All right guys, here is the next chapter. Sorry it's late, real life got in the way again. Hope you like it, keep reviewing and happy reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters from the movie and/or video game.
Chapter 5:
The throne room was damp and musty, thanks to the early morning temperatures, and all the torches were burning brightly. When Dastan and Tamina appeared in front of Kosh's throne, he smiled that same disarmingly evil smile he had used when they had first arrived in his fortress. There were more soldiers in the throne room than the first time the young royals had been there and Dastan assumed Kosh must be getting close to initiating his attack.
"Ah, the street rat and his little mouse," Kosh smiled wider. Both Dastan and Tamina remained quiet, but Tamina could sense that Dastan was not paying attention. "Have the torture chambers inspired you to help us girl, or would you care to experience them for yourself?"
"I have told you sir I do not know anything of this dagger that you possess. For all I can tell it seems to be an inefficient piece, not even very sharp," she replied. The indifferent façade of a princess seemed to hide the slight panic that was building in her chest better than she could have hoped for, as her voice sounded strong.
"Do not play me for a fool, girl. I know you know the dagger's secrets and if you do not tell me what I need to know now, I will hand you over to my guards and their ministrations," Kosh threatened. The guards that surrounded them smiled dangerously.
"I will tell you the information you are searching for," Dastan spoke up from beside Tamina. Her eyes shot to his and her mask was stripped from her. She could not believe what she was hearing.
"What do you know of this Persian?" Kosh spat.
"I know how the dagger works," Dastan said simply. "But, I will not tell all of you. You must send away your men first." The chamber erupted with laughter at the absurd request.
"And why should I do that? If you value your life, or the life of your wife, you will tell me what I need to know."
Dastan leaned forward and jerked his head away from the general to invite him closer. Kosh glared at him for a moment before slowly sauntering forward and inclining his head toward the prince.
"Fine, I will tell you. But when you lose the dagger and your own life in the uprising that will surely follow, my knowledge will be of no use to you." Kosh examined him for a moment before he motioned to the man to his left. The man began shouting out orders to the other men and, chaotically, people began to leave the chamber through the back two tunnels. The small guard around Tamina and Dastan remained in place.
Tamina was fuming. She could not believe that Dastan was about to tell Kosh everything; then she noticed that Dastan was again looking around the chamber and not at Kosh.
"Now, I have done what you asked. Tell me how to use the dagger."
Dastan snapped his attention back to Kosh.
"Why am I here Kosh?" Dastan asked. "I understand why you brought her, but I have no purpose here." Kosh's eyes flashed angrily. "You might as well tell me. One you're going to kill me anyways and two, I may be mistaken in my explanation of how the dagger works if you do not."
Kosh hesitated again.
"I needed to provoke your impulsive brothers to war. If I had simply killed you in your sleep, they would not have known it was I who had ordered it," he finally said.
"So you mean to kill me in front of my brothers or send them my body with a note, is that it?" Dastan asked mockingly.
"Something like that, yes. Now tell me how to use this." Dastan pressed his lips together and looked down at the ground.
"Dastan, please!" Tamina hissed next to him. The guards closest to her grabbed her arms and held her back. Dastan resisted the urge to pull the guards off of her and remained where he was. Her voice was pleading, but her face was impassive.
"Do not tell him anything." He looked up at her and gave her a hard gaze before turning his attention back to Kosh.
"The dagger is a weapon that can take down armies with a single thrust. If you plunge it into the heart of the commander, his army will fall with the same wound. In order to activate the dagger, the hilt must be filled with water from a spring in the Hindu Kush," Dastan lied as easily as if what he was saying was the truth.
Tamina's eyes widened and she tried to play off her surprise as anger once she caught on to what Dastan was doing. Kosh seemed skeptical of the story, so Tamina stepped in to try and convince him further.
"How dare you betray the people you swore to protect so easily? Your family has been deceived by their own brother," she shouted at him. She broke away from the guards' grasp and made a move toward him, but he caught her by the shoulders and held her at arms' length. Kosh observed them intently as he stroked the dagger in his hand. Tamina glared at Dastan as Kosh spoke.
"Your secret is out girl. I have the power to take down the Persian army and take over their empire. Thank you for your help." He bowed to Dastan mockingly.
"Kosh, before you kill me, can I ask what you will do with the princess once you have accomplished your task?" Dastan continued conversationally, his eyes never leaving Tamina's.
"I will make her one of my wives and rule her city as well. If she refuses, I shall kill her after I am done using her," Kosh responded simply.
