2. A family's tale
"Good morning, Prince Dastan.
Get up quickly, we have a lot of work ahead us.".
Dastan nearly fell out of the bed by such strange words on a deadly early morning. He blinked several times, making sure she was not a ghost or a fata morgana, coming to annoy the wits out of him. But no, she was real, real and loud and annoying.
"Good morning to you, too, Princess." he answered with a tired and low voice, still in the process of getting awake, while he pushed the bed sheets aside and to his sensation, she was turning around rather quickly.
"No time for a Persian breakfast, so, eat quickly." she demanded with a feisty grin and Dastan pulled one eye brow up in the air, blown speechless by her bold behaviour at these early hours in the morning. However, instead of countering with one of his stubborn, mocking answers, he just replied to her demand with a question.
"What do you mean with 'we have a lot of work ahead us'?".
"You are going to be the King Consort to the Queen of Alamut, you must know of more things than you already do. Whatever that might be." she countered and snorted contemptuously while she quickly turned around, ignoring her hungry stomach she kept on talking.
"You will learn of this City's history, for it will be your city soon, you will get to know of its people and most of all of its greatest treasure. We are chosen, Dastan, the Gods have chosen us to be the Guardians of their gift, and we have to serve our duty with faith and dignity.".
Dastan sighed heavily. He knew she would keep on praising that bloody knife until the sun danced around the moon, in one matter she was such a woman. Talking, chatting, speaking- forming words in light speed, wasting millions of sentences for one simple, unimportant matter.
"What do you know about the Dagger of Time, Prince Dastan?".
Dastan nearly suffocated at the attempt to disguise his shock while he swallowed hard- he definitely had to learn how to disguise obvious feelings.
"Nothing, really, I know nothing...about any dagger.".
"Wow, you Persians make really bad liars.".
Tamina did not even wince at his clumsy response and threw her judgement out of her mouth like a rotten insult, her eyes full of the lethal shine that swung in her voice. Dastan lowered his head under her stern facial expression. How did she do it, to drive him so successfully out of his mind, out of his thinking? He was the bloody Lion of Persia and yet he felt helpless near her, defeated by even one of her looks or a soft touch of her velvet voice to his ears.
"My highest duty is to protect the dagger, as it will be for you.".
"My duty is to protect you, Tamina."
Apparently she did not like it to be interrupted, especially not when he was forming almost forbidden, sinful words. He was to be a Guardian and for a servant of the Gods, a Protector of the Holy Dagger, nothing was more important than this Dagger.
Not her family. Not the people she loved. Not her subjects. Not her friends, of course, she had none.
And particularly not for the sake of a certain Persian Prince who was looking at and speaking to her in a way she had never experienced before. If she didn't know better she would have said that it was love which was glowing softly in the depths of his brown eyes, but of course, she knew, this was impossible. She only knew this Prince for a span of four days and yet she had not figured out if he really deserved the title he claimed.
"I knew this would be complicated.".
"Where are we going, Tamina?".
Dastan's question came from behind her back. He was busy with following her murderous pace into an unknown part of the palace. Or to be more precisely, to a part under the palace, a path he knew far too well. He was quite nervous, considering the fact that she was leading him again directly to the Sand glass of the Gods.
Was it not enough that he was haunted by these terrifying memories every night?
Does he really had to face this terrible place again, where he lost the most precious person in his life, was it possible that she knew perfectly well what she was doing to him?
Was lying under that beautiful face the black heart of a cruel woman?
But surprisingly to him, they did not enter the Chamber of the Sand glass, they bent off to the right and headed then to a quite different part of of this secret passages. They found their way into an old and apparently ancient hall, full of dust and covered with white and golden sand. Slight rays of sunshine found their way on the ground as they broke through the old and crumbly ceiling, so that they did not even need a torch to light their sight. Dastan moved on his own through this subterranean hall, admiring the small and fine runes at the walls which were painted in red, black and dark brown letters on the stone, a language he had never seen before.
"This is the tomb of my family.", her voice from behind him made him startle and he turned around quickly to see her standing before seven sarcophagi, all placed in a row and then he realised her word fully and walked towards her, as she continued speaking.
"This is were all reigns of Alamut lies, my father, my five brothers.
And my mother, the Great Rajira.", by her last word, the memory of her mother, her fingers touched the greatest stone sarcophagus, admiring it with the soft touch of a daughter, adoring it with filial love in her deep brown eyes. Slowly, Dastan took in the whole picture, he understood that this was her family, all that was left from her family was lying here in sands and stone, silenced by eternity and sworn to watch over their daughter and sister.
