Yughi found moving through Lincoln easier upon his return. The skies had darkened, the fog of conflict wreathed the city, making it easier to move in shadows. The people, and the guards, were tired now. Since the uproar at the cathedral that morning the riots had run. Now evening drew in, even rabble rousers needed to rest.
It was the same in the Holy Land, cities like Tyre and Antioch were the site of many conflicts. After any battle was a time of wary quiet. People, citizens and soldiers alike, needed time to prepare for another incident. This kind of fear and chaos were the tools of the Templars. When they offered a strong hand the fearful were more likely to accept.
Such by-products of unrest were also of use to the Assassins. People were tired, they let go of the grip they held on their secrets, they did not look so hard in corners. The assassin could learn much in the aftermath of a battle.
Skulking in alleys, jumping across rooftops Yughi listened to the conversation of the passing guards. He was sifting for news of Newenham, Marian's activities, or anything else that may be of value. He quickly found that the Templar Soldiers were trained to be tight-lipped. They might talk about the things they observed in the town, but never discussed reports or information directly.
Even so, the Templars had to communicate. Eventually, Yughi's patience paid off. A scout arrived with fresh orders for the patrols. Those orders had to have originated somewhere. Yughi followed the scout through three patrols. Then the soldier made the fatal mistake of attempting to cut through an alley between two buildings.
Yughi dropped from a building into the yard behind a house. He unlatched the gate of the house as his quarry was passing. A quick throw and a couple of blows from his fists and the soldier lay on the floor in a daze. Yughi closed the gate before interrogating the man.
"You bring orders," he said to the man. "From who?"
"I'll not tell you," the soldier said. "You'll have to kill me."
"Then I will kill you," Yughi said, allowing the tip of his hidden blade to slice into the skin around the soldier's jaw. Yughi paused, not removing the blade from its position. He looked into the eyes of the captive soldier. Yughi made an effort to remain calm, his breath even. He had to establish command of the situation.
"It was the Preceptor," the soldier said. "He gave me the orders."
"Where can I find the Preceptor?" Yughi asked.
"You would have to be insane to go there," the soldier replied. "They will kill you."
"As my enemy, you should wish nothing less," Yughi said. "If it assures my death to reveal its location this is what you should do."
"The preceptory is in Temple Bruer, to the south," the soldier said. "No enemy of the Templars should go there of his own free will."
"You have not heard the assassin's creed," Yughi answered. "By our law, everything is permitted."
Before the soldier could respond Yughi killed the man. He could not risk news of his approach reaching the Templars.
Yughi struck out south of the city. He acquired a horse and rode over a low hill, down into a long, flat wooded area. Following the road south, he soon came near to a Templar patrol, six men all mounted on horseback. Urging his own mount on he followed the men back along a less well-travelled road. It took them nearly an hour to reach the preceptory.
When the patrol passed inside the gates of the building night had fallen. Guards patrolled low walls, a single tower looked out over the woods to the north and east. To the south and west were farmland. The preceptory was walled on all sides. Here was a fort, built in secret in the heart of England. Did King Richard know what the Templars were doing in Britain? Did Prince John?
Yughi could not presume to know a great deal of the Templars outside of the Holy Land. It was not his impression that the monarchy here considered themselves subject to Templar will. Unsurprisingly it appeared that the Templars had other ideas.
Yughi tied his horse to a tree so that he could make an approach to the compound. Patrols and guard rotations were light. Probably a combination of elevated presence in Lincoln and arrogance. Yughi found few problems in accessing the courtyard. The preceptory building itself was locked up tight. Yughi decided his best avenue of attack was from the roof.
The main building was split into three sections. Two towers and a gatehouse looked out over a training yard. Behind this, the middle section was a single story flat hall. Four tall windows about four feet wide marked out this space. At the back of the preceptory was a taller cylindrical building, taller than the towers of the gatehouse, crowned with a pointed conical roof.
Stables and servants quarters were built into the walls to the south of the main building. Another yard separated the buildings. The space behind the conical hall to the west was more restrictive. Yughi ran along the rooftops of the servants' houses, out over the stables and jumped onto the slope of the conical hall roof.
