the-secret-crusade-oliver-bowden

be quite so fortunate next time.
The second of the two bodyguards came forward and he swiped with
his blade, slicing at the man’s neck and sending him down in a spray of
blood. He turned to de Sable, who came forward swinging his
broadsword hard enough to send Altaïr stumbling back, only just able to
deflect the blow. Suddenly there were reinforcements, and he was
trading blows with three other knights, all in full-face helmets, and
finding that he was now standing on Majd Addin’s final resting place.
There was no time to enjoy the moment, though: from above came
another hail of arrows and, to Altaïr’s delight, a second knight was
speared, screaming as he fell. The effect on the remaining Templars was
to send them into disarray and they scattered a little, less frightened of
Altaïr than they were of their own archers, just as de Sable began
screeching at the bowmen to stop firing on their own men.
And Altaïr was so surprised that he almost dropped his guard. What
he had heard was not the unmistakably male French tones of Robert de
Sable but a voice that surely belonged to a woman. An English woman.
For a heartbeat he was taken aback by a mixture of bemusement and
admiration. This … woman, the stand-in sent by de Sable, fought as
bravely as any man, and wielded a broadsword just as adeptly as any
knight he had ever encountered. Who was she? One of de Sable’s
lieutenants? His lover? Keeping close to the cover of the wall, Altaïr
felled another of the knights. Just one left. One more, and de Sable’s
stand-in. The last Templar had less appetite for the fight than she did,
though, and he died, thrashing on the point of Altaïr’s sword.
Just her now and they traded blows, until at last Altaïr was able to
get the better of her, sliding the blade into her shoulder at the same time