Hi Everyone

Thank you so much for your reviews. It really is amazing to read your feedback and I feel so so good. Sorry this chapter took a bit of a time but I need to make sure the language is good before I put it out. Also, I have two more fics in mind after this one which will be in the genre of

romance/hurt/comfort. But let's get through this first. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Love

A

Chapter 10

She was in the verge of collapsing as they reached Alamut. Throughout eight days of journey, Asoka had been in pain and high fever had set in from the infection. It was only on the fourth day that they met the other two guards who ultimately smuggled them back into Alamut and to her Palace.

Her beautiful Alamut was now reduced to a silent, grey land with the stench of war draped over every surface. Her first course of action was to learn all from the imitative princess and release the girl to be smuggled out. Two people looking somewhat alike would raise concerns with the Persians, concerns she could not address. Asoka was once again safe with his family and, disguised as a lowly priest, was left to recuperate so that he could be of service to the crown again.

Tamina's council had been reduced to two people and a handful of guards were left to protect her. Nizam's men dotted her home; it was no longer sacred. She stepped down into her bath and dismissed her ladies. The water rushed at her naked body as she sat in the water and brought her knees to her chin. A slow tear made its way down her cheek, soon followed by another. Eight days, eight days, had passed since she allowed herself to think about Dastan. She struggled to forget the words he said to her in the final moments they spoke - or rather, what he berated at her - and remembered how it was when he loved her. Eight days of burying herself in plans to save her city, recover the dagger, or at least return to the city without harm. Eight days since she saw his face. Eight days since her life ended. She just existed now. And after eight days, she allowed – finally allowed- herself to cry for her loss.

She was tired of her life, exhausted of thinking and living a life of duty. She was, for the first time, angry at why she allowed herself to be broken. She laid her head on her pillow, fighting with her mind not to think about being next to Dastan. She woke up that night and for a moment forgot that she was home. What else could she do but cry?

He did not fare any better, even though it was he who decided to exile her. He had drunk himself into a stupor and smoked all he could to cloud his mind. He had brawled with Garsiv about the drinking and punched it out until he bled. For four days he had been on a binge after his fight with his brother, and Bis finally sent word to Garsiv when he found Dastan in a brothel. Garsiv walked into the room to see him passed out on the mat, the stench of old wine and cheap perfume filling the air. He stood over his brother and was as angry as he was concerned for this broken man.

"Dastan?"

He stirred, yet made no effort to open his eyes or rise from his position. Garsiv reached down and shook his shoulder, "Dastan... Get up... Let's go."

He opened his eyes. Realizing where he was, he laughed. "Still in this shithole?"

"Yes... Well, I don't exactly know how long you have been here," Garsiv said.

He sat up and squeezed his head between his hands. "How long have I been gone?"

"Four days."

Dastan chuckled at the situation. The thought of Tamina crept into his memory but he rubbed at his face to physically forget about her. "Enough," he said to indicate the end of his lamenting.

He returned to his home, to his bed, to his family. He was cleaned, dressed in Royal robes, feet perfumed and rings placed on his fingers. He had his meals with his brothers and as he left, Tus caught Dastan by the back of his neck as he used to playfully do when they were younger.

"I realise you may not have seen much of me these past few days. Know that I love you but I had to keep myself out, as I must think of my people. Garsiv has been successful at hiding whatever nonsense you have been up to," he said.

Dastan smiled. "It was nonsense... It's done now."

He was alone again and it was the strangest feeling in the world to be as such. She had been by his side for most days since they met. Being alone in his chamber now felt the same as being imprisoned; it was torture.

Bis had always been there for him and even now sat across him at the card game. However, he now suspected that Bis' presence was orchestrated by Garsiv to ensure he was well. His childhood friend had been staring at him and Dastan awaited the question to come up.

"Are you alright?" Bis finally asked.

Dastan smiled. "Of course I am alright. It's not like I was lying on my deathbed," he replied, almost annoyed that his friend too would treat him as if he were insane. "I did not go raving mad!"

Bis looked at him and folded the cards on the table. "I think you did... Prince Dastan you were not yourself. The threats you made against her were quite cold even by Prince Garsiv's standards… Are you going to carry them out?"

Dastan thought about the words he had hissed out that day, some in anger yet some to protect her. Perhaps he could find a confidante in Bis.

