After he withdrew from her she felt his body tremble before he raised himself onto his knees beside her. "We needed to get that out of the way Maria; it would have been foolish to ignore our physical needs."

She watched him, her face devoid of all emotion but said nothing. She brought her knees together and used her bound feet to push herself back into a sitting position. The movement also pulled her dress back down around her thighs. He had her blood on his lips; Maria hoped it would poison him.

His hands dropped to the floor of the cart but she never took her eyes from his face, she was determined not to show even the slightest sign of weakness or shame. He on the other hand couldn't raise his eyes to her face.

"Did you bed the assassin?"

She blinked but never spoke.

"Try to understand Maria, I am a man of great prominence and power people have high expectations of me. I can't be seen to be condoning the sort of behaviour you have been accused of." She still made no effort to speak and the German became agitated, "The offer I made to you in your rooms... it wasn't entirely in jest. There is a possibility that I would be willing to take you as a mistress but you would have to assure me you haven't had that filthy assassin inside you."

She cast her eyes to her legs and noticed he had spilled his "liquid" on the floor; internally this caused her extreme relief but she kept her face stoic.

He saw what she had noticed and looked at her apologetically, "I can't plant my seed just anywhere, in time perhaps you could be a suitable vessel for it but you would require many more corrections before you were ready for that honour." Speaking of corrections brought his gaze to her shoulder; the stream of blood from her shoulder had become a trickle. He lifted the skirt of her dress and dabbed at her shoulder with it, "You would have to learn to a great many things and not the least of these would be to submit yourself to me entirely. Robert may have been willing to tolerate your misplaced sense of independence but he is dead and you must make friends where you can."

The use of Robert's name made something in the pit of her stomach contract, she already felt physically sick but now she felt something else too but she wasn't sure exactly what. Whatever it was felt dark and messy but she had no fear of it, she trusted herself and her instincts and would go along with whatever came naturally to her.

Her arms were getting sore hanging above her and her lower extremities hurt like hell but it was the pain in her shoulder she tried to focus on. He had bitten her right shoulder, what was it with men and injuring shoulders? He was shifting awkwardly waiting for her to be grateful that he was willing to keep her around as his personal dog but she wasn't feeling particularly grateful.

She finally recognised that dark feeling in the pit of her stomach for what it was; she had felt it once before on the tower in Acre. It was a tingling sensation which had spread throughout her body leaving her feeling dizzy and hearing a low humming sound in her head. On that occasion the impulse to jump had been almost too powerful to ignore.

"I see you are considering your options but I assure you Maria they are limited to only me. You have brought this on yourself you know. The way you and he used to prance around as though you were above the rest of us, never allowing anyone into your circle and making sure it was noticed when they were excluded." His voice gained volume as his painful memories nipped at his ego, "I could have been useful! I was the right man to aid you not Sibrand."

She gave him a sideways look no longer trying to mask the contempt she felt for the man.

He yanked her hair forcing her to face him. "Even now you try to demean me but you can't I am the one in control and you are nothing!" He brought his face to hers, "I see the fear in your eyes Maria you can't bluff your way out of this. The only chance you have of survival is to begin answering my questions, now did you let the assassin bed you?"

She heard the humming in her head and decided that this time it would be better to submit to her desires and jump. "He had me many times over and always left me begging for more." His eyes grew dark and his lips trembled but she defiantly lifted her chin and continued. "The reason we didn't let you into our circle Gerhard was nothing to do with status it was because you are weak. Your mind is as scarred as your disfigured legs."

Two perfect protruding circles now replaced his eyes, she saw madness behind that look but it spurred her on.

"Sibrand told us of your night terrors of how you would call out for your Father, a man who would never answer your calls because you made his flesh crawl. He sent you to the Crusades to get you out of the way and you were no more wanted or loved here than you had been in your own home."

He looked to the floor, her triumphant glare was more than he could tolerate and he knew if he lost control and killed her his master would destroy him. But he was shaking, his body wanted to pounce upon and tear the life from her very flesh and bones for what she had said.

"You're going to hell Gerhard and I may be there waiting for you to arrive."

"Ha! There is no hell you stupid woman, have you learned nothing from the apple?"

But Maria knew what he feared she could smell it on him and it was a scent she was unwilling to lose, "You're wrong there is a God, perhaps not the one we thought but one even more powerful. We saw it all Gerhard the apple showed us everything high and low. There is a hell and it's far more horrific than we ever believed."

