The Golden City, page 19
part #1 of Assassin's Creed Series
So, they were all tense and alert, and the relative safety of the palace seemed very far away.
But Hytham was encouraged. The more he worked his injured knee, gradually increasing the weight on it as they walked, the stronger it became. Standing in one position for hours bearing all his weight had made the pain worse and made him believe the injury was more severe. He would be bruised and aching for a while, but he didn’t think there was any permanent damage.
He wondered if Leo would escape this ordeal in the same way. The boy was asleep in Thyra’s arms, his head resting on her shoulder. He was young, and had the benefit of a child’s ability to forget, but was it possible he’d ever be able to let go of what had happened to him tonight? People had come to kill him. He’d been hunted, chased in the dark while he was all alone. Because Hytham wasn’t with him. And then he’d seen people killed during Hytham’s rescue. Those things left scars. He could never really be the same after tonight, and Hytham bore some responsibility for that as well.
As if feeling his gaze on them, Thyra glanced sidelong at him. She patted Leo’s back gently. “He’ll sleep for a day at least. He’s exhausted.”
It was the first time she’d spoken to him since the rescue, other than to talk of their plans and next steps. Hytham found he was grateful for the chance to get out of his own thoughts. “He’s lucky to be alive, though I can’t help but wonder what sort of life lies ahead of him after this. So much death can haunt a person, and I can’t imagine it in one so young.”
He thought of Leo’s dreams. A voice in the dark, saying he wouldn’t wake up, that he would never escape. How much worse would that voice be to him now?
How much worse would that dark, mocking voice be to Hytham?
Thyra was silent for a time, looking thoughtful, though she never stopped watching their surroundings for danger. “When I was young, my village was raided by a rival clan,” she said. “My parents were away, off with a hunting party, and I was left behind.”
“How old were you?” Hytham asked.
“Not much older than this one,” Thyra said, shifting Leo against her hip. “I was old enough to look after myself but not old enough to fight off anyone who came for me.” Her gaze was distant with memory. “I hid in a barn. The adults, including my father, had dug a crude sort of tunnel in the back for the children to shelter in, with a hidden entrance and an exit that came out several feet away outside, in case raiders set the barn on fire. The hope was that if that happened, we could run to the river nearby and get away, though it was a slim hope. Anyway, the children knew to go there, so I went.” She frowned. “I remember fire, and screams, blood and running, but it happened so fast that I barely realized what was happening. I thought the battle would be louder, more chaotic, like a grand story told by our fires, but it wasn’t. It was just people running around, smashing things up, killing some of us, and leaving.” She patted Leo’s back again, for his comfort or her own, Hytham wasn’t sure. “It wasn’t the fire or the deaths that stayed with me afterward,” she said. “It was the idea that I knew I wasn’t as safe as I thought I’d been up to that point. I’d taken so many things for granted, but after that, I learned how easily everything you have can be taken away. So, I made sure I knew how to protect the things and people I love. It’s all any of us could do. Maybe Leo will learn the same lesson.”
Hytham could only hope she was right, that the memories Leo would take from this would somehow make him stronger, a better leader for his people. But the part of him that had grown too attached to the boy still felt sorry for that lost innocence. He couldn’t help it.
No parent could.
Basim walked slightly ahead of them, to all appearances scouting the streets and surrounding rooftops, but Hytham had the suspicion that he’d been listening too.
Had Basim had his own experiences with lost innocence? Either his own or through a child? If so, he would likely never acknowledge it or speak of it to Hytham.
And after today, if he was dismissed from the mission and Basim’s side, it wouldn’t matter. Hytham felt the pain of the mistakes he’d made and that subtle, stubborn defiance inside him that insisted that what he’d done hadn’t been entirely wrong. That if their brotherhood didn’t act out of a caring for others, what was it all worth in the end? Was sacrifice all they represented? They worked in the dark to serve the light, but were they never allowed to exist in it as well?
