The POP plot enters the spotlight in this chapter and Action!Farah takes over. I liked the idea of Farah having a guilty conscience voice in her head, in a way, like the Dark Prince. But it isn't the same – Farah can control her conscience. Or will be able to, anyway.

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Chapter 3 – the Release

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A rather rude awakening awaited me the next morning.

"Wake up, Princess." One of the guards growled and poked me in the ribs with the tip of his boot. Another guard laughed at this as I groggily opened my eyes. Judging by the sunlight outside, I had slept for quite a while – it seemed to be at least five hours after dawn, ten hours since midnight. I was still sleepy, but I scrambled to all fours and stretched my back a bit before the guards roughly grabbed me by the arms. I found myself passive.

"The Vizier wishes that you be present at the palace." The same guard sneered as they brought me out of the quasi prison. Out on the street, my usual form of transportation right now awaited me – the very same box in which I had been brought to Babylon, paraded in India. The cage that had rendered me helpless, unable to aid my own people in their suffering. Had I any weapon, I would have clawed with it at the thing, destroyed it, purely to see it burn, to see it broken.

To be free at last.

The guards shoved me towards it and I stumbled and almost fell. They didn't care the slightest. "You know how this is done. In you go, little girl." I could only glare at them, powerless right now. I wasn't the best when it came to fistfights and they had me outnumbered, since I was unarmed. I crawled into the box, attempting to make myself as comfortable as possible. Maybe I would get a chance to escape, I thought frantically. After all, there were only two of them now and I was going to be carried through a besieged city – perhaps, if luck would be on my side.

Or perhaps you will rot in this box and the royal prison until the Vizier decides he's had enough of breaking you. The same voice as before said in my mind. I ignored it. I had to be strong, for my people.

I am not a believer of vengeance. But what had transpired simply couldn't and wouldn't go unpunished. I knew I would escape at the right moment and then seek out the Vizier. He would see that I was not entirely powerless, as he had believed. I would yet look him in the eye to glance at him with contempt before he would die, of this I was certain.

The two guards sealed the box and picked it up, carrying me down the street. There was no one to watch or to jeer – everyone was far too busy either running or chasing. It seemed there was no hope. I seemed passive outwardly, but I was really waiting for the right time. We were not yet in the city – we would have to get to the gate of Ishtar and enter it. And there, we would have to stop. But there, I would be within range. It was a risk, but I debated with myself whether or not wait that long.

Suddenly, I heard the unmistakable sound of horses galloping. Wheels turning fast. The ground itself seemed to shake as a carriage swooshed past us with such speed as if it was chased by wildfire. It was so quick and slightly uncoordinated that it knocked one of the guards holding my cage to the ground. And in a moment, it was gone.

I winced slightly as I hit the ground. But the fall hadn't shattered the damned box! I heard one of the guards roar: "THE PRINCE!" and run to another carriage that was just a house away. He took over the horses and took off after the first carriage.

That left only one guard with me! I realized that the moment I had been hoping for was here. Remembering all the anger I felt, I kicked at my wooden prison's wall. It broke at the first attempt. I crawled out as quickly as I could immediately. Unfortunately, that had allowed the second guard to the fact that something was happening and he rushed at me with his sword. I ducked the first swipe and quickly broke the cage, picking up one of the pieces of wood. As he came at me the second time, I sidestepped and struck the sharp wood straight into his throat with all my might. The guard roared, in pain, and his grip on the sword faltered. Reacting quickly, I yanked it from his grasp. Fencing was not my greatest skill, but Father had taught me how to use a sword long ago. Besides, there wasn't really much skill required for picking it up and, holding the weapon in both hands for a stronger blow, bringing it down at the guard's throat.

The severed head dropped to the ground unceremoniously, the body followed seconds afterwards. Panting, I gripped the sword tightly. It would yet come useful. I was free.

"For you, Father." I breathed, looking down at the corpse. Suddenly, it turned to sand. I jumped back in fright, but then realized what had been avoiding my understanding a night ago. The sands that had emerged from the tower last night had had magical powers of some sort and transformed the Vizier's armies into sand creatures! That was what made them so resistant to blows, why they returned to their normal shape!

I refused to waste time finding out whether or not this guard would be ''resurrected'' and went to search for some proper weapons. Then I frowned, because I remembered what the guard that had gone after the carriage had shouted.

