The Secret Crusade ac-3

by Oliver Bowden

  Again, Malik somehow understood. ‘Truly you are not the man I once knew,’ he said.

  Altair nodded. ‘My work has taught me many things. Revealed secrets to me. But there are still pieces of this puzzle I do not possess.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘All the men I’ve laid to rest have worked together, united by this man. Robert has designs upon the land. This much I know for certain. But how and why? When and where? These things remain out of reach.’

  ‘Crusaders and Saracens working together?’ wondered Malik, aloud.

  ‘They are none of these things, but something else. Templars.’

  ‘The Templars are a part of the Crusader army,’ said Malik, though the question was written all over his face: how could they be King Richard’s men if they were staying in Jerusalem? Walking the city streets?

  ‘Or so they’d like King Richard to believe,’ said Altair. ‘No. Their only allegiance is to Robert de Sable and some mad idea that they will stop the war.’

  ‘You spin a strange tale.’

  ‘You have no idea, Malik…’

  ‘Then tell me.’

  Altair began to tell Malik what he had learned so far. ‘Robert and his Templars walk the city. They’ve come to pay their respects to Majd Addin. They’ll attend his funeral. Which means so will I.’

  ‘What is this that Templars would attend his funeral?’

  ‘I have yet to divine their true intentions, though I’ll have a confession in time. The citizens themselves are divided. Many call for their lives. Still others insist that they are here to parley. To make peace.’

  He thought of the orator he’d questioned, who had been adamant that his masters wanted an end to war. De Sable, a Christian, was attending Majd Addin’s funeral, he a Muslim. Wasn’t that proof that the Templars sought a united Holy Land? The citizens were hostile to the notion of Templars being present in Jerusalem. The Crusader occupation was still fresh in their minds. Unsurprisingly there had been reports of fighting breaking out between Crusaders and Saracens, who took exception to the sight of knights in the streets. The city remained unconvinced by the orators who insisted that they came in the name of peace.

  ‘ Peace? ’ said Malik, now.

  ‘I told you. The others I have slain have said as much to me.’

  ‘That would make them our allies. And yet we kill them.’

  ‘Make no mistake, we are nothing like these men. Though their goal sounds noble, the means by which they’d achieve it are not. At least… that’s what Al Mualim told me.’

  He ignored the tiny worm of doubt that slithered in the pit of his stomach.

  ‘So what is your plan?’

  ‘I’ll attend the funeral and confront Robert.’

  ‘The sooner the better,’ agreed Malik, handing Altair the feather. ‘Fortune favour your blade, brother.’

  Altair took the marker. Swallowing, he said, ‘Malik… Before I go, there’s something I should say.’

  ‘Out with it.’

  ‘I’ve been a fool.’

  Malik gave a dry laugh. ‘Normally I’d make no argument, but what is this? What are you talking about?’

  ‘All this time… I never told you I was sorry. Too damned proud. You lost your arm because of me. Lost Kadar. You had every right to be angry.’

  ‘I do not accept your apology.’

  ‘I understand.’

  ‘No. You don’t. I do not accept your apology, because you are not the same man who went with me into Solomon’s Temple, so you have nothing to apologize for.

  ‘Malik…’

  ‘Perhaps if I had not been so envious of you, I would not have been so careless myself. I am just as much to blame.’

  ‘Don’t say such things.’

  ‘We are one. As we share the glory of our victories, so too should we share the pain of our defeat. In this way we grow closer. We grow stronger.’

  ‘Thank you, brother.’

  And so it was that Altair found himself at the cemetery, a small, unadorned burial ground, joining a sparse crowd of Templars and civilians who had gathered around the burial mound of Majd Addin, the erstwhile city regent.

  The body would have been bathed and shrouded and carried in a procession, then buried on its right side and the hole filled, members of the procession adding dirt to the grave. As Altair entered, an imam was stepping up to deliver the funeral prayer and a hush had descended over the holy ground. Most stood with their hands clasped in front of them and their heads bowed in respect for the dead, so it was an easy task for Altair to slip through the crowd in order to gain a good vantage point. To locate his final target. He who had set Altair on this path – whose death would be just retribution for the suffering he had caused and that which had happened in his name: Robert de Sable.

