‘His Majesty Salah Al’din accepts your offer of peace,’ said the envoy.
On the tower, Al Mualim shared an amused glance with Umar, who stood by his side. Further along was Faheem. His mouth was set.
‘Have we his assurance that our sect can operate without further hostilities, and no further interference in our activities?’ asked Al Mualim.
‘As long as interests allow, you have that assurance.’
‘Then I accept His Majesty’s offer,’ called Al Mualim, pleased. ‘You may remove your men from Masyaf. Perhaps you would be good enough to repair our stockade before you leave.’
At that Shihab looked sharply up at the tower, and even from the great height Al Mualim saw anger flash in his eyes. Shihab leaned from his stallion to speak to the envoy, who listened, nodding, then cupped his hand to his mouth to address those in the tower once more.
‘During the delivery of the message, one of Salah Al’din’s trusted generals was killed. His Majesty requires reparation. The head of the culprit.’
The smile slid from Al Mualim’s face. At his side, Umar tensed.
There was silence. Just the snorting of the horses. Birdsong. All waited to hear Al Mualim’s response.
‘You may tell the Sultan that I reject that demand.’
Shihab shrugged. He leaned over to speak to the envoy, who in turn addressed Al Mualim.
‘His Excellency wishes to inform you that unless you agree to the demand a force will remain here at Masyaf, and that our patience is greater than your store of supplies. Would you have the peace agreement count for nothing? Would you allow your villagers and your men to starve? All for the head of one Assassin? His Excellency dearly hopes not.’
‘I will go,’ hissed Umar to Al Mualim. ‘The mistake was mine. It is only right I should pay for it.’
Al Mualim ignored him. ‘I will not give up the life of one of my men,’ he called to the envoy.
‘Then His Excellency regrets your decision and asks that you bear witness to a matter now in need of resolution. We have discovered the existence of a spy in our camp, and he must be executed.’
Al Mualim caught his breath as the Saracens dragged the Assassin agent from the litter. After him came an executioner’s block that two Nubians placed on the ground in front of Shihab’s stallion.
The spy’s name was Ahmad. He had been beaten. His head – battered, bruised and blood-stained – lolled on his chest as he was manhandled to the block, dragged on his knees and draped over it, throat up. The executioner stepped forward: a Turk carrying a glinting scimitar that he grounded, placing both hands on the jewelled hilt. The two Nubians held Ahmad’s arms; he groaned a little, the sound rising to the stunned Assassins high in the defensive tower. ‘Let your man take his place and his life will be spared, the peace treaty honoured,’ called the envoy. ‘If not he dies, the siege begins and your people starve.’
Suddenly Shihab raised his head to shout, ‘Do you want that on your conscience, Umar Ibn-La’Ahad?’
As one the Assassins caught their breath. Ahmad had talked. Under torture, of course. But he had talked.
Al Mualim’s shoulders slumped.
Umar was beside himself. ‘Let me go,’ he urged Al Mualim. ‘Master, please.’
Below them the executioner planted his feet wide. Two-handed, he raised the sword above his head. Ahmad pulled feebly at the hands that pinned him. His throat was taut, offered for the blade. The promontory was silent but for his whimpering.
‘Your last chance, Assassin,’ called Shihab.
The blade shone.
‘ Master,’ pleaded Umar, ‘let me go.’
Al Mualim nodded.
‘ Stop! ’ shouted Umar. He moved to a platform of the tower, calling down to Shihab. ‘I am Umar Ibn-La’Ahad. It is my life you should take.’
There was a ripple of excitement among the ranks of Saracens. Shihab smiled, nodded. He indicated to the executioner, who stood down, grounding his sword once more. ‘Very well,’ he said to Umar. ‘Come, take your place on the block.’
Umar turned to Al Mualim, who raised his head to look at him with red-rimmed eyes.
‘Master,’ said Umar, ‘I ask you one final favour. That you see to the care of Altair. Accept him as your novice.’
Al Mualim nodded. ‘Of course, Umar,’ he said. ‘Of course.’