Like most people that interested themselves in politics, I knew well that King Sharaman had had a son around my age, who had left him several years ago for some quarrel and had not returned ever since. Had he returned now, as the shout of the guard had indicated? Had he heard that Babylon's need was dire and chose to return, in secret, alone, to aid his father and set aside old quarrels? Perhaps.

I decided that the best way to figure out if he was of any use, assuming that it truly was the Prince of Persia, was retracing his steps. Thus I went down the road from where the carriage had come. I found a sealed gate there, but it was made of bars, similar to my little cage. But these bars were wide apart enough for someone of a small built to get through.

Did I mention that sneaking through cracks is one of my most useful skills?

Without too much difficulty, I managed to get through the gate. I found myself standing in a courtyard that was more of a graveyard than anything else. It had been an outpost of the enemy, no doubt, but now it was empty. Only the stray weapons carelessly tossed to the ground showed just how many men – or rather, creatures – had patrolled the area and how many had been slain by whoever had gone through here.

Only several meters from me, a bow had been thrown to the ground, along with a set of arrows. There were also arrows sticking out of the wooden construction. I picked the bow up and tested the string. It seemed functional. Taking an arrow as well, I attempted to hit a torch on the opposite wall several meters above me. Once I released the arrow, it soared straight into the fire.

I nodded to myself. I had a functional weapon. I threw the sword away. As it hit the wall, it broke into tiny pieces. Frowning, I tested the bow. Hopefully, it wouldn't be this easy to destroy. But as I checked it, I saw that it was made out of solid material, whereas the swords seemed to consist out of the same strange quasi-metal that had created the Dagger of Time, but considerably weaker. The Dagger was meant to last forever – these things were meant for little more than a few blows if not "refueled" by the Sands, it seemed. Thank Allah that bows were not meant as weapons to club things with, I thought.

There were more than enough arrows to be found to allow me to slay many a sand creature before I would have to restock. And in a city that was under attack from an enemy army, ammunition was to be found easily in many places.

I crawled back out through the gate – there was no other way out, apparently, from this little courtyard – and Babylon was in the other direction. I would have to get in somehow. The city was probably sealed tight right now, but my primary concern right now was getting there at all. Fortunately, I didn't have to search for the correct way. I decided that I would rather be stealthy about this than find myself a horse and just gallop to the front gates.

It took me at least an hour on foot to get to the city walls, avoiding the large patrols and killing the smaller ones from afar, retrieving my arrows afterwards. I decided to attempt to search for a crack in the wall or any kind of opening I could get through, but I remained close to the gate. I was lucky. Apparently, someone had tried to use a catapult to get into the city, so there was a smoking hole, partially concealed, not too far away from the main entrance. It took some skill, getting through the ruins, but soon, I was in the city.

I had to jump behind a pile of rubble immediately. Three guards came patrolling, searching for any sign of a disturbance. I caught that they were muttering something about some kind of arena and dividing the forces. Remembering that, I quickly killed one of them with a precise arrow into the throat. The other two turned around and drew their weapons, attempting to spot their attacker. The other dropped dead after another precise arrow. The third followed. They never even spotted me.

This is how I progressed through the city, at times revealing myself to my prey, when it was far enough away from me or too slow. But my progress was too swift, I realized too late. Several hyena-like creatures emerged from a damaged building after I killed another patrol. My eyes widened. I had never seen beasts like these and the low growls escaping their wide throats were not at all friendly. And they seemed to be glowing from within when they opened their mouths, glowing just like the sands had glowed.

I fired an arrow at the nearest one and hit it, but it didn't seem to have much effect – it would have probably required far more arrows. All that it caused was the other beasts to roar and charge at me. I didn't waste time. I had to get to a better position. I ran for it. Quickly I discovered that the beasts had no trouble chasing me. They were fast and agile. I ran, searching for an open door in the street – I had to get to safety.

Finally, I found a house with a broken window and I used it as my entrance. The beasts roared in anger, but I didn't waste time to discover whether or not they would be able to get in. I went for the stairs and ran up all the way to the highest – the third – floor. There I found a rather empty attic and a ladder that, as I saw, was ended with a trap door that apparently lead to the rooftop.

