Assassin's Creed: Outlaw - Book One

A Hasty Rescue

As Yughi had feared the mob had come for Baruch's family. They had broken in the doors of his friend's house and set the place alight. As Yughi scaled the roof of Baruch's home he could hear cries for help from inside. Yughi was not sure how much assistance he could be but he was determined to try.

This was no time for niceties, Yughi crashed through an upper floor window of the burning house. As he landed his body was wreathed in heat and his eyes began to sting from the smoke in the air. The occupants of the room cried out as they backed away from this new invader.

"Baruch!" Yughi called out. "It is me, Yughi!"

"Yughi! My friend!" Baruch said, coming forward to help Yughi to his feet. "I am glad that you came but I am afraid you are too late. We barricaded ourselves in here so the mob set fire to our house. Now we cannot escape.

"Do not be so sure," Yughi said. "I will help you. There must be something we can do."

Yughi went back to the window to peer out. The mob were still gathered on the street shouting threats and slurs up at Baruch's windows. As Yughi attempted to scan the area for possible means of escape he was spotted.

"It's one of the Jews!" shouted a voice from ground level.

"Filthy Judem!" another cried out.

"Burn in hell, Christ killer!" another joined in.

Someone pitched a rock up at the window. It rebounded off the wall at the side of the casement. The heat in the room was growing. Yughi counted six children, two women, Baruch and two other men, presumably his brothers. Yughi had to get them to safety and quickly but he couldn't do so while the street was clogged up with the mob.

More little stones were being thrown now. One whistled past Yughi's head, nearly catching him above his right eye. Yughi had to stop being angry and start thinking about the safety of Baruch's family. He needed to disperse the mob.

Yughi scanned the room, looking for something to use as a weapon. Nothing looked immediately useful. Then the bookshelf in one corner caught his attention. Yughi crossed to the door of the room, still barricaded. He began pulling at the chairs and the small desk that had been placed there to ward off intruders.

"I can feel the heat through the door," Baruch said. "They retreated as soon as the fire was hot enough. We aren't getting out down the stairs."

"I don't need an exit," Yughi said. "I need the flames."

"I don't understand," Baruch said.

"I hope you will be able to find in your heart to forgive my next actions," Yughi said, carefully testing the handle of the door with his gloved hand. It was hot, but not so much that Yughi could not operate the latch.

"Why?" Baruch asked. "What are you going to do?"

"What's necessary," Yughi said. He pulled the door open a crack to peer out onto the landing beyond.

Baruch had been correct. The fire raged in the hallway, not an inferno but there was no chance of getting everyone out down the stairs. There were flames though, and plenty of them. Yughi had to begin his work.

The assassin crossed to Baruch's bookshelves pulled down three large volumes that looked like ledgers. He opened one and began to separate groups of pages from the binding.

"What are you doing?" Baruch demanded. "Are you mad?"

"As I said, I am deeply sorry," Yughi replied. "But I have to get rid of the mob below or nobody is going anywhere."

"What does that have to do with ruining my family's legacy?" Baruch demanded. "These are the ledgers of my grandfathers. They hold details of medicine, track spiritual progress and record all of our business dealings. It is a full record of our family's history in England since we arrived. It goes all the way back to our days in Spain."

"If your family wants a future, it will have to surrender some of its past," Yughi replied. He took the fragments of the book he had destroyed out onto the landing and lit them on the flames. Then he took the burning bundles over to the window and began to throw them out.

"Watch out!" shouted someone. "The Jew's gone crazy."

At first, the crowd attempted to attack back. All they had to hand were stones and poor aim. A couple of them tried to come back into the house but the blaze kept them outside.

Once Baruch and his family saw what Yughi was doing they all fell to helping him. Within a few minutes, a rain of burning paper scattered the crowd, they fled in panic. Yughi and Baruch watched them go.

"What now?" Baruch asked.

"Let's get the children out," Yughi said. He vaulted over the sill of the window and descended down to ground level.

"Throw them down to me!" he called up. One by one the six children were dropped from the window, Yughi caught them and lowered them gently to the ground.

"I have a ladder in the back!" Baruch called out. "If you can still get it then the rest of us should be able to climb down. Hurry!"

Yughi took the children round to the backyard. Baruch's eldest son, a lad of no more than twelve showed Yughi where his father kept the ladder, hooked to the wall in the back of the kitchen. The kitchen was ablaze like the rest of the lower floor. Yughi would not find it easy to retrieve his prize. He pulled the cloth of his scarf over his nose and mouth and pulled his hood tight over his head before plunging into the house.

He managed to retrieve the ladder with only minor burns to his hands and arms. He took it around to the front and before long Baruch, his brothers and the wives were all safe on the ground.

"Well, we have no home now," Baruch said. "Nor would it seem that we can stay safe in Lincoln. At least we are alive. Yughi, it is you we have to thank for this if there is anything we can do..."

"Unless you can find me a Templar called William de Newenham I do not think you will be able to," Yughi said. "The fact that you and your family are safe and well is thanks enough."

"If I hear any news," Baruch said. "You will be the first to know."

Yughi was glad to have helped his friend, even at the expense of losing his target. Satisfied that Baruch and his family could make good their escape he returned to the rally point that he had agreed with Tuck and Marian before the chaos had begun.