3
The sun broke through the small square shaped hole in the wall, which looked as though it had been a poor attempt by the residents previously to create a window. Cassy squinted in the morning light, eyes adjusting. For a moment, she thought she was back home and about to go downstairs for her breakfast, but when she glanced around through blurred eyes, the dream shattered and she was here. Anna was still sleeping, and quite peacefully as well… considering everything wasn’t exactly lollipops and candy canes. Cassy slowly rose to her feet and stretched. Feeling slightly dizzy, she made her way out into the back garden, where Ezio was sat fiddling with his blade. He looked up.
“Signora, buongiorno,” he said, a small smile appearing momentarily, and then vanishing as he flexed his wrist and watched as the hidden blade threw itself in and out of the mechanism on his arm. “Il tempo è bello.”
Cassy stood there and, from the French she understood, she could tell that what he said in Italian was something along the lines of ‘the weather is nice.’ She wasn’t exactly sure.
“Yes.” She said, smiling as he looked up. She sat opposite him and pulled her hood up over her head. “It is.”
“You understood?” Ezio questioned, frowning as he watched Cassy fumble with the belt around her waist.
“Sort of. I guess. Well… in French, it’s ‘le temps est beau’, which means the weather is beautiful. What you said was pretty similar. It kind of means the same thing.”
Ezio nodded. He gestured inside the small house with his head and asked, “Is Anna still sleeping? I would think she should have about… ten minutes more of her sleep.”
“W-why?” Cassy stammered, but she felt as though she knew the answer already.
“We’re going to Jerusalem, we need to gather the horses from the stable outside Masyaf and begin our journey over there. It may take us… an hour to maybe two hours if we go slowly. There are guards stationed all around the route, this means we must go steady with our horses.” Ezio cautioned, rising to his feet and making his way inside.
That was not the answer she expected, but Cassy followed anyway, wary not to over step her boundaries on what she could do and what she should do. “Does that mean we need weapons?”
“Weapons?” Ezio repeated, and then looked over at the bundle of swords and knives and amour in the corner of the room. “Perhaps I will allow you to take a simple sword, we shall think about allowing you to use more advanced weaponry at a later time. You are a simply a servitore… a servant.”
Cassy didn’t like that position, but in time, she hoped that would change. She made her way over to Anna, shook her and chuckled as her friend moaned and tossed around, mumbling that she didn’t want to get up for school. Anna opened her eyes, and Cassy laughed as she shot up, glancing around and momentarily confused, as she didn’t quite remember where she was. Then her face relaxed, and then she huffed and rested her head on her knees.
“Still here?” Anna moaned.
“Yes.”
“Ugh.”
Cassy giggled and turned to face Ezio. “So, this whole servitore thing, mind explaining the ranks or something?”
Ezio thought for a moment and smiled. “Yesterday you were a recluta, today you are a servitore, and… depending on how today goes, you may become an assistente. I will discuss later levels with you as you go along the process.”
“And the weapons and amour we get aren’t particularly good are they?” Cassy grunted, the side of her top lip rising in disappointment.
“Not particularly, but they will get better. For now, you will be using leather greaves; pauldrons and you will have a dagger and a Syrian sword for your comfort. I will not equip you with a hidden blade since we are not quite that far into your training. But today is a must experience. There are some things I need to do.”
Cassy sighed and made a small nod with her head, and watched as Anna stretched and pulled her hood over her head.
“Won’t we look weird with this stuff?” Anna asked, looking down at her white robes and red belt. “I mean, seriously though, look! How obvious can you get? The Assassin symbol is practically calling to be noticed, are you suicidal?”
“Aren’t all Assassins?” Ezio shrilled, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m not.” Anna whined.
“You are not an Assassin yet.”
“Well why am I wearing it?”
“Because you’re with me.”
“Suicidal.”
“Maybe I am, you’ll just have to get used to it.”
Anna hissed and rolled her eyes. “He’s just like Myrnin.”
