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Rosa put her arms around the assassin's neck and he lifted her, jogging easily through the streets as though she weighed nothing.

"I never did catch your name," he said.

"Rosa," she muttered through clenched teeth. She didn't know which of them she was most angry with—herself for getting shot with that stupid arrow, or him for being there to see it.

"I'm Ezio."

"I know."

He stopped moving, staring down at her. His brown eyes bored into hers. "What you do mean, 'I know'?" he demanded.

What did he think, that he had snuck into the city without anyone knowing he was there? "Now is not the time for small talk," she snapped. "Are you blind?" Couldn't he tell that they were being pursued?

He grunted, giving her one more suspicious glance before he began moving through the crowd again. Grudgingly, Rosa had to admit that he skirted the crowds more agilely than she had—her wounded leg never so much as brushed against another person, and no one seemed to pay attention to them as they passed, despite the strange picture they must have presented.

Her leg throbbed and she wanted to scream with the pain. Or faint. Instead, she held herself rigidly, refusing to allow the smallest whimper to escape her.

At a corner, he paused. "Are you all right?"

"Don't be stupid."

He took that well, at least. The assassin appeared concerned about her; since he had looked more closely than she had at the arrow wound, that worried Rosa a bit.

"Which way are we going?"

She had to think for a moment. She was so tired and the leg hurt so much. "Left," she said finally. "Then right again."

"Va bene." And he was off, moving with that easy, light stride that didn't jostle her at all.

Pain was a fog in Rosa's head; when she recognized Ugo coming toward her, she didn't know how they had reached the waiting boat.

"Rosa!" Ugo looked at Ezio with suspicion. "What's this?"

"Rosa's been wounded," Ezio said immediately, and without bristling at the implied accusation. Rosa didn't know if she found that impressive or thought him spineless for letting Ugo be hostile to him over something he hadn't done.

"Those bastardi at the palace," Rosa gasped. "Ezio, Ugo." She nodded at each of the men in turn for introduction.

Ugo nodded shortly. "Pass her here. We'll go the rest of the way in the boat."

Rosa felt herself being shifted. Ugo's grip was less sure than Ezio's, and her leg was bumped, causing her to stifle a scream of pain. She found she missed the warmth and protection of Ezio's big body. Clumsily, Ugo got her to the boat.

Over the sound of her blood pounding in her ears, she heard a commotion, and Ezio's voice, saying, "Go! I'll deal with the guards."

She wondered how one man was going to take out enough guards to guarantee them safe passage, but a haze of pain was clouding her mind and she found herself falling into the bottom of the boat, lulled by the movement of the oars and the familiar sounds of the water.