Dastan had to swallow hard, he could not imagine himself how it must be for her to be alone. He had always had a family since the King took him into his own home. He had lost a family and won another, but she...her family was gone forever, and she had no one else, she was on her own. In a strange kind of moment he felt pity for her, he felt how the wish arose in him to protect her, clearly a quite hilarious feeling. However he got to understand that all her hard and disciplined self, all her faith and her duty was a face she was only wearing for the outside world.
What face would she wear for him?
"She was born as a slave girl, did you know that?
She was my father's most loyal and wisest adviser.", Dastan looked up by her words, recognizing her thoughtful face, the look of a full-blood monarch, a queen, full of strength, a sort of strength he knew he would never possess.
It was something his father always used to say. Women possessed a different kind of strength. Men were brave, they fought battle, defended their kingdoms and always sought for honour and glory. However, women, women had the strength to speak when others remained silent, the strength to give life instead of taking it, and even the strength to forgive men's weaknesses. She possessed all those strengths, but there was more to her than that and now he could see it while she was looking at him with this dark shine in her eyes, she had the will, and the pride of a man.
"How did your family die?" Dastan asked behind her. She led them deeper and deeper into the most sacred parts of the tomb and by his words she turned around slowly. To his shock, her face was distorted in pain, but only for a moment and then it disappeared so quickly, so that he believed he only imagined himself this picture.
"Do you really want to know?", her words came out with a broken and shy voice, so unlike to the usually strong and stubborn princess he knew and so he was nodding carefully, before he answered.
"I really want to know.".
Tamina nodded silently while she turned around again and continued going slowly while she was apparently searching for the right words to the start with and the minutes passed deadly silenced until she began to speak.
"Well, you were not the first ones who breached our walls.
They came in the night, like dark shadows, evil spirits.
My father tried to fight them and his five sons followed him- but they were too many.
And my father watched his five sons, the future of our house, die, slaughtered by our enemy.".
At this part she made a pause, images were flooding behind her eyes and she had to clear her throat before she could go on with her tale.
"Meanwhile, they locked up the Guardians into the most sacred place of Alamut, the High Temple, capturing them in there and then, they burnt it down- the Priests, the Priestesses, they did not even spare the young Acolytes.
They did not even spare the life of the High Priestess- and so, my mother was burnt alive.".
Her breathing quickened along her speaking and Dastan who could feel her pain almost physically, drew one hand out to comfort her but soon enough he reflected a better and left it alone, waiting until she felt strong enough again to continue her talking of her past.
"As soon as my father got to know of his loss, grieve overtook him, to lose his sons was terrible, but to lose his wife, the love of his life was unbearable for his heart- and so he forced himself into my chamber to undo all this evil.
Of course, I knew this was forbidden, my mother had told me of the greed of men, but I would had never thought that my own father would fall under this darkness.", now, the words came out of her mouth as fast as blade strikes, shaken with the fear and the grieve of memory, blurred with pain and something he would had interpreted as anger.
"He tried to get the dagger, but I knew I could not let him get it, it was sacred and it was my duty to protect it- even from my father.
And as he grew more and more angry it was only matter of time until he lost control.
I can still feel his hands around my neck to press the life out of me and to get the dagger.
And I had no choice but to follow my destiny and so I drew the knife I was caring ever since and slit his throat without thinking.".
Eventually, silence overtook her and she sobbed several times without tears, staring into a point far off the present, caught in memories of the past, the things she did wrong and the things she had to do. Now, Dastan could not hold back any longer, his calloused hand placed himself so naturally on her shoulder to calm her and to give her solace. However, she withdrew herself from his consoling act and moved some feet away, speaking again and now her voice was mixed with a strange fusion of pain and cynical humour.
"No one knows about this story, save me, Asoka and some of the most trusted Guardians, we thought it would not be right to destroy the honourable name of my father by the truth and so we invented the version that he was killed in battle like my brothers.", she took a deep breath and continued with her talking.
"The most difficult thing was the knowledge, the knowledge that only a few feet away was the key to change all that's happened, to change me back into the little girl I was, with my mother, with my family- but I knew it was wrong and so I kept this wish within my heart, for all these years to remind me at the consequences of the sinful wish of changing time.".
Then she turned around and continued to walk, but a few paces away she turned around again and faced him with a look in her eyes which made him startle once more. The anger and the stern emotionless, the cold threat in the brown of her eyes was more than just a warning.
"Only to be fair, Dastan, I am not as naïve any more as I was as a little girl.
If you ever try to get the dagger without my permission I will not hesitate to end your life.
So be warned.".
She trusted no one, she was Queen, she was a High Priestess, she was to be his wife, and she was trusting no one, the least him.
But actually it was herself she trusted least.