Assassin's Creed: Outlaw - Book One

The Rescue of Will Stutely

Time was short, so Yughi had not pressed the matter. The dedication to the mission did not lessen his curiosity as to how it was that the outlaws planned to gain access to Mammesfield Square in sufficient numbers for the plan to be executed.

As Yughi picked out his route to a position hidden above the gallows, where Will Stutely was to be hanged, Yughi cast his eye over the gathered crowd. The townspeople had come in force to watch the Sheriff of Nottingham's idea of justice.

Jumping across an alley between two buildings Yughi could see that this execution had attracted far more interest than he had guessed. The streets of the town played host to a tightly packed throng of people come out to see the events unfold. Some of these people had to be from the other surrounding towns.

If the plan was executed as expected then this would be a good thing. No clearer message could be sent about the strength of Robin Hood's outlaws. Yughi hoped that he had correctly estimated the complacency of the Sheriff and his men. A defeat in this public show would wound the outlaws in more ways than just physically.

Yughi had not taken his station for too long when a cry went up, followed by a sudden hush in the assembled crowd. A passageway through the crowd to the gallows was formed by soldiers and Will Stutely was brought forward, surrounded by guards. Following on behind, proud, stately was William de Wendenal, the Sheriff of Nottingham.

The party stood up on the stage before the gallows. Will Stutely was placed front and centre, the outlaw brought low for all the crowd to see. The silence of the crowd deepened. In the moments before the Sheriff opened his mouth Yughi scanned the crowd once more, spotting Little John near to the front, wearing a rough leather hood to hide his features from scrutiny.

Yughi picked out a couple of other outlaws in the crowd. The feeling of being involved in an assassin's mission was eerie, it was as if the Brotherhood had come forth from Alamut to be with him in this far away foreign land.

At that moment Yughi felt in his heart that this plan would work. The moment of peaceful faith passed as the Sheriff addressed the assembled crowd.

"People of Mammesfield, you have lived in fear for too long," he announced, his broad, flat voice appearing to add to the thick, heavy atmosphere in the square. "Since Richard left to attend to his foreign affairs it has fallen to us, those he left behind, to carve order and justice from the brooding anarchy left in Richard's wake.

"Outlaws stalk the lands, they steal the bread from your mouths, they lurk in the shadows, their intent nothing more than the dissolution of this proud kingdom. Well, no more."

The sheriff's voice was deepening in intensity, his tone measured and deliberate. His speech was like a tale told to a small child. It had a lilting, hypnotic quality. It was another thing that Yughi had learned to hate, this sing-song delivery of rhetoric was a trick originating in the Templar training camps.

Devices of speech, such as those employed by the Romans, were intended to harness the stupor of a crowd and bend it to the speaker's will. Mobs could be forged into weapons by effective use of such devices.

The weak spot of such a manipulation was in the reliance on rhythm. A disruption to the beat of the seductive speech could flip an entire crowd at once, as the assassins had learned to their benefit.

"This one, Will Stutely," the Sheriff continued, "one of the outlaw band that even now huddles together for safety in the forest of Sherwood, stands before you now. He is accused of treason against the true ruler of this land good Prince John. He is accused of the murder of the Prince's good and noblemen.

"In such desperate times, and with no one present to take his side I have taken an executive decision to present him here today to be rightly and justly hanged.