ii.
Reloading I said, ‘What’s going on? Where is Monsieur Lafrenière?’
‘He’s dead,’ said Arno.
He said it in a tone of voice I didn’t quite care for, as though there was a lot more to that story than he was letting on, and I looked sharply at him. ‘What?’
But before Arno could answer there was the sound of a ricochet and a musket ball slapped into a wall nearby, showering us in stone chips. There were snipers in the windows above us.
Arno reached for me, and the part of me that still hated him wanted to wrench myself away, tell him I could manage by myself, thanks, but the words of Mr Weatherall flashed through my head, the knowledge that whatever else Arno was here for me, which after all was all that really mattered. And I let him take me.
‘I’ll explain later,’ he was saying. ‘Go!’
And as another volley of musket fire rained down upon us from the windows above, we made a dash for the courtyard gates and ran out into the grounds.
Ahead of us was the maze, overgrown and untended, but still very much a maze. Arno’s robes spread as he ran and his hood dropped back, and I gazed upon his handsome features, happily transported back to happier times, before the secrets had threatened to overwhelm us.
‘Do you remember that summer at Versailles when we were ten?’ I called as we ran.
‘I remember getting lost in that damn hedge maze for six hours while you ate my share of the dessert,’ he replied.
‘Then you’d better keep up this time,’ I called and ran ahead, and despite everything I couldn’t help but hear the note of joy in my voice. Only Arno could do this to me. Only Arno could bring this light into my life. And I think if ever there was a moment when I truly ‘forgave’ him – in my heart and in my head – then that was it.
iii.
By now we had reached the middle of the maze. Our prize was another killer waiting for us. He readied himself, looking nervously from one to the other, and I felt happy for him that he would go to the grave thinking that I had joined with the Assassins. He could meet his maker floating on a cloud of righteousness. In my tale, he was the bad man. In his, he was the hero.
I stepped back and let Arno face the duel, taking the opportunity to admire his swordsmanship. All those years I was learning my own skills his greatest discipline was our governor’s algebra tests; of the two of us, I was by far the more experienced swordsman.
But he had caught up; he’d caught up fast.
He saw my impressed look and flicked me a smile that would have melted my heart if it needed melting.
We made our way out of the maze and on to a boulevard, which teemed with nightlife. One thing I’d noticed about the immediate aftermath of the revolution was that people celebrated more than ever; they lived each day like it was their last.
So it was that the street was alive with actors, tumblers, jugglers and puppeteers, and the thoroughfare thick with sightseers, some already drunk, some well on their way. Most of them with broad smiles plastered across happy faces. I saw plenty of beards and moustaches glistening with ale and wine – men wore them now to show their support for the revolution – as well as the distinctive red ‘liberty caps’.
Which was why the three men coming towards us stuck out like a sore thumb. By my side Arno felt me tense, about to reach for my sword, but stayed my hand with a gentle grip on my forearm. Anybody else would have lost a finger or two for doing that. Arno, I was prepared to forgive.
‘Meet me tomorrow for coffee. I’ll explain everything then.’
1 April 1791
The place des Vosges, the city’s oldest, grandest square, was not far from where I had left Arno, and after a night at home I returned the next day a mass of nerves, curiosity and barely contained excitement, brimming with the sense that, despite the Lafrenière setback, I was getting somewhere. I was moving forward.
I came into the square beneath one of the huge vaulted arcades that formed part of the red-brick buildings round its perimeter. Something brought me up short and I stood puzzled for a moment, wondering what was different. After all, the buildings were the same, the ornate pillar still here. But something was missing.
And then it hit me. The statue in the middle of the square – the equestrian bronze of Louis XIII. It wasn’t there any more. I’d heard that the revolutionaries were melting down the statues. Here was the proof.
Arno was there in his robes. In the cold light of day I studied him again, trying to work out where it was that the boy had matured into the man: a firmer, more determined set of the jaw, perhaps? His shoulders were more square, his chin held high, his granite eyes at once fierce and beautiful. Arno had always been a handsome boy. The women of Versailles would remark upon it. The younger girls would blush and giggle into their gloves whenever he passed, the simple fact of his good looks overcoming any misgivings they might normally have had about his social standing as our ward. I used to love the warm, superior feeling of knowing, ‘He’s mine.’
But now – now there was something almost heroic about him. I felt a twinge of guilt, wondering if by obscuring the true nature of his parentage we’d somehow prevented him from reaching his potential before now.
It was joined by another twinge of guilt, this one for Father. If I’d been less selfish and brought Arno over to the fold as I’d once pledged to do, then perhaps this newly minted man might now be working in service of our cause rather than for the opposition.
But then, as we sat with coffee and with some semblance of normal Parisian life carrying on around us, it didn’t seem to matter much that I was a Templar and he was an Assassin. If not for the robes of his creed we might have been two lovers enjoying our morning drink together, and when he smiled it was the smile of the old Arno, the boy I’d grown up and fallen in love with, and for some moments it was tempting to forget it all and bask in that warm bath of nostalgia, to let conflict and duty slip away.
‘So …’ I said at last.
‘So.’
