Winches!
They had plenty of slack rope on the winches and were preparing to let it go, letting it spin out as soon as they unlocked the winches and let them freewheel. They could haul the bridge up again after they’d tumbled him into the gulf below.
Merda, Ezio thought, half running, half stumbling forward. Twice in one day! With five yards to go, he threw himself into the air as the bridge fell away beneath him, sailing forward and landing on one guard, knocking another flat, plunging the flint blade into the first man’s neck and trying to bring it out again fast, but it broke off where it was, it must have snagged on bone. Finding his feet, spinning round, he hauled the second guard, not yet recovered, roughly towards him, and swiftly drawing the man’s own sword pulled it back and ran him through with it.
The other three had abandoned their bows and drawn their own swords, penning him in with his back to the precipice. Ezio thought fast. He’d seen no other men around, no one had gone to raise the alarm, he’d have to finish these three here and then get into the castle before anything was discovered. But the men were big, and they hadn’t been on guard; they were fresh and rested.
Ezio hefted the sword in his hand. He looked from one face to the other. But what was it he now saw in their eyes? Fear? Was it fear?
‘You Assassin dog!’ one of them spat, though his voice all but trembled. ‘You must be in league with the Devil!’
‘If the Devil is anywhere, he’s with you,’ snarled Ezio, throwing himself forward, knowing that he could take advantage of their fear that he was in some way filled with a supernatural force. Se solo!
They closed then, shouting oaths so loudly that Ezio had to make haste to cut them down, to silence them. Their blows were wild and panicky, and the job was quickly done. He dragged the bodies into the guard post but there was no time to haul the bridge back up, besides, that was an impossible job for a man alone. Briefly, he considered changing clothes with one of the guards, but that would have wasted precious time, and the gathering darkness was on his side.
Ezio started up the path leading to the castle, grateful for the shadows that had begun to gather at its sides. He reached the foot of its walls on its blind side, unmolested. The sun had all but set, only a red glow showing now behind the distant cliffs and mountains to the west. It was cold and the wind insistent. The castle, old as it was, had weathered stones and they afforded enough hand- and footholds for a climber who knew what he was doing. Ezio, keeping in mind a picture of the plan of the fortress, which he had studied in Rome, drew on the last reserves of his energy and began the ascent. A hundred feet, he calculated, and then he’d be within the outer sanctum. After that, he knew where the connecting gates were which led to the inner fortifications, the towers and the keep.
The climb was harder than he’d thought. His arms and legs ached, and he wished he had some kind of implement which would help extend his reach, which could grip on the holds inflexibly, extending the power of his hands. But he willed himself upwards, and, as the last embers of sunset died behind the black ramparts of mountain, giving way to the first pale stars, Ezio dropped onto a walkway which ran a few feet below the crenellations of the Outer Wall. Fifty yards on either side of him were watchtowers, but the guards in them were looking out and down – there was a commotion, dimly heard, from the direction of the guard house by the bridge.
He raised his eyes to the Keep Tower. They would have stowed his kit – his precious saddlebags with his weapons – in the secure cellar storeroom below it.
He dropped from the walkway to the ground, always keeping to the shadows. He bore left, towards where he knew the gate giving access to the Keep lay.
12
Soft-footed as a puma, and ever seeking the darkest routes, Ezio reached his goal without further confrontations. Just as well, for the last thing he wanted was another noisy fight. If they found him again, they wouldn’t let him linger, give him the ghost of a chance of escape – they’d kill him on the spot, skewer him like a rat. There were few guards about – all he’d seen were those on the battlements. They must all be out, looking for him in the pale uncertain light afforded by the myriad stars – and the scrum at the guard post would have made them redouble their efforts, for that had given them proof beyond doubt that he was not dead.
There were two older Templar guards sitting at a rough wooden table near the entrance to the cellar storeroom. On the table was a large pewter jug of what looked like red wine and two wooden beakers. Both guards had their heads and arms on the table. They were snoring. Ezio approached with extreme caution, having seen the ring of keys hanging at the side of one of the men.
