Fleeting

Malik reached the inn just as the last hints of day left the sky, he would have arrived sooner but why waste energy travelling across the roofs? He kept himself alert as he walked through the streets, he’d never liked this part of Jerusalem, it was filled with the worst kind of people, it was mostly falling apart and guards wouldn’t even patrol the area. He knew for a fact that Gyani was not a poor man, he could afford to have his Troupe stay at a better place but the man was such a penny pincher – if the man’s wife were still alive she would have beaten him to death for being so stingy! There was only a single light on and shadows flickered through the open – no the door was broken – and the voices that floated in the air did not belong to anyone he knew.

Peering around the doorway, the Dai’s eyes widened, not even a few steps from him was young Nikeel’s body, the boy’s back was covered in cuts and slashes, he barely breathed. His scared wet eyes landed on the Assassin and he whimpered pathetically, Malik put a finger to his mouth, the boy needed to stay quiet! Further on were the bodies of the two youngest members, over them was one of the twins, his throat cut like the others – he looked as if he’d tried to protect the children. A yell came from the room above and Nikeel made another noise, this time alerting the solitary soldier guarding the entry room, “are you still alive?” his voice was laced with amusement as he stalked over to the boy, “what’s wrong? Don’t you have anything more to say?” he stood on the boy’s broken leg and twisted his foot hoping for a scream, but Nikeel had no voice left, all he could do was hide his face in his arm, “you’re no fun.” Malik waited for the other man’s attention to fall solely on the boy before he stepped out of the dark doorway and disposed of him; the blood spraying from the man’s throat and covering the clay wall.

“Nikeel…how many are upstairs?” the boy looked at him in confusion, why was Nazeera’s friend here and kneeling beside him? Staring down at the young acrobat, Malik resisted the urge to shake him; surely he was not so broken that he could no longer speak! “How many?!” at his hissed question the boy seemed to become more alert.

“Three…” he muttered into the floorboards, he really couldn’t keep looking up at the man, he was tired and everything hurt…he wanted his sister, Azurelle would make this better. “One man…he…he killed Nazeera…he said he fired the…” Nikeel went quiet then, Malik was sure he was dead until he took another ragged breath, “tell my sister…tell her we…we went to India…please…tell her that.” He gave a last weak grin, his teeth covered in blood and pain so obvious in his eyes before he rested his head on the floor and stopped breathing

“…I will.” Closing the boy’s eyes, the Assassin stood silently, this wasn’t the kind of visit he had planned, he was going to tell Gyani that Nazeera would not be returning, pay off her debt and then leave as soon as the man agreed. Now he was in the middle of a slaughter house, even people who had nothing to do with the Troupe were laying in pools of their own blood…at least he would get his wish tonight – he was going to make one man upstairs wish he’d never come to Jerusalem.

0

Qiblatayn was getting frustrated, he’d made an awful mistake by trying to kill the Dai himself, the archer who missed made a bigger one for missing and was long since dead – Bosque was not a stupid man though and he knew who had been responsible for the fuck up. If he could get the location of the Assassins hide out from these performers, who had to know because their women were sleeping with Assassins, he would have a chance to redeem himself and save his own life. Unfortunately they’d been very unhelpful so far, he’d even tortured the little ones in hopes that someone would say something! All he had left now was the leader, surely with all of his little money makers dead the man would want some form of revenge against the Brotherhood.

“You, go downstairs and grab that annoying kid, maybe if we break a few more of his bones the old man will talk.” The soldier huffed in annoyance, this was going no where! Still, coin was coin and he was getting a lot of it for this venture. He left to carry out his orders – he hadn’t expected to have his throat cut once he entered the hallway. “And you!” Qiblatayn snapped at the other guard, “Break his legs.”

“This man is going to die very soon…you stabbed him too deeply and in the wrong place. You break his legs! This is going no where, they don’t know anything and you can’t pay me enough to continue.” The soldier walked to the doorway muttering about incompetent fools.

“Stop! You will do as I say!” he smirked when the man did stop; he knew a soldier couldn’t disobey the man paying them! “come back here!” the lanky man’s eyes widened when the soldier was thrown into the room, “what?” he looked up and blanched at the sight of Malik blocking the doorway. He backed away fearfully; this man was going to kill him! “…please! I had nothing to do with this! They – the soldiers! They forced me to come here! I’ll give you money!” he uttered desperately, everyone wanted money he could pay the Assassin off! He gave a nervous kind of laugh, “I’m a rich man, my friend! I’ll give you anything you want! No! Don’t hurt me!” he shrunk down and cowered as Malik advanced into the room and – walked right on by.

