I glanced around. None of the guards had seen what was going on at the stockade. Those on the battlements were diligently staring out to sea; those inside had their attention diverted by Charles and Thomas.
Looking back at the door of the stockade, I saw John reappear then usher out the first of the prisoners.
And suddenly one of the troops on the battlements saw what was happening. ‘Oi, you there, what’s your game?’ he shouted, already levelling his musket, and the cry went up. Immediately I dashed over to the battlements, where the first redcoat was about to pull the trigger, bounded up the stone steps and was upon him, thrusting my blade under his jaw in one clean move. I dropped into a crouch and let his body fall over me, springing from beneath it to spear the next guard in his heart. A third man had his back to me, drawing a bead on William, but I whipped my blade across the backs of his legs then delivered the coup de grâce to the back of his neck when he fell. Not far away, William thanked me with a raised hand then turned to meet another guard. His sword swung as a redcoat fell beneath the blade, and when he turned to meet a second man his face was stained with blood.
In moments, all of the guards were dead, but the door to one of the outbuildings had opened and Silas had appeared, already angry. ‘An hour of quiet was all I asked,’ he roared. ‘Instead I’m awakened not ten minutes later by this cacophonous madness. I expect an explanation – and it had best be good.’
He was stopped in his tracks, his outburst dying on his lips as the colour drained from his face. All around the quad were the bodies of his men, and his head jerked as he looked across to the stockade, where the door hung open, natives pouring out and John urging them to move more quickly.
Silas drew his sword as more men appeared from behind him. ‘How?’ he shrieked. ‘How did this happen? My precious merchandise set free. It’s unacceptable. Rest assured, I’ll have the heads of those responsible. But first … first we clean up this mess.’
His guards were pulling on tunics, strapping swords to their waists, priming muskets. The quadrangle, empty but for corpses a moment ago, was suddenly filled with more troops, eager for retribution. Silas was beside himself, screaming at them, frantically waving at the troops to take up their arms, calming himself as he continued: ‘Seal the fort. Kill any who try to escape. I don’t care if they be one of us or one of … them. To approach the gate is to be made a corpse! Am I understood?’
The fighting continued. Charles, Thomas, William, John and Benjamin moved among the men and made the most of their disguises. The men they attacked were reduced to fighting among themselves, not sure which man in an army uniform was friend and which an enemy. The natives, unarmed, sheltered to wait the fighting out, even as a group of Silas’s redcoats formed a line at the entrance to the fort. I saw my chance – Silas had positioned himself to one side of his troops and was exhorting them to be ruthless. Silas, it was clear, did not care who died as long as his precious ‘merchandise’ was not allowed to escape, as long as his pride was not damaged in the process.
I motioned to Benjamin, and we moved up close to Silas, saw that he had spotted us out of the corner of his eye. For a moment I could see the confusion play across his features, until he realized that, firstly, we were two of the interlopers and, secondly, he had no means of escape, as we stood blocking him from reaching the rest of his men. To all intents and purposes we looked like a pair of loyal bodyguards keeping him from harm.
‘You don’t know me,’ I told him, ‘but I believe the two of you are well acquainted …’ I said, and Benjamin Church stepped forward.
‘I made a promise to you, Silas,’ said Benjamin, ‘one I intend to keep …’
It was over in seconds. Benjamin was far more merciful with Silas than Cutter had been with him. With their leader dead, the fort’s defence broke up, the gates opened and we allowed the rest of the redcoats to pour out. Behind them came the Mohawk prisoners, and I saw the woman from earlier. Rather than escaping, she’d stayed to help her people: She was courageous as well as beautiful and spirited. As she helped members of her tribe away from the accursed fort, our eyes met, and I found myself entranced by her. And then she was gone.
15 November 1754
i
It was freezing, and snow covered the ground all around us as we set off early this morning and rode towards Lexington in pursuit of …
Perhaps ‘obsession’ is too strong a word. ‘Preoccupation’, then: my ‘preoccupation’ with the Mohawk woman, from the cart. Specifically, with finding her.
Why?
If Charles had asked me, I’d have told him that I wanted to find her because I knew her English was good and I thought she would be a useful contact within the Mohawk to help locate the precursor site.
That’s what I would have said if Charles had asked me why I wanted to find her, and it would have been partly the truth. Partly.
Anyway, Charles and I took one of my expeditions, this one out to Lexington, when he said, ‘I’m afraid I have some bad news, sir.’
‘What is it, Charles?’
‘Braddock’s insisting I return to service under him. I’ve tried to beg off, to no avail,’ he said sadly.
‘No doubt he’s still angry about losing John – to say nothing of the shaming we gave him,’ I responded thoughtfully, wondering if I could have finished it then, when I had the chance. ‘Do as he asks. In the meantime, I’ll work on having you released.’
How? I wasn’t sure. After all, there was a time when I could have relied on a stiff letter from Reginald to change Braddock’s mind, but it had become clear that Braddock no longer had any affinity with our ways.
‘I’m sorry to trouble you,’ said Charles.
‘Not your fault,’ I replied.