  Passing along the rows of mourners, Altair realized it was the first time that he had ever found himself at the funeral of one of his targets, and he cast a look around to see if there were any grieving members of the dead man’s family nearby, wondering how he, the killer, would feel to be confronted by their grief. But if Majd Addin had had close relatives they were either absent or kept their sorrow hidden among the crowd; there was no one at the graveside but the imam and…

  A cluster of Templar knights.

  They stood in front of an ornately decorated fountain set into a tall sandstone wall, three of them, wearing armour and full-face helmets, even the one who stood in front of the other two, who also wore a cape. The distinctive cape of the Templar Grand Master.

  And yet… Altair squinted, staring at de Sable. The knight was somehow not as Altair remembered him. Had his memory played tricks on him? Had Robert de Sable taken on greater dimensions in his head because he had bested Altair? Certainly he seemed to lack the stature that Altair remembered. Where, also, were the rest of his men?

  Now the imam had begun to speak, addressing the mourners: ‘We gather here to mourn the loss of our beloved Majd Addin, taken too soon from this world. I know you feel sorrow and pain at his passing. But you should not. For just as we are all brought forth from the womb, so too must we all one day pass from this world. It is only natural – like the rising and the setting of the sun. Take this moment to reflect on his life and give thanks for all the good he did. Know that one day you will stand with him again in Paradise.’

  Altair fought to hid his disgust. ‘The beloved Majd Addin’. The same beloved Majd Addin who had been a traitor to the Saracens, who had sought to undermine trust in them by indiscriminately executing the citizens of Jerusalem? That beloved Majd Addin? It was no wonder that the crowd was so sparse, and grief so little in evidence. He was about as beloved as leprosy.

  The imam began to lead the mourners in prayer. ‘O God, bless Muhammad, his family, his companions, O merciful and majestic. O God, more majestic than they describe, peace on the Prophets, blessings from the God of the Universe.’

  Altair’s gaze went from him to de Sable and his bodyguard. A wink of sun caught his eye and he glanced up at the wall behind the trio of knights to the ramparts that ran along the outside of the courtyard. Was it a movement he’d seen? Perhaps. Extra Templar soldiers could easily take cover in the ramparts.

  He glanced again at the three knights – Robert de Sable, as if standing for inspection, offering himself as a target. His build. Too slight, surely. The cape. It looked too long.

  No. Altair decided to abandon the assassination because there was no ignoring his instinct here. It wasn’t telling him something was wrong. It was saying nothing was right. He began to edge back, just as the imam’s tone changed.

  ‘As you know, this man was murdered by Assassins. We have tried to track his killer, but it has proved difficult. These creatures cling to the shadows and run from any who would face them fairly.’

  Altair froze, knowing now that the trap was to be sprung. He tried to push through the crowd more quickly.

  ‘But not today,’ he heard the imam call, ‘for it seems one stands among
us. He mocks us with his presence and must be made to pay.’

  Suddenly the crowd around Altair opened, forming a circle around him. He wheeled, seeing the graveside where the imam stood pointing – at him. De Sable and his two men were moving forward. Around him the crowd looked fierce, and was closing in to swamp him, leaving him no escape route.

  ‘Seize him. Bring him forward that God’s justice might be done,’ called the imam.

  In one movement Altair drew his sword and ejected his blade. He remembered his Master’s words: Choose one.

  But there was no need. The mourners might have been brave and Majd Addin beloved, but nobody was prepared to shed blood to avenge him. Panicked, the crowd broke up, mourners falling over their robes to escape, Altair using the sudden confusion to dart to one side, breaking the advancing Templars’ line of sight. The first of them just had time to register that one member of the crowd was not escaping, but instead moving towards him, before Altair’s sword was through his mail and in his gut and he fell away.

  Altair saw a door in the wall open and more knights come pouring through. Five at least. At the same time there was a hail of arrows from above, and one knight was spinning and falling, the shaft protruding from his neck. Altair’s eyes shot to the ramparts where he saw Templar archers. On this occasion their aim had favoured him. He was unlikely to be quite so fortunate next time.

