‘Oh, you know that now, do you?’ she sneered.
‘I’d refused to believe it before. But now, yes, I know. Things have begun to make sense to me. Like, one afternoon, when I was a child, I met Reginald by the plate room. I’d wager he was looking for the book then. The reason he was close to the family, Jenny – the reason he asked for your hand in marriage – was because he wanted the book.’
‘You don’t have to tell me,’ she said. ‘I tried warning you on the night that he was the traitor.’
‘I know,’ I said, then thought for a moment. ‘Did Father know he was a Templar?’
‘Not at first, but I found out, and I told Father.’
‘That’s when they argued,’ I said, understanding now.
‘Did they argue?’
‘I heard them one day. And, afterwards, Father employed the guards – Assassins, no doubt. Reginald told me he was warning Father …’
‘More lies, Haytham …’
I looked up at her, trembling slightly. Yes. More lies. Everything I knew – my entire childhood, all of it built on a foundation of them.
‘He was using Digweed,’ I said. ‘It was Digweed who told him where the book was stored …’
I winced at a sudden memory.
‘What is it?’ she said.
‘The day at the plate room, Reginald was asking me where my sword was kept. I told him a secret hiding place.’
‘Was it in the billiards room?’
I nodded.
‘They went straight there, didn’t they?’ she said.
I nodded. ‘They knew it wasn’t in the plate room, because Digweed told them it had been moved, which is why they went straight to the games room.’
‘But they weren’t Templars?’ she said.
‘I beg your pardon.’
‘In Syria, you told me the men who attacked us weren’t Templars,’ she said with a mocking tone. ‘They couldn’t be your beloved Templars.’
I shook my head. ‘No, they weren’t. I told you, I’ve encountered them since, and they were Braddock’s men. Reginald must have planned to school me in the Order …’ I thought again, and something occurred to me: ‘ … because of the family inheritance, probably. Using Templar men would have been too much of a risk. I might have found out. I might have arrived here sooner. I almost got to Digweed. I almost had them in the Black Forest but then …’ I remembered back to the cabin in the Black Forest. ‘Reginald killed Digweed. That’s why they were one step ahead of us – and they still are.’ I pointed in the direction of the chateau.
‘So what do we do, sir?’ asked Holden.
‘We do what they did the night they attacked us at Queen Anne’s Square. We wait until nightfall. And then we go in there, and we kill people.’
9 October 1757
i
That date above says 9 October, which I scribbled there, rather optimistically, at the end of the previous entry, intending that this should be a contemporaneous account of our attempt to breach the chateau. In fact, I’m writing this several months later and, to detail what happened that night, I have to cast my mind back …
ii
How many would there be? Six, on the last occasion I came. Would Reginald have strengthened the force in the meantime, knowing I might come? I thought so. Doubled it.
Make it twelve, then, plus John Harrison, if he was still in residence. And, of course, Reginald. He was fifty-two, and his skills would have faded but, even so: I knew never to underestimate him.
So we waited, and hoped they’d do what they eventually did, which was to send out a search party for the missing patrol, three of them, who came bearing torches and drawn swords, marching across the dark lawn with torchlight dancing on grim faces.
We watched as they materialized from the gloom and melted away into the trees. At the gates they began calling the guard’s name then hurried along the outside of the low perimeter towards where the patrol was supposed to be.
His body was where I’d left it, and in the trees nearby Holden, Jenny and I took up position. Jenny stayed back, armed with a knife but out of the action; Holden and I were further forward, where we both climbed trees – Holden with some difficulty – to watch and wait, steeling ourselves as the search party came across the body.
‘He’s dead, sir.’
The party leader craned over the body. ‘Some hours ago.’
I gave a bird call, a signal to Jenny, who did what we’d agreed. Her scream for help was launched from deep within the forest and pierced the night.
