The Secret Crusade ac-3

by Oliver Bowden

  No, not quite.

  From somewhere far below he could hear shouting. Guards, perhaps, alerted to the presence of… Maria? Such a free spirit could never align herself with Templar ideologies. She was a traitor now. She had come over to the way of the Assassin: she had slain a Templar and shown an Assassin the location of the archive. They would kill her on the spot. Although, of course, from what he had seen of her in combat that might be easier said than done.

  He began to descend, running down the dark steps, occasionally leaping gaps in the crumbling stonework, until he reached a chamber with a sandy floor. Arriving to meet him were three guards, and he disposed of one with a throwing knife straight away, wrongfooted a second and rammed his sword into the man’s neck. He thrust the body into the third, who fell, and as they writhed on the ground, Altair finished them. Probing deeper, he heard rushing water, and found himself on a bridge passing between two waterfalls. The sound was enough to smother the noise of his arrival from the two guards at the opposite end of the bridge. He felled them both with two slashes of his blade.

  He left them, continuing down and into the bowels of… the library. Now he saw shelves of books, rooms full of them. This was it. He was here. What he’d expected to see he wasn’t sure, but there were fewer book and artefacts than he had imagined. Did this really constitute the famous archive he’d heard about?

  But he had no time to stop and inspect his find. He could hear voices, the anvil sound of sword strikes: two combatants, one of whom was unmistakably female.

  Ahead of him a large arch was decorated with the Templar cross at its apex. He went to it and entered a vast chamber, with a ceremonial area at its centre ringed by intricate stone pillars. There, in the middle, were Bouchart and Maria, fighting. She was holding the Templar leader off, but only just, and even as Altair entered the chamber he struck her and she tumbled, yelling in pain, to the stone.

  Bouchart gave her an indifferent look, already turning to face Altair, who had made no sound when he entered the chamber.

  ‘Witless Emperor Comnenus,’ announced the Templar, contemptuous of the erstwhile Cypriot leader, ‘he was a fool, but he was our fool. For almost a decade we operated without interference on this island. Our archive was the best-kept secret on Cyprus. Unfortunately, even the best-laid plans were not immune to Isaac’s idiocy.’

  For almost a decade, thought Altair. But then… He took a step forward, looking from Bouchart to Maria. ‘He angered King Richard and brought the English a little too close for comfort. Is that it?’

  When Bouchart made no move to stop him, he crossed the floor and bent to Maria. He held her face, looking for signs of life.

  Bouchart was talking, enjoying the sound of his own voice. ‘Fortunately we were able to convince Richard to sell the island to us. It was the only way to divert his attention.’

  Her eyes fluttered. She groaned. Alive. Breathing a sigh of relief, Altair laid her head gently on the stone and straightened to face Bouchart, who had been watching them with an indulgent smile.

  ‘Purchasing what you already controlled…’ prompted Altair. He understood now. The Templars had purchased Cyprus from King Richard to stop their archive being discovered. Little wonder that they had been aggressive in their pursuit of him when he arrived on the island.

  Bouchart confirmed that he was correct. ‘And look where that has got us. Ever since you arrived and stuck your nose into too many dark corners, the archive hasn’t been safe.’

  ‘I wish I could say I’m sorry. But I tend to get what I want,’ replied Altair, sounding confident but knowing something wasn’t quite right.

  Sure enough, Bouchart was grinning. ‘Oh, not this time, Assassin. Not now. Our little detour to Kyrenia gave us just enough time to dismantle the archive and move it.’

  Of course. It wasn’t a meagre archive he’d been seeing on his way down. It was the unwanted remnants of one. They’d distracted him with the business in Kyrenia and used the opportunity to move it.

  ‘You weren’t shipping artefacts to Cyprus, you were shipping them out,’ said Altair, as it all became clear.

  ‘Exactly,’ said Bouchart, with a complimentary nod. ‘But not everything has to go… I think we’ll leave you here.’