“Stay sharp,” Basim said, and Hytham had a feeling the words were directed at him specifically. His spine stiffened. He was not distracted. He would not fail again.
And somehow, he would find a way to protect Leo from his father, even if it cost him his place in the ranks of the Hidden Ones. He knew himself well enough to know that he’d come too far to turn his back on the boy now.
He just hoped that when the time came, he had the strength to do what was necessary to protect him. No matter the cost.
Chapter Twenty-Two
They arrived back at the palace in the early morning to a storm of activity and heightened security. The Varangian Guard let it be known that Leo had been hidden away in a safe location while the assassins had been dealt with. Hytham later learned that Thyra had told the empress all that had transpired – leaving out the part where they took Leo with them on their rescue mission – so that Eudocia could help spread the story and so she could tell the emperor when word reached him of the attack.
The emperor, of course, had feigned outrage, and when Hytham had presented the evidence he’d found against Theodore, the emperor had ordered him taken and executed, to no one’s great surprise. Basil had no desire for Theodore to be given the chance to speak up in his own defense, in case he tried to accuse the emperor himself of being the man who’d brought him into the conspiracy.
Basil’s actions, though, had the added benefit of making it easier for Thyra to regain the loyalty of the Varangian Guards. After seeing how easily the emperor discarded the conspirators who failed him, none of them were eager to step into Theodore’s shoes.
That was the hope, at least.
Hytham had had his wounds tended to and managed to get some sleep, but now in the twilight of the evening, he’d been called to the empress’s throne room to speak to Anna and to Eudocia Ingerina herself.
He paused outside the door and straightened the new uniform he’d been given. The old one had been too ragged and bloodstained to be saved. There was a fresh bandage on his hand, and the gash there had been stitched. His torso and knee were a landscape of bruises, and it ached whenever he bent his leg, but he was pleased he could already walk without limping.
Inside the throne room there were fresh flowers arranged in pots on either side of the throne, but the empress was not atop the dais. She stood with Anna near a large window on the opposite side of the room, watching the burning orange sky tinged with purple at the edges.
Hytham went to the empress and bowed. “Your grace,” he said simply.
“Welcome, Hytham.” Eudocia came to him, taking his wrist to draw him closer to the window. “Let’s have a look at you. I’m told you survived quite the ordeal.”
He found he had nothing to say to that, so he let her take his bandaged hand and touch the healing cut on his face lightly with her fingers. As she looked him over, Anna stood quietly by, watching him with a wary expression. One side of her face was bruised and swollen from the fight, and her left wrist was wrapped and splinted. She held it protectively against her stomach.
“You also survived an ordeal,” Hytham said, addressing Anna. “I’ve rarely seen someone fight so fiercely.”
At that, she smiled, and it was a vicious expression. It reminded him he never wanted to be her enemy. “They came into our home like cowards in the night to kill a child. That they’re dead now should be a lesson to anyone else who comes for the future emperor.”
“It was a message for you as well, Anna,” Hytham said. “You should know that.”
The empress glanced at him sharply. “What does that mean?”
“You visited the fortune teller,” Hytham said. Anna stiffened, but she didn’t deny it. Hytham had considered speaking to her about this in private, but he’d decided that the empress should know about the nurse’s activities. “You were trying to contact Isaac. Do you know who he is?”
“No,” Anna admitted, “but I overheard Theodore speak the name, so I was trying to find out.” The empress gave her an incredulous look, and Anna bit her lip. “I didn’t tell you, Honored Empress, because if something happened to me, I wanted you to be able to deny everything and leave me to my fate.”
“And you think I would have done such a thing?” The empress scowled at her. “Don’t be foolish.”
“I was not being foolish,” Anna said, lifting her chin, proud even in the face of the empress’s displeasure. “I became close to Theodore because I suspected either he or Justin – or both – were feeding information about Leo’s movements and life at the palace to the conspirators who meant to kill him. I made no progress with Justin, so I focused on the tutor.”
