As Yughi drew closer to the outside of Nottingham Castle he understood Lady Bess's warnings better. The Sheriff of Nottingham had guards stationed everywhere around the castle walls. The Sheriff's men were on the streets, in the towers and on the rooftops.
To many, this would have represented too great a challenge but to Yughi this was no more than another Templar stronghold. He had spent too long feeling as if he was no more than a boy recently; taking on responsibilities that made him uncomfortable, trying to improve his tree-running, trying to fit in with the outlaws.
The task of finding and liberating the Maid Marian was little different to many things he had done in the Holy Land and back in Constantinople. This, at last, was an opportunity to feel competent, to feel that an objective was well within his grasp and he knew what he was doing.
He started by exploring the outside wall of the castle, trying to find a point of ingress. The castle was built on a hill, at one side a steep cliff dropped down into a river valley. From that side, guards could not be placed near the walls looking up.
Yughi knew from his study of the caves that the castle had many tunnel entrances underneath. The problem was that the immediate network surrounding the castle was well known. Barred gates had been erected to stop people entering the 'official' tunnel network used by the Sheriff and his men. Those passages were well guarded, virtually impenetrable from outside.
The weakness that Yughi had already identified was that the defences and patrols were designed to keep people out of the network. If you were already inside Yughi guessed that escape would be less of an issue.
So all he really had to do was get into the lesser hall, find Marian and get into the tunnels. He thought he could shepherd one woman through the network and come back outside near to Bess's lodgings.
The steep wall that backed onto the cliff provided Yughi with his entrance opportunity. As the side appeared to be sheer it was lightly guarded. Yughi believed he could get to the top and into the castle grounds leaving the minimum number of casualties in his wake.
The guard patrol only sent one guard up to the corner, a couple of times Yughi observed the man about his business he didn't even look up to examine the wall once. Even so, if Yughi was going to avoid catching the man's eye he would have to stick close to the corner and climb quickly.
Not wishing to delay Yughi descended from the roof of the tavern opposite the back corner of the castle and ran to the castle wall. Once there he threw himself up the wall pushing his fingers into a crack in the brickwork at the corner.
The business of climbing was not as easy as it could have been, in one place he had to jump upwards to make the last handhold, jutting out under the parapet of the tower. Had he missed the handhold Yughi would have fallen backwards, probably to his death. Such notions had not disturbed his mind since his mid-teens.
Yughi clung to the edge of the battlements and peered carefully over the edge of the wall. The tops of the walls were guarded better heading south to north than east to west. There were a couple of token guards patrolling the top of the southern battlements but it was clear that no one saw that as a viable avenue for attack.
Making sure he was unobserved Yughi climbed onto the battlement, headed east a little way and then dropped over the opposite wall on the inside of the castle. A little way in a winch point was built into the wall, tucked just out of sight of the battlements. Yughi went hand over hand to the jutting scaffold and dropped onto it, turning on the ball of his foot as he did so.
From here, using the eagle sense, he could get a good idea of the inner layout of the castle. To the north were built a number of small residences enclosed within the round wall of the castle. Underneath Yughi, in the northeast corner was the grand hall roof. Jutting out from the centre of the south wall was the main castle building.
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.
For a moment neither of them moved. The attacker was clad head to toe in black, in garb reminiscent of his apprenticeship travels along part of the Silk Road. The attacker was slight in the manner of those from Asia, his head was covered so only the eyes showed through. Yughi could not make out much more in the dim light.
A wave of dizziness came over the assassin then, and he felt his knees almost buckle beneath him. The business of breathing suddenly took on effort and the image of the black-clad assailant split into three before his eyes.
Yughi reached up to touch his head and discovered that the left side of his hood appeared to be stuck to the side of his face. He reached around and plucked the shaft of a long quill, fletched at the back with feathers, out of his neck. The quill had pierced the cloth of his hood and it pricked as he pulled it from his neck.
Now, as Yughi understood what had happened, the attacker moved in. He made a simple striking move that would be sufficient to put out a defenceless victim. This was not the first time Yughi had been drugged and then attacked. In actual fact, he was trained to deal with such situations.
Yughi felt no fear. He blocked, pushed grabbed and struck the opponent in the face.
Surprised the attacker grunted and spun with a more aggressive strike. Yughi was as ready as he could be, another lazy block, grab lock and elbow.