  The second of the two bodyguards came forward and he swiped with his blade, slicing at the man’s neck and sending him down in a spray of blood. He turned to de Sable, who came forward swinging his broadsword hard enough to send Altair stumbling back, only just able to deflect the blow. Suddenly there were reinforcements, and he was trading blows with three other knights, all in full-face helmets, and finding that he was now standing on Majd Addin’s final resting place. There was no time to enjoy the moment, though: from above came another hail of arrows and, to Altair’s delight, a second knight was speared, screaming as he fell. The effect on the remaining Templars was to send them into disarray and they scattered a little, less frightened of Altair than they were of their own archers, just as de Sable began screeching at the bowmen to stop firing on their own men.

  And Altair was so surprised that he almost dropped his guard. What he had heard was not the unmistakably male French tones of Robert de Sable but a voice that surely belonged to a woman. An English woman.

  For a heartbeat he was taken aback by a mixture of bemusement and admiration. This… woman, the stand-in sent by de Sable, fought as bravely as any man, and wielded a broadsword just as adeptly as any knight he had ever encountered. Who was she? One of de Sable’s lieutenants? His lover? Keeping close to the cover of the wall, Altair felled another of the knights. Just one left. One more, and de Sable’s stand-in. The last Templar had less appetite for the fight than she did, though, and he died, thrashing on the point of Altair’s sword.

  Just her now and they traded blows, until at last Altair was able to get the better of her, sliding the blade into her shoulder at the same time as he swept her legs from beneath her and she crashed heavily to the ground. Scurrying into cover, he pulled her with him so that they were both out of sight of the archers. Then he leaned over her. Still wearing the helmet, her chest heaved. Blood spread across her neck and shoulder but she would live, thought Altair – if he allowed her to, that was.

  ‘I would see your eyes before you die,’ he said.

  He pulled off the helmet, and was still taken aback to be confronted by the truth.

  ‘I sense you expected someone else,’ she said, smiling a little. Her hair was hidden by the chainmail coif she wore, but Altair was entranced by her eyes. There was determination behind them, he saw, but something else too. Softness and light. And he found himself wondering if her obvious skills as a warrior belied her true nature.

  But why – whatever command of combat she possessed – would de Sable send this woman in his stead? What special abilities might she have? He placed his blade to her neck. ‘What sorcery is this?’ he asked cautiously.

  ‘We knew you’d come,’ she said, still smiling. ‘Robert needed to be sure he’d have time to get away.’

  ‘So he flees?’

  ‘We cannot deny your success. You have laid waste our plans. First the treasure – then our men. Control of the Holy Land slipped away… But he saw an opportunity to reclaim what has been stolen. To turn your victories to our advantage.’

  ‘Al Mualim still holds the treasure and we’ve routed your army before,’ replied Altair. ‘Whatever Robert plans, he’ll fail again.’

  ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘but it’s not just Templars you’ll contend with now.’

  Altair bridled. ‘Speak sense,’ he demanded.

  ‘Robert rides for Arsuf to plead his case, that Saracen and Crusader unite against the Assassins.’

  ‘That will never happen. They have no reason to.’

  Her smile broadened. ‘Had, perhaps. But now you’ve given them one. Nine, in fact. The bodies you’ve left behind – victims on both sides. You’ve made the Assassins an enemy in common and ensured the annihilation of your entire Order. Well done.’

  ‘Not nine. Eight.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  He removed his blade from her neck. ‘You were not my target. I will not take your life.’ He stood. ‘You’re free to go. But do not follow me.’

  ‘I don’t need to,’ she said, pulling herself to her feet and clasping one hand to the wound at her shoulder. ‘You’re already too late…’

  ‘We’ll see.’

  With a final glance at the ramparts, where archers were hurrying to new positions, Altair darted off, leaving the cemetery empty, apart from its corpses old and new – and the strange, brave and entrancing woman.

  ‘It was a trap,’ he exclaimed to Malik, moments later, the time it had taken him to make his way from the cemetery to the Bureau, his mind working furiously as he did so.

