Read Assassin's Creed: Underworld for Free Online Page B

other
grown-ups simply failed to work on his tutor.
    These were the rather shaky foundations on which
their tutorials were built: Ethan, in a grey study; Jayadeep confused by this new type of
grown-up, who didn’t lavish him with affection and praise. Oh, of course Ethan was forced
to offer grudging praise for Jayadeep’s skills in combat. How could he not? Jayadeep
excelled at every aspect of Assassin craft, and in the end it was this more than anything that
cracked open their relationship, because if there’s one thing a skilled Assassin can
admire and appreciate, even grow to like, it’s an initiate with promise. And Jayadeep was
most certainly that.
    So, as the years passed, and master and pupil
sparred in the shade of the courtyard trees, discussed theory by the fountains, and then put
their teachings into practice in the streets of the city, it was as though Ethan began to thaw
towards his young charge, and when he spoke of taking the boy from wood to steel there was an
unmistakable note of pride in his voice.
    For his part, Jayadeep began to learn a little
about his reflective mentor. Enough, in fact, for him to realize that‘glum’ was the wrong adjective, and that ‘troubled’ was more accurate.
Even at that age he was remarkably intuitive.
    What’s more, there came a day when he
overheard the women in the kitchen talking. He and Ethan were practising a stealth exercise in
the grounds of the house, and Ethan had commanded him to return with information obtained using
covert means.
    When The Ghost thought about this years later, it
occurred to him that sending a small child to gather covert information was a plan fraught with
possible pitfalls, not least that the child might learn something unsuitable for young ears.
    Which, as it turned out, was exactly what
happened.
    As he was later to learn, though, Ethan was,
despite outward appearances, prone to making the odd rash and hasty decision, as well as being
possessed of what you might call a sense of mischief, and thinking back, Ethan’s
instructions for the exercise were perhaps the first time Jayadeep saw an outward manifestation
of this in his tutor.
    So Jayadeep went on his exercise and two hours
later joined Ethan at the fountain. He took a seat on the stone beside where his master sat
looking pensive as usual, choosing not to acknowledge Jayadeep as was his custom. Like
everything else about Ethan, this had taken Jayadeep time to get used to, and getting used to it
was a process that involved moving first from being offended to being confused and lastly
accepting that his lack of warmth was in its own way a measure of the familiarity the two of
them shared, these two men so far apart in age and culture – one of them an experienced
killer, the other training to be one.
    ‘Tell me, my dear boy,
what did you learn?’ asked Ethan.
    Ethan calling Jayadeep ‘my dear boy’
was a relatively new development. One that pleased Jayadeep, as it happened.
    ‘I learnt something about you,
master.’
    Maybe then Ethan regretted sending his young
charge on this particular assignment. It’s difficult to imagine that he had planned it,
but then who can say what was in Ethan Frye’s mind. Who can ever say? The boy had no way
of knowing, but as an eager pupil and one who had been schooled in observation he naturally
watched his tutor closely for signs that he might have caused offence or stepped over a line.
    ‘This was tittle-tattle you overheard was
it, son?’
    ‘“Tittle-tattle”,
master?’
    ‘Tittle-tattle means gossip – and, as
I’ve always told you, gossip can be a very powerful information tool. You did well to
glean what you could from what you overheard.’
    ‘You’re not angry?’
    A certain placid look had crossed Ethan’s
features. As though some feeling of internal turmoil were being laid to rest. ‘No,
Jayadeep,’ he said, ‘I’m not angry with you. Pray tell me what it was that you
heard.’
    ‘You might not like it.’
    ‘I