She had seen the apple at work only once, when Altair used it on the crowd on Cyprus and all she had seen was a bright light but this stupid man didn't know that. Unlike Altair, she would lie through her teeth if it got her something she wanted or needed.

The back of his hand struck her jaw, "You lie!"

"I don't care what you think, you'll find out soon enough. Altair's blade will slice into your body and you will close your eyes on this world and open them in the next. You will pay for what you did to Warwick and Ceana many times over."

His voice grew lower, it was coated with doubt "You do lie; the Master has told me what he saw."

She sneered at him, "He has told you what he wants you believe so you will follow him. Why do you think I don't fear you Gerhard? It's because I know you will suffer far more than I will."

A thin sliver of blood ran from the corner of her mouth and he watched it reach her chin. "I have done things believing them to free from judgement it's on his head not mine I was deceived." He looked smaller now and if he was any other man she might have pitied him.

He reached above her and tried to free her ropes from the cargo anchors, "I came here to convince you to join us, you may not believe that but it's true. If you give me what you gave Robert we would be strong together."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. He was even more unhinged than she guessed but that was fine with her. She thought of his sanity to be like a delicate glass chalice placed precariously at the edge of a table, a table she would shake and kick until it sent the chalice crashing to the floor breaking it into a hundred pieces.

"You are not helping matters Maria. Your assassin will never find you in time and when he next sees me it will be with the entire combined forces of the Crusader army at my back waiting to tear down the walls of their mountain den." He gave up on the ropes instead returning to what she had said. "Did the apple really show you the afterlife?"

Her grin was entirely malicious and it made the hairs on his arms stand on end, "Cooperate with me Maria we can save each other. Why will you not be reasonable?"

Drawing back her lips and baring her teeth she practically spat at him, "Could it be lying on the dirty floor of a cart I've just been raped on somehow fails to inspire reason. Do what you came here to do or fuck off. I grow tired of your pathetic lamentations."

He got to his feet and looked honestly appalled by her language, "We have days before we reach Homs. I'll leave you to think about your future or lack of it as the case may be."

He banged on the side of the cart and yelled for the driver to stop. When he pulled back the flaps to leave Maria called after him. "And you think of your future, in this life and the next Gerhard. You will suffer in both I promise you that."

Altair approached the guards at the gate with a fast even pace; he had no intention of wasting time here if they stopped him they would die. He had followed the tracks of the cart from Ceana's house to here but knew once he got outside the Citadel those tracks would be quickly obliterated; speed was his best chance of finding Maria.

He lowered his head and walked past the first two guards who barely gave him a second glance but one of the men stationed at the front entrance already had an eye on him. His left wrist twitched preparing for the conflict when suddenly behind him he heard a commotion. Tahir had overturned a stall and was now in an argument with the trader. The guards abandoned their posts to break up the ruckus and Altair slipped through unseen. He heard words spoken from behind him and didn't have to turn to know who was addressing him, "When will you learn that you don't have to do everything yourself?"

He slung his leg over a horse and replied, "Thank you Malik." He kicked his horse and sped off after what he hoped were the tracks which would lead him to her.

Going by what the novice had reported he judged they had at least a full hour's head start on him but they were riding in a cart and not only did that make them easier to track it also slowed them down. His mouth was set in a thin angry line, he hated the fact that he felt rage bubbling in his stomach but it wouldn't be human to feel anything less. He told himself Gerhard's death would serve justice and not vengeance but he knew that would depend on what harm had befallen Maria.

He raised his head to check the wind, it was picking up at a worrying pace. If this became a storm he would lose their trail. He thought of Uilleam carrying his mother's dead body into their house he had recognised the look on his face it was a look he himself had carried for many years and he hoped that someone would be there to lead him out of the darkness hatred cloaks you in, as Al Mualim had guided him.

He had tried to do the same for Maria, to show her the hostility she carried inside was futile and destructive and slowly over the months they had spent together he saw a real change in her, a softening of her attitude if not her spirit. But had he weakened her? He understood she nurtured certain traits he considered negative to compensate for her lack of physical strength, her mind was her real weapon and she wielded it as he would a sword.

