Chapter Text
Rosa shoved her hands deeper in her pockets, leaning back against the wall. She was getting tired of waiting here and watching all the incoming ships. Where was this damned assassin?
Ugo stuck his head over the roof of the building, looking down at her. "Any sign of him?"
"Not yet."
"How will we even know who he is?"
Rosa shrugged. "Apparently he is traveling with Leonardo da Vinci, the artist. But I don't know what he looks like, either, so that's not so much help."
"Hmph." Ugo's head disappeared again, and Rosa blew her hair out of her eyes, resettling herself against the wall.
People were slowly disembarking from a boat that had just docked. Over the normal din of the docks, she heard the strident tones of a demanding passenger, hectoring the dockworkers about the way they were unloading his belongings. Crates and crates of them. The passenger was small and long-haired and moved with an excess of nervous energy, back and forth across the deck.
At last the dockworkers began carrying the crates off the boat. The nervous passenger watched each one before finally consenting to disembark himself. Rosa had assumed he was the last one, until she saw a figure straighten up and follow. The second man had been leaning against the rail with his arms folded the whole time, and she had not noticed him.
She chided herself for the lack of attention, because this was a man well worth noticing. He was large and broad-shouldered, and he moved with an easy grace. Despite the hot day, he wore a black hood over his face. A black hood …
"Ugo!" she said in a loud whisper.
The messy head appeared again. "That him?"
"I think the little one is the artist, so the other one must be the assassin."
Ugo looked up, watching the pair as they crossed the dock, joining a third man who approached the artist obsequiously. "He's a big one, isn't he? Thought he'd be shorter. I hear he practically lives on the rooftops."
Rosa snorted contemptuously. "How could he possibly? No one that tall and heavily muscled could climb fast enough to make it worth while."
"Still, though ..." Ugo's voice trailed off as they watched the assassin walk away next to the artist. "Wonder what he looks like under the hood?"
So did Rosa, although she wouldn't have admitted it. She grinned. "Let's find out."