He had not forgotten the pickpocketing skills which the Assassin madame Paola had taught him as a young man in Florence. Very carefully, trying to keep the keys from jangling – for the slightest sound, which might awaken the men, could spell his doom – he lifted the ring, and with his other hand awkwardly untied the leather thong which attached it to the man’s belt. At one point the loosening knot snagged and stuck, and in Ezio’s efforts to free it, he tugged too hard and the man stirred. Ezio became a statue, watching vigilantly, both hands engaged, and unable to make a move for either guard’s weapon. But the man merely snuffled and went on sleeping, creasing his brow uncomfortably, perhaps at some dream.
At last the key ring was in Ezio’s hands, and he crept stealthily down the torchlit aisle beyond the guards, looking at the heavy ironclad wooden doors which ran along either side.
He had to work fast, but it was a long job, checking which key on the big steel ring fitted into what lock, and at the same time checking that the keys didn’t make any noise as he manipulated them. At the fifth door he struck lucky. It opened into a veritable armoury, weapons of various sorts stacked neatly on wooden shelves running the length of the walls.
He’d taken a torch from its sconce near the door, and by its light he soon found his bags. A quick inventory indicated that nothing had been taken, or even, as far as he could see, touched. He breathed a sigh of relief because these were the last things he wanted the Templars to get their hands on. The Templars had some good minds working for them, and it would have been disastrous if they’d been able to copy the hidden blades.
He gave them a brief inspection. He’d travelled with only what he considered to be his essential gear, and he found, after double-checking, that everything he’d brought with him was definitely in place. He buckled on the scimitar, drawing it to make sure its blade was still keen, then slid it into its scabbard, slamming it firmly home. He strapped the bracer to his left arm and the unbroken hidden blade to his left wrist. The broken blade and its harness he stowed in the bags – he wasn’t going to leave that for the Templars, even in its current state, and there was always the chance that he’d be able to get it repaired. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it. He stored the spring-loaded pistol with its ammunition in the bags, and, taking as much time as he dared, took out and checked that his parachute hadn’t been damaged. The parachute was new – an invention of Leonardo’s that he hadn’t used in action yet. But the practice runs he’d made with it had more than proved its potential. He folded the tent-like structure up neatly and returned it to the rest of his kit, slinging the bags over his shoulder, strapping them securely, and made his way back the way he’d come, past the still sleeping guards. Once outside, he started to climb.
He located a secluded vantage point on a high turret of the Keep. He’d selected the place because it overlooked Masyaf’s rear garden, under which, if his research on the castle plans had been correct, the Templars would be concentrating their efforts to locate the library of the great Assassin Mentor, Altaïr, who’d ruled the Brotherhood from here three centuries ago. It was the legendary library of the Assassins, and the source of all their knowledge and power, if his father’s letter was to be believed.
Ezio by now had no doubt at all that nothing less than a search for it would explain the Templars’ presence in this place.
&nbs
p; On the edge of the turret’s outer wall, looking down at the garden, was the large stone statue of an eagle, wings folded, but so lifelike that it appeared to be about to take flight and swoop down on some unsuspecting prey. He tested the statue. For all its weight, it rocked very slightly when he applied pressure to it.
Perfect.
Ezio took up his position by the eagle, and prepared to settle down for the rest of the night, knowing nothing would happen before dawn. If he did not take this opportunity to rest, he would not be able to act with efficiency when the moment came. The Templars might have taken him for some kind of demi-devil, but he knew only too well that he was just a man, like any other.
But before he rested a sudden doubt assailed him and he scanned the garden below. There was no sign of any excavations. Could it be that he was mistaken?
Drawing on the lessons he had learned and the powers he had developed in training, he focused his eyes so that they assumed the power of an eagle’s, and examined the ground beneath him minutely. By concentrating hard, he was at last able to discern a dull glow emanating from a section of mosaic flooring in a once ornamental, now overgrown, bower immediately beneath. Satisfied, he smiled and relaxed. The mosaic depicted an image of the goddess Minerva.