I was going to miss him. After all, he had already done a lot to locate my mystery woman, who, according to him, was to be found outside Boston in Lexington, where she was apparently stirring up trouble against the British, who were led by Braddock. Who could blame her, after seeing her people imprisoned by Silas? So Lexington was where we were – at a recently vacated hunting camp.
‘She’s not too far away,’ Charles told me. And did I imagine it, or did I feel my pulse quicken a little? It had been a long time since any woman had made me feel this way. My life had been spent either in studying or moving around and, as for women in my bed, there had been nobody serious: the occasional washerwoman during my service with the Coldstreams, waitresses, landlords’ daughters – women who had provided solace and comfort, physical and otherwise, but nobody I’d have described as at all special.
This woman, though: I had seen something in her eyes, as if she were something of a kindred spirit – another loner, another warrior, another bruised soul who looked at the world with weary eyes.
I studied the camp. ‘The fire’s only just been snuffed, the snow recently disturbed.’ I looked up. ‘She’s close.’
I dismounted but, when I saw Charles was about to do the same, I stopped him.
‘Best you return to Braddock, Charles, before he grows suspicious. I can handle things from here.’
He nodded, reined his horse round, and I watched as they left then turned my attention to the snow-covered ground around me, wondering about my real reason for sending him off. And knowing exactly what it was.
ii
I crept though the trees. It had begun to snow again, and the forest was strangely silent, but for the sound of my own breathing, which billowed in vapours in front of me. I moved fast but stealthily, and it wasn’t long before I saw her, or at least the back of her. She was kneeling in the snow, a musket leaning against a tree, as she examined a snare. I came closer, as quietly as I could, only to see her tense.
She’d heard me. God she was good.
And in the next instant she had rolled to her side, snatched up the musket, thrown a look behind her then taken off into the woods.
I ran after her. ‘Please stop running,’ I called as we flew through the snow-blanketed woodland.
‘I only wish to talk. I am not your enemy.’
But she kept on going. I dashed nimbly through the snow, moving fast and easily negotiating the terrain, but she was faster and next she took to the trees, raising herself off the hard-to-negotiate snow and swinging from branch the branch wherever she was able.
In the end, she took me further and further into the forest and would have escaped were it not for a piece of bad fortune. She tripped on a tree root, stumbled, fell, and I was upon her at once, but not to attack, to come to her aid, and I held up a hand, breathing hard as I managed to say, ‘Me. Haytham. I. Come. In. Peace.’
She looked at me as though she hadn’t understood a word I’d said. I felt the beginnings of a panic. Maybe I’d been wrong about her in the cart. Maybe she couldn’t speak English at all.
Until, suddenly, she replied with, ‘Are you touched in the head?’
Perfect English.
‘Oh … sorry …’
She gave a disgusted shake of her head.
‘What do you want?’
‘Well, your name, for one.’ My shoulders heaved as I gradually caught my breath, which was steaming in the freezing cold.
And then, after a period of indecision – I could see it playing across her face – she said, ‘I am Kaniehtí:io.’
‘Just call me Ziio,’ she said, when I tried and failed to repeat her name back to her. ‘Now tell me why it is you’re here.’
I reached around my neck and took off the amulet, to show her. ‘Do you know what this is?’
Without warning, she grabbed my arm. ‘You have one?’ she asked. For a second I was confused, until I realized she was looking not at the amulet, but at my hidden blade. I watched her for a moment, feeling what I can only describe as a strange mixture of emotions: pride, admiration, then trepidation as, accidentally, she ejected the blade. To her credit, though, she didn’t flinch, just looked up at me with wide brown eyes, and I felt myself fall a little deeper as she said, ‘I’ve seen your little secret.’
I smiled back, trying to look more confident than I felt, and raised the amulet, starting again.
‘This.’ I dangled it. ‘Do you know what it is?’
Taking it in her hand, she gazed at it. ‘Where did you get it?’
‘From an old friend,’ I said, thinking of Miko and offering a silent prayer for him. I wondered, should it have been him here instead of me, an Assassin instead of a Templar?
‘I’ve only seen such markings in one other place,’ she said, and I felt an instant thrill.
‘Where?’
‘It … it is forbidden for me to speak of it.’
I leaned towards her. I looked into her eyes, hoping to convince with the strength of my conviction. ‘I saved your people. Does this mean nothing to you?’
She said nothing.
‘Look,’ I pressed, ‘I am not the enemy.’
And perhaps she thought of the risks we had taken at the fort, how we had freed so many of her people from Silas. And maybe – maybe – she saw something in me she liked.
Either way, she nodded then replied, ‘Near here, there is a hill. On top of it grows a mighty tree. Come, we’ll see if you speak the truth.’
iii
She led me there, and indicated below us, where there was a town she told me was called Concord.
‘The town hosts soldiers who seek to drive my people from these lands. They are led by a man known as the Bulldog,’ she said.
The realization dawned. ‘Edward Braddock …’
She rounded on me. ‘You know him?’
‘He is no friend of mine,’ I assured her, and never had I been more sincere.
‘Every day, more of my people are lost to men like him,’ she said fiercely.
‘And I suggest we put a stop to it. Together.’
