Assassin's Creed: Outlaw - Book One

Godfrey's Heir

When the small band reached Newark they divided their efforts. Robin took John to seek evidence of Scarlet on the streets. Brother Tuck headed to the local tavern, ostensibly to find if there was any talk of the outlaw. Yughi took to the rooftops, conducting an aerial search of the town.

It was, then, perhaps no surprise that Yughi should find evidence of Scarlet's plan first. He was used to the assassin's way and it seemed the thief Scarlet had something of the assassin about him also.

Yughi found two bodies, their necks showing the bruise marks of a garotte, in a shed. The shed was situated to the rear of a residence backing on to Newark's market square. Both men had been stripped of their clothes. The only reason that Yughi could think of for that was that they were guards in uniform and Will had wanted the clothes off the men's backs.

This left Yughi with a dilemma. Should he try to locate Robin and warn him that his compatriot was in disguise? Or should he waste no time and proceed to the grand house nearby where Godfrey was ensconced?

There was almost no chance that Will would pause in his work now. A disguise would only prove effective for a short while. There was also the interesting fact that someone was with Will, and also in a stolen uniform. Robin had not mentioned any other missing outlaws.

It appeared that, when it came to this situation, as the assassins would say, nothing was true. If nothing was true then, indeed, everything was permitted.

The layman who had learned this central tenet of the assassin's order tended to believe that the two statements were an endorsement of anarchy. If nothing was true then a man was at liberty to lie. If everything was permitted then surely there was no God in heaven above to regulate man's appetites and indulgence was the only prudent course.

Let the ignorant think what they would. "Nothing is true" meant no more than that one should be mindful that however one believes the world to be is no more than a comfortable personal illusion, no matter how compelling that illusion appears. Everything is permitted was a reminder that one's vision was always limited, any actual underlying "truth" could encompass any eventuality, even the impossible.

In this case, Yughi took the view that he had not the time to prise Tuck from his ale or Robin and John from their bickering. He would be lucky if Godfrey was not dead already.

Yughi scaled the wall of the residence, ran along it and scaled once again, a warehouse adjacent to Godfrey's residence. Already his stomach was spinning and rolling, the assassin did not have a good feeling concerning that which he would find in the upper storey of Godfrey's house.

As he ran along the thatched roof of the residence Yughi's worst fears were confirmed. He heard a cry, cut off suddenly, followed by a second, longer cry and the sound of clashing steel as a fight began.

Swinging down next to the window entrance to the room where the noise had originated Yughi could see a figure, bleeding, laid out on the wooden floor. A stool had overturned and a desk next to it split in two. The door to the room stood open.

With a punch of his gloved had Yughi had broken the window and undone the latch. He opened the window and swung himself in through the casement.

The body on the floor belonged to Miles Godfrey, his life leaking out onto the floorboards he was not yet quite expired.

"Where is Scarlet?" Yughi asked the dying man.

"I know your face," Miles Godfrey said. "You are the man who took me from the inn at Radcliffe. I saw your face for a moment before I fell asleep."

"Aye," Yughi said, "that was me."

"Your work was not well done, then," Godfrey said, a small rivulet of blood snaked from the corner of his mouth. "Those who wished me dead have had their way at last."

"What happened?" Yughi asked.

"The Templars happened," Godfrey answered. "They are not what they seem. I trusted that a refusal to join with them would be respected but now I understand that this is not their mind. They want a world of Templars and Templar slaves. They will do anything to get it."

"Was it not the thief Scarlet, then, that laid you low?" Yughi asked, a sick kind of confusion stirring in his heart.

"Aye," Godfrey said, his lips curled into a half-smile at the thought of his own murder. "That young fool ran me through sure enough but he would never have got to me if it were not for his companion."

"A Templar," Yughi said.

"That," Godfrey agreed, "and my only son. The Templars acknowledge only one kindred bond and it is not that of blood. Remember that my mysterious friend."

With that Miles Godfrey exhaled for the very last time. Yughi's head began to spin. This was not what he had expected in any way. He had believed, arrogantly it seemed, that as he embraced the way of the assassins he should be immune from shock at a turn of events such as this. Now it came to it, though, Yughi discovered within his heart a previously untapped capacity of horror and disgust.

The reverie was broken by the sound of crashing from the room next door. It appeared that  Scarlet would not fall to the hand of Godfrey's son as easily as Godfrey had fallen to the foolish thief.

Even so, Yughi had accompanied Robin Hood to Newark to save Scarlet and bring him safely back to the outlaw base. So this is what he must do, however late it was to stop his foolish attempt on Godfrey's life.

The assassin crossed the room and stepped through the landing outside. The noises of combat came from a room two doors down on the right of the passage. Yughi stepped forward, swift enough to see a figure dressed in the black leather uniform of Godfrey's men use a basin to beat down another, smaller man.

"Lie still. I shall dispatch you swiftly," the man said. "I give you my word as Guy of Gisbourne, heir to the seat of Miles Godfrey."

Yughi stepped forward intending to end this in a single stroke from his hidden blade but this man, Guy of Gisbourne, had better senses than Yughi gave him credit for. As the assassin stepped into position Guy shifted his feet, tipping his weight left and swinging his arm around, delivering a glancing blow to the side of Yughi's head.

"Who's this?" Guy of Gisbourne asked Scarlet. "You have another friend in this house now? Then surely more will follow. Not to worry. There are many other days for me to kill you and your idiot, green-clad leader."

With that, Guy of Gisbourne ran out of the room and down the passage, crying out as he went: "Guards! Outlaws! They have slain my father!"

Yughi recovered from Guy's blow and offered the thief a hand to his feet.

"We had better be gone," Yughi said. "Before reinforcements arrive."

Scarlet took Yughi's hand and the two of them returned to Miles Godfrey's quarters. Yughi swung out of the window, shifting his weight to the left and gripping handholds in the outside of the building.

Turning back to the window he saw Scarlet looking less confident about joining Yughi on the outside of the building.

"Don't tell me you don't know how to climb!" Yughi protested.

"Trees, yes, but buildings? I've never had the cause," the thief replied, a sheepish look making his features appear to glow with awkwardness.

"Take my hand, I'll help you," {Sam}}} Yughi said.

Scarlet took hold of Yughi {{{Sam's} 's hand and clambered out of the window. The sound of guards reaching the landing was like thunder. By himself Sam {{{Yughi} would have been fine.

The thief managed to right himself on the ledge next to Sam {Yughi} and the two of them started to inch their way along towards the roof of the building next door.

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