Free Assassin's Creed: Underworld by Oliver Bowden Page B

done.
When the coin dropped the noise surprised me and it woke Dani and he was quicker to react than I
was.’
    ‘You should have struck the moment you were
in the room,’ said Ethan, and an anger that didn’t really belong with the boy was
directed at him anyway. ‘You should have struck the second you had the chance. Your
hesitation was your undoing. What did I always tell you? What did your father always advise? You
hesitate, you die – it’s as simple as that. An assassination is not a cerebral act.
It requires great thought, but all of that thought goes into the planning and preparation, the
contemplation and visualization prior to the act itself.
That
is the time for second,
third, fourth thoughts, as many thoughts as you need until you are sure – absolutely
certain – that you are ready to do what needs to be done. Because when you are in the
moment, when you stand before your target, there is no time for hesitation.’
    Jayadeep’s eyes swam with tears as he
looked up at his old friend. ‘I know that now.’
    Ethan laid a comforting hand
on his. ‘I know. I’m sorry. Tell me what happened next.’
    ‘He was quick, I’ll give him that,
and I should credit him with a lot more besides, because he was quick and he was strong, and he
sprang from the bed with a speed that surprised me in a man of his age and size and he caught
me, by now practically unarmed, and thrust me backwards to the window.
    ‘We went straight through it, Dani and I.
We went straight through the shutters and plummeted to the cobbles below, a fall that was
thankfully broken by the canopy beneath. Looking back, perhaps I hoped that my training might
return to me, a kind of instinct, if you like. But it failed me. Even as I rolled away from
Dani, hurt and stunned and desperately trying to get a hold of my senses, I saw faces appear at
the windows on the other side of the street, and heard the sound of the running feet as the
guards hastened towards us.
    ‘I rolled away from Dani, feeling a
blinding pain in my head and another in my hip. The next moment he was upon me, his teeth bared,
his eyes bright and wide with hatred, his hands fixed round my neck.
    ‘He never heard the horse. Neither did I.
Earlier we had used strips of blanket to muffle the hooves, Father and I, and he came riding
over the stone towards us, silent as a wraith, and the first I saw of him was a robed figure on
horseback looming behind Dani, one hand on the reins of the horse, the other held out, crooked
at the elbow and flexing, his hidden blade ejecting, moonlight running along the steel. Father
wrapped the reins in his hand andwrenched back, forcing his horse to rear
up on its hind legs, and for a second I saw him as the fearsome Assassin-warrior of legend. I
saw the death-dealing glint in his eye, his intent to kill as strong and true as the weapon he
wielded. I saw a man I could never hope to be. Perhaps I knew then that I was lost.
    ‘And perhaps, also, Dani, my intended
victim, knew that death had come from behind. But it was too late, and my father’s blade
punched through the top of his skull and into his brain, killing him instantly – an
instant in which his eyes widened then rolled back and his mouth dropped open in surprise and a
half-second of excruciating agony before his life was extinguished – an instant during
which I saw the blood-streaked steel inside his mouth.
    ‘Father withdrew his blade and droplets of
blood flew from it as he swept it back, this time to slice the throat of the first oncoming
guard who fell into a mist of arterial spray, his sword not even drawn. Father’s arm swept
back the other way, this time across his chest and there was a ring of steel, as sharp and loud
in the night as Dani’s warning bell as his blade met the sword of the second guard. His
parry sent the attacker staggering back, and in a blink Father was off his horse to claim his
advantage, drawing his sword with his other hand and attacking at the same