This is from Shirin's view.
Chapter Seventeen: Who are you?
The swashing around of water interrupted my sleep, I saw the others had long since gotten up and had left me in slumber – thanks a lot! I tumbled out of my bed and quickly threw on my overalls to meet them downstairs.
It appeared not much had gone on. No customers had arrived yet, well, except for an old, bearded guy who was sitting alone in the corner. The kitchen's door was open and it actually looked like Farah was trying to drown the Prince! His head was half sub-merged in a bucket of darkened water, Farah had her hand on his neck to keep his head in the water, meanwhile, Cook was just standing by stirring one of his odd culinary creations absent-mindedly. Farah noticed me at the door, staring wide-eyed.
"It's not what you think Shirin," said Farah. The Prince lifted his head up…he looked…different.
"Yeah, I've got this dark stain in my hair and I can't be bothered to comb it out," said the Prince, I suddenly realised that his hair was black.
"I told you you should have worn a turban," muttered the Cook, he seemed to be mumbling to himself under his breath, repeating an array of names all beginning with 'a'.
"So you decide to dye your hair…gawd – I can't decide whether I should cry or laugh with the utter sadness of you," I said very plainly. "So how did you get this stain in your hair? Would it include the exploding of a over-cooked aubergine?" I asked.
"Hey! Those things are dangerous! Over-heat them and it all goes up in smoke…literally!" the Prince cried. His speech was becoming a lot more slacker than it was before, I didn't really like the way his speech had changed, I liked the way he spoke before; so much that it appeared that I was starting to speak like his old-self.
"Listen you young, blithering idiots, have any of you heard the news?" piped up the Cook suddenly.
"Did you just call us blithering idiots?" asked Farah, I didn't give the Cook a chance to answer and quickly moved on – anyway, he was always saying weird stuff in perfectly normal sentences, he was, after all, slightly insane.
"What news?" I asked.
"Well, according to a number of rumours, King Shahramen of Persia's son, the youngest one, has gone missing. He is described to be of medium height, slightly muscular, to have bluish greyish green eyes, a slightly wide nose and brownish hair…hey that would look like you Cheveme if you didn't have the black hair," said the Cook not realising the obvious. The three of us began to look slightly…ambiguous.
"Uh yes…but I, like you said, have black hair…" mumbled the Prince, slowly, swaying slightly.
"By the way, you never told me how you three are connected," said the Cook. Once again, we all tried to act incredibly honest and innocent but hardly were convincing…to a ordinary person that is, Cook was fully convinced, or at least, he seemed to be underneath that long fringe of his.
"Well, Dipesh is my father's, half-brother's…cousin's, sister's friend…" said the Prince getting a tad bit carried away.
"Making you two?" asked the confused Cook.
"Absolutely nothings, and Farah is my brother's – " started the Prince but Farah quickly interrupted.
"Friend! I'm his brother's friend!" Farah quickly said.
"Uh…ho…well, Shirin someone's waiting outside so would you go and take their order?" asked the Cook slowly. I went outside the kitchen to see a young woman waiting. She was pretty, prettier than I was and I couldn't help but believe she was younger than I was, though I sensed some maturity about her.
"Yeah? What do you want to eat?" I said, I couldn't help but feel slightly grouchy as I had only just gotten up and I hadn't had anything to eat…I was living in a tavern goodness sake! How could I not have anything to eat in the morning!
"Oh no, I'm not here to eat," said the woman. I stared at her, slightly annoyed.
"Okay, I'll spell this out to you, T-A-V…E…R…uh-wait…um…N! Spelling tavern!" I pointed out, I suppose it would have had more effect if I was better at spelling. I knew my letter to Farah must have been riddled with mistakes…I couldn't really help it, between stealing and summoning up dead people…I didn't really have time to properly learn how to read and write…not that I ever really needed.
"I am very capable of reading, but I am hear to see Amalendu, I'm his fiancée," she said. Something dropped inside of me…
"Would you just excuse me for just a moment please," I said quickly, fixating a smile on my face, I quickly moved back into the kitchen.
"CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!" I cried, jumping up and down. I tried to speak quietly, but it didn't really work, and at that moment, I didn't even care! How the heck could I be so damn well stupid! I was head over heels for Amalendu – and he was bloody well engaged! The Prince (who was drying his hair now), Farah and the Cook all stared at me. "What?" I demanded.
"Um…well, when you come in here, cursing, you begin to wonder what matter is troubling you," said Prince.
