On the third night, they went to the underground palace, which was larger than they had seen before, and offered ouzo, ale, red and white wine, whatever you wanted, as well as gambling, slave girls, and waiters.

Although there was also a slave trade in the Grand Bazaar, the slaves here were different from those from the outside world, even from any other slave Duarte had ever seen...... Duarte would think of redeeming himself, fleeing and resisting, the slave girl he fell in love with would do everything in his power to protect the fetus in his womb in the last moments of his life, and even the weakest and most cowardly slave would curse his master viciously in his heart, but here ...... You can't even think of it as a human being - they've been utterly destroyed, from sanity to body.

Phatis saw the young master of the caravan paused for a long time in front of a wonderful statue—a living statue, breathing, warm, beautiful, with a graceful body, and a dead smile on its face.

"Even if you buy her," Fatis sighed, "she won't live, my lord, they're all used as decorations, as long as they can last from dusk to dawn, come here, there may be something you like...... Child. He cleverly avoided the word cargo.

They came to another tent, all of them were girls of thirteen or fourteen years old, and it is said that these were the "goods" that had been carefully brought to Istanbul after being carefully brought up by officials and governors in order to flatter the Sultan, but only one percent or less of them could pass through the discerning eyes of the black eunuch governor.

They were pure, faithful, and had their own skills, and since they were not Christians, they could be brought back to Italy without fear of violating their teachings.

But the good man who was too sentimental in Fatis bought the "statue" anyway, and he put her in a desolate wilderness, untied from all restraints, and let her die quietly looking at the stars and the rising sun.

It seems, Fatis muttered in his heart that this Italian is really not a threat to speak of.

Unbeknownst to him, on the fourth night, the Assasin Assassins had gathered in Julio's room, where they had been scattered in various underground palaces, searching for possible clues, and the results were gratifying, and in the last huge underground palace, when an Assassin was clinging to a wall, he heard the sound of water coming from the other side of the wall, and they searched along the wall to find a secret door hidden behind a stone pillar, almost integrated with the wall.

The crowd of the underground palace dispersed as the morning star rose, and the place suddenly became empty, but there was still a lingering stench of rancid smell in the air, a smell of death and despair that Ezio could not bear to bear, no matter how familiar it was, but fortunately they soon found the secret door, which was covered in heavy moss and hidden behind a stone pillar.

Giulio slowly scraped off the moss with his dagger and then touched it with his fingers.

"Did you find anything?" Ezio asked softly, using the phosphophophor fire in glass bottles, the same one used by Cardinal Picromini in the sacritoria of Santa Maria Maggiore in 1478, the light was very faint, but it was enough for the two Assassins, and Ezio could see that Giulio was slowly spreading his hands and ten fingers pressed into the moss: "They mixed it with stone powder and gum, sealed the doorway, and made a false brick joint, which from the outside was almost indistinguishable from the wall." "But after a long time, some of the cement between the crevices still fell off, and the assassins found it.

Giulio gave up a little place, and together with Ezio, he used the dagger to pry open the remaining cement, and they fell down in pieces, exposing the door behind him, after such a long time, it was not completely decayed, but it could not withstand any toss, Ezio leaned forward slightly, and it fell silently, and the sound of falling did not reach their ears until two or three seconds later, Giulio shone the phosphorescent bottle in his hand forward, and found that it was a trap, behind the door, there was no ladder at all, There are only steep and straight walls.

But there should have been an escalator here, and it is conceivable that when the guards retreated from one underground palace to another, they would close the door first, then remove the escalator, and when the enemy outside rushed in, they would fall on the hard stone ground because they could not stop.

"About twelve feet." Ezio whispered, they took their hooks with them, and they effortlessly descended down the rope, below which was a narrow stone platform that could not even stand side by side, and at the end of the stone platform was a slippery staircase, and they went down the staircase, about forty steps, and the moisture in the air was heavier, Ezio took the pine resin torch from his backpack and lit it.

An incomparably magnificent and mysterious scene appeared before them.

It was a much larger space than the underground palace they had seen before, with countless stone pillars towering around them, the stairs at their feet sinking into the clear water, and a few gray-colored fish swimming leisurely by—they were not afraid of light or sound, and when they looked at them again, they seemed to have no eyes, and this strange creature made even Ezio feel uneasy—it was the first time he had seen such a silent place, even more terrifying than a mausoleum, Because there are at least bats or bugs in the mausoleum, and here, apart from these eyeless fish, there are only them.