“Did you follow him one day to the market and see him go to the fortune teller?” Hytham asked, connecting the timeline in his mind.
She nodded. “I knew something was going on, because Theodore puts no faith in soothsaying or tales of the future,” she said. “Such things disgust him. He told me as much.”
“You suspected he was conspiring against Leo, so you returned on your own to the fortune teller to see what you could learn,” Hytham said. “That’s the day Basim and I followed you.”
She looked surprised, then resigned. “You are very skilled. I never saw you.”
“Thank you.” He smiled faintly. “What did you ask the fortune teller?” He’d heard only the end of their conversation, not the beginning.
“I asked to speak to the leader of the conspirators,” Anna said, looking down sheepishly when the empress made a noise of disbelief. “I had the token you’d given me long ago, the jeweled comb to trade,” she said. “I thought if I told them what I knew and offered a bribe, they would leave Leo alone.”
The empress frowned. “If you had confided your plan to me, I could have told you these were not the sort of people to be bought.”
“Forgive me,” Anna said, bowing her head. “I shouldn’t have presumed, but I was desperate. I knew there were people who wanted Leo dead, but I didn’t know who all of them were.”
“And when I showed up at the palace, you thought I was another who wanted to harm him,” Hytham said.
“Yes.” Anna looked between them. “I didn’t know her grace had hired you specifically to protect him. I apologize for confronting you as I did that first night.”
“I should have confided in you,” the empress said, smiling ruefully, “but I thought the fewer people who knew what was transpiring, the safer my son would be.”
“I understand. You couldn’t be sure of my loyalty,” Anna said. She held up a hand when the empress made to deny it. “You were right not to trust me. You shouldn’t trust anyone here at the palace.”
“You’re wrong,” Hytham interjected. When Anna looked at him skeptically, he continued, “We grew so accustomed to expecting the knife in the dark, to rooting out enemies, we didn’t look to who our allies might be.”
Hytham’s own suspicions had blinded him to Justin’s true nature, after all. But no more. They had checked into his story thoroughly and found he’d been telling the truth about everything. His desire to protect Leo was genuine.
“It’s the reason you were targeted by the assassins as well,” Hytham said to Anna. “They weren’t sure how much you knew or how much Theodore had told you about them and their plans. They needed to silence you, to be sure.”
“Is she still a target?” the empress asked. “Should I arrange for her to leave the city?”
Anna smiled fondly at her. “You could not make me go from either your side or Leo’s.”
Eudocia scowled, drawing herself up imperiously. “I will not sit by while those I care about are attacked. I would take you and Leo and live in exile if that is what must be done.”
“I hope it won’t come to running,” Hytham said. “Here, at least, you operate from a position of strength. And Basil can’t spend all his time targeting his son. He must rule the city and consider outside threats as well. He’s already risked looking weak by allowing an attack on his own palace.”
“You think he will stop, then?” Anna asked, and the hope in her eyes was an ache in Hytham’s chest. “You think he will give up this plan?”
“I don’t know,” Hytham admitted. “I will speak to Basim about what our next moves will be.” He looked at Anna. “Guard yourself in the meantime. If they come for Leo again, they’ll come for you too.”
“I will see to it she is protected,” the empress said firmly. She came to Hytham and laid a gentle hand on his cheek. The cool touch surprised Hytham, but he didn’t pull away. “Thank you for what you endured on my son’s behalf,” she said softly. “You kept my son alive, and you found the traitor. Thyra was right about you.”
She dropped her hand and turned away before Hytham could ask what she meant by that.
When he left the throne room, he realized he had some time before he had to relieve Thyra with Leo, who was still sleeping and probably would be for the rest of the day. So, he took a different hall past the children’s wing. A quick glance in that direction as he went revealed that it had been cleaned sometime during the early hours of the morning. Bodies gone, broken furniture cleared away, new pieces brought in, and fresh flower arrangements left behind to scent the air with sweetness and cover any lingering stench of blood and death.