"I'm afraid your wedding day will have to be postponed; she is still married you see."
"Not for long, Persian. Remember, I have five men with swords surrounding you. It is impossible for you to escape."
"Difficult, but not impossible," Dastan replied with a smirk.
He forced Tamina to the ground and took out the feet of the guard directly behind him. With a swift sweep of his hand, Dastan snatched the sword out of the man's grasp as he lay disorientated on the ground. He used it to block and attack the onslaught of blades coming toward him from all angles.
His agility in dodging the whirling swords saved him multiple times. He managed to kill one of the guards before sustaining his first blow. As he thrust his blade into his opponent's midsection, he turned quickly to face his next enemy and felt the slash of the blade across his left shoulder. He jumped out of the middle of the guards and put himself between them and a wall.
He glanced around the room noticing that Tamina had gone after Kosh engaging him in a fight. Where she had obtained the sword he did not know, but she seemed to be handling it well.
He turned back to the four men who were trying to surround him again. He drew his sword in front of him and patiently waited for the first attack. He didn't have to wait long.
The two men in front rushed at him, one coming in high, the other low. He parried the higher sword and dodged the lower. He snapped his sword back to attack so quickly that the man who came in high had no time to turn around before Dastan's blade was stuck in him. Dastan smashed his elbow into the back of the other man's head before tearing off toward Tamina and Kosh, the other two guards in tow.
Tamina lunged at Kosh missing him by inches as he dodged her sword. He countered with his own attack and Tamina barely had time to move out of the way as he brought his sword down with a loud clang on the stone.
When Dastan had dropped her to the floor, she had scrambled to get out of the middle of the fighting. She saw Kosh running toward one of the tunnels to call for more guards and raced across the hall to head him off. He swung at her with his sword and she dodged it, luring him back into the chamber.
She saw the scimitar of the man Dastan had killed fall to the ground and the other guards ignore it as their attention fell on the young prince. She ran to grab it and turned to face Kosh again. Her basic lessons with the palace instructor served her well for a while, until Kosh became so frustrated with her ability to thwart his attacks that he began to focus more on killing her than just simply stopping her.
She caught a glimpse of the dagger in his belt and the small moment of distraction was all that Kosh needed. He pushed her back off balance and knocked her to the ground. Tamina fell on her back and dropped the sword as the wind rushed out of her lungs.
Kosh stood over her and brought his blade high over his head. Without a second thought, he began to bring it down toward her head. Tamina was too shocked to call for help or even attempt to get out of the way of the deadly weapon.
She caught a figure out of the corner of her eye running toward her. Before she recognized him, Dastan lunged toward her and the clang of steel on steel as Dastan's sword blocked Kosh's rang through the chamber.
Dastan forced the sword away, pulling Tamina up with his other hand and pushing her behind him. Kosh and the remaining guards regrouped and began to force them against one of the walls. Kosh, in his rage filled mind, lunged at Dastan who caught his wrist and thrust his arm upward. Dastan twisted his arm and turned him around with his blade at his enemy's throat.
"Tamina, grab the dagger," Dastan said urgently. Tamina reached around both of them and slipped the dagger out of Kosh's waistband. "Put down your weapons," he demanded of the guards.
"Kill them!" Kosh growled and Dastan pushed the blade further into his throat.
"Take one step toward us and I will kill him," Dastan retorted. The guards froze.
In the silence, Dastan could hear a rumble of footsteps in the distance. He needed to get Tamina out of there before the rest of the soldiers were alerted to what was going on in the throne room.
One of the guards seeing Dastan's hesitation rushed forward. He thrust his sword toward Dastan's torso, but Tamina's gasp had warned him. Dastan avoided the sword and used the hilt of his own weapon to hit the man over the head. The man fell to the ground motionless. The other two guards moved as well and Dastan pushed Kosh toward them bowling them all over.
He grabbed Tamina's hand and they took off down one of the unlocked tunnels, praying that the soldiers were not marching in the one they had chosen. They could barely hear Kosh shouting orders to his men as they ran.
They came out of the tunnel on a different side of the pathway they had used to initially enter the fortress when they had arrived.
"I don't see any horses," Tamina voiced as they ran for the entrance.
"I'm almost positive the stables are outside," Dastan yelled back as he pulled her behind him.
He was right. Once they had cleared the entrance and defeated or dodged the guards on watch, they made their way into the stable and untied the healthiest and most prepared looking horses they could find. Tamina led the way out of the stable and out into the desert.
