“Character assassination. What a wonderful idea. Ordinary assassination only works once, but this one works every day.”

“An Assassin, a real Assassin, had to look like one - black clothes, hood, boots, and all. If they could wear any clothes, any disguise, then what could anyone do but spend all day in a small room with a loaded crossbow pointed at the door?”

“Priests were metal-reinforced overshoes. They saved your soles. This is an Assassin joke.”

“Assassins did have a certain code, after all. It was dishonorable to kill someone if you weren't being paid.”

“One day I'll work out what it is you are saying, my lad, and then you'll be in trouble.”

“All assassins had a full-length mirror in their rooms, because it would be a terrible insult to anyone to kill them when you were badly dressed.”

“Broadly, therefore, the three even now lurching across the deserted planks of the Brass Bridge were dead drunk assassins and the men behind them were bent on inserting the significant comma.”