Assassin's Creed: Brothers Unite (#Wattys2016) |Assassin's Creed Fanfiction|

Chapter 26 Altaïr

   We were all crammed into the small living room for the second time in two days. Archer was staring into the fire as Edward told everyone what had happened. I hadn't really been paying attention. I was staring out the window. It was raining, again. I liked it better in Masyaf. There, it was sunny almost all the time. It got a little hot at times, but it was better than rain.

   Ezio nudged me. "Pay attention," he whispered.

   "But I know what happens already," I said.

   "So do I. But Edward is saying why it matters."

   "-can find us by using it," Edward was saying. "He can hear us too. We need to find him so we can get the anchor back."

   Archer cleared his throat. "I can confuse him."

   Everyone looked at Archer. "How?" Connor asked. "To do that we would need..." he trailed off as Archer pulled a pouch off of his belt.

   "This is filled with anchors," Archer said. "All I need to do is wear several, and Shay will think that I'm everyone."

   I frowned. It could work. "But what would Shay think if we were all in one place with you? If you were wearing..." I counted quickly. Aveline, Arno, me, Ezio, Edward, Connor, and Shadiya. "Seven extra anchors, then if you were with the rest of us it would seem like there were fifteen assassins all in one place. Wouldn't that make Shay suspicious?"

   We were silent for a minute. "He has a point," Arno said. "Unless..." I could tell Arno was trying to work out the problem. "Unless we all took ours off. We would 'vanish' in a way. Shay wouldn't be able to find us-"

   "But we would be able to find Shay," Aveline finished. "Because Archer would be able to lead us close, point us in the right direction and then walk away. Shay would follow Archer and if we were quiet enough."

   "You two are brilliant!" Connor said. "I think it would work."

   I wasn't so sure. "But we don't know how Shay would follow Archer. It wouldn't do us any good if we were hiding in the bushes and Shay came along and crashed into us, or if we were in the trees and Shay wound up in the same tree."

   "Archer frowned. "I didn't think of that."

   "We might need to take a chance on it anyway. But we would need to be really cautious," Edward said.

   I looked back out the window. It looked like something was moving in the forest. I moved slowly over to the window.

   "Altaïr?" Shadiya said. "What is it?"

   "I..." I strained to see past the water streaming down the glass. "I have a feeling someone is out there." I saw the movement again. Gold? Someone was running across the grass, wearing gold. "James!"

   Edward leaped to his feet. "What?!"

   "James Kidd! Open the door!"