"There was a reason why I made those threats. It was not for malice or pride," he said, after keeping his silence. He looked at his friend. Bis had been the first experience of brotherhood and in his heart, he knew his friend will hold his secret.

"She... Bis she's Alamutian... They both were," Dastan whispered.

Bis sat up, and at first struggled to understand the situation, "Prince Dastan, Alamutians are...that... Prince Garsiv will kill you!"

"That is exactly why he does not know about it. That is why I said what I did. I needed get them out of the city and far away as possible away from Garsiv's reach," he narrated. "I knew something was not right between us but it wasn't my life or the empire in danger, because she had plenty of time to kill me or steal information. I knew she held a secret. This was the last thing I thought was happening… another man. An Alamutian soldier at that," he laughed at the end.

Bis widened his eyes in shock, "What? That man? How do you know that?"

"I had fought him at the fall of the city when he was trying to get some artifact out," Dastan said unaware of the importance of the words. "I guess she kept me alive for the money, a handsome reward. Then perhaps she thought she could earn off me..."

He played two hands silently, then said to himself. "She never told me…"

"What?"

"She never once told me she loved me back. I have gone over every conversation... She never said that." He laughed at the end; embarrassed at the situation he put himself in because of this woman. He forced himself everyday never to think about her. He had a duty and a purpose to the crown and he had made the decision to be a true Prince of Persia.

Tamina was no better. Yet she had no one to confide in, so it was just silent tears that the nights witnessed as her pain. She still loved this man and the frustration of her situation felt as if the Gods were mocking her, causing pain in her life to amuse themselves. In the morning, she was the Princess- strong, unbowed and removed from the notion of love. In the night, she was a woman whose heart was ripped out by her own deeds.

It had been over two weeks since they had been banished, yet Tamina remember every bitter word that came out of his mouth. The last words ever spoken by the man she loved were of pain. It was fresh in her thoughts when Asoka was announced. As she was under house arrest, Tamina was confined to her own little space in the Palace and Asoka had disguised himself as a priest to come meet her.

Nizam's guards delivered Asoka to the parlor and stood by, not giving them the due privacy as ordered by Nizam. However, Tamina sternly ordered the guards that she had the right to take part in religious affairs. Asoka bowed deeply to her and Tamina smiled through her veil at him. They moved away to the balcony and spoke in whispers of the current state. As he prepared to leave, Asoka knew he had to speak to her about what he knew.

"Your highness, forgive me..." he pleaded with his eyes cast down.

"Whatever for?"

"I put you in that position with the," he looked around at the guard and moving closer, continued his sentence, "the Prince."

The words did hurt her, hearing his title did hurt her, yet she continued.

"Asoka, you did no wrong. It was I who failed in dealing with the Prince carefully. You saved my life," she comforted him.

Yet Asoka found no relief in her words. "Your highness would have never been in this position if I had not let... Let it be lost to his hands. Then again I put my Princess in harm's way when I was uncovered."

Tamina contemplated what she could say to ease her subject, especially when she herself was in conflict.

"When the Gods send us a trial, we should not question them. Now we must not speak about this 'forgiveness' again for there is nothing to be forgiven. Is that all?"

"No, Your Highness. I thought it was important that you knew something," Asoka timidly spoke, afraid to reopen old wounds.

"Speak," she permitted.

Asoka went into a deep hurried whisper to convey his message, as the guards quickly bored of standing by them. "That day... When I was uncovered, it was under Prince Dastan's orders. But he was angry at how I was treated. He also recognised me from the battle."

"What?" she asked in shock. He knew she was Alamutian and he knew Asoka was a soldier. Yet he let them go. She then began to realise that perhaps Dastan was not the cruel man who stood over her that day. "That does not mean anything Asoka," she tried to reason so that she could convince herself that she did not feel anything anymore for the Prince.

Asoka stood before her and wondered if it was right to speak his mind. "Princess, my parents started to arrange marriages for me. The Head Guard for the Princess of Alamut fetches grand dowries and parents were falling over each other to marry off their daughters to me. My wife would have been possibly the twentieth hopeful girl I met, but my parents rejected the offer because her dowry was not to their expectation. But I was already in love and I did all I could to be with her."