How quickly everything goes back to normal here, Hytham thought. He would not be surprised to see a new tutor in place in Leo’s small library the next day, as if Theodore had never existed at all.
The emperor could create any world he wanted in this place. None could challenge him.
Unless the emperor himself was assassinated.
It wasn’t as if the thought had never crossed Hytham’s mind before. He’d gone so far as to mention it to Basim at the beginning of their mission. Leo had already been declared co-emperor with his father. If Basil died, in the best scenario, Eudocia would become regent while Leo came of age. He would have years yet to learn the workings of the city and how to feed his people.
But if Basil was eliminated, Leo would still be a target to outsiders who might see the moment as a time of weakness for the golden city and take the opportunity to lay siege to it. Constantinople had never been taken, but it had lain under siege before, and the people had suffered.
Hytham clenched his hand into a fist as he passed through an archway into the sunlight of the training yard. The worst of it was that Basil, by all accounts Hytham had heard since he’d been here, ruled the city well, kept its military strong and trade prosperous. He was viewed as a better leader than his predecessor, Michael the drunkard, had ever been. And in some twisted part of Basil’s mind, maybe he truly thought he was doing what was best for the future of Constantinople in wiping away Michael’s bloodline, as he saw it.
Even though Hytham would swear Leo was Basil’s true son. He knew it all the way to the bone, and knew that no matter what, Leo would be a more than capable ruler if he was given the chance. He would outshine both his predecessors.
He found Justin in the training yard, as he’d hoped. There were a few other members of the Varangian Guard present doing exercises in the twilight coolness. Hytham gave them a nod of acknowledgment, but his focus was on Justin. The other guards seemed to sense something was going on. One by one, they quietly left the training yard, until Hytham and Justin were alone.
Justin was sitting on a bench, his sword across his knees. It looked like he’d just finished sharpening the blade. It was on the tip of Hytham’s tongue to compliment him on a fine job, but he was afraid it would sound patronizing to the young man, so he shut his mouth.
He wasn’t normally at a loss for what to say. Then again, he was usually a better judge of people, but he’d made a mistake with Justin. If Basim was going to dismiss him from the Hidden Ones and the city, he at least wanted to rectify this mistake before he left.
Justin looked up as he approached. A sardonic smile pulled at his mouth. “I should get Leo to teach me how you do that,” he said. “You move like a ghost.”
“After last night, I feel a bit like one,” Hytham admitted.
Justin’s face creased in a frown. “Yes, I heard what happened to you. I should have come back to the palace with you immediately. If I hadn’t waited, if I’d done my duty as expected of me, maybe none of the assassins would have got away.”
It was strange to think that others might be questioning their actions regarding last night. Hytham had reserved all the blame for the outcome on himself. He hadn’t considered that others would be feeling the weight of their responsibilities as well.
“You had a duty to your friend to make sure they were safe,” Hytham said. “Whoever they are, they’re innocent in all this. They deserve protection too.” Hytham moved to the bench and sat down, easing his weight off his sore knee.
Justin watched the movement. “Perhaps now is the time to spar,” he said, smiling ruefully. “While you’re recovering, I might actually have a chance of beating you.”
“I have no doubt you would handle me with ease,” Hytham said, with a slight groan. But he appreciated the young man’s words, the implication that it was only a matter of time before he was back to his full strength.
They sat for a moment in silence, listening to the night birds chittering at each other in the trees, as the breeze ruffled the dark green ivy along the wall at their backs.
“I owe you an apology,” Hytham said at last. It wasn’t that he’d been gathering his courage, exactly, but that he was trying to determine all that he needed to say to Justin. Some of it felt too big, too close to the things in his own heart with regards to Leo. It made things difficult to say out loud. “I misjudged you from our first meeting, and I let it influence my subsequent actions and decisions.”