The opponent's frustration was audible. It was clear he expected that Yughi should have fallen by now. The opponent spun and leapt into the air, graceful as a dancer. If the wheel kick connected then Yughi would go down, but it was a risky move for the attacker too.
Yughi crouched, somewhat inelegantly, as the foot flew past overhead. He popped back up with a double-fisted strike into the opponent's stomach, sending them backwards, winded and in pain.
The fog was already beginning to clear, the poison was not meant to be long-lasting or fatal. Yughi could feel his focus returning.
The dumpy blonde woman came racing down the stairs towards the fallen figure.
"Milady!" she cried out in alarm.
Still not quite back to normal Yughi leaned against a table and let the woman minister to the small man in black. He supposed, were it not for the poison fogging his mind, he might have guessed what was really going on a little faster.
The blonde woman pulled the mask of the attackers head and a profusion of curly auburn hair burst from underneath it. Yughi blinked as he realised he had just beat a woman into unconsciousness.
"If you have harmed the Maid Marian you will swing, sir," the blonde woman spat at him.
"What?" he said. "I didn't mean... what was she doing..."
"You, like most men, think a Maiden defenceless, you think if she does not have the favour of a man then she is friendless," the woman said.
Maid Marian let out a little groan, she was starting to come round. This stemmed the flow of the Blonde's ire.
"Are you shouting Emma?" she said. "Stop shouting. You get so shrill."
"I must apologise, my lady," Yughi said. "I did not know it was you."
"Because I snuck up on you and belted you in the back of the head," said Marian. "And I put enough poison in you that you should have been out for ten minutes. I am not surprised there was any confusion."
"But why?" Yughi asked as the slim young woman who had nearly put Yughi out cold got up off the floor.
"Because Bess told me you were coming, and that she didn't trust you," Marian said. "So that means I don't trust you either."
"So what's changed?" Yughi asked.
"You beat me," Marian said. "This is me surrendering, do what you want," she threw open her hands and stood, dejected.
"I came to rescue you, to take you to Lady Bess," Yughi said.
"She said you might say that," Marian said. "Do I look like I need rescuing?"
"Uh, not really," Yughi replied. His head was spinning but he suspected not from the poison any more.
"I'm waiting until the Sheriff marches me up the aisle day after tomorrow," she said. "Then I am going to kill him, his smug, irritating nephew and anyone else I take a disliking to. After that, I shall escape on my own. Any objections to that?"
"So, you're planning to kill the Sheriff?" Yughi said.
"That's right," Marian said.
"At your wedding?" Yughi said.
"Technically, but I'm not that disappointed, I've never really seen myself as the marrying kind," said Marian.
"So, but..." Yughi stopped for a moment to take a breath. "I don't think your plan is prudent."
"Oh, why not?"
"It is too soon," Yughi said. "If you kill the sheriff now then it will put the Templars on alert. We, uh, that is I represent the outlaws of Sherwood Forest, we are working on the basis that the Sheriff and his Templar masters will remain complacent, it's easier to mount a resistance that way."
"What do you know of Templars?" Marian asked, coming closer to Yughi, her brows knit in puzzlement. "Who are you?"
"Oh," Yughi said, realising he had introduced his cause ahead of himself. "I am Yughi Gal, assassin, friend to Robin Hood, on a mission on behalf of Al Mualim, Master of the Brotherhood of Assassins at Alamut."
"I see," Marian said. "And you stand against the Order of the Knights Templar?"
"They have come to the attention of the Brotherhood," Yughi confirmed. "They are a dangerous new power."
"I agree, Yughi Gal, assassin," Marian said. "I think Bess may have judged you a little harshly, you are stupid, but you have a good heart."
"I am glad you think so, milady," Yughi said.
"You need to learn not to be so subservient around a woman, assassin," Marian said. "It does not serve to inspire confidence."
"I'm sorry," Yughi said. "I'm a little confused, someone poisoned me."
Marian smiled.
"Maybe you are so confused you have delivered a stay of execution to one who does not deserve one. If you and your outlaws oppose the Templars then perhaps it would be wise to meet with them before I run the Sheriff through with a blade."
Marian turned to her companion, Emma.
"We are going now," she said. "This man has a way out for us, is that correct?"
"Oh," Yughi said. "Yes, I do."
"Very well, I didn't like it here anyway, far too dark and depressing, let's get moving. I'd like to breathe fresh air before New Year, if I may."