Like said before, this is now set some time after the last chapter and this is from Shirin's view. Sorry for the wait.
Chapter Twenty-one: Here, at lastAs the days past, it appeared to be getting colder and sometimes to the point were my body was so numb I wished to pass out to escape it all. Our guide, Damini, wouldn't ever cut us any slack and we would constantly travel through the harshest of weathers. One night there was a terrible storm, one of our horses almost died and all four of us were in danger with the lightning striking across the land yet even then we continued our ascent of the mountains. I knew and believed that I had changed, and I was unsure whether it was for the best or for the worse. The once annoyance that came with seeing them together had now turned into a sharp pain, and that was when I was around them, thoughts of them in privacy was sheer agony for me. I knew I hated her (and I am not talking about Damini) and slowly I was considering killing her (usually on an occasional moment when my thoughts did drift to madness); but I could never do that…I would be misplacing the Prince's trust, and I didn't want to do that, but also, I didn't want to do Dahaka's bidding or seriously harm her because she hadn't really done anything wrong. I found it easier now to enter that world, the world where I could talk to Dahaka. I knew he (Dahaka) wasn't a man; but he would always take on that form when I was in that world, well, not entirely, he would hide in a cloak where I never saw his face. Once I had got incredibly angry with him. I was screaming at him to tell me who Damini was and why she was here. I always believed he knew and that he had sent her; sent her to ruin everything. In my sheer anger, I grabbed his cloak, only for everything to bleed into darkness and for me to find the cloak was empty. He never answered questions about Damini, he didn't answer many questions and sometimes I was sure that I only went to that place to just feel the importance that I got from being there. Dahaka would occasionally talk about an empress, but I never really listened; but I had learnt that although Dahaka was powerful, he himself had little control over time itself, and so, I came to the conclusion that he himself was a slave to the power of the Sands. I was sat on a large chair, casually and not artificially, I was sat so my legs dangled over one arm; I always felt different in this place, in looks mainly; I always felt taller but maybe it was just an illusion that the yellow dress that I wore gave off. Dahaka was sat, on a small but cushioned stool staring at the hourglass. His head, which was covered by the hood, rested on a clenched fist, the hypnotic glow of the Sand gleaming on the cloak and giving off an unreal warmth.
"Why is she here? Damini, I mean. Did you send her to test me?" I asked, turning my head that rested on the other arm of the chair to look at him. He didn't answer and continued to stare at the enigmatic Sands. I would always consider him an excellent listener if not a rubbish talker. "I do not like her," I muttered now looking up at the grey but tall ceiling of the large if not enclosed room.
"Why?" asked Dahaka in his voice of natural darkness.
"Because she's a bully and she's mean, she makes me do a load of chores!" I cried, this was true; Damini always thought of me now as someone that shouldn't have been around for I now had no purpose, and so, she would make me do a lot of menial and servile tasks like washing and cooking, even when my wrist was strained she would make me carry things of terrible weight. My wrist was better though it still had a painful twinge when I bent it backwards. Dahaka made a little noise that proved that he believed there was another reason. I got up off the chair. "I should be getting back now," I said, sometimes I wished he would say something that would make me believe, if not just for a few seconds, that he was human for if he were human then so was I. "We're climbing a mountain range by the way, they call this place the Himalayas. It is hard because it is so cold…I wish I was back in Persia…it seems like such a distant memory now but it was only…it's been nearly four months…" I murmured as it dawned on me that this journey hadn't just been a few weeks as it had seemed for me. Surely if a love for someone didn't die out within a few weeks then it must be worth fighting for. I looked at Dahaka. "Show me what has happened in Amber," I ordered. He produced a slightly bent picture in mid-air of burning Amber, I had seen the picture many times before but it rarely changed, I always saw the Persians and Indians fighting and the lands burning. I was glad Farah never saw this because it would upset her greatly, I never deeply wanted to hurt her but only for the Prince's sake. "And the Maharajah? What has happened to him?" I asked.
"He, along with the rest of his family are still alive, none of Farah's family have died," explained Dahaka. That was all I wanted to hear, I knew Amalendu, his wife-to-be and Ankur were all fine. Dahaka informed me a few days ago that Daya and Amalendu had married, I was glad that through all the madness they were still well. I knew I had to get back, I found that in between my time here and my time in the real word, so to say; I got little rest for when I would rest in the real world I would come to this world. I really did need to get back, Damini had said that we were near the temple and that we would be there shortly, I looked forward to it, I could find my memories as could Farah and another thing I looked forward to was learning the Prince's name, it would be odd calling him a name though as I had got so use to saying 'Prince' or 'Cheveme'. With a flash, I disappeared.
