This is only a short chapter about how Shirin and the Prince are bonding.

Chapter Six: Closer

When you want something you try your best to get it, and sometimes it isn't that big a matter if you don't get it. But when you need something you will push yourself to all extents to get it. You will do everything and anything to get what you need, and then you do get it. This situation had now turned from something that I wanted to do to something I needed to do. I couldn't fail now. If I was to die, then I had to see and make Farah remember beforehand. I had probably halved the number of days it would have normally taken to get to Amber, because I was pushing myself to go faster, I intended to get there quickly. The given horse galloped across the empty at the same speed that my heart was beating. But we now pulled to a stop on the slopes that were positioned just outside of the city of Amber. The magnificent palace, or fort as it was sometimes called, was now in my sights. I had to now enter the city. But how could I get in without being realised as a Persian?

"Ugh...can I be sick now?" groaned Shirin. She got off the horse unsteadily. I could tell by the blear in her eyes that things in her vision were still swirling and being multiplied by two. She looked at me. "Hey Princes," she started as she saw two of me in her dizzy vision "What are we...ugh...going to do now?" she asked, hugging her stomach.

"Well first," I replied, "everything we have here has to be accounted for by those guards there so they know we have entered the city and what things we are carrying." I pointed over to a number of patrolling Indian guards by some large stone gates that went around the city. I was too busy watching the guards to notice Shirin retching out of the corner of my eye. I only noticed her when she began kneeling, her head touching the ground, reciting what seemed to be a poem. Some of it was muffled but I could hear most of it.

"Sand swirling, sand whirling. In my eyes I see all. The greatest nations that will fall. Sand swirling, sand whirling. No King. No Queen. Just empty time and the swirling sand, that is that will be seen,"

I wasn't even sure if it was a poem, but whatever it was, I didn't like it.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Just something I know," she groaned, not looking at me. But I questioned her further.

"Well what is it about?" I asked, but she looked up at me with a harsh frown.

"You bloody well released them if that is any help!" she snarled back at me, placing her head back on the ground. That was why I didn't like the poem; it was about the sands and how they could destroy everything. I could see Shirin didn't feel well at all. Her face had lost its colour, her eyes were heavily glazed and sorrowful and she seemed to snap at me at any chance. I dismounted the horse and knelt beside her. I put a comforting arm round her.

"I want to go home," she sobbed suddenly. I didn't even know she was crying. I had expected her to get angry with me for trying to be kind to her.

"What? Back to Persepolis?" I asked. I didn't quite understand what she had said. Where was home for a thief?

She shook her head. "No that isn't home...I remember this place. Um, it was bright, it was...I don't know where it was but it was surrounded by sea...and it was almost like a palace but it wasn't, it was more like a religious place, like a temple or something. And I wasn't a kid; I was the age I am now, if that makes sense to you. I still see the place now in my dreams. I am walking through a corridor and...and I am wearing a pretty yellow dress, which is silly because I don't wear dresses. Then I go into this big room, where I can see the sky. The sky is going dark and then there is this person, I never see the person's face, I don't even know if it is a man or a woman. It is like everything around me is rotting and getting old and changing. Everything is becoming darker and I am scared. Then the person sees me and begins to run after me. I am trying to get away but then I fall because I have been shot or stabbed or something, I turn round to look at the person and although I can't see who it is. I know they are smiling." She stopped as tears ran down her face and made it hard to talk. She swallowed and sniffed. She spoke softly and slowly now so that she was more coherent. "Then I close my eyes and everything shatters, like a mirror being smashed. I see a woman walking. She's pregnant and has a yellowish aura. I don't know who she is; she looks a bit like me and I think she is my mother – I mean, she looks like me and the aura and everything – it all signifies something to do with me, I'm sure it does...then I wake up." She swallowed again and looked at my face. "Do you think that's silly?"

"No, but why would you want to go back to this place if you were shot or stabbed there?" I asked. What she said didn't make sense to me. It was like me saying that I wanted to go back to the sand-infested palace.

She shrugged. "It was nice there, when it is all bright and pretty. I am not sure if it is an actual memory or just a dream, but it always feels so real when I dream about it," she murmured. Her tears continued to fall. I couldn't ever remember seeing her cry. It was odd; she never appeared the type of person to cry or to act so sorrowfully, she acted so youthful usually and thought in such a happy child-like way.

"Everything will be alright," I said, I couldn't help but find this a weak thing to say. It was something everybody said, and had it no real meaning anymore. I had to back it up. But it was one of those moments where your mind just went blank. You couldn't think of anything else to say but to just repeat what you had already said. However, although I felt I was being pretty lousy at comforting her, she was quite appreciative. A large but soft smile spread across her face.

"I don't think I have ever had a proper friend," she mumbled. I could barely hear her words, but I understood them. There were many reasons why no one would probably want to be close to Shirin, one being her abnormalities. If she was related to Dahaka, then it wasn't her fault. No one could choose his or her family. I knew she would never obey any of Dahaka's commands. I sat here, with her now and we both completely trusted each other. We both knew we were weak; I hated never being with Farah and Shirin hated the lack of understanding about herself. Because of this, our friendship was getting stronger. Eventually I would get what I wanted...what were the chances that Shirin would? But for now, for this one precise point in time, that didn't matter.