Within a minute, I was sealing the trap door tightly and looking around, shielding my eyes from the sun. this seemed to be the lower city, with its little low houses. I decided to consider alternative routes to the palace. The streets weren't safe and, in any case, it took much too long to get past all the distractions. But I was on top of a house now and the roofs of the others close to it were pretty close, only a few feet away at times, some meters most often. I felt certain I could jump it.

And jump it I did.

My hands automatically went down to support me when I landed slightly clumsily, but I sighed in relief. That had worked rather well, I decided. I spotted the Tower of Babylon again and made my way towards it. But I stopped abruptly, spotting several archers using the same route I was using. But they were far too focused on observing the streets, it seemed. I crouched behind a pile of pots and aimed an arrow for the throat of the nearest one – the one place where the thick armor didn't cover him very well where the shot would be fatal. Releasing the arrow, I watched it hit its target. Moreover, the archer in question lost balance and fell over the edge of the roof, to his death.

I was about to change my location when I heard the screams of "Help us!" from bellow. I looked over the edge of the rooftop to see what seemed to be a family harassed by a couple of guards. The guards apparently wanted to drag the father off. My eyes narrowed. I knew these weren't my people and that other people wouldn't perhaps have cared about another nation, but I couldn't allow this to go on. Those people needed help and there was no one else to give it. I drew an arrow and aimed it for the guard closest to the family. He had been on the verge of drawing his weapon when I killed him with a single shot. The others were confused and drew their weapons at the family, but I was quicker than them. Two arrows fired at the same time killed their leader effectively and the others ran away.

The family, confused, thanked Allah and ran for it quickly, going somewhere safer. I smiled to myself briefly. If only for these small sights, it was more than worth it, helping these people. They were saved now. They would live.

I progressed through the city easily this way, restocking on arrows whenever I slew an archer. I rescued people whenever I could, at times risking my own life when they had archers with them that realized where they should shoot. I would often hide behind piles of rubble, but I always succeeded. One time, I had been caught by surprise by several guards armed with swords on a rooftop that charged at me and I was forced to use my bow to spar against their blades until I managed to get to a position from where I could shoot them. I suppose they were slightly surprised that I could do acrobatics as well – if not better – as their archers could. That was the last surprise they experienced in their lives.

Eventually, I reached a rooftop too high for me to be able to jump on another. I sighed in frustration. This would mean I would have to descend to street level for a while. I glanced around to see where I would go after I would descend, just to get a general idea of the urbanism of this part of the town before I would enter a labyrinth of streets. While doing so, I spotted the lone figure of a man a level beneath me, running along the wall, as if such a thing were natural. I frowned. Interesting. The man then jumped to a railing and barely caught it with one hand, as it was in a bad angle for him to grab. And he had little time to steady himself, because a sand guard came at him.

I didn't hesitate a second. Automatically, my hand went for a fresh arrow that pierced the guard's throat before he had a chance to bring the raised sword down and slice the man in half. For good measure, I added two more arrows that followed the first one and hit almost precisely the same spot.

Something swooshed past my ear and I instinctively dropped down to the ground and crawled in the direction from whence the thing came, away from the man. He would have to climb that ledge on his own. As I had thought, an archer had spotted me – he was standing on the nearest rooftop, trying to aim another arrow at me, but I was behind the semi-floor that contained the door heading into the house by then. I entered the house and descended down the stairs. Once I was on the same level as the irritating archer, I crouched at the window, opened it slightly and aimed my own arrow at him. It was a sneak attack, but I was only returning the favor. Sadly for him, my aim was better than his.

Once he was dead, I heard steps on the lower floor and the grunting of voices. Guards, I realized. I needed to get out. The window was the only way, so I climbed out and sprang to the rooftop where the archer that had tried to hit me lay dead. Fortunately, it was close. I headed down at once, making a run for it.

Yet as I ran, I couldn't help but wonder: who was that man? He didn't seem to be frightened in any way or running away and acrobatics I found impossible, even after so much training, seemed to be borderline easy for him.

Nicely done, Farah. You set out to avenge your father and your people and end up daydreaming about some man you didn't even see up close. The snide voice in my mind said to me.

I am not daydreaming about anyone! My mind snapped at the voice of my conscience. I'm simply wondering who it was.

More pleas for help and the feeling of duty to fulfill them drove the man from my mind quickly, however. By the time I had reached a quarter where I could regain the rooftops, I had all but forgotten him.