She looked hard at me. There was doubt in her eyes, but I could see hope as well. ‘What do you propose?’
Suddenly I knew. I knew exactly what had to be done.
‘We have to kill Edward Braddock.’
I let the information sink in. Then added, ‘But first we have to find him.’
We began to head down the hill towards Concord.
‘I don’t trust you,’ she said flatly.
‘I know.’
‘Yet you remain.’
‘That I might prove you wrong.’
‘It will not happen.’ Her jaw was set. She believed it. I had a long way to go with this mysterious, captivating woman.
In town, we approached the tavern, where I stopped her. ‘Wait here,’ I said. ‘A Mohawk woman is likely to raise suspicions – if not muskets.’
She shook her head, instead pulling up her hood. ‘This is hardly the first time I’ve been among your people, she said. ‘I can handle myself.’
I hoped so.
We entered to find groups of Braddock’s men drinking with a ferocity that would have impressed Thomas Hickey, and we moved among them, eavesdropping on their conversations. What we discovered was that Braddock was on the move. The British planned to enlist the Mohawk to march further north and go against the French. Even the men seemed frightened of Braddock, I realized. All talk was of how merciless he could be, and how even his officers were scared of him. One name I overheard was George Washington. He was the only one brave enough to question the general, according to a pair of gossiping redcoats I eavesdropped upon. When I moved through to the back of the tavern, I found the self-same George Washington sitting with another officer at a secluded table, and loitered close by in order to listen in to their conversation.
‘Tell me you’ve good news?’ said one.
‘General Braddock refused the offer. There will be no truce,’ said the other.
‘Dammit.’
‘Why, George? What reason did he give?’
The man he called George – whom I took to be George Washington – replied, ‘He said a diplomatic solution was no solution at all. That allowing the French to retreat would only delay an inevitable conflict – one in which they now have the upper hand.’
‘There’s merit in those words, much as I hate to admit it. Still … can’t you see this is unwise?’
‘It doesn’t sit well with me either. We’re far from home, with forces divided. Worse, I fear private bloodlust makes Braddock careless. It puts the men at risk. I’d rather not be delivering grim news to mothers and widows because the Bulldog wanted to prove a point.’
‘Where is the general now?’
‘Rallying the troops.’
‘And then it’s on to Fort Duquesne, I assume?’
‘Eventually. The march north will surely take time.’
‘At least this will be ended soon …’
‘I tried, John.’
‘I know, my friend. I know …’
Braddock has left to rally his troops, I told Ziio outside the tavern. ‘And they’re marching on Fort Duquesne. It’ll be a while yet until they’re ready, which gives us time to form a plan.’
‘No need,’ she said. ‘We’ll ambush him near the river. Go and gather your allies. I will do the same. I’ll send word when it’s time to strike.’
8 July 1755
It has been nearly eight months since Ziio told me to wait for her word, but at last it came, and we travelled to the Ohio Country, where the British were about to begin a major campaign against the French forts. Braddock’s expedition was aimed at overthrowing Fort Duquesne.
We had all been busy in that time, and none more than Ziio, I discovered, when we did eventually meet and I saw that she had brought with her many troops, many of them natives.
‘All these men are from many different tribes – united in their desire to see Braddock sent away,’ she said. ‘The Abenaki, the Lenape, the Shawnee.’
‘And you?’ I said to her, when the introductions had been made. ‘Who do you stand for?’
A thin smile: ‘Myself.’
‘What would you have me do?’ I said at last.
‘You will help the others to
prepare …’
She wasn’t joking. I put my men to work and joined them building blockades, filling a cart with gunpowder in order to make a booby trap, until everything was in place and I found myself grinning, saying to Ziio, ‘I can’t wait to see the look on Braddock’s face when the trap is finally sprung.’
She gave me a distrusting look. ‘You take pleasure in this?’
‘You’re the one who asked me to help you kill a man.’
‘It does not please me to do so. He is sacrificed so that the land and the people who live on it might be saved. What motivates you? Some past wrongs? A betrayal? Or is it simply the thrill of the hunt?’
Mollified, I said, ‘You misread me.’
She indicated through the trees, towards the Monongahela River.
‘Braddock’s men will be here soon,’ she said. ‘We should prepare for their arrival.’
9 July 1755
i
A Mohawk scout on horseback quickly spoke some words I didn’t understand but, as he gestured back down the valley towards the Monongahela, I could guess what he was saying: that Braddock’s men had crossed the river and would soon be upon us. He left to inform the rest of the ambush, and Ziio, lying by my side, confirmed what I already knew.
‘They come,’ she said simply.
I’d been enjoying lying next to her in our hiding place, the proximity of her. So it was with a measure of regret that I looked out from beneath a fringe of undergrowth to see the regiment emerge from the tree line at the bottom of the hill. I heard it at the same time: a distant rumble growing louder which heralded the arrival of not a patrol, not a scouting party, but an entire regiment of Braddock’s men. First came the officers on horseback, then the drummers and bandsmen, then the troops marching, then porters and camp followers guarding the baggage train. The entire column stretched back almost as far as the eye could see.
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