The Dai began cutting the man’s bindings, “Gyani…this wasn’t how I expected to see you again.”

“No? Well…I wasn’t expecting to see you at all and I doubt I’ll ever want to see you again.” The man glared at Malik, this was all the Assassin’s fault! If he had left Nazeera alone, like he’d been asked to eight years ago, his entire little family of performers would not be lying dead in the dingy little inn, “what do you want?”

“to tell you, Nazeera is alive and she will stay that way for as long as I am breathing…Azurelle is safe also.” He’d said what he’d originally come to say, “Also what I want is that man’s head on a spike.” Qiblatayn paused, he had slowly been making his way to the door, he’d thought about stabbing the man in the back but escape seemed more tempting. Upon hearing the threat he scrambled quickly to the door and screamed when a knife embedded itself into the back of his knee, he yelled in pain as he tried to pull the knife out of the sensitive flesh.

“She’s alive?” Gyani asked his voice somehow relieved, he seemed unaffected by Qiblatayn’s screaming, “my wife would be relieved…she loved those girls more than anything…and you came here to pay me off I bet, so you two can go get married and live in that damn fortress.” He watched Malik nod his head as he finished cutting the bindings, “I suppose I should wish you luck…and luck to my pregnant little protégé – don’t give me that look! I’m not stupid! Nazeera told me when she used her earnings to pay Azurelle’s debt early.” Gyani winced, the wound in his side was bleeding heavily, he was going to die here and he found he really didn’t care so much. He had lost everything now – he had nothing left without the Troupe, “You can have my blessing under two circumstances: One. If Azurelle has a girl, she must be called Rani. Two. That man, I want you to kill him and I want you to make him suffer.”

“Oh, he will…” Malik regarded the miserable heap by the doorway with cold eyes, “he will.”

00

He’d never seen two people look so guilty in his life. Altaïr looked at the sisters with slight disapproval and a great deal of amusement; Nazeera knew she wasn’t supposed to be out of bed let alone moving around and Azurelle knew she wasn’t supposed to be helping the woman do these things…yet here they were – caught. “Well?”

“Well…” Azurelle began before giving him an embarrassed grin, “she smelt really bad and her hair looked terrible and she threatened to shave my head if I didn’t help her!”

“You are such a liar!” Nazeera squeaked before turning to tell her version of events, “she came into the room, lifted me into her arms and hauled me out here because there was a spider! And I’m far too weak to oppose her!”

“I picked you up?” Came her sister’s dead pan voice, her eyebrow raised.

“And threw me at the spider.”

Altaïr shared a look with the other two Assassins, it was an impressive tale and they definitely got some points for looking as if they were telling the absolute truth, “how big was this spider?” asked Abdul.

“…filled the entire room…it saw Azurelle’s face before I hit it and ran away across the roof tops in fear.” Azurelle’s mouth dropped at the insult, what an annoying woman!

Nakim shook his head, had these two always been so entertaining, “I see, well it must have been some ordeal…now I will carry you back to bed because I think you will die on your feet if you don’t lie down soon. Abdul, be a good boy and hide all the evidence that she was out of bed.” He motioned to the little pile of bandages by the fountain, “and check for giant spiders while you’re out there.”

The woman went into great detail of how she came to be out of the bed, Nakim nodded sympathetically and said, ‘I see’ intermittedly as he tried not to laugh at the ridiculous story being told. Altaïr shook his head, hadn’t she stopped hallucinating? Looking at Azurelle he frowned, she looked as if she’d been crying quite recently and he wanted to know why. Before he could even open his mouth she was answering him.

“Yes, I’ve been crying…but I feel better now. There are some things a big sister can fix that no one else in the world can.” She bit her lip in thought for a moment, was this the right time to tell him? Should she wait? It was better to get it over with surely. “Altaïr. Tomorrow I’m going back to Gyani…I’ve decided to continue travelling.”

