Assassin's Creed: Outlaw - Book One

The Lady Bess

The next day Yughi emerged from one of the tunnel exits near Nottingham's Broad Marsh at the edge of the city. Tuck had told him where the city's courtesans gathered (Yughi could not bring himself to use the word 'whore') and he made his way there.

The area wasn't too far from the site of the King's Rest. Further along, that road was a small gardened square with a good view of the Cross Chapel at the top of the hill. Beyond the square were a number of winding streets, this was known as the home of Nottingham's bordellos.

Even as Yughi stepped into the street he could feel that the area belonged to a different city altogether. Furtive eyes watched him from doorways. There were women here and there, stood in doorways, seemingly half-asleep or drunk. The best way to be ignored was to appear non-threatening, this was something Yughi knew.

The other thing he knew was that you wouldn't have to go far in such a district to find evidence of men visiting violence on women. Before Yughi had walked past ten houses he heard the wailing of a woman from a house to his right.

The wail was followed by a meaty crunch, someone delivering a blow with the full force of their arm. Yughi felt his jaw clench.

Yughi had been brought up in Constantinople, between the word of Christ and the love of Allah. He had learned to worship his mother and his sisters, he had learned to treasure women. As an assassin, he had encountered men who knew nothing of this, who regarded women as little more than objects to be used for whatever purpose they deemed fit.

An anger had grown in Yughi at this. The more he learned of men like this, the less patience he had with them. The work he was about to do was not something assassins took upon themselves out of necessity, but it was a work he was pleased to do.

The door to the house from which the noises were emanating was not locked. Yughi threw open the door rattling it on its hinges. This situation was one of few in which Yughi would not require a stealthy approach. Neither would he use any weapons, save for the bone inserts in the knuckles of his gloves.

Inside the house a woman lay on the floor, her nose bloodied, her eye black, her dress torn immodestly. Standing over her was a stocky brute of a man, his face twisted in rage and confusion.

"What do you want?" the man demanded of Yughi. "You're not her pimp."

Yughi did not answer. He just closed the distance between them and swiped at the man with a devastating left hook. The blow nearly took the man's head off, Yughi applied a little control to the kick that followed the punch because, despite his dear wish to kill this man, he understood that a murder would not serve his cause.

The man was not a skilled fighter, he seemed best suited to beating up defenceless women in fact. He could mount no sort of defence to a man like Yughi. The assassin grabbed the man by the shirt and threw him into the unlit fireplace at the back of the room. There was a squelching crunch as the man's cheek and nose collapsed. Blood spurted from the man's nostril and he fell to the floor.

With immense satisfaction, Yughi watched the woman-beater spit half a rotten tooth from his mouth before attempting to stand. The man was now terrified beyond words.

Yughi leaned down over the stocky man and said one word:

"Run."

The man needed no second telling, he pulled himself together and ran off down the street. Yughi turned to the woman on the floor and offered her a hand up.

"Who are you?" she asked guardedly, not taking the proffered hand. "What do you want?"

"I want you to make an introduction," Yughi said, his tone instantly smooth and gentle. "I need to meet the person in control of all this."