The angle of the roof and the smooth slate of the tiles were not ideal but Yughi kept moving, dancing across the roof and scaling the south tower of the gatehouse. He slipped into the tower through a high window to find himself in an empty guard post. The Templars were so confident of their secrecy that their diligence had suffered. Yughi needed to ensure that he remained focused. He should not make the same mistakes as his enemy.
Yughi found a stairway leading down out of the tower. The passageway was narrow and there were few hiding spots. He would have to rely on his senses to remain concealed. Halfway down the stairs, Yughi was forced to stop at the sound of voices coming from the hallway below.
"We scoured the city, my lord," one of the voices said. "There was no evidence of any outlaws still at large."
"Just because there was no evidence," came another voice that Yughi did not recognise, "does not mean that they were not there."
An uneasy silence followed that. Yughi could picture this man's subordinates not wishing to say anything for fear of causing offence. Yughi wondered if the Templar would send his knights back to Lincoln directly.
"The hour is late, the cover afforded by night too convenient for our enemy," the man said. "Go to the dormitory and sleep. We will resume the search tomorrow at first light."
"Aye, my lord," the knight replied. Yughi heard footsteps moving away from the base of the stairs.
Moving swiftly, but silently Yughi descended the steps. At the bottom was a small entrance hallway separating the two watchtowers. In the east wall were the main doors into the building, twelve feet tall, stout and barred. To the west were smaller double doors that stood open leading through into a corridor wide enough for three men to walk down it abreast.
Yughi saw the retreating backs of several knights moving away from him. All along the corridor were doors and many of the knights made their way through those doors as they walked along the hall. By the time the last man had reached the other end, he was alone. Yughi recognised him. It was Asheby, and where Asheby trod Newenham, and hopefully Marian, would not be far behind.
Asheby passed through the door at the far end. By the time the door had closed Yughi was only three paces from the handle. Yughi lifted the latch with practised control and slipped into the hall beyond. Here, indeed, was what he had been looking for. Marian, tied to a chair placed upon the dais of an altar in the gigantic roundhouse of the preceptory.
As Asheby approached her she regarded him with mute, terrible fury. Yughi knew full well that if she were not bound up so tightly Asheby would not have about him the air of casual confidence he wore so comfortably.
"It would appear," he said as he made up the last few steps that separated them. "That your friends have eluded me and abandoned you. A shame, but it gives us time for a little conversation. I am a lover of knowledge. It would please me greatly if you would share some of yours with me."
Yughi looked around. He was shrouded in shadows of a walkway that surrounded the central space of the roundhouse. He could make out two sentries posted near to where he stood, facing Asheby and Marian. Other than that they were alone.
This was an opportunity that was unlikely to present itself a second time. An opportunity to rescue Marian and take down Asheby. Yughi could not afford to stand idle.
He thumbed out two throwing knives and quickly delivered them into the necks of the two sentries. He did not have time to watch them drop. The sound of their bodies falling would alert his prey. Instead, he sprinted into the main body of the hall, closing on Asheby with the fury of a vengeful demon.
He did not hesitate. He plunged the hidden blade into Asheby's side administering a fatal blow immediately.
"Eluded, yes," he said quietly to the dying Templar, "but not abandoned. We do not abandon our own, Templar."
"What do you care of Templars, outlaw?" Asheby demanded as Yughi laid his expiring body down to the ground.
"I fight side by side with the outlaws," Yughi said. "I am not one of them. This you would know were you a crusader."
"You're one of them?" Asheby said, amazement cutting through the shortness in his breath. "You're an assassin! Such as recounted in the words spoken by the Grand Master."
"I am, and we live wherever men are held captive by those with such limitless thirst for power."
"You cast yourself as righteous?" Asheby sneered. "Nothing you have done here is righteous. Accounts coming back from the Holy Land paint another picture. You foster chaos. You are parasites feeding upon fear, deceit and uncertainty."
"This is all just perspective," Yughi replied. "We adhere to a creed, part of it says that nothing is true."