***
Cassy had a brown, sturdy horse whose legs were strong and powerful; it’s main was a beautiful blonde… tangled, but smooth; it’s eyes were a deep almond colour and it smelt like… like… well… what all horses smell like. Other than that though, it was a beautiful horse, and Cassy couldn’t have asked for a better one. Anna’s was of similar structure, but a bigger build and had black fur and a trimmed black main. Ezio’s was a white horse, the most vibrant of the three… It was also the fittest horse and the smoothest ride.
In her peripheral vision, Cassy caught Anna take a picture of her horse and a picture of the path they were taking. The trek was just how Ezio said it would be, long. As well as feeling fed up of the boredom, there was also the blazing heat to cope with beating down on them, melting like ice cubes. There were indeed a lot of guards out and about, Ezio warned Cassy and Anna to take it steady and just walk. As soon as they were out of guard’s sight, they’d trot and maybe even canter if there were masses of crop fields to get through.
There were loads of town’s people just simply going about their daily jobs, harvesting fields and cleaning stables. Some were cleaning the streets and some even said hello. However, there were some, who didn’t acknowledge Cassy and the others, they would just give them a look as if they were dirt. These people obviously weren’t vigilantes. Cassy found that that hurt slightly, it made her throat tighten and her heart stammer. Anyone could attack them, or… ‘Psych out’ as Bob would say…
Thinking about that made Cassy feel slightly dazed, Ezio and Anna turned a corner, but Cassy just stopped… she knew she shouldn’t, and her eyes stared off into the distance and she remembered everything… everything.
“I can’t do it,” Cassy gasped, eyes widening as she felt her heart race in her chest. “I can’t kill. I… I can’t.”
Just remembering everything, remembering what it was like to see someone… when they’re… she didn’t think she could do it, in fact, she knew she couldn’t. She didn’t even notice Ezio had come back to her and was asking her what was wrong. Not until he patted her thigh.
Cassy looked up. Her eyes were filled with tears, and her forehead was sweaty and her hands were shaking. “I can’t do it,” she whispered.
“Do what?” Ezio sympathised.
“I can’t do this… everything. It’s too much at once.” Cassy whimpered, rising her sweaty hand to wipe her tears and remove the sweat.
“Yes you can. Listen,” Ezio began, “My friend once said ‘I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.’ This is your time to show that you can do it. You don’t need to know, you need to do. Put past events aside and just think about doing. Whatever is bothering you, it’s not important.”
Cassy looked up, eyes still watery, and tried a small smile. “It’s just… my… I’ve seen something I shouldn’t see. Not at my age. It wasn’t something anyone would want to witness.”
Ezio cocked his head to the side, looked over to a viewpoint, which a large eagle was circling, and then back at Cassy. “Eagles see everything.”
“Yes?” Cassy slurred, not seeing where this was going.
“So have I. I have a feeling I know exactly what you are talking about. I lost most of my family and felt like garbage for most of my pathetic teenage years, do not let your fear get the better of you. I let my hate get the better of me, and that caused me to become stupid and irrational, my choices were predictable. Stay strong.”
And with that, Ezio patted Cassy’s thigh again, and turned away with his noble white stead and trotted away from the two futuristic girls.
“I think the whole eagle thing was a metaphor. He was saying he is the eagle, the eagle is him, whatever you want.” Anna hissed. “He’s so self absorbed.”
Cassy laughed, Anna laughed, and they both followed Ezio, feeling the weight of the burning heat and the long distance to Jerusalem.
As they eventually came to the top of a sand road, Cassy gasped, pulled her horse to a stop and stared in awe at the city of Jerusalem just ahead. It was beautiful, viewpoints here and there and tall mosques overpowering most of the city. The basic colour code was sandy yellow, oranges, peaches, pale pinks and pale yellows. It was… it was picturesque. The road traveled down in a big ‘S’ shaped swirl down to the city, and there were market stalls, stables and citizens wandering about. Cassy could hear blacksmith’s working from somewhere; she could hear horses blowing raspberries and the musical sound of people talking. It was like home, but less industrial and less modern. She patted Anna, but noticed she was already taking a picture. Ezio rolled his eyes, and then gestured for the two girls to follow him.
