She said softly, contempt dripping from every word. She hated it, but to make it believable she must.
"Princess Tamina?" Dastan said his expression wary.
"Yes, Princess Tamina, who else did you think it was, Tus taking a nightly stroll in the gardens wearing a dress and a wig?"
Dastan scowled, and she narrowed her eyes. It was all an act; it took more force from her than it did to react calmly to a knife at her throat. She ducked the knife, and scoffed. Tamina started into the eyes of Dastan. All he saw in her eyes was wariness, and coldness, while all she saw in his eyes was longing, sadness, contempt, anger, and well...love. She tensed her body, and turned away rapidly. Tamina began running, her feet pounding against the ground.
"Tamina!"
Dastan shouted, and chased after her. Tamina ran even faster, through the winding passageways, under bridges, having no idea where she was going, and was now acutely aware of the stinging in her eyes. She roughly chased tears away with her sleeve, leaving a dark black streak against the gauzy fabric. Tamina didn't know why she was crying, was it because so was nervous? No, not that. Was it because the wedding was tomorrow? No, it isn't that. It was because she knew that look on a face, the look that somebody was about to reveal something, something forbidden and dangerous. Running, and running. She concentrated on the pounding of the earth on her feet, the rough grains of sand dusting her thin dress, and closing her eyes as best as she could. Faint yells of her name broke the silence in her mind, and Tamina kept running. A dead end soon blocked her path, and she cursed herself for not studying the city more closely. Dastan's silhouette stood at the entrance to the back dead end, which she now found out, by the retched smell, was a garbage dump.
"I need to tell you something, Princess Tamina." Dastan whispered his voice eerily sharp in the dead of night.
'No, no, no!' Tamina thought in her head, her mind ages ahead, so afraid of what would happen, so angry at herself for not knowing. She scolded herself silently for feeling afraid. Driving all her anger into her voice, she spat,
"What? What was so highly important that it possessed you to chase me down like a hare?"
"Maybe it's because you ran, Princess."
Dastan withdrew the Dagger of Time from his robe, its ruby button gleaming in the moonlight. The spiral of runes twisted down the side, telling of the legend of the little girl and the Great Sandstorm in an ancient tongue that was taught to all Guardians of the Dagger. Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes and sucked air in, and said sharply,
"You have about five seconds to tell me how you have the Dagger and if you know more about it."
One Alamut, two Alamut…
"A guard had it in his hands. Y-you know when I captured Alamut and, err, well…" he stumbled.
"Don't you speak. Not. One. Word. You have used the Dagger haven't you?" she snapped, her dark brows furrowing into a sharp straight line. Her dark amber-honey eyes blazed with a hellish sort of fire, one only Tamina was capable of. She ran her fingers through her hair and paced. Tamina stopped suddenly, and her tone softened.
"Dastan, please, tell me, what happened to me when you used the Dagger? What happened, with…us?"
Tamina felt the words come out with a hard edge, and she nearly choked when she said the well, the 'u' word. Us. Strange how it felt coming out of her throat, in her voice."Nizam forged weapons and said they were from Alamut. He attacked the city, as you know, and gave me a prayer robe to give to Father. But, he had poisoned the robe and framed me for the killing of my father. I took you and ran, and you, well..." His voice broke down. Tamina looked at her feet. They were dusty now, the henna slightly faded, but the star still struck out boldly.
Tamina whispered something, so quietly that it was lost in the alley.