The more distance he put between himself and the sea the hotter the sun became; it was beating down on him with a fury. He would normally find shelter under a tree during the hottest part of the day but that wasn't an option now. The wind was still gaining in force but it was a warm wind, it brought no cooling breeze only hot abrasive sand to tear against any surface foolish enough to cross its path.

Maria Thorpe... The name had been an almost constant presence in his mind since he learned it, the name and the women who bore it played greatly on his mind and for reasons he didn't always understand but he had accepted it, welcomed it even.

He had been writing at a small table in Markos' home when she leaned over his shoulder to see what he was writing. He didn't bother trying to shield it from her since he knew she couldn't read his language.

"It's beautiful to look at but it probably says something evil like kill all Crusaders and drive them from our shore."

He looked from her smirking face to the parchment he had been writing on...

I had thought Adha would be the one to lead me to rest, that I might lay down my blade and live as a normal man. But now I know such dreams are best left to sleep...Her face. I try to banish it from my mind as I remember the days and nights during which I chased her Templar captors across the sea. I almost got to them in time... almost, if I had only been faster. Instead, I held her lifeless body in my arms – saw the terror reflected in her fixed, unblinking eyes...I hunted each man – one by one – until all responsible were gone from the world. But there was no joy in this. No satisfaction or release. Their deaths did not bring her back, did not heal my wounds. After that, I was certain I would never again feel for a woman as I had for her. I am fortunate to have been wrong.

"It says no such thing Maria. It's nothing more than an attempt to document my thoughts."

Her arm stretched across him as she lifted the paper to look underneath at his sketches, he closed his eyes and allowed her scent to fill his senses. "Well one day I'll learn to read these nonsensical markings and then I'll know the truth."

She was close enough for her body heat to penetrate his robes and remind him how cold his flesh felt when she wasn't near, "I'd be happy to teach you."

She scoffed, "I hope to find a more amusing way to pass my time on the voyage to India, you waste your life with your head stuck in a book if you want to. I plan to participate not observe."

Minutes later he spied her sitting on the grass watching the fishermen in the distance, he gathered up his equipment from the desk and joined her outside.

Taking a seat beside her on the dry grass he placed the books and small parchments on the ground in front of them. "If you are going to participate surely it would be an entirely more rewarding experience if you fully understood what you are participating in?"

She raised her eyebrows and cast an eye over his bundle on the ground then threw him a suspicious look, "And what exactly do you envisage me taking part in?"

He lifted a book, one of his favourites and opened it at the first page, "Life, Maria."

He came to the main crossroads where he knew the trail would be most severely disturbed, people going to Dimashq, Akka and Jerusalem all passed here but her trial was there, his skills could still pick out the path she had been on. Clicking his tongue to move his horse he took the road which would eventually lead to Masyaf but not before it passed Homs.

The impressions of the wheels were deeper in the soil now, they had stopped here. He saw foot prints embedded in the dirt, someone had jumped from the cart. Was it someone who had been inside with Maria and if so why had they left her here? He rubbed the dust from his eyes and lowered his head against fresh grains trying to replace the ones he had just dislodged. He felt hopelessness creep into his brain and banished it with a grimace. This would not happen again, he would not lose her as he had lost Adha.

The wind had become a gale blowing sand and loose dirt in swirls around him; he would struggle to find his direction soon never mind the tracks in the dirt. Frustration gnawed at him but he refused to listen. Logic told him as the wind was slowing him it would be slowing them and he so he kept his mount pointed forward pushing her on into the dust storm.

Maria could hear the wind battering against the side of the cart and from experience she knew it would be carrying all sorts of nasty grit with it. She imagined him sitting up front having to shield his eyes from it; hopefully some of it had managed to whip into his face. Hardly deadly but the idea of any pain being inflicted on him pleased her. She wondered if Altair had found out about Ceana yet and how he would react. She knew he would kill Gerhard purely for being a part of the conspiracy but she hoped he would take a measure of revenge for her too.

'I doubt he would ever allow himself to feel the cold satisfaction of revenge it would surely be beneath him.'

But she still managed to smile at the thought of him. The peacemaker and the killer, their juxtaposition was a contradiction not lost on the assassin but she never failed to point it out, to mock him for it. She would never admit that she found these things living side by side within him perfectly natural; she felt the one saved him from the other.

The peacemaker kept the assassin in check, his conscience would not allow him to act without forethought but he paid a price for keeping his baser instincts in order. She had seen brief glimpses of sadness within him. Maria had seen him with both a blade and a quill in hand and to be honest he looked equally comfortable with either.