  Bouchart leaped forward, jabbing with his sword, and Altair deflected. Bouchart was ready and parried, sustaining his attack, and Altair was forced on to the back foot, defending a series of thrusts and slashes. Bouchart was skilled, that was certain. He was fast as well, relying more on grace and footwork than the brute strength most Crusaders brought to a swordfight. But he came forward expecting to win and to win quickly. His desperation to vanquish the Assassin rendered him oblivious to the physical demands of the fight, so that Altair defended, let him come, soaked up his attacks, every now and then offering a short attack of his own, opening wounds. A gash here, a nick there. Blood began to leak from beneath Bouchart’s chainmail, which hung heavy on him.

  As Altair fought, he thought of Maria and of those who had died on the orders of the Templar, but he stopped those memories turning into the desire for vengeance. Instead he let them give him resolve. The smile had fallen from Bouchart’s face and, as Altair remained silent, the Templar Grand Master was grunting with the exertion – that and frustration. His sword swings were less co-ordinated and failed to meet their target. Sweat and blood poured from him. His teeth were bared.

  And Altair opened more wounds, cutting him on the forehead so that blood was gushing into his eyes and he was wiping his gauntlet across his face to clear it away. Now Bouchart could barely lift the sword and was bent over, his legs rubbery and his shoulders heaving as he fought for breath, squinting through a mask of blood to find the Assassin, seeing only shadows and shapes. He was a defeated man now. Which meant he was a dead man.

  Altair didn’t toy with him. He waited until the danger was over. Until he was sure that Bouchart’s weakness was not feigned.

  Then he ran him through.

  Bouchart dropped to the ground and Altair knelt beside him. The Templar looked at him and Altair saw respect in his eyes.

  ‘Ah. You are a… a credit to your Creed,’ he gasped.

  ‘And you have strayed from yours.’

  ‘Not strayed… expanded. The world is more complicated than most dare admit. And if you, Assassin… if you knew more than how to murder, you might understand this.’

  Altair frowned. ‘Save your lecture on virtue for yourself. And die knowing that I will never let the Apple, the Piece of Eden, fall into any hands but my own.’

  As he spoke of it, he felt it warm against his back, as though it had awoken.

  Bouchart smiled ironically. ‘Keep it close, Altair. You will come to the same conclusions we did… in time…’

  He died. Altair reached to close his eyes, just as the building shook and he was showered with falling debris. Cannon fire. The Templars were shelling the archive. It made perfect sense. They wanted to leave nothing behind.

  He scrambled over to Maria and pulled her to her feet. For a moment or so they looked into one another’s eyes, some unspoken feeling passing between them. Then she tugged at his arm and was leading him out of the grand chamber just as it was shaken by more cannon fire. Altair turned in time to see two of the beautiful pillars crumple and fall, great sections of stone smashing to the floor. Then he was following Maria as she ran, taking the steps two at a time as they climbed back up the shaft to the sunken archive. It was rocked by another explosion, and masonry smashed into the walkway, but they kept running, kept dodging until they reached the exit.

  The steps had fallen away so Altair climbed, dragging Maria up behind him to a platform. They pushed their way out into the day as the shelling intensified and the building seemed to fall in on itself, forcing them to jump clear. And there they stayed for some time, gulping clean air, glad to be alive.

  Later, when the Templar ships had departed, taking the last of the precious archive with them, Altair and Maria were walking in the dyin
g light in Limassol port, both lost in thought.

  ‘Everything I worked for in the Holy Land, I no longer want,’ said Maria, after a long pause. ‘And everything I gave up to join the Templars… I wonder where all that went, and if I should try to find it again.’

  ‘Will you return to England?’ asked Altair.

  ‘No… I’m so far from home already, I’ll continue east. To India, perhaps. Or until I fall off the far edge of the world… And you?’

  Altair thought, enjoying the closeness they shared. ‘For a long time under Al Mualim, I thought my life had reached its limit, and that my sole duty was to show others the same precipice I had discovered.’

  ‘I felt the same once,’ she agreed.

  From his pack he took the Apple and held it up for inspection. ‘As terrible as this artefact is, it contains wonders… I would like to understand it as best I can.’

  ‘You tread a thin line, Altair.’

  He nodded slowly. ‘I know. But I have been ruined by curiosity, Maria. I want to meet the best minds, explore the libraries of the world, and learn all the secrets of nature and the universe.’

