‘And if you do it – if you avenge your father, what then?’ asked the killer. He formed the words around hitches in his breath, and though he maintained an implacable air I could sense him tiring. He continued: ‘There will be killing and more killing. One day you’ll be as tired of it as I am now. One day you will be as sickened by the sight of your own reflection. That is how other people feel, I am told.’
‘The difference is that you kill for the sake of killing,’ I told him. ‘I wish to help build a better Egypt.’ The words felt right. Solid.
His smile was sudden – twisted, sardonic. ‘The trouble with all of you, The Order and the Medjay, is that you all think you’re helping to build a better Egypt. You all think that your way is the only way. And while you’re all so busy being right, the bodies pile up.’
‘Drop your sword and end it then, paid assassin. I promise to make your end swift.’
Clash, clash. Both of us trying to find a way through the other’s defences, Aya attacking too. She scored two quick hits, earning herself a glare, and a strike she dodged just in time. I darted back in. And so it went on.
‘I cannot do that, Medjay. Much as I might like,’ he said.
‘You have to end the bloodline, is that it?’
Bion nodded. ‘All in this room must die.’
‘Not Aya,’ I said.
‘Even Aya.’
‘Why?’ I said. ‘She doesn’t share the bloodline.’
Bion looked at her – and it was to her that he spoke. ‘You don’t know?’
Her eyes flitted to me and I saw disquiet. What did he mean? Fear slithered in my belly.
Don’t lose concentration, I thought. That’s what he wants. And for a moment the battle was at a pause, the three of us circling one another. Over the killer’s shoulder I saw the figure of my mother still in the doorway but refused to let it distract me.
‘Do you know what he means?’ I said to Aya without taking my eyes off Bion, my sword held ready.
‘Don’t let him take your attention away from the matter at hand,’ she said. She had recovered her composure, seeing through his tactics.
‘I won’t.’
‘Simply a matter of timing, nothing I was trying to avoid,’ she assured me. ‘I’m not keeping anything from you, Bayek.’
‘She carries your baby, Medjay,’ said Bion, and leapt at me.
It was true that his words had an effect, striking at me like a gut punch. I heard Aya’s gasp of startlement in the background. But even so I was able to fend him off, and any advantage he hoped to gain was lost as we once more resumed our positions. I allowed myself a smile, knowing that I had gained the upper hand. Was I supposed to be weakened by a declaration that Aya was with child? Was he hoping to catch me off guard?
Either way his ploy had been a failure. The opposite: I felt stronger, more confident. Hopeful. Hopeful that he was right. That even if it had been just a ploy for now, it might be a truth later. I was fighting for more than the Medjay and my father, and I came at him with extra ferocity, Aya doing the same.
And just as I had looked at my father on the banks of the river and seen his impending defeat, I saw it now in Bion. His defence was more desperate, his moves less disciplined. His face was pale and sweat shone on his brow. He had miscalculated. What he’d always seen as weakness was strength.
But he was a soldier, a warrior, a killer with a job to do. Defeat simply wasn’t in his lexicon. And that made him dangerous.
As if to give my thoughts form, he made his move. Aya had strayed a little too close, emboldened, perhaps, by the way she saw the fight proceeding and Bion threw a feint, ducking inside her, grabbing her and pulling her into him.
And in that one move, he turned the battle. Now he held Aya hostage, his knife at her throat, it was he who had the upper hand.
69
I froze. I heard the word, ‘No!’ and realized it was I who had spoken it. Aya had tensed, her chin raised, the blade angled at the nape of her neck. She was angling her sword slowly – I knew the strike she was considering and ice inched its way down my spine. If she managed to drive the sword through both of them, at the right angle, she might survive. Or not. Over her shoulder his eyes regarded me, and they were cold and ruthless and spoke of bottomless pain and anguish, both given and received. Hers spoke of love and determination. And even though she didn’t want to do it, she would.
I saw his arm tense, about to draw the blade across her throat. Her sword angled further, dangerously ready. My hand reached for my knife in what I already knew was a pointless and futile move, and then …
His eyes widened, mouth dropped open. His sword hand relaxed and in the next moment the blade clattered to the stone. Aya’s joined him a moment later. I rushed forward to take Aya in my arms as the killer staggered, as Aya gasped for air, turning to look over her shoulder. I saw the knife embedded in his back – and my mother standing behind him, her arm still raised.
‘Tell my husband I sent you,’ she said to him, watching him vengefully as he dropped to his knees then keeled over on to his side, coming to rest on the stone, letting out a sigh that I recognized as a prelude to death.