The cart bumped to a halt and Maria readied herself, she was looking forward to her next encounter with Gerhard but it was only a soldier who separated the material and addressed her. "There is a storm blowing we will be stopping here for a few hours." Just past his shoulder she could make out the side of a building but he dropped the flap too quickly for her to be able to make out any distinguishing landmarks.

He was breathless and virtually unsighted but the horse was suffering more than he was. He saw a small farmhouse ahead and decided to stop to ask for shelter at least for the animal but it had been abandoned. He led the beast inside what had once been a smoking shed and left the door ajar for exit after the storm had passed. He removed his armour from his waist and unwound his sash. After replacing the armour he wrapped the sash around his neck and wound it around his lower face covering as much of it as he could before walking back into the storm.

The mountain pass offered respite from the wind but walking head first into it for so long had felt like sprinting. The muscles in his legs were on fire and his lungs ached from the exertion. He glanced ahead and saw the top of the hill and sighed... a mixture of relief and despair. He would be past this steep hill but in the path of the wind once again.

Once at the top he saw what he had been chasing for the past few hours... the cart with the Black Cross of the Teutonic Knights emblazoned across its covers. There was a soldier huddling against each of the two front corners of the house but none watching the cart. He despatches both guards with his wrist blade neither one making a sound which would be heard over the storm. He ducked under the window and saw the Teutonic Grandmaster sitting with his head in his hands on a heap in the floor, he chanced a quick glance around the rest of the room but it appeared to be empty. He began making his way toward the cart, dread and hope in equal measures pulsing through his veins.

The appearance of a head swathed in red fabric almost had her screaming but before she could open her mouth he leapt up onto the cart and she recognised his robes. "How on earth did you find us?"

He dropped to one knee beside her and cut the ropes from her wrists and neck but when he moved to release her ankles he noticed her dress was up around her thighs. He pulled it down before cutting the last of her binds.

Removing his sash from his face he replied, "I'm an assassin finding people is exactly what we do Maria." He saw blood on the neckline of her dress, when he drew the fabric gently aside and saw the bite marks on her neck his blood boiled.

She tried to lift an arm to move her body but they had been above her too long, she needed to give the blood time to flow again. She attempted to speak but her throat hitched and nothing came out. He reached out to stroke her cheek but she flinched from him and turned away.

He understood what had happened to her, the bites on her neck and her dress pulled up... He may not be the most experienced man in the world but these signs were obvious even to him.

With two fingers on her cheek he gently urged her face back to his and leaned in closer to her. He needed to show her that nothing had changed. He brushed his thumb along her bottom lip but made no other attempt to touch her placing his hands on either side of her on the floor. Her hair was loose and the dark waves tumbling around her face made her look so soft and fragile.

'How could any man wish to harm something so precious?'

She met his gaze and this time there was no fear in her eyes so he inched his head closer to hers and when she felt the point of his hood graze her hair she moved to meet his mouth. She kept her eyes locked on his until she felt the faintest touch of his lips against hers then she shut her lids and let whatever it was she felt for him take control.

His heart was racing in his chest as he tried to keep his mouth soft upon hers. He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her against his chest but after what she had been through she needed this. He felt her lips move with his, the pressure of her mouth increasing against his, her lips parting slightly. He let his tongue have the briefest touch of her lips before he pulled it back behind his teeth, she tasted so sweet, this was a pleasure to be savoured not snatched like a thief.

He drew back from her mouth but kept his head close, rubbing his cheek against her face. His stubble felt rough against her skin but it was a beautiful feeling, having him so close was comforting.

"I think we got carried away and forgot about the insane Templar hiding in that house." She chuckled in an effort to sound light hearted but her voice cracked as she spoke, she really was no good with emotions - never had been.

He rested his head on hers and buried his fingers in her hair, "I forgot nothing Maria finding you was my first priority."

"I want to skin him alive and let the dogs lick the blood from his bones." It was hard to tell which was shaking more her voice or her body.

"You need to get to your feet first and find your boots."

"I don't have any. I had just gotten out of the tub when they arrived, I'm lucky I have a dress on." She cursed her rotten luck as the smirking assassin lifted her to her feet.

This one is weird I'm not sure where I meant it to go with it :)