"Shirin!" I heard the Prince cry. I sat up in my tent. The Himalayas were incredibly cold and rather snowy so to make sure our tents stayed in place we had dig indents in the ground and it was best to wrap up because it amazed me that though near India the mountains were terribly cold and as we got higher up them, it was harder to breath, except for Damini and Farah who appeared to have some sort of natural immunity to the lack of oxygen. It wasn't always cold, when we first started the ascent of the mountains, the weather had been quite tamed but as we got higher, it got colder and the snowier. The Prince suddenly entered my tent, he was wearing his cloak and clutching it tightly so it stayed around him, I couldn't figure out why he appeared angry but I soon figured out why. "You were on clothes-washing duty! Where are my pants and shirt!" he cried. I was on clothes-washing duty, I had to boil the snow and it took ages, and it took even longer to get the clothes dry. Damini, however, never trusted me with washing her clothes and she never seemed to change her black clothes either. We had gone through a small village where we had bought some clothes a while ago, but Damini didn't buy any extra clothes. The Prince had also bought me a sword with a short but sharp blade; I felt this showed he still didn't trust Damini.
"Well they aren't dry yet are they?" I murmured, tired and exhausted, I felt terribly fatigued but would anyone be nice to me? Of course not!
"Well what I'm I suppose to do in the meantime?" he cried.
"Well go wear that black stuff you bought," I ordered and shooed him outside. I went to the back of my tent and curled up, hoping to catch a few hours of sleep; however, a call from Damini diminished any thoughts of sleep from my mind. I got to my feet and quickly went to see what she wanted. She was stood, wrapped up in her black cloak as usual; she had bought a spear from the village we had passed through and she used it to help her maintain her balance in the thick snow. Her face had become slightly pale and her deep-red lipstick didn't exactly help. She rarely talked to any of us – except if she was giving an order out. I never felt safe around her, none of us knew enough about her to fully put our trust in her and so we always stayed reasonably aware.
"Go and start packing up, we need to start moving now," she ordered with her voice of darkness and authority. I began the long job of packing everything away. I started with my tent, I peered briefly over my shoulder and I saw her watching with her callous eyes. Why did she always watch me? Occasionally, the idea that she was just as scared of me as I was of her came into my mind, but for me this just seemed unrealistic. She: a woman with amazing un-human abilities and a weapon from every known category, me: an unarmed kid. In a fight, I think the outcome could easily be predicted.
Once packed, we continued our slow trek of the mountain range. The Prince, Farah and I had arranged a rota of who was to guard the dagger, today it was my turn and the dagger rested in its scabbard at my side. The Prince was wearing dark clothes now, his other clothes were saturated and were lying in a basket that one of our horses carried – we didn't ride on them, it would probably tire them out severely what with all the supplies they were carrying. The Prince didn't wear a shirt under his new armour therefore he hadn't any sleeves – meaning he was freezing cold but he wouldn't admit it. He tied a lot of excess red fabric around his hips, the red seemed to co-ordinate well with the black; his change in clothes did admittedly give him a severely darker look. Suddenly Damini stopped, we carried on moving until her actions registered with us and we came to a slightly disordered stop.
"Hey, why'd we stop?" I asked. Damini turned around.
"We are approaching an area of extreme danger. We should split, Farah and the Prince will take a safer route, you and I will take another route and deal with the creatures near the temple," she ordered glaring ferociously at me.
"Well why don't you and Shirin take the safe route with us too?" asked the Prince suspiciously.
"The safer route will simply delay your arrival, Shirin and I are taking a route that is much quicker; by time you arrive Shirin and I would have dealt with the guardians of the temple – this is totally for your safety," said Damini.
"Well in that case, we all can take the faster route and stay in a group," the Prince compromised.
"You will hardly be able to fight the guardians of the temple – both of you will be disembowelled within seconds, you aren't fighters," said Damini. I could see the surprise on the Prince's face.