There was a hush across the citadel as Umar climbed down the ladders of the tower, then took the slope through the barbican, under the arch and to the main gate. At the wicket gate a sentry came forward to open it, and he bent to go through.
A shout came from behind him: ‘ Father.’ The sound of running feet.
He paused.
‘ Father.’
He heard the distress in his son’s voice and squeezed his eyes shut against tears as he stepped out of the gate. The sentry closed it behind him.
They pulled Ahmad from the block and Umar tried to give him a reassuring look, but Ahmad could not meet his gaze as he was hauled away and dumped outside the wicket gate. It opened and he was dragged in. It closed again behind him. Arms took hold of Umar. He was pulled to the block, spread as Ahmad had been. He offered his throat and watched as the executioner towered above him. Beyond the executioner the sky.
‘ Father,’ he heard from the citadel, as the gleaming blade came slicing down.
Two days later, under cover of darkness, Ahmad left the fortress. The following morning when his disappearance was discovered there were those who wondered how he could bear to leave his son alone – his mother having died of the fever two years previously – while others said the shame was too much for him, that that was why he had been forced to leave.
The truth was a different matter altogether.
4
20 June 1257
This morning I awoke with Maffeo shaking my shoulder – not especially gently, I should add. However, his insistence was prompted by an interest in my story. For that at least I should be grateful.
‘So?’ he said.
‘So what?’ If I sounded sleepy, well, that’s because I was.
‘So what happened to Ahmad?’
‘That I was to discover at a later date, brother.’
‘So tell me.’
As I pulled myself to a sitting position in my bed I gave the matter some thought. ‘I think it best that I tell you the stories just as they were told to me,’ I said at last. ‘Altair, ageing though he is, is quite the teller of tales. I believe I shall adhere to his narrative. And what I related to you yesterday formed the bulk of our very first meeting together. An episode that took place when he was just eleven years old.’
‘Traumatic for any child,’ reflected Maffeo. ‘What of his mother?
‘Died in childbirth.’
‘Altair an orphan at eleven?’
‘Indeed.’
‘What happened to him?’
‘Well, you know what happened. He sits up in his tower and -’
‘No, I mean what happened to him next?’
‘That also will have to wait, brother. The next time I saw Altair he had moved the focus of his narrative forward by fifteen years, to a day that found him creeping through the dark, dripping catacombs beneath Jerusalem…’
The year was 1191, more than three years since Salah Al’din and his Saracens had captured Jerusalem. In response the Christians had gnashed their teeth, stamped their feet, and taxed their people in order to fund the Third Crusade – and once more men in chainmail had marched upon the Holy Land and laid siege to its cities.
England’s King Richard, the one they called the Lionheart – as cruel as he was courageous – had recently recaptured Acre, but his greatest desire was to re-take Jerusalem, a holy site. And nowhere in Jerusalem was more sacred than the Temple Mount and the ruins of the Temple of Solomon – towards which Altair, Malik and Kadar crept.
They moved fast but stealthily, clinging to the sides of the tunnels, their soft boots barely disturbing the sand. Altair went ahead, Malik and Kadar
a few paces behind, all with senses tuned to their surroundings, their pulses quickening as they came closer to the Mount. The catacombs were thousands of years old and looked every day of it; Altair could see sand and dust trickling from unsteady wooden supports, while underfoot the ground was soft, the sand wet with the water that dripped steadily from overhead – some kind of nearby watercourse. The air was thick with the smell of sulphur from the bitumen-soaked lanterns that lined the tunnel walls.
Altair was the first to hear the priest. Of course he was. He was the leader, the Master Assassin; his skills were greater, his senses sharper. He stopped. He touched his ear, then held up his hand, and all three became still, like wraiths in the passage. When he glanced back, they were awaiting his next command. Kadar’s eyes gleamed with anticipation; Malik’s were watchful and flinty.
All three held their breath. Around them the water dripped, and Altair listened intently to the priest’s mumblings.
The false Christian piety of a Templar.
