Note from the author: Well, I survived basic training, which means I had two and half months to brainstorm new ideas for the story. My writing skills may have become a little rusty so just bare with me for a bit. Let the story continue!
Chapter 31
Dawn shifted over the horizon as rays of warmth were shut out from the chilled mountain trail. A thickening mist all but smothered the earth, obscuring the traveling assassins in a world of heavy gray. The soft haze collected and formed, spaying droplets of moisture across the brim of Ezio's hood, pooling over the rim and dripping onto his frozen knuckles curled lightly over the reigns.
His eyes would narrow and widen as they focused on the dark and smoky silhouettes of trees and large boulders blotted around the trail, cloaked in the haze. He breathed the damp air through his nose and exhaled smoothly from his lips, but the sound was muted in comparison to clopping of hooves on gravel and stone.
Alcina wiped away a trailing drip of dew from her cheek as the microscopic drops of mist breathed across her skin. They had been riding steadily through the mountains for weeks on route to Florence, and somehow, the journey didn't seem to take long enough.
Over the past decade, she learned to battle and overcome her grief… but something about returning to her old home planted a strange knot in her guts. She smoothed back a few strands of damp hair from her face as she wondered how she would react upon seeing the once warm streets of her past. Would she run? Break down and freeze in her tracks? "Non certo," she shook her head at the thought.
She had grown up, and transformed into a calm and collected killer; she was beyond breaking. She lifted her chin higher beneath her ivory hood as the crimson silk on the inside warmed her cheeks. The knot in her gut subsided as she calmly breathed, wondering now if she would even be phased upon arrival.
She glanced to her partner briefly, his entranced stare into the mist made her heart quicken as her eyes regretfully pulled away from his chiseled features. She owed this man so much as she reminisced over all he had done for her. He had mended her, and had given her once broken life a new meaning as she found herself fighting alongside him for a greater purpose. But most of all, she would be forever be indebt to him, for the overpowering feeling of joy he brought to her once dead heart. He had brought her back from the dead, and she was going to use her new time wisely.
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The hypnotic thrum of hoofed steps bounced through the narrowing passes of stretched stone, returning and echoing loudly in their ears. Neither of them had come across any fellow travelers, which left Ezio feeling slightly on edge. He would untrustingly peer through the ocean of silvery mist every so often or whenever he'd hear the smallest sound charge his surroundings.
"You look tired," his sudden voice silkened the empty space between them.
Alcina peered through the corner of her hood as her eyes met his own curious gaze, making her gasp briefly. "I have not been sleeping well," she muttered.
"And why is that?" he pressed. "More dreams?"
Alcina had been fighting to ignore the burn of exhaustion around her lids, "Nightmares..." she shrugged. Ezio read her body language; she clearly did not want to discuss the topic further.
A foreign sound thudded somewhere behind the wall of fog, growing louder and louder, clumsily crunching the gravel terrain. They both recognized the familiar clop of hooves, but couldn't place the disturbing screeching that followed. The hooves were dragging something... something metal. Ezio sat upright in his saddle, his predatory eyes locking into the distance, waiting for the rider to approach.
They waited tensely as the steps grew closer and louder. The snarling and scraping of iron on stone made Alcina grind her teeth as a pained line creased between her eyes.
Like a mirage, a large shadow formed through molecules in the haze. The image developed and grew more and more detailed as it drew closer, breaking through the wall of mist. The stranger approached in the form of painted pony, lazily bobbing it's head on it's shoulders as it's tired feet pounded clumsily on the gray earth.
It passed them without much notice to them as an overturned plow dragged helplessly behind, grinding in protest. Alcina turned over each shoulder as she searched in confusion for any sign of it's master, but there was nothing but silence in their silver world; silence masked by the tearing of foreboding metal.
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"Running is pointless."
"Who are you?" Alcina whispered into the darkness.
"There have been many names."
Alcina reached for a blade that was no longer at her side as she wandered through the darkness. "Show yourself!" She screamed. A familiar laugh echoed from every direction as another wail bellowed through the black. The high shrill brought a dry scrape in her throat as she recognized the sound of her own childish scream, calling for her father who she knew would never answer.
She crumbled to her knees as the ground bobbed and tumbled like fluid, shaking her to her core. "Leave me alone!"
"No one can run from their fate assassin… not even you," a firm grip clenched her shoulder ripping and digging into her bones like hot daggers. "You have something of mine… and I want it back." She opened her mouth but the scream refused to escape as her eyes flew open, returning her to her frozen reality.
"Alcina, wake up," the hand on her shoulder shook her abruptly.
"Cosa…" she groaned hoarsely as her neck ached from resting in an awkward tilt.
"Something is wrong," his voice hushed her.
She straightened herself smoothly as she evaluated her surroundings. The mist had hardly lifted, leaving no indication of the time of day or how long she had been sleeping. "What is it? What do you see?"
"It's not what I see… it's what I smell…" he muttered. Ezio was right. Alcina nearly gagged at the burn in her nose and the familiar taste of smoke at the back of her throat. The once silvery haze had darkened, muddied with smoke and drifting ash as it outstretched toward them like dark fingers.
She heard Ezio swallow hard in his throat as his frame tensed from the corner of her eye. "What is it?" her voice raspy. A nervous chill raced across her skin as she saw Ezio's eyes grow dark with worry.
"There should be a village just through this pass…" his voice wary. He dismounted his horse as his feet clattered against the stone trail. Alcina slipped from her saddle and steered her horse behind her by the dew soaked reigns.
They both walked blindly through the smoke, dragging their fingers across the stone walls as a guide until their feet struck something familiar. The walls of the mountain pass opened like a yawning mouth into a narrow valley of grass, brittle with frost and ash.
A loud crash made the horses suddenly shuffle in surprise as a swarm of blazing orange sparks sputtered through the haze. "The village…" Alcina whispered aloud. She let the leather reigns slip from her numbing fingers as her feet guided her in the direction of the crash.
Her eyes adjusted to the dark world surrounding her, blotted in shades of black and gray, occasionally spitting sparks of hot, red embers. Her steps sunk into the inches of soot, ash and splintered remains of torched timbers. She raised her fingertips to her chilled lips as she breathed out a frozen breath of steam.
Her eyes uncontrollably watered from the sting of smoke, drawing clean streaks down her face through the dirt and soot. She gazed in every direction as the quiet, mountain village lay in ruins, it's citizens nowhere to be seen.
She slowly dropped to her knees, sinking into the ashes like a soft blanket of dark snow; the clean streaks on her cheek now black. She gathered a handful of soot in her gloved hands, letting it slip through her fingers as the fallen beams surrounding her popped and crackled occasionally, spitting out golden sparks.
"What happened…" she muttered. "Who could have done this?"
Ezio wiped away a cold sweat from his brow as he silently approached her kneeling form and curling his fingers over her shoulder. "It could have been anything," he swallowed.
Alcina tugged at her collar and pulled it up and over her nose and mouth. "I think I know," she breathed heavily. "When an area becomes infected with disease, it is contained into the smallest cluster possible. When it cannot…." She glanced around her shoulder at the scorched remains of the once beautiful world. "Purity through fire…" she choked.
Ezio scowled at the dead world, a ripple of pain to his features. His heart ached at the thought of innocent people left to be burnt alive.
Alcina rose to her feet, dusting off her knees and palms. "There is one thing I do not understand," she muttered as she wiped the black lines from her cheeks.
"Si… what is it?" he smeared away a spot she missed with his thumb.
"Where are the bodies?"
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Translations:
Non certo- certainly not