[A/N]: Thanks for reading! Feedback is always welcome!

Unfortunately, this upcoming week is going to be busy for me (but fortunately it's busy for a wonderful reason), so I'm going to have to skip a week again. See you in two weeks!

Chapter 95

"I forgot how long this journey takes," Rosa mentioned to Ezio as the sun began to set on the day they left Venezia. Ezio knew of an inn in a nearby town where they could stop for the night. They might have gone even further, but their horses were getting tired.

"I forgot how much you like to complain about everything," he retorted, eliciting a laugh from her.

"You must have been so terribly bored without me. It is a wonder you-"

"Shh!" he interrupted her, looking around. Something felt off, but he couldn't place his finger on it. They stopped their horses.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"I think I hear something," he replied. She stopped to listen as well.

The next few moments went by very quickly. Ezio and Rosa both heard as an arrow sliced through the air and struck Ezio's horse, causing it to rear up. Ezio instinctively tried to steady it, but it was no use, and the beast fell on its side, pinning Ezio to the ground. In the next moment, Rosa yelled his name as a group of three men (including the archer that had fired the arrow) quickly emerged from the trees. Two had swords, and the last (the archer) was dropping his bow and pulling out a dagger.

Rosa was dismounted in the next second, and her horse was retreating to a safe distance. Ezio tried to push his horse away as the men surrounded Rosa, evidently intending to get rid of her while he was trapped. He was strong enough to get the horse off of him, but it would take a few seconds, and he wasn't sure if Rosa could hold out for that long, so he made a decision quickly.

"Two men are better than three," he thought as he pulled a throwing knife from his belt and hurled it at one of the attackers with a sword, who fell to the ground a second after it hit him.

The others turned their attention from Rosa long enough for Ezio to get free of the horse. They began to charge at him as he drew is sword, but Rosa was even quicker. To Ezio's (and the other men's) surprise, she leapt on the back of the attacker with the dagger, and plunged her own dagger into his chest. His remaining comrade heard his cry and looked back to find himself alone in a fight against two armed opponents, and stopped in his tracks.

"Wait!" he yelled, holding up his hands but not releasing his weapon. "Cazzo, this was supposed to be an easy job! Please, don't hurt me!"

By this point, Rosa had her dagger out of the other man and pressed against this one's back, so Ezio knew he wouldn't be able to try anything treacherous.

"An easy job? Who paid you?"

"I...I cannot say! They will murder me if I do!"

"What a coincidence," Rosa told him. "We have a similar rule for people who try to kill us and then refuse to be useful."

"Okay, okay!" he conceded, trembling. "We were paid by a man who said he was sent by the Pope, Alexander VI. That's all I know, but he said that if I mentioned it to anyone else, we would all be burned, first at the stake, and then in Hell."

"You really expect us to believe that the Pope is-" Rosa started, but Ezio cut her off.

"He is telling the truth, Rosa," Ezio told her, then turned to the man. "Start travelling in the direction we came, and don't look back until the sun comes up tomorrow. If we ever see your face again, you will wish you had been burned."

The man nodded obediently and started walking. When he was out of sight, Ezio and Rosa moved the bodies into the trees, then got on her horse and continued on their way.

"Why did you believe him?" Rosa asked after a few minutes. "What reason could the Pope have for bothering us?"

"Wait," he said, "Antonio hasn't told you?"

"What would he have told me? I don't pay much attention to the politics of the papacy."

"Then you will have to start. Rodrigo Borgia, the Templar who had the artifact before we got it...he has managed to claw his way into Il Vaticano. He is Alexander VI.

Rosa's eyes widened as she thought about the implications of what Ezio had just told her.

"Merda," she breathed. "Then these Templars really are as powerful as those books claim."

Ezio nodded silently in affirmation.