Chapter 2: The Race Begins

I was thrown into a miniscule cell and told to wait there until the guards arrived to lead me out of Azad in shame. I refused to let this happen, so in my cell I began to work out a plan of escape. It was a very poor one by the end, but remained the best that I came up with under such pressure. While concocting this desperate gambit, I overheard from the guards Jaffar's plan. He was to threaten the princess with death within the hour if she did not marry him, so either way he would have total power within Azad. This would allow him to defeat the Sultan when he returned and to become ruler of the most fabulous kingdom on the desert sands. I swore to myself that I would make him pay for such impudence.

I knew I would need some time in order to pull off my plan, so I set it into motion as early as I could. I scaled the wall of my cell by jumping onto it, then launching myself onto the opposite wall, and then throwing my body in the other direction. I then used the rough-hewn stone as best I could to stretch myself across the roof like a spider ready to drop on the guards the moment they came through the door. By the time I had finally managed this I could hear the guards approaching my cell, and could see the door swing open. Three guards walked in cautiously and began to look from side to side in abject fear, thinking I had vanished. If I had been able, I would have enjoyed letting them search until they rotted away, but my arms were already beginning to give out. I let my feet fall off from where they were and swung forwards, kicking one of the surprised guards in the face with both feet. The other two were momentarily shocked and unable to do anything, which was just as well. I managed to dodge past the clumsy dive from one of them and started running. Behind me I heard the sound of pursuit and a sword being drawn.

I did not look back but instead just continued to run, one of the guards only a few paces behind me and slowly gaining with sword drawn. I think it was a miracle and nothing else that let me see the spike trap in front of me despite all distractions before I ran into it. I had been shown many such traps in Azad already, and knew exactly how they worked. The floor and walls surrounding them were filled with hidden pressure detectors. As soon as anyone got close, they would inevitably trigger the trap and run straight on to a forest of metal spikes that shot up without warning from the ground.

Without breaking stride I leapt only moments before reaching it, and the trap sprang to life underneath me. One of the flat sides of a spike grazed my leg as I jumped over. I had come within an inch of losing my life and told myself to be much more careful from here on in. I took the risk of looking behind me as I continued running and watched as the pursuing guard also leaped straight over the spikes without breaking stride and continued to chase me. At this point I swore loudly.

When I turned my head around I had just enough time to skid to a halt before I ran into a wall and then I turned and headed down the corner. An idea came to me suddenly and I flattened myself up against the wall. The guard came racing down at breakneck speed, too fast to stop himself when he noticed me. I stuck out my leg in his path and he tripped spectacularly, flying forwards onto the hard stone and sliding across the floor. Seeing no other way to go I jumped over his prone body but his hand shot out and tripped me up. Fortunately I was better prepared than he had been and took the fall with my hands while kicking out at his head with my held foot. It connected and he let go just long enough for me to stumble off. Already the guard was getting to his feet so I continued to race down the hallway, despite the sharp stitch I felt in my side and my growing tiredness. I saw an open gate just ahead of me and realised I was going to make it: the guard was too far behind to stop me! That's when the second guard, the other one which I didn't kick back in my cell, suddenly appeared in an adjacent hallway and stepped on a pressure plate on the floor. The gate began to rapidly close to prevent my escape.

I was tired, hungry and dejected. My mind and body were both on the brink of collapse. Every muscle in me told me to give up and return home to Persepolis: I was beaten. But then, seemingly by chance (for I never bid the thought come), I remembered the smiling face of Sheherazad. My legs coiled like springs in response and I dived forwards, sliding underneath the closing gate by a margin of no more than a quarter of a foot. I rolled to my feet and heard shouting on the other side of the gate and it slowly, very slowly, began to open. Not wasting a breath I jogged down the corridor, leaving my pursuers far behind.

At the same time, in Sheherazad's bedroom overlooking the city…

The princess was pacing the floor in front of her bed, irritated. Her bedroom had never felt so stifling now that it was being used as a prison. There were only three exits: through the door, the secret hatch behind her bed and off the balcony. Since the first two were guarded by two of Jaffar's best men both options were certain death, and the balcony was a sheer drop about twenty stories to the streets of the city. The princess of course had a spy network in place across the palace, almost all of which had been routed out by the guile of Jaffar and he had capitalised on this well by discovering and guarding the one secret entrance to the room and allowing nobody in or out. No news could reach Sheherazad without Jaffar himself delivering it.