The sun had scarcely brushed the battlements to the east when Ezio, refreshed by his short sleep and alert, crouched by the stone eagle, knowing that the moment had come. He also knew he had to act fast – every moment he spent here increased the risk of detection. The Templars would not have given up on him yet, and they would be fired up with hatred – his escape, when they had him in the very grip of death, would have left them howling for vengeance.
Ezio gauged distances and angles and, when he was satisfied, he placed his boot against the stone eagle and gave the statue a good hard push. It rocked on its plinth and then fell out and away over the parapet, tumbling end over end towards the mosaic floor far below. Ezio watched it for barely a second just to verify its course before he threw himself into the air after it executing a Leap of Faith. It was some time since he had performed one, and now the old exhilaration returned. Down they fell, the eagle first, Ezio plummeting in the same trajectory fifteen feet above it. Towards what looked like very solid ground.
Ezio didn’t have time to pray that he hadn’t made a mistake. If he had, the time for praying – for everything – would soon be over.
The eagle landed first, in the centre of the mosaic.
For a split second it seemed as if the eagle had smashed to pieces, but it was the mosaic which had shattered, revealing beneath it a large aperture reaching down into the earth, through which the eagle, and Ezio, fell. He was caught immediately on a chute which sloped at an angle of some 45 degrees into the ground. He slid down it feet first, steering himself with his arms, hearing the stone eagle thundering its way ahead of him, until, with a mighty splash, it tumbled into a large subterranean pool. Ezio followed.
When he surfaced, he could see that the pool was in the middle of a great antechamber of some kind. An antechamber, because its architectural focus was a door. A door of dark green stone, polished smooth by time.
Ezio was not alone. A party of five Templars on the granite embankment of the lake near the door had turned at the sight and sound of the crashing intrusion, and were waiting for him, yelling, swords at the ready. With them was a man in workmen’s clothes, a dusty canvas apron wrapped round his waist and a leather tool bag on his belt. A stonemason, by the look of him. A hammer and a large stone-chisel hung in his hands as he watched, mouth agape.
Ezio hauled himself up onto the embankment as Templar guards hurried forward to rain blows down on him, but he fended them off for long enough to get to his feet. Then he braced himself and faced them.
He again sensed their fear, and took advantage of their momentary hesitation to attack first. He drew his scimitar firmly with his right hand, and unleashed the hidden blade beneath his left. In two swift strokes to right and left, he brought the nearest men down. The others circled, just out of reach, taking turns to make sudden stabs at him, like striking vipers, hoping to disorient him. But their efforts weren’t sufficiently concerted. Ezio managed to drive his shoulder against one, pitching him into the pool. He sank almost immediately, its black waters cutting off his anguished cry for help. Swinging round and keeping low, Ezio hurled a fourth man over his back onto the granite. His helmet flew off and his skull cracked with a noise like a gunshot on the diamond-hard stone.
The surviving fifth man, a Templar corporal, barked a desperate order to the workman, but the workman did nothing, too petrified to move. Then, seeing Ezio turn on him, the corporal backed away, his mouth slavering, until the wall behind him arrested his retreat. Ezio approached, intending merely to knock the Templar unconscious. The corporal, who’d be waiting for his moment, struck a treacherous dagger-blow towards Ezio’s groin. Ezio sidestepped and seized the man by the shoulder, near the throat.
‘I would have spared you, friend. But you give me no choice.’ With one swift stroke of his razor-sharp scimitar, Ezio severed the man’s head from his body. ‘Requiescat in Pace,’ he said, softly.
Then he turned to the stonemason.
13
The man was about Ezio’s age, but running to fat and not in the greatest shape. At the moment he was trembling like an outsize aspen.
‘Don’t kill me, sir!’ the man pleaded, cowering. ‘I’m a working man, that’s all. Just some poor nobody with a family to look after.’