  ‘I had heard the funeral turned to chaos… What happened?’

  ‘Robert de Sable was never there. He sent another in his stead. He was expecting me -’

  ‘You must go to Al Mualim,’ said Malik, firmly.

  Yes, thought Altair, he should. But there was that insistent feeling again. The one that told him there was yet more mystery to uncover. And why did he think it somehow involved the Master? ‘There’s no time. She told me where he’s gone. What he plans. If I return to Masyaf, he might succeed… And then… I fear we’ll be destroyed.’

  ‘We have killed most of his men. He cannot hope to mount a proper attack. Wait,’ said Malik. ‘Did you say she?’

  ‘Yes. It was a woman. Strange, I know. But that’s for another time. For now we must focus on Robert. We may have thinned his ranks, but the man is clever. He goes to plead his case to Richard and Salah Al’din. To unite them against a common enemy… Against us.’

  ‘Surely you are mistaken. This makes no sense. Those two men would never -’

  ‘Oh, but they would. And we have ourselves to blame. The men I’ve killed – men on both sides of the conflict… men important to both leaders… Robert’s plan may be ambitious, but it makes sense. And it could work.’

  ‘Look, brother, things have changed. You must return to Masyaf. We cannot act without the Master’s permission. It could compromise the Brotherhood. I thought… I thought you had learned this.’

  ‘Stop hiding behind words, Malik. You wield the Creed and its tenets like a shield. He’s keeping things from us. Important things. You’re the one who told me we can never know anything, only suspect. Well, I suspect this business with the Templars goes deeper. When I’m done with Robert I will ride for Masyaf that we may have answers. But perhaps you could go now.’

  ‘I cannot leave the city.’

  ‘Then walk among its people. Seek out those who served the ones I slew. Learn what you can. You call yourself perceptive. Perhaps you’ll see something I could not.’

  ‘I don’t know… I must think on this.’

  �
��Do as you must, my friend. But I will ride for Arsuf. Every moment I delay, our enemy is one step further ahead of me.’

  Once more he had breached the Creed: unwitting or not, he had put the Order in danger.

  ‘Be careful, brother.’

  ‘I will. I promise.’

  30

  The armies of Salah Al’din and Richard the Lionheart had met at Arsuf, and as he made his way there Altair learned – from the gossip he overheard at blacksmiths’ and waterholes along the route – that after a series of minor skirmishes the battle had begun that morning, when Salah Al’din’s Turks had launched an attack on the Crusader ranks.

  Riding towards it, against the flow of anxious countryfolk wanting to escape the slaughter, Altair saw plumes of smoke on the horizon. As he came closer he could make out the soldiers at war on the distant plain. Knots of them, huge, dark clusters in the distance. He saw a long band of thousands of men, moving in fast on horseback, charging the enemy, but was too far away to see whether the charge was Saracen or Crusader. Closer, he could see the wooden frames of war machines, at least one on fire. Now he could discern the tall wooden crucifixes of the Christians, huge crosses on wheeled platforms that the infantry pushed forward, and the flags of the Saracens and the Crusaders. The sky darkened with hails of arrows from archers on either side. He saw knights on horseback with pikes, and packs of Saracen horsemen making devastating sorties into the ranks of the Crusaders.

  He could hear the drumming of hoofs on the plain, and the constant crash of Saracen cymbals, drums, gongs and trumpets. He could hear the noise of the battle: the unending all-encompassing din of the shouts of the living, the screams of the dying, the sharp rattle of steel on steel and the pitiful whinnies of wounded horses. He began to come across riderless animals and bodies now, Saracen and Crusader, spreadeagled in the dirt or sitting dead against trees.

  He reined back his mount – just in time, because suddenly Saracen archers began to appear from the treeline some way ahead of him. He dropped from his horse and rolled from the main track, taking cover behind an upturned cart. There were maybe a hundred of them all told. They ran across the track and into trees on the other side. They moved quickly and were bent low. They moved as soldiers move when they are stealthily advancing into enemy-held territory.