"Yeah well I was thinking the same thing when I saw you dying your hair in a kitchen! Who the heck has dye in a kitchen?" I cried.
"Well, technically speaking, there is food dye, and I need proper hair-dye to keep the greys away…not that I naturally have greys but you never know when they're going to appear," muttered the Cook. I felt like I was going to scream.
"Okay, today has just been stupid from the start! Now I'm just going to pretend that this is just some stupid dream which I will be awoken from it!" cried Shirin. The door to the kitchen opened slightly behind me and heard the woman speaking again but I was trying to block her out.
"Um, if Amalendu is out, then maybe I could come back later…" I heard her mumble, I turned round.
"Yes," I said shoving her so she turned round. "That would be an excellent idea! Why don't I show you the way out?" I asked and began to shove her outside into the dinning area and then I pushed her outside, slamming the door in her face. I walked back into the kitchen.
"Ankur! That's my name!" the Cook suddenly cried, raising a wooden spoon in the air; it had a sort of runny paste on it so it splattered against the wall. I was on a total downer, I was angry, and I was sure Farah noticed this…and she was probably worried because she knew and had witnessed what sort of things I could do if I couldn't control my emotions properly. I shut my eyes briefly and analysed my emotions. I was annoyed with myself for being so careless and stupid, I was embarrassed because I didn't know what Amalendu thought of me…he probably just thought I was some sad spinster…well I'm too young to be a spinster but he was probably thinking something negative about me; and then there was another feeling, anger, but not at myself, at someone else, but I didn't know who. I just felt it was someone else's fault for me never being happy. It probably wasn't a few brief minutes that I had stayed like this, eyes shut that is, because I heard my name being called softly.
"Shirin?" I heard Farah say, I eased my eyes open, she was standing in front of me. "It is still very early…maybe you should go back upstairs and rest for a little while longer?" she suggested. I stared up at her, not moving head up but moving my eyes. I began to slowly shake my head. "I will be fine, don't worry about me," I said and I found myself walking back into the dinning area, I heard Farah quietly talking about little concerns she had for me to the Prince. She had no reason to worry, no one worried about me…people just hurt me, wait…no, people don't hurt me, I just hurt myself.
I stood, leaning against a wall, watching the people come and go. 'Service with a smile' weren't really a collective of words in my vocabulary. Amalendu still hadn't returned since this morning, he must have left incredibly early, maybe he did it to avoid me. It hurt a lot…but I had only caused the hurt within myself, it wasn't his fault – not that he was going to escape my anger – it was mine because I had been far too trusting. But…that wasn't the only problem, because after all, it hadn't been my trust he had misplace, I had jumped to too many final conclusions too fast. I had only known him for a few hours so it wasn't like I even really knew him, it was unlikely, but it was possible he could have another side to him. Nevertheless, even I had to admit to myself that I was just being stupid by lamenting and thinking over something like this for half the morning. So he is engaged, I should just accept it, get over it and move on. But maybe I couldn't just move on, after all, the Prince and Farah weren't just moving on so why should I? But then again, they were first-loves, something that you tried your best to never let go of, Amalendu wasn't the first person that I seriously liked…I knew who it was that I loved…
Now when I consider that thought…maybe I never ever really liked Amalendu, maybe I just was telling myself that, making me believe that I was feeling this emotion only to cover up another one, a true one, but one that I didn't want to accept. Is there a point to an emotion towards someone if they do not return it? Maybe there isn't, and maybe that is the reason why I wished to hide my real emotions. I like Amalendu as a friend, yes, but nothing more; but with this true emotion, I like someone more than a friend…although I know it is unlikely that it will ever happen; yet for this situation, I'm not going to give up. A click of fingers took me away from my thoughts, and I walked over to the table that I was being beckoned to. The man placed his order, yet the words didn't really store in my head and I was unable to relay the order correctly. I honestly couldn't work in this state. Suddenly the door to the tavern was opened quickly and Amalendu quickly stepped in, I saw from the darkening sky that evening was beginning to take its presence.
"Where have you been?" I asked rather bluntly.
"Out, I had to meet someone, my sister was in the city today, just passing through with a husband. She came from Amber, according to her the princess has disappeared. Quite a coincidence, with the Persian prince disappearing too…I do hope the princess will be alright, especially with there being a wandering Persian about, I hate Persians, they all have shifty eyes and their eyebrows are always too close together," Amalendu said, fixing his turban as it was becoming loose.