‘It seems you’ve been busy.’
‘Tracking down the man who killed your father, yes,’ he said, averting his eyes, so that again I wondered if there was something he wasn’t letting on.
‘Best of luck,’ I told him. ‘He’s killed most of my allies and intimidated the rest into silence. He may as well be a phantom.’
‘I’ve seen him.’
‘What? When?’
‘Last night. Just before I found you.’ He stood. ‘Come. I’ll explain.’
As we walked I pressed him for more information and Arno related the events of the previous evening. In fact, what he’d seen was a mysterious cloaked figure. There was no name to go with this apparition. Even so, Arno’s ability to learn so much was almost uncanny.
‘How the devil did you do it?’ I asked.
‘I have unique avenues of investigation open to me,’ he said mysteriously.
I cast him a sideways look and remembered what my father had said about Arno’s supposed ‘gifts’. I’d assumed he meant ‘skills’, but maybe not. Maybe something else – something so unique that the Assassins had managed to sniff it out.
‘All right, keep your secrets then. Just tell me where to find him.’
‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea,’ he protested.
‘You don’t trust me?’
‘You said it yourself. He hunted down your allies and took over your Order. He wants you dead, Élise.’
I chortled. ‘And what? You want to protect me? Is that it?’
‘I want to help you.’ He was serious now. ‘The Brotherhood has resources, manpower –’
‘Pity is not a virtue, Arno,’ I said sharply. ‘And I don’t trust the Assassins.’
‘Do you trust me?’ he asked searchingly.
I turned away, not really knowing the answer – no, knowing that I wanted to trust Arno, and, in fact, was desperate to do so, but knowing he was an Assassin now.
‘I haven’t changed that much, Élise,’ he implore
d. ‘I’m the same boy who distracted the cook while you stole the jam … The same one who helped you over the wall into that dog-infested orchard …’
There was something else, too. Another thing to consider. As Mr Weatherall had pointed out, I was virtually alone: me against them. But what if I had the backing of the Assassins? I didn’t have to ask what my father would have done. I already knew he’d been prepared to make a truce with the Assassins.
I nodded and said, ‘Take me to your Brotherhood. I’ll hear their offer.’
He looked awkward. ‘Offer may be a bit strong …’
2 April 1791
i.
The Assassin Council turned out to be held in a salon on the Île de la Cité in the shadow of Notre Dame.
‘You sure this is a good idea?’ I said to Arno as we entered a room surrounded by vaulted stone arches. In one corner was a large wooden door with a steel ring handle, standing by it a large bearded Assassin whose eyes gleamed within the dark depths of his cowl. Without a word he nodded to Arno who nodded back, and I had to fight a wave of unreality at seeing Arno this way: Arno the man, Arno the Assassin.
‘We have a common enemy,’ said Arno, as the door was opened and we passed through into a corridor lit by burning torches. ‘The Council will understand that. Besides, Mirabeau was a friend of your father’s, wasn’t he?’
I nodded. ‘Not friends exactly but my father trusted him. Lead on.’
First, though, Arno produced a blindfold from his pocket, insisting I wore it. Just to spite him I counted the steps and the turns, confident I could make my way out of the labyrinth if needs be.
When the journey was over I took stock of my new surroundings, sensing I was in a dank underground chamber, similar to the one above, except this one was populated. From around me I heard voices. At first they were difficult to pinpoint and I thought they were coming from galleries above before I realized that the gathered Council members were arranged around the walls, their voices rising as though seeping into the stone as they shuffled suspiciously and muttered to themselves.
‘Is that …?’
‘What’s he doing?’
I sensed a figure in front of us, who spoke with a rough and rasping French Mr Weatherall sort of voice.
‘What the hell have you done this time, pisspot?’ he said.
My heart hammered, my breathing heavy. What if this infraction was too much? A step too far? What would I hear? More cries of ‘Kill the red-headed bint’? It wouldn’t be the first time, and though Arno had allowed me to keep my pistol and sword, what good would they be if I were blindfolded and facing multiple opponents? Multiple Assassin opponents?
But no. Arno had saved me from one trap. He would never deliver me into another. I trusted him. I trusted him as much as I loved him. And when he spoke to address the man who blocked our way, his voice was reassuringly calm and steady, a balm to soothe my nerves.
‘The Templars have marked her for death,’ he said.
‘So you brought her here?’ said the commanding voice doubtfully. This was Bellec, surely?
But Arno had no time to answer. There was another new entrant to the Council chamber. Another voice that demanded to know, ‘Well, who have we here?’
‘My name is –’ I began, but the new arrival had interrupted me.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, take that blindfold off. Ridiculous.’
I took it off and faced them, the Assassin Council, who were, just as I’d thought, arranged around the stone walls of this deep and dark inner sanctum, the orange glow of the flames flickering on their robes and their faces unreadable beneath cowls.
My eyes settled on Bellec. Hawk-nosed and suspicious, he stared at me with open contempt, his body language protective of Arno.
The other man I took to be the Grand Master, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau. As a president of the Assembly he’d been a hero of the revolution, but these days was a moderate voice compared to others clamouring for more radical change.