"Neither is Shirin," said Farah, the Prince pulled me towards the two of them. "Shirin is staying with us,"
"Shirin has the same powers as me and will be able to destroy any creature, she should stay with me. Why do you argue? This is a simple matter that you have blown completely out of proportion," said Damini. The Prince looked at her darkly; I had never realised how much he had grown up since I had met him back in Persepolis and even Farah had matured from that young princess she once was. The Prince's eyes flicked over to me for a couple of moments. I didn't want to be left alone with Damini and I tried to transfer my pleas to my eyes, yet, the Prince didn't see them.
"Fine. What is this other route?" he asked. Something heavy dropped inside of me. Damini gave him some directions, his eyes kept focused on her but I kept staring at him. It wasn't until I felt Damini's hand with her elongated fingers curl round my shoulder and pull me away did I realise that I was actually clutching his hand tightly. I trusted him…why did he let me down? I stumbled backwards for a few seconds, Damini's long claw-like hands digging into my shoulder painfully, before turning around and wading through the deep snow.
I walked silently with Damini, shivering and uncomfortable from the wetness on my pants due to the snow. We were making a steep ascent and I could barely keep up. Damini had a quick pace and she managed to walk with complete ease, she never slipped unlike me. I tried asking her to wait yet it seemed pointless; her pace wouldn't slow at all. She was taller than I was and the snow didn't come up to her thighs like it did with me, and then when we had to do some serious climbing I could barely grab onto the ice-platforms that had formed – damn it! Why did I have to be so short! My fingers were turning blue with the cold and I was getting bad pins and needles in them – I couldn't feel much of my body but somehow I was still moving. If this was a short route then I didn't want to be on the long route. The blades of wind cut against my face as I walked, I fell on my knees several times as the harsh wind was stronger and knocked me down, and then I would look up, and would see Damini walking like it was everyday-weather conditions. I suddenly found I was gasping badly for air, no matter how many deep breathes I took in I still remained breathless and light-headed, and when I looked over my shoulder and saw how high how I climbed, to the point where clouds were hiding the ground below. I would feel so dizzy that I was sure I going to collapse…but I didn't. I finally heard Damini's crunches of footsteps in the snow stop. Gasping loudly, with blue fingers I managed to pull myself up one more level. I was on my knees now, my eyes were barely open for the gales made them sting but I saw and felt a slightly familiar glow and warmth. I wished to get up, but my body ignored my orders, no abnormal sand-creature-like move could drain me this much; this was just plain sheer agony. It appeared that when the Prince left me, my strength did too, but it didn't matter now, we must have been at the peak. I collapsed, my head smacking hard against the ice.
I couldn't have been out that long, as the Prince and Farah hadn't arrived yet. I lifted my head off the ice, I saw I had cut forehead and the blood was tracing its way down my face and onto the ice. I wiped it away with my wet sleeve and I managed to stumble to my feet. I saw in front of me, a golden, glowing, twisting vortex. I blinked at it, the golden/sepia colour reminded me of sand and then of the Sands of Time. I suddenly noticed how beautiful this place was; the sky seemed an almost perfect azure without a cloud in sight. I just stood in awe for a few moments, that was until I began hearing the metallic scratch of the sharpening of blades. I turned round to see Damini; she had removed her cloak and was using it to cushion a small mount of ice. She had removed the two daggers that were placed across her abdomen and was sat, drawing them across each other. Her iris and pupil were at the top of the white of her eyes, giving her a dark look. She glared at me, scraping the blades across each other, making them spark.
"Will the vortex take us to the Temple? Where are those guardians you talked about?" I asked. She stopped scraping the blades. She stood. I suddenly realised that she wasn't particularly in a good mood.
"You have the dagger, give it to me," she glared, she walked towards me.
"What?" I asked. I walked backwards, away from her.