Now Altair placed his hands behind his back and flicked his wrist to engage his blade, feeling the familiar pull on the ring mechanism he wore on his little finger. He kept his blade in good order so that the noise it made when it released was almost inaudible – he timed it to the water droplets just to be sure.
Drip… drip… snick.
He brought his arms forward and the blade at his left hand glittered in the flickering torchlight, thirsty for blood.
Next Altair flattened himself to the tunnel wall and moved forward stealthily, rounding a slight bend until he could see the priest kneeling in the tunnel. He wore the robes of a Templar, which could only mean there were more ahead, probably within the ruins of the Temple. In search of their treasure, no doubt.
His heart quickened. It was just as he’d thought. That the city was under Salah Al’din’s control wasn’t going to stop the men of the red cross. They, too, had business at the Mount. What business? Altair intended to find out, but first…
First there was the priest to take care of.
Crouched low, he moved behind the kneeling man, who prayed on, unaware of death’s proximity. Shifting his weight to his front foot and bending at the knee slightly, Altair raised the blade, his hand bent back, ready to strike.
‘ Wait! ’ hissed Malik from behind him. ‘There must be another way
… This one need not die.’
Altair ignored him. In one fluid movement he grasped the priest’s shoulder with his right hand and with his left jammed the point of the blade into the back of his neck, slicing between the skull and the first vertebra of the backbone, severing his spine.
The priest had no time to scream: death was almost instantaneous. Almost. His body jerked and tautened but Altair held him firm, feeling his life ebb away as he held him with one finger on his carotid artery. Slowly, the body relaxed and Altair allowed it to crumple silently to the ground where it lay, a spreading pool of blood blotted by the sand.
It had been quick, soundless. But as Altair retracted the blade he saw the way Malik looked at him and the accusation in his eyes. It was all that he could do to suppress a sneer at Malik’s weakness. Malik’s brother, Kadar, on the other hand, was even now looking down at the priest’s body with a mixture of wonderment and awe.
‘An excellent kill,’ he said breathlessly. ‘Fortune favours your blade.’
‘Not fortune,’ boasted Altair, ‘skill. Watch a while longer and you might learn something.’
As he said it he watched Malik carefully, seeing the Assassin’s eyes flare angrily, jealous, no doubt, at the respect Kadar afforded Altair.
Sure enough, Malik turned on his brother. ‘Indeed. He’ll teach you how to disregard everything the Master taught us.’
Altair sneered once more. ‘And how would you have done it?’
‘I would not have drawn attention to us. I would not have taken the life of an innocent.’
Altair sighed. ‘It matters not how we complete our task, only that it’s done.’
‘But that is not the way…’ started Malik.
Altair fixed him with a stare. ‘My way is better.’
For a moment or so the two men glared at one another. Even in the dank, cold and dripping tunnel, Altair could see in Malik’s eyes the insolence, the resentment. He would need to be careful of that, he knew. It seemed that young Malik was an enemy in waiting.
But if he had designs on usurping Altair, Malik evidently decided that now was not the right moment to make his stand. ‘I will scout ahead,’ he said. ‘Try not to dishonour us further.’
Any punishment for that particular insubordination would have to wait, decided Altair, as Malik left, heading up the tunnel in the direction of the Temple.
Kadar watched him go, then turned to Altair. ‘What is our mission?’ he asked. ‘My brother would say nothing to me, only that I should be honoured to have been invited.’
Altair regarded the enthusiastic young pup. ‘The Master believes the Templars have found something beneath the Temple Mount.’
‘Treasure?’ gushed Kadar.
‘I do not know. All that matters is the Master considers it important, else he would not have asked me to retrieve it.’
Kadar nodded and, at a wave of the hand from Altair, darted off to join his brother, leaving Altair alone in the tunnel. He looked down, pondering, at the body of the priest, a halo of blood on the sand around the head. Malik might have been right. There had been other ways of silencing the priest – he hadn’t had to die. But Altair had killed him because…
Because he could.
Because he was Altair Ibn-La’Ahad, born of an Assassin father. The most skilled of all those in the Order. A Master Assassin.