"Not necessary," I muttered as he was preoccupied. I looked up at him. "Well your fiancée was here today asking after you,"
"Oh Daya, I'll talk to her tomorrow, she's nice isn't she?" he smiled.
"Wouldn't know, didn't get much time to talk to her between pushing her outside and cursing her in my head," I muttered under my breath, I looked back up at Amalendu.
"You never told me you were about to get married,"
"Well we've only known each for about a day so you're not really going to know everything about me, the same way I don't know much about you," he smiled back.
"Hm…you're right," I murmured quietly, I wanted to be angry with him but I found I couldn't. I wanted to go now; I needed to take my anger out on something else. "Could I please have a few minutes of rest? I have been waiter-ing all day," I asked. Amalendu smiled (as usual) and gestured I could go. I quickly left the room.
"Shirin? Are you in here?" I heard the Prince call. He walked into the bedroom – catching me having a little punch-up with my pillow. "I'm glad I'm not in your bad books," he muttered sitting down opposite me.
"Oh no, I regularly have punch and kick-practices with pillows," I said sarcastically. He smiled, slightly amused.
"I understand you are very angry with the fact that Amalendu already is with someone, but I'm sure somewhere on this flat world someone will love you, and love you for who you are," he said trying to reassure me it wasn't the end of the world – and I knew that it wasn't.
"Hm. Thanks…by the way, the world might not be flat…it could be a sort of…egg shape," I muttered. He smiled broadly.
"Uh…huh. If the world was like that, Shirin, then all the water would fall off wouldn't it?" he said incredibly simply. "Everybody knows the world is flat and if you go to far into the sea then you'll fall off and end up in a black void, that's why sailors have to be very careful. What are you going to say next? That the sun stays still and doesn't go around the world?" he grinned.
"Well that could – " I started. The Prince looked at me plainly.
"Shirin, from the ages five to thirteen I was studying, trust me, I'm a prince, I know this stuff," he said.
"Yes…a prince that because he got a stain in his hair decided to dye it," I pointed out.
"Actually that was a lie, but I had to change my appearance somehow didn't I? Farah should do the same but she isn't going to let me anywhere near her hair and personally I'm not going to because do you really think I'm going to trust her with a dagger after the whole bow and arrow fiasco? Fire at the sand creatures not the Persian guy!" He cried. I smiled. He saw that he had raised my feelings. "So are you going to come downstairs now and stop harassing your pillow?" he asked. I nodded and we left the room.
It was about closing time and Farah and the Prince had already left and I was just tidying up the dinning area.
"Shirin! Shirin! Shirey! Shir-ean the…searing…pain, um, okay maybe that didn't go down as well as I wanted," mumbled Amalendu.
"What do you want?" I asked knowing he was after something.
"I know it is late, cold, after your working-hours," he started.
"Get to the point," I ordered.
"Could you please go on an errand for me?" he asked grinning from ear to ear, closing his eyes to help his smile grow. I really wanted to say 'The cheek of you! You break my heart and now you want me to go face the night's weather' but I knew I couldn't.
"Okay, where is it and what is it?" I asked. He briefly disappeared into his office and appeared again with a wrapped up, small, letter.
"I was suppose to deliver it today but with my sister being here and the business and all I didn't really have any time to, here's the address, it isn't too far from here actually," he said with a smile and handed me the letter with the address stuck on it. I didn't recognised the address but Amalendu was probably right about it not being too far from here…
That little, lying…well, I suppose it wasn't fully all his fault. It had been me that had tried to take a few 'short-cuts', it was the dead of night by time I had got back to the tavern. I rapped, absolutely freezing, on the wooden door of the tavern. There was no answer. I stood there, shivering for a little while before knocking again, but again there was no answer. I walked over to a tall window, I couldn't reach it but I tried to call Amalendu's name…he must have fallen asleep, I had been gone for quite a few hours so it was likely the Prince and Farah had fallen asleep too. I slid down the wall and sat on the ground. No one was around…and it was so cold. I rested my head on my knees…but suddenly I felt a presence. I looked up and saw the figure forming from the shadows…it was him. I felt no fear although I was alone and I knew I had no real strength to protect myself because I was so tired. I wanted to know now, I wanted to know who he was, this could turn into a nightmare, but that didn't really matter for I already knew the truth of who he was and who I was would be a nightmare.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Who I'm I? I am the Dahaka and I am your father…"