"Aye, it is not true that I will live to see you and your friends pay for the damage you have done this night," Asheby said. "Neither is it true that you will leave this place alive. The Grand Master's servants will see to that."
Those were David Asheby's last words. The preceptor exhaled and his eyes glazed over. Yughi did not have time to close the lids over the staring dead orbs before hands were laid upon him. The feeling of the grip was tight, hard and set something ablaze in Yughi's instinct. As he was hauled upright and thrown backwards he tried to make sense of what was happening.
He had heard no one come in. He was positive he would have, his senses were keen enough to detect the latch. Yet these hands indicated that not one, but two men had come upon him unaware. Scrambling to his feet Yughi beheld with horror the throwing knives jutting from the necks of his attackers.
Yughi's first thought was that the two were armoured more heavily than he had seen. As the two guards drew their swords and stepped forward Yughi saw the truth was something far stranger and more horrible. The knife had sliced open the thick fabric of one attacker's shirt. The flesh beneath was yellow-grey. As they approached Yughi caught a whiff of the grave upon them.
There was no time to muse upon this blasphemy. Yughi moved his bracer to catch the swinging blade of the first knight. He brought his hooked dagger around to catch a blow from the second. He knew what he could do to down these juggernauts if they were living men. The knives still jutting from their lifeless neck flesh said those tactics would not work.
In a move of pure desperation, Yughi plunged his hooked dagger into the chest of one of the knights. The force of the blow sent the monster staggering back a couple of paces. Yughi had to duck and roll out of the way of a second incoming blow. Instinctively Yughi bought himself time by dropping a smoke bomb.
The resultant cloud gave Yughi time to draw his sword. He fended off a couple more blows and even managed to hack into the side of the other attacker. Both men would now be mortally wounded if they had been alive in the first place. No blood fell from the wounds, neither injury appeared to inconvenience the two ghouls that Asheby had unleashed upon him.
Half an instant later a blow came down that would split Yughi's torso from the right clavicle down to his gizzards. He sprang backwards but too late. The tip of the blade broke the bone splitting open the shoulder and forcing Yughi to drop his sword. All the training of a Master Assassin could not protect you from an opponent who did not respond to having their guts scooped from their belly.
There was the whistle of another blade, Yughi prepared for his end. This time, however, the blade was not wielded by his attackers but by Marian. The monster's head sprang from its shoulders and the creature went down at last.
"Pin the other, with your hidden blade!" Marian ordered him. Yughi did not hesitate. He loosed the blade up under the second ghoul's jaw. The blade shot up into the skull, splintering bone and carving through the dead meat.
"Push him to me!" Marian commanded. The pain in Yughi's right shoulder was overwhelming but Yughi pushed forward, even as he retracted the blade. Marian got ready for another swing. It was plain the girl was tired because this slice only separated two-thirds of the thing's head from its body. Despite this her aim was true, the monster slumped to the floor, as lifeless as nature should want it.
"There's a door at the back," Marian said. "Can you follow me?"
"What?" Yughi's mind was a soup of pain, fire and nightmarish visions. Marian had stooped next to the first ghoul she'd decapitated and was searching the body for something. "How?"
Marian found what she was seeking and pulled it from the creature's back. She held it up, a small, ornate golden disc.
"One less for the Grand Master to soil corpses with. We haven't got time for the second, come on."
Indeed Yughi could hear the sound of approaching feet in the corridor.
Yughi tried to move forward, but he stumbled. The pain in his shoulder was making him sick and weak. He wanted to pass out but that would mean death. Marian took his left arm and slung it over her shoulder.
"Come on, assassin," she said. "You are far too useful to be allowed to die here. We must return to Sherwood, and from there, well, you'll see..."
With Marian's help, Yughi made it out into the yard. She put him into the back of a cart and sat down beside him. Someone was driving the cart but Yughi could not see who it was.
"What's happening?" Yughi asked, his voice weak, his vision dimming.
"You have no idea," Marian said. "But you will."
With that reassurance, Yughi Gal fell into a blackness where nothing was true, and everything was permitted.