"Give it to me. If you do then I'll make slitting your throat reasonably painless," she ordered. I shook my head – something that didn't agree with her. She lunged at me immediately. I fell to the ground but only just managed to avoid the two daggers by rolling away. Damini left the daggers lodged in the ice. I quickly removed the sword I had been given by the Prince. Damini removed her sword too, I couldn't understand why her attack had been such a shock to me; I had never trusted her from the start. Both our swords clashed together, I knew she was stronger than I was and I was sure I couldn't overpower her. I couldn't. She moved her foot swiftly across my feet, tripping me up, I hit the ground awkwardly and the sword was thrown from my grasp and toppled over the edge, it was on the ledge below, I could possibly jump down and get it but…the dagger! It had spun out of its scabbard and was in the centre of the small area our fight was taking place in. I tried to make a run for it, but I couldn't get up because of the ice…and I knew Damini wasn't going to let me get it either. She removed her axe; she raised it high in the air and sent it crashing down. It went straight through the flesh and bone of my hand and down into the ice, jamming my hand together with the ice! My eyes glazed quickly and then I let out a bone-chilling scream that made my throat feel completely raw, as if ravens with their claws had been shredding away at it. I squirmed in agony, but I found the more I moved the more it hurt. I heard Damini sheath her sword, she walked past me, she picked up the dagger that was only inches away from me, it sent a terrible anger through me – it seemed as though she was taunting me. She gave a sly smile, looking down at me before turning around and examining the dagger in more detail. I wasn't going to allow her to get away with this. I struggled but I managed to grab the handle of the axe, I moved it around and managed to get the blade out of the ice, and slowly, I pulled it out of my hand causing me an agonising and excruciating pain but I kept silent. I slowly stood up, keeping my balance. Damini suddenly realised and turned her head around.
"You really are a bitch." I muttered; I raised the axe and slashed it had across her face, she fell immediately. While she was down, I plunged the axe's blade into her abdomen! She cried out, twitched and writhed but eventually she stilled as a pool of blood began growing from her stomach and her grip on the dagger loosened. I grabbed the dagger and stumbled back a little before falling onto the ice.
"SHIRIN!" I heard the Prince scream from below, the footsteps of both the Prince and Farah grew louder as I saw the two suddenly pull themselves up onto the peak I was sat on.
"Why is it that exactly right after I kill weird-psycho-bitch you turn up?" I muttered quietly. The two rushed over to me after having taken in sight of the dead body of Damini.
"Shirin, what happened?" questioned Farah, she grabbed part of the Prince's cloak (he must have put it on after realising that he was terribly cold) and ripped some of and began wrapping it around my damaged hand, the pressure would stop the bleeding.
"I guess Damini wanted to give me a manicure…just she has really bad depth-perception," I mumbled.
"I knew she was evil! You both thought I totally trusted her but-" started the Prince immediately trying to defend himself.
"Shut up!" Farah and I yelled simultaneously. Our attentions turned to the vortex.
"So…I guess we have to go through that to get to the temple," the Prince said.
"Yep, there were no dangerous creatures by the way," I murmured. Farah grabbed my good hand and the Prince's left hand.
"Okay, well, let's walk through it, hope for the best, and if we die we'll blame it all on the Prince," she said as began dragging us towards it.
"I'm happy with that idea," I grinned somewhat darkly. We walked towards the vortex and as we stepped in it, we appeared to be overcome with light, as if we were teleporting.
We eased our eyes open. We took in our new setting. We seemed to be in some sort of cavern. The walls were white solid ice; the spikes of ice spiralling around and twisting out of the walls. It wasn't a particularly large cavern but I saw as I looked up the ceiling was completely clear and I could see the clear blue sky that was reflected on a small circle of ice that we were stood on. I then saw the temple…it was at one end of the cavern. We walked to it, staring at it completely amazed. We were here, at last, after four months we were finally here! The Temple of Sight had a number of steps to it; the steps appeared to be of almost pure gold but it appeared to be of stone texture. In total, I saw that there were three hexagon-shaped platforms that separated the staircase to the temple that was high up. Each platform had a grey stone plaque and there was one right in front of the stairs – it was written all in Indian so I couldn't read it terribly well - but also it appeared to some sort of very old Indian. The temple appeared rather small, it was made out of stone and it could be seen that its design was primarily Indian with various Indian design going around the walls, however there was a large oriental pagoda-style red spire on the top of the temple. There were no doors and I could see the entrance led straight into a gold corridor. I saw that at each side of the entrance there were painted on eyes, obviously representing the memories that were held inside. I found it hard to remove my eyes off the golden temple that seemed to have a mystical aura around it.
"Memories are never lost, they have to be awakened and be refreshed, they have to be made new, so come forward and receive your new memories," said Farah, I looked at her, she was reading the plaque in front of us. The Prince was about to step forward and go up the step but Farah grabbed his hand.
"Wait…Shirin, is it safe to go ahead?" Farah asked looking at me. I knew it probably wasn't as I had heard the steps of the temple were the hardest to get past. I looked at her.