With a nervous nod, the party leader led his men into the trees, and they thundered towards us, to where we perched, waiting for them. I looked through the trees to see the shape of Holden a few yards away and wondered if he was well enough, and I hoped to dear God he was, because in the next moment the patrol was running into the trees below us and I launched myself from the branch.
I took out the leader first, ejecting my blade so it went through his eye and into his brain, killing him instantly. From my crouching position I sliced up and back and opened the stomach of the second man, who dropped to his knees with his insides glistening through a gaping hole in his tunic then fell face first to the soft forest floor. Looking over, I saw the third man drop off the point of Holden’s sword, and Holden look over, even in the dark the triumph written all over his face.
‘Good screaming,’ I said to Jenny, moments later.
‘Pleased to be of assistance.’ She frowned. ‘But listen, Haytham, I’m not staying in the shadows when we get there.’ She raised the knife. ‘I want to deal with Birch myself. He took my life away from me. Any mercy he showed by not having me killed I shall repay by leaving him his cock and …’
She stopped and looked over at Holden, who knelt nearby and looked away.
‘I’m …’ she began.
‘That’s all right, Miss,’ said Holden. He raised his head and, with a look I’d never seen on his face before, said, ‘But you make sure you do take his cock and balls before you finish him. You make that bastard suffer.’
iii
We made our way around the perimeter back to the gate, where a lone sentry looked agitated, perhaps wondering where the search party had got to; perhaps sensing something was wrong, his soldier’s instinct at work.
But whatever instinct he had wasn’t enough to keep him alive, and moments later we were ducking through the wicket gate and keeping low to make our way across the lawn. We stopped and knelt by a fountain, holding our breaths at the sound of four more men who came from the front door of the chateau, boots drumming on the paving, calling names. A search party sent to find the first search party. The chateau was on full alert now. So much for a quiet entry. At least we’d reduced their numbers by …
Eight. On my signal, Holden and I burst from behind the cover of the fountain base and were upon them, cutting all three down before they even had a chance to draw their swords. We’d been seen. From the chateau there came a shout, and in the next instant was the sharp report of musket fire and balls smacking into the fountain behind us. We ran for it. Towards the front door, where another guard saw us coming and, as I thundered up the short steps towards him, tried to escape through it.
He was too slow. I rammed my blade through the closing door and into the side of his face, using my forward momentum to shove open the door and burst through, rolling into the entrance hall as he fell away with blood sluicing from his shattered jaw. From the landing above came the crack of musket fire, but the gunman had aimed too high and the ball smacked harmlessly into wood. In an instant I was on my feet and charging towards the stairway, bounding up towards the landing, where the sniper abandoned his musket with a yell of frustration, pulled his sword from its sheath and came to meet me.
There was terror in his eyes; my blood was up. I felt more animal than man, working on pure instinct, as though I had levitated from my own body and was watching myself fight. In moments I had opened the gunman and toppled him over the banister to the entranc
e hall below, where another guard had arrived, just in time to meet Holden as he burst through the front door with Jenny behind him. I leapt from the landing with a shout, landing softly on the body of the man I’d just thrown over and forcing the new arrival to swing about and protect his rear. It was all the opportunity Holden needed to run him through.
With a nod I turned and ran back up the stairs, in time to see a figure appear on the landing, and I ducked at the crack of gunfire as a ball slapped into the stone wall behind me. It was John Harrison and I was upon him before he had a chance to draw his dagger, snatching a fistful of his nightshirt and forcing him to his knees, drawing back my blade arm to strike.
‘Did you know?’ I snarled. ‘Did you help take my father and corrupt my life?’
He dropped his head in assent and I plunged the blade into the back of his neck, severing the vertebrae, killing him instantly.
I drew my sword. At Reginald’s door, I halted, throwing a look up and down the landing, then leaned back and was about to kick it open when I realized it was already ajar. Crouching, I pushed it, and it swung inwards with a creaking sound.
