Assassin's Creed: Outlaw - Book One

An Unnecessary Rescue

Yughi could tell the Lesser Hall was somewhere on the western side of the enclosure, the most difficult building to get to. Going over the roof would entail him killing at least two guards, something he had no taste for. Below him and to his left was a hay cart, stuffed full with soft hay.

Yughi decided a ground approach would afford him the cover he needed. He dove forward, rolling his shoulders, fell the thirty feet down to the hay cart to be enveloped in the soft hay.

As he landed Yughi sensed the presence of a guard patrol. In the courtyard guards walked in pairs, there was one officer flanked by two sentries but they didn't come back as far as the south wall. Yughi waited for the patrol to pass and hopped out of the hay cart.

He sprinted for the bottom corner of the castle. At the corner of the building was a low pen, used for storage of spare armour plates and various weapons. Yughi hopped into this in time to miss the officer's patrol coming past.

From the storage pen, Yughi crossed to a well outside the castle's main entrance. The patrols crossed and passed once more and Yughi made it to the edge of the stable building, adjacent to the lesser hall. Yughi noted that it would be possible to jump from the roof of the lesser hall into the upper window of the stable, a handy thing to know for future reference.

Yughi could have then slipped into the Lesser Hall's main entrance. He opted, instead, to slip down to the edge and see if there was a back entrance, as this was less likely to be guarded.

There was a back entrance to the hall, unfortunately, guarded by three men. The good thing was that the back of the hall was filled with crates and chests piled three high. Yughi slipped into the shadows between them unnoticed and then climbed up to the top of the stack.

From here he had access to the rafters above the hall's lower level. Unlike Derby Cathedral the walls did go all the way to the top here, except at the doorways where the jamb of thick wood demarcated the entrance but the beams ran straight through into the rooms beyond.

Skipping nimbly from beam to beam Yughi got passed two storage rooms and into the main hall body. This room did not contain guards. It had been set up as a dwelling, a table, a stove and a long trestle furnished the hall.

Yughi lowered himself from the roof and made his way towards the staircase hung from the Western wall, supported every ten steps by wooden columns. The stairs gave access to an upper level. He got halfway to the foot of the stairs when a voice hailed him:

"I told the Sheriff that he could station as many soldiers as he liked around my prison, but that none should disturb my solitude."

Yughi turned to see a dumpy blonde woman standing at the top of the stairs.

"I apologise, milady," he said. "I was not a party to these orders for, you see, I am not one of the Sheriff's men."

"Then who are you?" the woman asked.

"I have been sent by the Lady Bess, seeking the Maid Marian," said Yughi.

"Then you have found her," the blonde woman said. "So what now?"

"We must away," Yughi said. Before he got any further a heavy blow landed on the crown of his head, bringing stars into his field of vision.

Being blindsided was not something Yughi was particularly used to, but the pain was something he had learned to endure. Angry and stunned he fell forward, tucked and rolled, coming back up to a standing position and ready to take on his attacker.

The attacker was not one to stay put, however. Even as Yughi sprang forward the assailant was rolling away to one side. Yughi decided it would be better to let the attacker come to him, so he took up a firm stance.