The only hope Sheherazad still had was Kyashahara. The prince who had seemed so cold, so haughty and so like all of her other suitors yet, hidden deep beneath all this, she had glimpsed a person of genuine kindness and no small measure of courage. It would be nearly impossible to get past all of Jaffar's defences however, even with his entourage, so she hoped he wasn't going to try anything rash.

At that moment the door unlocked and swung open. Startled out of her chain of thought, Sheherazad looked up and saw Jaffar sweeping into the room, the door closing tight behind him. At this moment Sheherazad hated absolutely everything about the Grand Vizier without exception: his turban, his goatee, the exact pigment of his eyes right down to the pointed ends of his shoes.

"My lady, I'm afraid I have some very troubling news." He said, bowing in mock respect. "Forget the niceties you backstabbing coward, they're like a snake's forked tongue sliding from your mouth." Sheherazad spat, her eyes glaring unblinking hatred. The Vizier righted himself with a smug smile that the princess promptly began to hate. "My lady's words hurt me, always such a loyal servant of her father. But a loyal servant I shall continue to be, and as such I will ignore the insult. I am afraid to announce my lady, that your chosen suitor prince Khshayarsha has done something rather rash."

Sheherazad remained silent. She knew that Jaffar was mispronouncing the prince's name on purpose just to rile her, and hated him for it. There was a pause while Jaffar waited for her to say something but when she remained silent he continued with a slight shrug. "It seems that, in an insult to your father's trust in him and to your choice of him as suitor and future sultan, that he attempted to attack the palace of Azad and abduct you by force. As no doubt you are aware, this was a very foolish thing to do and in my opinion proves him to be little more than the spoilt young fool I thought him to be."

Again, Sheherazad said nothing and waited for Jaffar to continue. There was a long pause as Jaffar did the same thing but she out-lasted him. "Of course I could not stand by and let him do something so destructive, so rash, so I was forced to apprehend him and throw him into the dungeons. I cannot kill him because his father is quite the powerful lord and seems to be blind to his son's many inadequacies, so may well attack us if we act within rights of our own law. Instead I shall have to deal with him as one deals with any misbehaving child and send him home to his parents. This of course means that he can no longer be your husband, being banished as he now is from the city. So your father's law shall now apply and leave me as your default husband. At least something good can come out of this tragedy, no?"

Sheherazad could take no more of this and struck Jaffar across the face. It was no dainty tap either but a blow so full of force that the old man was knocked over. Jaffar stood up and now his smarmy control was gone completely and a blazing rage remained. "So much like your father you impudent brat!" he snarled and raised his arms. There was a loud bang and the princess was pushed backwards three metres by a sudden force, sliding to a painful stop on the hard tiles of her bedroom. "Then so be it." Jaffar took an ornate hourglass out from his robes and laid it on the ground in front of him. "Now I will have my revenge for years of being ordered around like a dog by a senile old fool and his beautiful little pet!" Jaffar barked, "Yes my lord, no my lord, three times full my lord!" He hissed in a mocking voice. "No longer. You now have a choice my lady. Either marry me within the hour or it will turn out that princess Sheherazad, smitten by the absence of her father and the betrayal of her lover, committed suicide in the night and left just the humble Vizier Jaffar to inherit the entire kingdom." Sheherazad looked up, astonished and furious, at the towering Vizier. Jaffar bowed theatrically to her, turned and stormed off.

The princess picked herself up slowly. She could not believe that her father the Sultan and herself had let Jaffar plan this for so long. Nor could she believe how easily he had just rendered all of her hopes useless. Sheherazad shook her head and remembered the words of her father. Never give up hope, even when things seem at their darkest. Just say 'courage' and wait out the night, and then it shall be dawn again before you know it.

Sheherazad looked down at the hourglass in front of her, and saw the first few grains of sand slowly begin to gather at the bottom of it.