I’d heard it said he was mocked for his looks, but though he was a portly, round-faced gentleman with quite spectacularly bad skin, he had kind, trustworthy eyes and I liked him at once.
I threw my shoulders back. ‘My name is Élise de la Serre,’ I told the room. ‘My father was François de la Serre, Grand Master of the Templar Order. I’ve come to ask for your help.’
Heads were inclined as the Council members began to talk quietly among themselves until the new arrival – Mirabeau, surely – silenced them with a raised finger.
‘Continue,’ he instructed.
Other Council members protested – ‘Must we rehash this debate again?’ – but again Mirabeau quietened them.
‘We must,’ he told them, ‘and we will. If you cannot see the advantage in being owed a favour by François de la Serre’s daughter, I despair for our future. Continue, mademoiselle.’
‘Here we go,’ spat the man I presumed to be Bellec.
It was to him I addressed my next comments.
‘You are not men with whom I would normally parlay, monsieur, but my father is dead, as are my allies within the Order. If I must turn to the Assassins for my revenge, so be it.’
Bellec snorted. ‘ “Parlay”, my ass. This is a trick to make us lower our guard. We should kill her now and send her head back as a warning.’
‘Bellec …’ warned Arno.
‘Enough,’ shouted Mirabeau. ‘Plainly this discussion is better conducted in private. If you will excuse us, Mademoiselle de la Serre?’
I gave a short bow. ‘Certainly.’
‘Arno, perhaps you should accompany her. I’m sure you have much to talk about.’
ii.
We left, returning across the bridge and walking the busy thoroughfares until we found ourselves back at the place des Vosges.
‘Well,’ I said, as we walked, ‘that went about as well as I expected.’
‘Give it time. Mirabeau will talk them round.’
We walked, and as we did so my thoughts went from Mirabeau, the Grand Master of the Assassins, to the man who had overthrown my own Order.
‘Do you really think we can find him?’ I asked.
‘His luck can’t last forever. François Thomas Germain believed Lafrenière was –’
I stopped him. ‘François Thomas Germain?’
‘Yes,’ said Arno. ‘The silversmith who led me to Lafrenière.’
A wave of cold excitement swept through me.
‘Arno,’ I gasped, ‘François Thomas Germain was my father’s lieutenant.’
‘A Templar?’
‘Former. He was cast out when I was younger, something about heretical notions and Jacques de Molay. I’m not entirely sure. But he should be dead. He died years ago.’
Germain. Jacques de Molay. I put those thoughts aside to return to later, perhaps with the help of Mr Weatherall.
‘This Germain is remarkably active for a corpse,’ Arno was saying.
I nodded. ‘I would very much like to ask him a few questions.’
‘I would too. His workshop’s on rue Saint-Antoine. Not far from here.’
With renewed purpose we hurried through a tree-lined passageway that opened out on to a square, bunting hanging above our heads, canopies from the shops and coffee bars fluttering in a slight summer breeze.
The street still showed some of the scars of the unrest: an overturned cart, a small pile of smashed barrels, a series of scorch marks on the cobbles, and of course there were tricolores hanging overhead, some of which bore the marks of battle.
Otherwise, however, it seemed peaceful, just as it once had been, with people passing to and fro, going about their everyday lives, and for a moment it was difficult to picture it being the site of cataclysmic events that were changing our country.
Arno took us along cobbled streets until we reached a gateway leading into a courtyard. Overlooking it was a grand house in which he said were the workshops. In there we would find the silversmith. Germain. The man who h
ad ordered my father’s death.
‘There were guards here last time I came,’ he said, and stopped, a wary look crossing his face.
‘There are none now,’ I said.
‘No. But then again a lot has happened since the last time I was here. Perhaps the guards have been withdrawn.’
‘Or perhaps something else.’
All of a sudden we were hushed and cautious. My hand went to my sword and I was glad of the feeling of the pistol tucked into my belt.
‘Is anybody home?’ he called across the empty courtyard.
There was no response. Though there was the noise of the street from behind us, from the foreboding mansion ahead of us came only silence and the unblinking stare of the windows.
The door opened at his touch. With a look at me we went inside only to find the entrance hall deserted. We made our way upstairs, Arno leading us to the workshop. From the sparse look of the place it had recently been abandoned. Inside were most of the accoutrements of a silversmith’s trade – at least as far as I could see – but no sign of the silversmith.
We began to look around, cautiously at first, rifling through papers, pulling aside items on shelves, not really sure what we were looking for, just looking, hoping to find some confirmation of the theory that this apparently innocent silversmith was, in fact, the high-ranking Templar Germain.
Because if he was, then that meant this apparently innocent silversmith was the man who had killed my father, and was doing his level best to destroy every other aspect of my life besides.
My fists clenched at the thought. My heart hardened to think of the pain this man had brought the La Serre family. Never had the thought of revenge felt more real to me than it did at that moment.
There came a noise from the doorway. The tiniest of noises – a mere whisper of fabric – it was nevertheless loud enough to alert our heightened senses. Arno heard it, too, and as one we spun in the direction of the entranceway.
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