"Why do you think I need to hear this?"

"Because your highness, you need to fight for love," Asoka said as he bowed to leave.

The incident with Dastan had left her bereft. She lay on her bed, hair combed to the side, the cool air fanning her. She wondered if he was well.

Dastan was no stranger to pain and he tortured himself, imagining her journey with the man she loved. He would touch her, kiss her, hold her body, and he would make love to the woman he adored. It drove him insane.

She walked the hall on the only floor she was allowed to travel in. Tamina and the few priests who were left had decided that there was nothing they could do but pray and hope for mercy from the Gods. If and when the dagger fell into the hand of a Persian, the world would surely end.

She was in her prayers when the message was brought in that the grand priest was nearing his end. He had been imprisoned by Nizam. The wet and dark prison had taken a toll on his age and he had begged his guards to allow his eyes to see the Princess one last time.

The dungeons were never used in her rule and water had leaked in, with moss covering each stone surface. The stench of human waste and vermin made her hug her scarf closer to her face. Her heart stuttered in pain when she saw him lying on the floor, cold. She had pleaded with him not to leave her as she lay by him. He had led her spiritually her whole life and was the closest thing she had to a father after her own father's passing. Nizam's men had imprisoned him, taking spirituality away from the people, and with that, their hope. His breath was shallow, body reduced to skin and bone, yet he had hope in his eyes. As she cried for him, he took Tamina's hands and delivered the last confession and prophecy.

"Princess, your brother was not the man called by the Gods. To protect the true guardian, the mother was smuggled out of the city when he was still in the womb and we created a story that your brother was the one called to be the protector. The people believed what we wanted them to believe. Your brother was not the one sent by the Gods, and he died in sacrifice. We knew the Arch-guardian would be led back to Alamut one day. It is his destiny. Our salvation lives and you know him. Listen to the voice of the ods for they have sent a Prince not born noble, but made noble by his heart... Long may you reign, my Princess."

As his life slipped away from him, through the sadness, hope was stirring in Tamina's heart. She rushed to the sky temple and proceeded to take the book to her hands, without ceremony or ritual. She turned to the prophecy of the arch-guardian.

"Then the eyes beheld a boy whose blood was not noble, but whose character was. A King in spirit."

It was always believed that the Crown Prince was the foretold guardian, as Tamina's mother was not a noble. It made sense that the first born was a Prince made noble by birth from the ordinary Alamutians. After his death outside the city walls, Tamina stopped reading the book. This passage brought so much pain that she never read it. She read it now, over and over again, trying to remember why those words were so familiar. Then it struck her; the first time she had heard them was when good King Sharaman was in the palace before his death, describing Prince Dastan.

"Some question the wisdom of my bringing a boy from the streets into my family. I saw a boy whose blood wasn't noble, but whose character was; a King in spirit."

It was him! The foretold guardian was Prince Dastan!

She paced in her chamber as she awaited Asoka. As soon as he stepped in, she summoned him to the balcony and tried to explain what has happened, to his utter disbelief.

"That is why I have always felt the dagger as being safe… It was with the rightful guardian," she whispered, almost delighted that there seemed to be hope.

"But my Princess, he is Persian. If he knows the power of the dagger, he will give it to his family," Asoka feared.

"No, I know his heart... I know he is good. If he was part of whatever evil plan Nizam has in motion, he would have surrendered it to him by now," she reasoned. "This is Nizam's plot, and his alone. There are two places the dagger can be returned back to the Gods- the water temple and the sandglass chamber."

"The water temple, your highness, was destroyed," Asoka told her sadly. "Hassansins and the Persians did that."

"So our only solution is to bring the dagger to the mouth of the lion," she said as she looked out to the city. No one except her knew the cost of her calling. Returning the dagger meant paying the original price of a life. A price she was willing to pay.

"How are we going to get the dagger here? It is not as if we can write to the Prince and ask him to give us the dagger. Princess, Nizam's men read every message that cross our walls," Asoka advised.

Tamina thought for a heartbeat on what could be done. "Yes that would arouse suspicion and lay the dagger in danger. Yet there is no reason to doubt the intentions of a woman wanting to see the man she is to marry."

Asoka was confused at her words when she turned to him again.

"Asoka, it is time for Prince Dastan to meet his betrothed."