  ‘All in one lifetime? It’s a little ambitious…’

  He chuckled. ‘Who can say? It could be that one life is just enough.’

  ‘Maybe. And where will you go first?’

  He looked at her, smiling, knowing only that he wanted her with him for the rest of his journey. ‘East…’ he said.

  Part Four

  48

  15 July 1257

  Maffeo has this habit of looking at me strangely sometimes. It’s as though he believes I’m not quite furnishing him with all the necessary information. And he has done this several times during our storytelling sessions. Whether watching the world go by in the busy market of Masyaf, enjoying the cool draughts in the catacombs beneath the citadel or strolling along the ramparts, seeing birds wheel and dip across the valleys, he looks at me every now and then, as if to say, ‘What is it you’re not telling me, Niccolo?’

  Well, the answer, of course, is nothing, apart from my lingering suspicion that the story will eventually involve us in some way, that I’m being told these things for a reason. Will it involve the Apple? Or perhaps his journals? Or the codex, the book into which he has distilled his most significant findings?

  Even so, Maffeo fixes me with the Look.

  ‘And?’

  ‘And what, brother?’

  ‘Did Altair and Maria go east?’

  ‘Maffeo, Maria is the mother of Darim, the gentleman who invited us here.’

  I watched as Maffeo turned his head to the sun and closed his eyes to let it warm his face as he absorbed this information. I’m sure that he was trying to reconcile the image of the Darim we knew, a man in his sixties with the weathered face to prove it, with someone who had a mother – a mother like Maria.

  I let him ponder, smiling indulgently. Just as Maffeo would pester me with questions during the tale, so of course I had pestered the Master, albeit with a good deal more deference.

  ‘Where is the Apple now?’ I had asked him once. If I’m honest, I had secretly hoped that at some point he would produce it. After all, he’d spoken about it in terms of such reverence, even sounding fearful of it at times. Naturally I had hoped to see it for myself. Perhaps to understand its allure.

  Sadly, this was not to be. He met my question with a series of testy noises. I should not trouble myself with thoughts of the Apple, he had warned, with a wagging finger. I should concern myself with the codex instead. For contained in those pages were the secrets of the Apple, he said, but free of the artefact’s malign effects.

  The codex. Yes, I had decided, it was the codex that was to prove significant in the future. Significant in my future, even.

  But anyway: back in the here and now, I watched Maffeo mull over the fact that Darim was the son of Altair and Maria; that from adversarial beginnings had flourished first a respect between the pair, then attraction, friendship, love and -

  ‘Marriage?’ said Maffeo. ‘She and Altair were wed?’

  ‘Indeed. Some two years after the events I’ve described, they were wed at Limassol. The ceremony was held there as a measure of respect to the Cypriots who had offered their island as a base for the Assassins, making it a key stronghold for the Order. I believe Markos was a guest of honour, and a somewhat ironic toast was proposed to the pirates, who had inadvertently been responsible for introducing him to Altair and Maria. Shortly after the wedding the Assassin and his bride returned to Masyaf, where their son Darim was born.’

  ‘Their only son?’

  ‘No. Two years after the birth of Darim, Maria gave birth to another, Sef, a brother to Darim.’

  ‘And what of him?’

  ‘All in good time, brother. All in good time. Suffice to say for now that this represented a mainly peaceful and fruitful period for the Master. He talks of it little, as though it is too precious to bring out into the light, but much of it is recorded in his codex. All the time he was making new discoveries and was in receipt of fresh revelations.’

  ‘Such as?’

  ‘He recorded them in his journals. In there you can see not only compounds for new Assassin poisons, but for medicine too. Descriptions of achievements yet to come and catastrophes yet to happen; designs for armour and for new hidden blades, including one that fires projectiles. He mused upon the nature of faith and of humanity’s beginnings, forged from chaos, order imposed not by a supreme being but by man.’