The room settled, the danger seeming to dissipate. My mother’s rage burned, fierce and bright, and I remembered the night she had killed Menna’s men. Defending her family. For a moment it seemed hardly believable that the battle was over, but it was: our enemy lay vanquished at our feet. His boots kicked weakly. Words were forming. I saw him beseeching me with his eyes, and so I took my dagger, about to go to him.
‘Careful, Bayek,’ warned Aya, and I nodded, approaching Bion carefully and getting down to my knees. Aya came with me and we crouched to him, seeing that the end was imminent. In his eyes was acceptance of his defeat, maybe even relief it was all over. An odd curiosity, as though he were wondering what happened next. Just before he went, though, he had some final words for me, fingers drawing me near. I drew close, knife held ready. Surely he would try nothing now?
‘Congratulations, Medjay,’ he gasped.
‘Will there be more assassins?’
Blood flowed from his mouth quite freely now. Every word was a mission. ‘My employer’s name is Raia. You will find him in Alexandria. He was using his hunting of the Medjay – he was using me – as a way of increasing his own standing within The Order. Only Raia knows of my existence. The scrolls that first alerted The Order to your creed’s plans were discovered by his master and Raia had him killed. Do with this information what you will.’
‘Does he know where I am?’ I asked.
Bion’s eyes travelled to Aya, kneeling by my side, to me. His mouth opened and I wondered if he might be about to apologize for the misery he had wrought, and then realized that no, it wasn’t in his nature. His nature was to kill, and to die, and to take whatever demons haunted him to the beyond.
And that is what he did. Bion, the killer who had haunted us for so many years, closed his eyes, breathed his last and a great peace descended upon us all.
I stood from his body, knowing that I had performed my first duty, not just as protector of Siwa, but as a Medjay.
Epilogue
Despite everything I had once said and promised myself, some months later I found myself in Alexandria, outside the home of a man I knew only as Raia, a name passed to me from the lips of a dying assassin sent to kill me, my mother, my wife to be and the child she carried.
Aya and I had since married, and our child was now born, a beautiful baby boy we named Khemu. Nefru had been endlessly pleased at guessing Aya’s condition before all of us, citing the dizziness and Aya’s reaction to the smell of the physician’s healing herbs, though suitably contrite that she had blurted it out to half of Siwa and our would-be killer before thinking to tell Aya herself. No day passed when we weren’t delighted by Khemu: tiny hands that reached up to grasp our faces. So much love, unconditional, uncomplicated. He would grasp for my nose, pulling me to him for kisses and snuggles. On those occasions I looked at my s
on and wondered if my father had done the same with me. I knew he had looked at me and wanted to shield me from the world. I understood so much more.
And so my life in Siwa had begun afresh. I was now the town protector. I knew, of course, that Aya had not abandoned her dreams of one day revisiting Alexandria, but she had chosen not to accompany me when I’d left Siwa three weeks ago. The next trip we would do for her. She wanted to meet up with her parents, introduce both myself and Khemu to them. I think, perhaps, I was even growing to look forward to it.
It took me a while, but I found Raia. His home, at least. There, I took up a position in the undergrowth opposite. His was a luxurious, well-appointed property, and I lay down to wait, knowing that when I saw him, I had a choice: either I would kill him there and then, or spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder, wondering whether he would send more assassins after me and Aya, and now our son.
Really, it was no choice at all.
I waited for hours until, at last, he appeared. Smartly dressed, just as I imagined he would be, he led a short procession, with a woman I took to be his wife some steps behind and, following along, two daughters.
They were about the age that Aya and I had been when we first left Siwa all those years ago. I watched as the four of them approached the front of the house, wondering at his family, biding my time. Night would fall soon. Darkness would hide my approach. None would know what had happened until dawn brought awakening. I had made my choice.
My family, and all of Egypt, would be kept safe.
Acknowledgements
Very special thanks to Andrew Holmes & Ann Lemay
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THE BEGINNING
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PENGUIN BOOKS
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First published 2017
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Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are registered or unregistered trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the US and/or other countries
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Cover © 2017 Ubisoft Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft and the Ubisoft logo are registered or unregistered trademarks of Ubisoft Entertainment in the US and/or other countries
Cover art: Liu ‘Sunsetagain’ Yan
ISBN: 978-1-405-93508-1
Desert Oath: The Official Prequel to Assassin’s Creed Origins Page 26