Reginald stood, dressed, at the centre of his chamber. Just like him, always such a stickler for etiquette – he had dressed to meet his killers. Suddenly there was a shadow on the wall, cast by a figure hidden behind the door and, rather than wait for the trap to be sprung, I rammed the sword through the wood, heard a scream of pain from the other side then stepped through and let the door swing closed with the body of the final guard pinned to it, staring at the sword through his chest with wide, disbelieving eyes as his feet scrabbled on the wooden floor.
‘Haytham,’ said Reginald coolly.
iv
‘Was he the last of the guards?’ I asked, shoulders heaving as I caught my breath. Behind me, the feet of the dying man still scuffed the wood, and I could hear Jenny and Holden on the other side of the door, struggling to open it with his writhing body in the way. At last, with a final cough, he died, his body dropped from the blade, and Holden and Jenny burst in.
‘Yes,’ nodded Reginald. ‘Just me now.
‘Monica and Lucio – are they safe?’
‘In their quarters, yes, along the hall.’
‘Holden, would you do me a favour?’ I asked over my shoulder. ‘Would you go and see that Monica and Lucio are unharmed? Their condition may well help determine how much pain we put Mr Birch through.’
Holden pulled the body of the guard away from the door, said, ‘Yes, sir,’ and left, shutting the door behind him, with a certain finality about the way he did it that wasn’t lost on Reginald.
Reginald smiled. A long, slow, sad smile. ‘I did what I did for the good of the Order, Haytham. For the good of all humanity.’
‘At the expense of my father’s life. You destroyed our family. Did you think I’d never find out?’
He shook his head sadly. ‘My dear boy, as Grand Master, you have to make difficult decisions. Did I not teach you that? I promoted you to Grand Master of the Colonial Rite, knowing that you, too, would have to make similar decisions and having faith in your ability to make them, Haytham. Decisions made in the pursuit of a greater good. In pursuit of an ideal you share, remember? You ask, did I think you’d ever find out? And of course the answer is yes. You are resourceful and tenacious. I trained you to be that way. I had to consider the possibility that, one day, you’d learn the truth, but I hoped that when that day arrived you’d take a more philosophical view.’ His smile was strained. ‘Given the body count, I’m to assume disappointment in that regard, am I?’
I gave a dry laugh. ‘Indeed, Reginald. Indeed you are. What you did is a corruption of everything I believe, and do you know why? You did it not with the application of our ideals but with deceit. How can we inspire belief when what we have in our heart is lies?’
He shook his head disgustedly. ‘Oh, come on, that’s naive rubbish. I’d have expected it of you as a young Adept, but now? During a war, you do what you can to secure victory. It’s what you do with that victory that counts.’
‘No. We must practise what we preach. Otherwise, our words are hollow.’
‘There speaks the Assassin in you,’ he said, his eyebrows arched.
I shrugged. ‘I’m not ashamed of my roots. I’ve had years to reconcile my Assassin blood with my Templar beliefs, and I have done so.’
I could hear Jenny breathing by my side, wet, ragged breaths that even now were quickening.
‘Ah, so this is it,’ scoffed Reginald. ‘You consider yourself a moderate, do you?’
I said nothing.
‘And you think you can change things?’ he asked with a curled lip.
But the next person to speak was Jenny. ‘No, Reginald,’ she said. ‘Killing you is to take revenge for what you have done to us.’
He turned his attention to her, acknowledging her presence for the first time. ‘And how are you, Jenny?’ he asked her, raising his chin slightly then adding, disingenuously, ‘Time has not withered you, I see.’
She was making a low, growling sound now. From the corner of my eye I saw the hand holding the knife come forward threateningly. So did he.
‘And your life as a concubine,’ he went on, ‘was it a rewarding time for you? I should imagine you got to see so much of the world, so many different people and varied cultures …’
He was trying to goad her, and it worked. With a howl of rage born of years of subjugation she lunged at him as though to slash him with the knife.