"Well even if it isn't, we're going to have to go ahead eventually. But let's rest for now," I said. Farah nodded; it was for the best; we were all far too tired to carry on.
As I 'slept' I met up with Dahaka. I was going on and on about how I was right, how I knew how Damini was evil. However, I suddenly stopped as Dahaka murmured something from under his cloak.
"A dagger. A staff. A sword. A medallion. A hourglass." He said slowly. I looked at him.
"What?" I asked not having a clue what he was on about.
"What do you think Damini would do with all of them?" Dahaka asked. I was silent; I couldn't understand what he was talking about. "Maybe…she wasn't evil after all, maybe, she was trying to help the Prince and Farah…just not you," said Dahaka calmly. I turned to look at him. What did he mean? I suddenly didn't like Dahaka's presence; I found him an annoyance because he would never tell me something properly – I knew he was the type of person that would let me make a mistake and then explain later. I stared at him.
"I have to get back," I muttered. Was Dahaka trying to explain something to me? Or was he just trying to mess with my mind. I didn't care, we had nearly finished what we had started out to do, nothing was going to stop us from completing this successfully…or at least that was what I thought. I teleported away.
I didn't open my eyes but I listened to the voices of the Prince and Farah.
"It is funny…I never meant to go on this journey and end up feeling like this towards you. Do you remember what I said on the outskirts of Amber?" asked Farah's voice, softly. I suddenly had the great want to fall asleep.
"That you only shot me because I had it coming?" asked the Prince – the world's greatest mood-killer!
"No, that I wasn't going on this journey to end up falling in love with you," she said tenderly. I opened my eyes slightly. It was night-time and I could tell because the cavern was only lit by the glowing moonlight that shone onto the small pool that had obviously iced over, the rest of the cavern except for that area was filled with snow. Where exactly was this place? From the surroundings, I guessed we were still in the Himalayas, so maybe we were deep within the mountains or something – it didn't matter, as long as we were here. I looked over to the Prince and Farah. They were doing the whole lovey-dovey-staring-in-each-others'-glazed-eyes look.
"The horses," I murmured quietly but loud enough for them hear. They turned round to look at me; I sat up. "What did you do with all the horses? You took mine and Damini's," I asked.
"Oh, when we heard you scream we ran and left them behind," explained the Prince.
"Oh well…just means we're going to be hungry for a long time…and you will never get your old clothes back," I muttered. I turned to look at the temple. "We should try getting in now, that is, if that is okay with you Farah," I said looking at her; she smiled.
"Well I'm hardly trying to put it off I'm I?" she smiled.
We stood in front of the steps, Farah was reading the plaque in more detail - we wanted to make sure that nothing would take us by surprise when we went onto the first platform.
"According to this," she started, "all persons wanting to have their memories made new, so to say, are going to have to undergo some sort of trial alone,"
"Well…it doesn't sound that bad," I murmured.
"Well it actually says 'the eternal spirits of the Temple of Sight, the spirits that see deep into the past and memories of all, will trial the minds of the memory-seeking persons to see the reason why the memories are needed; the trial may force those to a state of hysterical madness, to a point where they see life as a futile spiral of darkness, and they will reside in a hellish nightmare where a dark ocean will consume them' but I think my version sounded more reassuring," explained Farah.
"Oh…well, I'm sure it can't be that bad," I mumbled. I wasn't trying to convince Farah, I was trying to convince myself - for the spirits Farah had talked of would know that I wanted my memories restored too. I saw Farah's hand was in the Prince's, I had no one to help me, but then again, when we would have this trial we would be alone without anyone's help. We all moved simultaneously onto the first platform. For about a second nothing happened and I immediately believed it wasn't my turn to be put through the test, but as I black out, I realised, I was wrong.
Okay, although I will be writing the next chapters, I can't put them up until my internet is sorted out properly, I was suppose to have had Broadband installed today but nothing can be done until after New Year which will be the next time I can update. Subsequently, my home e-mail isn't working either so if anybody has sent me anything after the 9th December then I wouldn't have received it, plus, I can't send any e-mails out so if anyone has been written to me expecting an answer then I promise you I'm not trying to be rude . By the way, to the reviewer (I apologise, I am doing this on a computer where the internet isn't working) who said I was being a little long-winded, I have taken this into consideration and I will try and make my writing less long-winded. Well, that's all.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 8D