  Maffeo looked shocked. ‘ “Forged from chaos, order imposed not by a supreme being…” ’

  ‘The Assassin questions all fixed faith,’ I said, not without a touch of pomposity. ‘Even his own.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Well, the Master wrote of the contradictions and ironies of the Assassin. How they seek to bring about peace yet use violence and murder as the means to do it. How they seek to open men’s minds yet require obedience to a master. The Assassin teaches the dangers of blindly believing in established faith but requires the Order’s followers to follow the Creed unquestioningly.

  ‘He wrote also of the Ones Who Came Before, the members of the first civilization, who left behind the artefacts hunted by both Templar and Assassin.’

  ‘The Apple being one of them?’

  ‘Exactly. A thing of immense power. Competed for by the Knights Templar. His experiences in Cyprus had shown him that the Templars, rather than trying to wrest control by the usual means, had chosen subterfuge for their strategy. Altair concluded that this, too, should be the way of the Assassin.

  ‘No longer should the Order build great fortresses and conduct lavish rituals. These, he decided, were not what makes the Assassin. What makes the Assassin is his adherence to the Creed. That originally espoused by Al Mualim, ironically enough. An ideology that challenged established doctrines. One that encouraged acolytes to reach beyond themselves and make the impossible possible. It was these principles that Altair developed and took with him in the years he spent travelling the Holy Land, stabilizing the Order and instilling in it the values he had learned as an Assassin. Only in Constantinople did his attempts to promote the way of the Assassin stumble. There, in 1204, great riots were taking place as the people rose up against the Byzantine emperor Alexius, and not long after that the Crusaders broke through and began a sack of the city. In the midst of such ongoing tumult, Altair was unable to carry out his plans and retreated. It became one of his few failures during that era.

  ‘Funny, when he told me that, he gave me an odd look.’

  ‘Because our home is in Constantinople?’

  ‘Possibly. I shall have to give the matter thought at a later date. It may well be that our hailing from Constantinople and his attempt to establish a guild there are not unrelated…’

  ‘His only failure, you say?’

  ‘Indeed. In all other ways, Altair did more to promote the Order than almost any leader before him. It was only the ascendancy of Genghis Khan t
hat prevented him continuing his work.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Some forty years ago, Altair wrote of it in his codex. How a dark tide was rising to the east. An army of such size and power that all the land was made quick with worry.’

  ‘He was talking about the Mongol Empire?’ asked Maffeo. ‘The rise of Genghis Khan?’

  ‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘Darim was in his early twenties and an accomplished bowman, and so it was that Altair took him and Maria and left Masyaf.’

  ‘To confront Khan?’

  ‘Altair suspected that Genghis Khan’s progress might have been helped by another artefact, similar to the Apple. Perhaps the Sword. He needed to establish whether this was the case, as well as to stop Khan’s inexorable march.’

  ‘How was Masyaf left?’

  ‘Altair put Malik in charge in his place. He left Sef behind also, to help take care of affairs. Sef had a wife and two young daughters by then, Darim did not, and they were gone for a long time.’

  ‘How long?’

  ‘He was absent for ten years, brother, and when he returned to Masyaf everything there had changed. Nothing would ever be the same again. Do you want to hear about it?’

  ‘Please continue.’

  49

  From a distance all looked well with Masyaf. None of them – not Altair, Maria or Darim – had any idea of what was to come.

  Altair and Maria rode a little ahead, side by side, as was their preference, happy to be with one another and pleased to be within sight of home, each undulating with the slow, steady rhythm of their horses. Both rode high and proud in the saddle despite the long, arduous journey. They might have been advancing in years – both were in their mid-sixties – but it would not do to be seen slouching. Nevertheless they came slowly: their mounts were chosen for their strength and stamina, not speed, and tethered to each was an ass, laden with supplies.

  Behind them came Darim, who had inherited the bright, dancing eyes of his mother, his father’s colouring and bone structure, and the impulsiveness of both. He would have liked to gallop ahead and climb the slopes of the village to the citadel to announce his parents’ return, but instead trotted meekly behind, respecting his father’s wishes for a modest homecoming. Every now and then he swatted the flies from his face with his crop and thought that a gallop would have been the most effective way to rid himself of them. He wondered if they were being watched from the spires of the fortress, from its defensive tower.