He set off, coming to a series of pits, mist floating in their depths, and leaped easily to the first crossbeam, lithely landing and crouching catlike, breathing steadily, enjoying his own power and athleticism.
He jumped to the next and to the next, then came to where Malik and Kadar stood waiting for him. But rather than acknowledge them he ran past, the sound of his feet like a whisper on the ground, barely disturbing the sand. Ahead of him was a tall ladder and he took it at a run, scampering up quickly and quietly, only slowing when he reached the very top, where he stopped, listening and sniffing the air.
Next, very slowly, he raised his head to see an elevated chamber, and there, as he’d expected, stood a guard with his back to him, wearing the outfit of a Templar: padded gambeson jacket, leggings, chainmail, sword at his hip. Altair, silent and still, studied him for a moment, taking note of his posture, the dip of his shoulders. Good. He was tired and distracted. Silencing him would be easy.
Slowly Altair pulled himself to the ground where he crouched for a moment, steadying his breathing and watching the Templar carefully, before moving up behind him, straightening and raising his hands: his left a claw; his right ready to reach and silence the guard.
Then he struck, snapping his wrist to engage the blade, which sprang forward in the same instant that he rammed it into the guard’s spine, reaching with his right hand to smother the man’s scream.
For a second they stood in a macabre embrace, Altair feeling the tickle of his victim’s final muffled shout beneath his hand. Then the guard was crumpling and Altair lowered him gently to the ground, stooping to brush his eyelids closed. He had been punished severely for his failure as a lookout, Altair thought grimly, as he straightened from the corpse and moved off, joining Malik and Kadar as they crept beneath the arch that had been so poorly guarded.
Once through, they found themselves on an upper level of a vast chamber, and for a moment Altair stood taking it in, feeling suddenly overawed. This was the ruin of the fabled Solomon’s Temple, said to have been built in 960 BC by King Solomon. If Altair was correct they now stood overlooking the Temple’s greater house, its Holy Place. Early writings spoke of the Holy Place as having its walls lined with cedar, carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers embossed with gold, but the Temple was
now a shadow of its former self. Gone were the ornate wood, the cherubim and the gold finishing – to where, Altair could only guess, though he had little doubt the Templars had had a hand in it. Yet even stripped of its gilding it was still a place of reverence, and despite himself, Altair found himself filled with wonder to see it.
Behind him his two companions were even more awestruck.
‘There – that must be the Ark,’ said Malik, pointing across the chamber.
‘The Ark of the Covenant,’ gasped Kadar, seeing it too.
Altair had recovered, and glanced over to see the two men standing like a pair of foolish merchants dazzled at the sight of shiny baubles. Ark of the Covenant?
‘Don’t be silly,’ he chided. ‘There’s no such thing. It’s just a story.’ Looking over, though, he was less sure. Certainly the box had all the properties of the fabled Ark. It was just as the prophets had always described: plated entirely with gold, a golden cover adorned with cherubim, and rings for inserting the poles that would be used to carry it. And there was something about it, Altair realized. It had an aura…
He tore his eyes away from it. More important matters needed his attention, namely the men who had just entered on the lower level, their boots crunching on what had once been fir-board flooring but was now bare stone. Templars, their leader already barking orders.
‘I want it through the gate before sunrise,’ he told them, referring no doubt to the Ark. ‘The sooner we possess it, the sooner we can turn our attention to those jackals at Masyaf.’
He spoke with a French accent, and as he came into the light, they saw his distinctive cape – that of the Templar Grand Master.
‘Robert de Sable,’ said Altair. ‘His life is mine.’
Malik rounded on him angrily. ‘ No. We were asked to retrieve the treasure and deal with Robert only if necessary.’
Altair, tired of Malik’s constant defiance, turned on him. ‘He stands between us and it,’ he hissed angrily. ‘I’d say it’s necessary.’
‘Discretion, Altair,’ urged Malik.
‘You mean cowardice. That man is our greatest enemy – and here we have a chance to be rid of him.’
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