The Assassin waited for a moment, hoping she was joking or that there was more to it but as she continued to look at him he realised that was it. He thought they had sorted through this, she was going to Masyaf and she’d find something to do there and now she was going to India – with his baby. “Why? We have discussed this and especially after today it would be best for you to rest for the sake of – ”

“He’s gone…there is no more…” she choked on her words; she thought she’d cried herself out on Nazeera’s shoulder! Why was she still crying over this? She wiped hastily at her eyes before any more tears could fall, “I can’t feel my baby anymore and I’m sorry that I lost him. So surely the best thing to do would…there’s nothing for me here…” how annoying, she’d had this speech all planned out, she had practised again and again on what to tell him and now she was standing in the middle of the room falling to pieces! Arms wrapped around her and she was crushed to the Assassin in a firm but gentle embrace, she hugged him back and let her hands claw into the material. “you must be hurting too…” she hadn’t thought on that before, Altaïr had been so protective towards his baby, his hands always found her belly if they had nothing else to do and he’d sulk relentlessly if she wouldn’t allow him to touch her. Every fight they’d had was because of his concern for the child.

He didn’t know what to say to that, he hadn’t wanted a child to begin with; he was going to wait a few more years before even considering the option! But for a little while he was going to be a father, it had terrified him at first, probably as much as it had terrified her but at some point he’d fallen in love with the idea. She’d been so brave with it all, she’d accepted the responsibility with only a little resistance and even now she was trying to be an adult and protect him, he didn’t know what to say and that alone annoyed him! Yes he was…heartbroken. He didn’t think he would be this upset over something as tiny as a baby. She pulled away from him, once again scrubbing at her eyes, “so…so that’s it…” she hiccupped, “and – Malik!”

Altaïr turned to see what she seemed so shocked to see, “has something happened?” Malik asked as he took in Azurelle’s tears and to his surprise, the look of grief in Altaïr’s eyes.

“you ask that when you are covered, completely covered in blood!” it was rare for Malik to get any blood on himself let alone so much, “who upset you?”

“I got a hold of the man responsible for Nazeera’s injury.” There was a frightening glint in his eyes, usually he took no pleasure in the death of others but this one…this one was most deserving of what he’d gotten. “Azurelle, I need a word with Altaïr…why don’t you go check on your sister.” He ignored the dirty look sent his way, “I am not blind, Altaïr, and I wouldn’t ask if this were not important.”

“It’s fine…I’m…we’re done,” she gave a weak smile, “I should make sure there are no more spiders.” She left before he tried to stop her, she wanted to find her sister and cry her heart out until she was dry and had no more to give.

The Dai sat and began washing the blood from his skin, “everyone at the inn is dead; guests, workers, the entire Troupe including Gyani. It would be best not to tell them about this – as soon as we can we should move back to Masyaf.” He kept his voice low, it would not do anyone any good to hear of the tragedy at the inn, “it would be best to keep them away from the building; I might have painted the walls a new colour.”

To say he was disturbed by that comment was an understatement, Malik was not a cruel man but it sounded and looked as if tonight he had become such a man. How was he supposed to explain to Azurelle that she was going with him to Masyaf even if he had to carry her the entire way, “we can not wait, Malik, we need to get out of Jerusalem by tomorrow night.” He explained quickly about the information he’d been given by Bosque, “we can not stay here any longer.”

“Are you telling me I have to get every last trace of us packed up and on the way to Masyaf, including a seriously injured woman and a pregnant girl by tomorrow morning? Have you even told Azurelle that she has to move tomorrow?”

“She was planning on going to the inn and vanishing to India tomorrow – I do not even know how I am going to get her to Masyaf! She has just lost our baby and now I have to explain that her entire family is dead...”

Malik closed his eyes unhappily at the news, no wonder they had both looked so broken, he had hoped it wouldn’t happen after all the heartache they’d been through lately, “I am sorry…I do not know what to say…but Altaïr, we can not tell them about the Troupe…that was their entire life.” He could offer no words of comfort to the man; all he could do was lift some of the responsibility from the man’s shoulders. “I will get everything in order, just look after her.”

Altaïr left Malik cleaning the remaining blood from himself, he had no idea how he was going to convince her to stay against her will and as he stood outside the door and listened to the little brunette pour her heart out to the other woman he didn’t want to cause her any more anguish. She cried for nearly the entire night before slowly hiccupping herself to sleep and Altaïr stood by the door long after that.

000

Malik can move an entire bureau in less than twenty-four hours! He’s like…super! He can tie the luggage to pigeons!