"Looks like that's where we're looking." Giulio whispered, but his voice immediately spread infinitely, and the echo here was louder than the previous underground palace, almost startling them, Ezio immediately made a gesture that it was best for them to be silent next, Giulio nodded in agreement, and they removed each other's leather armor, belts, boots, and tunics, leaving only shirts and leggings, and slowly submerged into the water.

Istanbul in September is hot during the day and cooler at night, but here, in the water, it can only be described as bitterly cold, and Giulio speculates that the water here comes not only from rainfall, but also from underground water veins. They began to swim slowly forward, and the daring fish kept crashing into them, and Julio swam as he estimated the distance they had passed—about three hundred and fifty feet, and at the end of the water palace, they began to swim around the whole water palace, three hundred and fifty feet in length, about two hundred feet in width, and the part of the stone pillar exposed above the water was about thirty to thirty-five feet.

Giulio made a gesture, Ezio gave him a gesture back, and the two men separated, swimming to the sides, in the darkness, because of the stone pillars, they did not dare to swim too fast, the only light they could rely on was the phosphorescent light in the glass bottle, the only sound was the sound of water waves hitting the stone walls and limbs, and occasionally a slight gasp could be heard...... Not because of physical exhaustion, but because of the mental stress brought by darkness and cold.

They searched back and forth several times, and when they met, they shook hands with each other and encouraged each other, but as time passed silently, even a man as strong as Ezio and Giulio could not help but feel unsupportable, and just as Giulio was about to swim to Ezio to end his exploration, his feet seemed to be gently pulled by something—he immediately turned and dived downward, closing his eyes tightly, no longer relying on the slightest glimmer of phosphorus fire, but feeling the strange flow of water with his fingers, which were almost almost stiff, He felt it! There was a small stream of water, constantly flowing to one place, and he followed it, and felt a depression, a crevice, in the stone wall under the water! That's where the water flows!

"Ezio!"

Ezio heard the shout, he immediately looked in the direction where the sound came from, he saw Giulio waving his hand at him, so he swam over, this time they dived into the water together, relying on the short sword, removed a boulder stuck in the mouth of the secret passage, the moment the boulder was removed, the suction suddenly increased, Giulio was almost pulled into the dark secret passage, fortunately Ezio grabbed him.

They hurried out of the dangerous place, rushed to the surface, took a deep breath in unison, and laughed happily together.

"Hopefully it's the secret passage to St. Elena's Cathedral." Ezio said.

"I'll go back and figure it out." They all felt that this was the most likely, Giulio said, because the never-before-discovered underground palace was apparently the closest to St. Elena's Cathedral, almost diagonally opposite, and if it was above ground, it would have been an easy walk of a few hundred feet to reach it — if it weren't for the thick walls and heavy guards.

Giulio and Ezio calmly emerged from the underground palace and enjoyed themselves in a hammam, and when they awoke from a nap, and even their clothes had been washed and ironed, they returned to the inn of Fatis and found pen and paper to do the math - the authenticity of this secret passage was indeed the greatest.

"We don't have any more time." Ezio said, "I hope the other end of the secret passage will not be sealed." ”

"The water is moving, probably not." Giulio said.

This is not the biggest problem, the biggest problem is that in Giulio's calculations, they may have to swim three hundred feet in the secret passage, and with them, several young Assasin were immediately removed, they may be able to hold their breath for that long, but the pressure on them to march in the dark and cold, seemingly never-ending secret passage is not comparable to ordinary situations, and in the end, only three people were able to participate in the operation, Ezio, Giulio and Paula.

Duarte seemed to want to say something, but he also knew that he could neither stop Giulio nor go with him, he was not a young man after all, and his three years of slavery in Istanbul had severely damaged his health.

If, indeed, we have done our job, Ezio wrote on parchment, then people will know it at once.

Can't you delay people finding out? Paula wrote.

No, because what we need is not the death of the Sultan, but the chaos that his death brings. As soon as we succeed, Giulio wrote, we must immediately publicize it, or if someone deliberately conceals the death of the Sultan and allows one of his sons to return to the throne quickly, our plan will be frustrated.

Then we have to get out of Istanbul first. Duarte wrote.

The day after tomorrow, we will leave the hotel together, and then I will sneak away with Ezio and Paula, and you will leave Istanbul first. Giulio wrote.

No, someone has to answer you. Duarte wrote.

Ezio grabbed his pen and sketched out a spot on a simple map drawn by Giulio, waiting for us here, he wrote.

Duarte nodded.

。 m.