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The blade glistened as it turned end over end, the keen edge slamming into the wood of the dummy's head and cleaving it neatly in two. The axe clanged against the stone wall behind the dummy and fell to the floor of the training yard. Malik moved over from where he'd been standing well back from the targets near the barbican and nodded to the blonde man.

"If you can do that several more times, I'll be impressed." Gilbert nodded and took the compliment, such as it was. The two men looked up at a whistle of appreciation to see Lex clapping his hands, a small bag moving from side to side, pinned between his thumb and forefinger.

"Gilbert, if you can do that with an axe, we should get you an ax." Malik shook his head. Whatever else an axe could be, he wasn't certain, but he'd given up trying to understand half of what the little Sparrow said most of the time. Lex held up the bag. "Let it be known to your brother that I keep my promises, even if delivery is a little late in coming."

"Lebkuchen?" Tancred poked his head around the doorway to the keep. "You actually made some?" The two Germans made their way over to him and held out their hands. Lex placed one of the cookies in each of them. Gilbert popped his into his mouth and bit down. It turned to overly sweet ash in his mouth, but he smiled nonetheless. A chef my little teacher will most likely never be, he thought, giving his brother a swift glare when the merchant looked ready to spit the mash in his mouth back out at the one who'd given it to him.

"Well?" Lex stood on his toes. "How is it? Good? Does it suck? It sucks, doesn't it?" Gilbert swallowed the stuff in his mouth down.

"You must have used a different recipe to what I'm familiar with, Spaetzlein. Go get me a paper and pen and I'll give you my mother's." Lex nodded and smiled, hurrying off. Tancred spat and scraped at his tongue with his fingers. Malik handed them his canteen.

Lex returned and passed Tancred the bag of cookies as he gave Gilbert the quill and parchment, offering his back to use as a desk. Gilbert wrote quickly. Lex pocketed the little note as Desmond finally rose from his haystack, yawning and picking hay out of his hair and hood.

"Morning, Dessy."

"It's the afternoon," corrected Malik. Lex rolled his eyes at the technicality and looked down toward the village as he made his way over to Desmond with the others. "Hey, Jameel's back." It had been only a few days since their return home, but the crows had made Jameel anxious. The Red Owl rode out every day and made a circuit of the city's perimeter and a quick foray down the main path from the mountains to the crossroads where a man could either turn toward Damas or head south for Acre and Jerusalem before coming back.

Lex trotted off down the slope, waving toward the small woman that was making her way up with the odd-haired boy, whose name they'd found out was Amir. The boy gave Malik a swift hug before racing up to the library. Sarah nodded to Tancred and greeted him, "Bakr." Turning to Gilbert, she smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "Yameen."

Desmond looked at him questioningly. Gilbert smiled and said, "She has a little trouble with our names, so I asked her to call us whatever she felt appropriate." The Eagle nodded and looked toward the ravine beside the tower, listening halfway to their conversation.

"How is the little one?"

"The Sparrow? He made us a little food."

"Ah. Was it good?"

"Unfortunately not." Desmond leaned forward, squinting as he looked skyward. The black shapes moved down toward the river. The bartender bolted toward the village, running by Lex and Jameel. Gilbert looked over at him, then toward where the barkeep had been. He shot a look at his brother and said, "Halts dich Sarah sicher, Bruder." The German headed off after the other Novice.

Lex opened his mouth, blinking confusedly as Desmond flew by. The Eagle looked like he'd seen Death and Death hadn't looked very pretty.

"Des?" He hasn't seen any birds, has he? He looked around. There they were, black specks on the sky. s**t. The Sparrow took off after the other time traveller, finally catching up to him as he reached the river on the outskirts of the village. His hand moved to his belt, feeling for what weapons he had. Yes, it was there, not far from his sword.

Jameel looked toward where Lex had been looking, his mouth going dry, and chased after them. I have to get them back before those buzzards make their move. He pushed himself faster as he saw a shape moving down the slope toward the river. No, no, they've already made their move! It's a trap! Something hard hit the back of his head. He fell into the dirt, the world fading into a haze of brown before it blackened. Four of the archers moved to gather up the unconscious Red Owl.

Lex slowed as he neared the river, seeing Desmond standing still with a blade held to his throat. One of the Crows. Lex slipped the gun into his hand, pointing it at the black-clad figure. "Put the knife down. Now!" The Sparrow twisted as he caught movement in the corner of his eye, firing off two rounds. One of the black birds going for Jameel fell to the ground. The rest of the silent murder sprang from their hiding places around them, going for the Eagle and the one who'd been lucky enough to slay one of their own.

The Sparrow kicked out as three of the birds fell on him, then swung back and cracked one's beak off with his arm. He struggled harder as two grabbed him and slammed him down, bashing his head against the ground. The Journeyman sagged in their hold, vision blackening as he lost consciousness.

Desmond glared at the archers as they trained their arrows on him. He snarled, but knew he couldn't fight. They'd just make a kabob out of him. He lowered his head as they bound his hands. The man jerked his head up again as the Ravenwatch members who had Jameel were barrelled into by Gilbert. The Novice grabbed a third and planted its face firmly into the nearest rock before the rest of the Crows, but for two holding Desmond, surrounded him, their arrows pointed toward his vitals.

One of the Crows bound Gilbert's hands and then gagged both of the men. They were led to a nearby cluster of horses and made to mount, the two unconscious Assassins tossed onto the mounts of two of the Ravenwatch members before they took off.

They took them to their castle, which was literally alive with archers. From the outskirts of the town, Gilbert and Desmond could see them standing atop the battlements. They stood shoulder to shoulder, arrows ready to fire, looking like odd gargoyles. The dark castle was surrounded by a town full of equally armed civilians. They looked ready and willing to fight, armed to straight passed the teeth to the roots of their hair, daggers, bows, quivers of arrows packed to bristling, swords and axes.

The captives were taken to the keep and down into the dungeons, each one to be placed in a separate cell that was nothing but a room with a floor and a single doorway--the entrance. Of all the things the two conscious men noticed first when the doors were opened, it was that the cells were surprisingly clean. No waste, no dank, it was nigh on polished clean, but otherwise just as depressingly dark as any other prison, lit by a few torches running along the hall.

Desmond watched as the watchmen threw the dead weight of his companions into their cells, first Jameel, then Lex. The doors were shut. The man peered into the other time traveler's cell. The kid was in a heap on the floor, a little blood matting his hair from the hit he'd taken in being captured. The Eagle stepped into his cell and folded his arms, giving them a long, focused stare before they shut his door.

Gilbert took a seat in his cell and looked up through the grating of the bars in the door. Well, this is familiar. Both men knew what would come next.

Time to play the waiting game: Waiting for the Owl and the Journeyman to wake up. Waiting to see what would be done to them.