“This is amazing,” Anna squeaked, pocketing her phone and following Ezio. Cassy nodded in agreement and followed as well.
It wasn’t too busy at the bottom, but it was slightly annoying how people didn’t seem to hear hooves coming there way, and just stood there blocking the path like stupid idiots. Cassy wouldn’t have minded if it happened once or twice, but it kept happening. Even when they had been accepted into the city, people just kept walking in front of the horses and being incredibly rude and unaware.
“I’m pissed off,” Cassy growled, eyeing all the citizens who varied from rich to poor. The poor ones tried to pull them off their horses to insist they give them some money, and some just stood in front of the horses and refused to budge. Eventually, Ezio showed his frustration and threatened to “run them down and feed them to the vultures if they did not remove their scrawny little arse from our path.”
Cassy couldn’t help but smirk, and neither could Anna. Anna went a bit soft occasionally and threw them a coin or two, not realising she was throwing two pence’s and five pence’s. She had to hop of her horse just to get them back, apologising.
“You do make me laugh sometimes Anna.” Cassy snorted, rolling her eyes and taking in all the amazing architecture and art scattered around the city.
“Ah, we are here.” Ezio announced, jumping off his horse and walking towards a tall building with some pillars supporting the roof above the door.
Ezio knocked and waited.
“Should we get off our horses?” Cassy suggested, preparing to swing her leg over if she needed to.
“One of you can.”
Cassy and Anna exchanged looks.
“Me or you?” Anna asked, biting her lip.
“I don’t mind.”
“You then.”
Cassy laughed, rolled her eyes and swung off her horse, hand ready to pull out her dagger if anything happened.
The door opened, and tall woman stood there with a hijab covering her entire face and hair. Her robes were blue and covered all of her body. She observed the three unfamiliar faces in front of her, and ran back inside the house.
“Don’t worry, it will only be a few moments.” Ezio reassured, standing there patiently.
A few moments later, a man came to the doorway; he wore a maroon beret tilted to the side and wore black and white stripy robes and a red cape. He squinted his eyes for a few moments, and then jumped in glee.
“Ezio Auditorie!” He yelled, spreading his arms wide in amazement. “Sono così felice di vederti!”
“Sì, amico.” Ezio said, nodding in what seemed like agreement. They hugged each other for a few moments, and then Ezio pulled back, laughing with his friend.
“Ladies, this is Leonardo Da Vinci, an old friend,” Ezio guffawed, turning to face Cassy and Anna and then turned back to Leonardo. “This is Cassy and Anna.”
“Ah! You are English!” Leonardo said, approaching Cassy and offering his hand to her. “And very young!”
Cassy felt her cheeks blush, and shook as Leonardo gripped her hand and rattled her like a child’s toy.
“And you! Come down from your horse, you look very pretty bambino,”
Anna jumped down from her horse, winced as Leonardo hugged her and moved back her head from his incoming face. “Hi,”
“Interesting,” Leonardo speculated. “You’re dialect is not one of any I have heard before. Tell me, where are you from?”
Cassy and Anna looked over to Ezio, who nodded.
“We’re from 2011. And we’re from Effersly in England.”
Leonardo’s eyes widened, he cocked his head, turned around and paced back to his house in excitement and raised his finger. “We shall discuss this inside.”
“This ought to be fun,” Anna deadpanned.
“Yep.”
“So much fun.”
“We’ll be drinking cups of tea and eating biscuits, maybe watch Top Gear,” Cassy said sarcastically, breathing in a bracing herself for the inevitable swarm of questions they were going to get from Leo.
“Well… we’d better go inside.” Cassy suggested, following Ezio into the strange house.
“Yes. We’d better.”
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