‘No, Jenny …!’ I shouted, but too late, because of course he was ready for her. She was doing exactly what he’d hoped she’d do and, as she came within striking distance, he snatched out his own dagger – it must have been tucked into the back of his belt – and avoided her knife swipe with ease. Then she was howling in pain and indignation as he snatched and twisted her wrist, her knife dropped to the wood and his arm locked around her neck with his blade held to her throat.
Over her shoulder, he looked at me, and his eyes twinkled. I was on the balls of my feet, ready to spring forward, but he pushed the blade to her throat and she whimpered, both of her arms at his forearm trying to dislodge his grip.
‘Uh-uh,’ he warned, and already he was edging around, keeping the knife to her throat, pulling her back towards the door, the expression on his face changing, though, from triumph to irritation, as she began to struggle.
‘Keep still,’ he told her through gritted teeth.
‘Do as he says, Jenny,’ I urged, but she was thrashing in his grip, perspiration-soaked hair plastered to her face, as though she were so revolted by being held by him that she would rather be cut than spend another second in such close proximity. And cut she was, blood flowing down her neck.
‘Will you hold still, woman!’ he snapped, beginning to lose his composure. ‘For the love of God, do you want to die here?’
‘Better that and my brother put you to death than allow you to escape,’ she hissed, and continued to strain against him. I saw her eyes flick to the floor. Not far away from where they struggled was the body of the guard, and I realized what she was doing a second before it happened: Reginald stumbled against an outstretched leg of the corpse and lost his footing. Just a little. But enough. Enough so that when Jenny, with a yell of effort, thrust backwards, he tripped over the corpse and lost his balance, thumping heavily against the door – where my sword was still stuck fast through the wood.
His mouth opened in a silent shout of shock and pain. He still held Jenny, but his grip relaxed and she dropped forward, leaving Reginald pinned to the door and looking from me to his chest where the point of the sword protruded from it. When he pulled a pained face there was blood on his teeth. And then, slowly, he slid from the sword and joined the first guard on the floor, his hands at the hole in his chest, blood soaking his clothes and already beginning to pool on the floor.
Turning his head slightly, he was able to look up at me. ‘I tried to do what was right, Haytham,’ he said. His eye
brows knitted together. ‘Surely you can understand that?’
I looked down upon him and I grieved, but not for him – for the childhood he’d taken from me.
‘No,’ I told him, and, as the light faded in his eyes, I hoped he would take my dispassion with him to the other side.
‘Bastard!’ screamed Jenny from behind me. She had pulled herself to her hands and knees, where she snarled like an animal, ‘Count yourself lucky I didn’t take your balls,’ but I don’t think Reginald heard her. Those words would have to remain in the corporeal world. He was dead.
v
From outside there was a noise, and I stepped over the body and pulled the door open, ready to meet more guards if need be. Instead I was greeted by the sight of Monica and Lucio passing by on the landing, both clutching bundles and being ushered towards the stairs by Holden. They had the pale, gaunt faces of the long-incarcerated, and when they looked over the rail to the entrance hall beneath the sight of the bodies made Monica gasp and clutch her hand to her mouth in shock.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, not quite sure what I was apologizing for. For surprising them? For the bodies? For the fact that they had been held hostage for four years?
Lucio shot me a look of pure hatred then looked away.
‘We don’t want your apologies, thank you, sir,’ replied Monica in broken English. ‘We thank you for setting us free at last.’
‘If you wait for us, we’ll be leaving in the morning,’ I said. ‘If that’s all right with you, Holden?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I think we would rather set off as soon as we have gathered together what supplies we need to return home,’ replied Monica.
‘Please wait,’ I said, and could hear the fatigue in my voice. ‘Monica. Lucio. Please wait, and we shall all travel together in the morning, to ensure you have safe passage.’
‘No, thank you, sir.’ They had reached the bottom of the stairs, and Monica turned her face to look up at me. ‘I think you have done quite enough. We know where the stables are. If we could help ourselves to supplies from the kitchen and then horses …’
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