

"Hold on, did Pascal say that the captain was going to get rid of two pains in his neck just now?" Altair asked and the chameleon nodded. "If it was two pains, then one of them we know is the Crusaders-"

"And the other was Eugene," the second-in-command of the guards finished the sentence. Everyone looked over at him. "It wasn't a secret he didn't like Eugene,"

"Then, by the sounds of it and how everything is fitting together, this was a set up," Altair said. "Think of it, he said the guards captured Salad and claimed he was the man responsible for the death, even though he knew it was us, and he knew of our plan. So all he had to do was go to the tower and knock Eugene over and cause him to fall on Harry and kill him,"

"And in doing, getting rid of a thief he hates," Rapunzel said. "Altair, we have to go and rescue him quickly before they kill him. Father, where have they taken him?" she asked him.

"Out into the forest, but Rapunzel you can't-" he replied, but she cut him off.

"I can and I will! Don't you see, Eugene'll die if we don't go out there!"

"No, Rapunzel," Altair interrupted. "Your father is right. You have to stay here. I'll go after them. Besides, I have to finish my mission and I don't want you to get hurt,"

Rapunzel went to argue back but her mother placed a hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes with a worried look, not wanting her daughter to get into danger again, not after when they had almost lost her last time.

"He's right, sweetie," she told her daughter. "You have to stay here. You'll be safe,"

"I'll assign some guards to help you," the king told Altair, but he shook his head.

"No, I must do this alone," he said.

"I agree," Al Mualim intervened. "He is our enemy and we must deal with him. Besides, Altair has dealt with far stronger foes before. He'll be fine,"

Altair nodded and looked back at Rapunzel. "Don't worry," he reassured her. "I'll save him and bring him back,"

She gave a small smile and nodded. "Thanks, Altair," she replied.

He nodded and looked back at the others. "I'll see you all when we return," he told them and he turned and ran out of the room into the corridor. Al Mualim watched him go with a slight ease rather than fear or concern like the others in the room.

Good luck, boy he thought as he moved his arm and clutched something under his robes. You're going to need it.