‘Got a name?’
‘Adad, sir.’
‘What kind of work is it you do for these people?’ Ezio stooped to wipe his blades on the tunic of the dead corporal and sheathed them. Adad relaxed a fraction. He was still holding his hammer and chisel, and Ezio had kept a careful eye on them, but the stonemason seemed to have forgotten they were in his hands.
‘Digging, mostly. Wretched hard work it is too, sir. It’s taken me a year just to find this chamber alone.’ Adad scanned Ezio’s face, but if he’d been looking for sympathy he hadn’t found it. After a moment’s silence, he went on, ‘For the past three months I’ve been trying to break through this door.’
Ezio turned away from the man and examined the door. ‘You haven’t made much progress,’ he commented.
‘I haven’t made a dent! This stone is harder than steel.’
Ezio ran a hand across the glass-smooth stone. The seriousness of his expression deepened. ‘I doubt if you ever will. This door guards objects more valuable than all the gold in the world.’
Now that the menace of death was past, the man’s eyes gleamed involuntarily. ‘Ah! Do you mean – gemstones?’
Ezio regarded him mockingly. Then he turned his gaze to the door, and examined it closely. ‘There are keyholes here. Five of them. Where are the keys?’
‘They tell me little. But I know the Templars found one beneath the Ottoman sultan’s palace. As for the others, I suppose their little book will tell them.’
Ezio looked at him sharply. ‘Sultan Bayezid’s palace? And what is this book?’
The mason shrugged. ‘A journal of some kind, I think. That ugly captain, the one with the scarred face, carries it with him wherever he goes.’
Ezio’s eyes narrowed. He thought fast. Then he appeared to relax and, taking a small linen pouch from his tunic, tossed it to Adad. It jingled as the man caught it.
‘Go home,’ said Ezio. ‘Find other work – with honest men.’
Adad looked pleased, then doubtful. ‘You don’t know how much I’d like to. I’d love to leave this place. But these men – they will murder me if I try.’
Ezio turned slightly, peering back up the chute behind him. A thin ray of light came down it.
He turned back to the mason. ‘Pack your tools,’ he said. ‘You will have nothing to fear now.’
14
Sticking to the less-frequented stairways and corridors of the castle, Ezio regained the high battlements unseen, his breath pluming in the cold air. He
made his way round them to a point which overlooked the village of Masyaf, crouching in the castle’s shadow. He knew there would be no way of leaving the castle by either of its heavily guarded gates, but he had to track down the scarred, shaven-headed captain. He guessed the man would be outside, supervising the search for the escaped Assassin. Templars would be scouring the countryside around, which explained the relative absence of men within the confines of the fortress. In any case, Ezio knew that the next step in his mission lay beyond Masyaf’s walls, but first he had to leave the place.
Once he had a clear view of the village, he could see that Templar guards were making their rounds of it, interrogating its inhabitants. Ensuring the sun was at his back, obscuring any clear view of him from below, he unstrapped his bags and took out the parachute, unfolding it and erecting it with as much speed as care would allow, for his life would depend on it. The distance was too far and the descent too dangerous for even the most daring Leap of Faith.
The parachute took the form of a triangular tent, or pyramid, of strong silk held in place by struts of thin steel. Ezio attached the ropes from each of its four corners to a quick-release harness which he buckled round his chest, then, pausing to gauge the wind, and to ensure that no one below was looking up, hurled himself into the air.
It would have been an exhilarating feeling if he had had the leisure to enjoy it, but he concentrated on guiding the device, using the convection currents and thermals as best he could, imitating an eagle, and brought himself safely to land a dozen yards from the nearest building. Swiftly stowing the parachute, he made his way into the village.
Sure enough, the Templars were busy harassing the villagers, pushing them around and beating them without mercy if they showed the slightest sign of not answering clearly and instantly. Ezio blended in with the people of the village, listening and watching.
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