"Follow me!" Dastan yelled as he passed her.
Only when the mountains were nothing more than a speck in the distance and Dastan was sure they had lost their pursuers did he look to her again.
"Difficult, not impossible," he smiled to her. "Another glorious victory for the half brained scheme. When did you realize I was lying to him?"
"As soon as you said the dagger was a weapon. Anyone who knows anything about the dagger knows that it is incapable of piercing even a moderately strong breast plate," Tamina replied.
"Well you played your part well," he said.
"Thank you, now how do we get back to Alamut from here?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I can get us back to the point in which I awoke, but beyond that I will have to wait until dark to navigate."
"How many days away do you think we are?" Tamina asked as she considered how much water they had.
"No more than two or three. I don't think they drugged me and a blow to the head would not have kept me out for longer than that."
As Dastan spoke of the injury that had led to their capture, she glanced up at his shoulder that was still trickling blood down his back.
"Dastan, we are going to need to stop the bleeding of your shoulder. I do not think I could lift you back onto your horse if you faint on me," she said to cover her concern.
Dastan reached up and touched his shoulder. He looked down at his red fingers and continued riding.
"I will wrap it when we find a safe place to stay for the night," he said.
"Please, let me just treat it quickly to at least stop the bleeding," Tamina argued.
Dastan sighed and pulled up his horse. He got down and walked over to her as she dismounted as well.
Tamina ripped the sleeve off his shirt and poured some water over it. She cleaned the wound quickly and tied the cloth around his shoulder.
It was the first time the two of them had any sort of physical contact without the loom of danger and uncertainty hanging over their head. Tamina could feel the strong muscles of his arm under her fingers. She liked how his skin felt. It seemed softer than she thought it would be; she felt him jump slightly when her fingers grazed his ribs as she wound the cloth around his shoulder.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
"It's ok, it just tickled a little," he replied. She smiled in understanding.
"All done," she announced as she finished off the knot.
"Thank you," he whispered back. She shyly smiled back at him before returning to her horse.
Dastan smiled at her as she tied the canteen back to her saddle and stepped into the stirrup. Maybe things between them had not changed as much as he had thought they had. Maybe he had made the right decision not telling her about their past together. Maybe she was finally starting to fall in love with him.
Dastan and Tamina made it to an oasis that neither one of them remembered passing on their way to the Koshkahn fortress. Dastan thought it was safe enough to stop at as it had not been on the path the Koshkahn soldiers had taken. He was fairly certain that they had not wandered so far from the main trail.
They set up camp just in front of the tall grass that grew on the north end of the small pond. If soldiers were looking for them, they would be hidden fairly easily. As Dastan attended the horses, Tamina secluded herself by one of the rocks, took out the dagger and performed some sort of ritual.
He watched her for a moment trying to understand what she was doing, but she was silent throughout the whole ceremony and he was unable to comprehend the meaning of her gestures. When she was finished, she placed the dagger securely against her back in her waist band and rejoined Dastan by the water's edge. He smiled up at her as she leaned down to wash her hands and arms in the cool water.
"What was the ritual?" he asked as she sat back and relaxed next to him.
"It was a blessing of thanks," she said. "I was thanking the Gods for giving both of us the strength to survive what we just did. And I also asked for a blessing for our marriage."
"A blessing for our marriage?"
"Yes, it is customary for the High Priestess to bless the marriage of the Princesses of Alamut. They are not always one and the same," Tamina explained at the puzzled look on Dastan's face. "Traditionally, the Princess of Alamut marries first and her mother—who is the High Priestess before her—blesses the marriage. Within the next year, the princess begins to completely assume the position of High Priestess, using her mother as a teacher whenever necessary."
"Then wh…how…" Dastan was at a loss for words; he didn't know how to ask the question that was burning in his head without it coming out rudely.
"How did I become High Priestess before I was married?" Tamina finished for him. When she said it, it didn't sound as rude as he thought. He smiled embarrassedly. She smiled back at him.
"It is fairly simple. When I was about sixteen I was almost done with my Guardianship training and my mother was instructing me more in depth of the duties I was to perform in the secret temple as opposed to the High Temple."
She paused for a moment and Dastan watched her mask of serenity fall from her face.
"Tamina?" he asked quietly and placed his hand over hers. She turned back and smiled a sad smile at him. Dastan saw the tears glistening in her eyes.
"We were walking into the secret temple when the earth began to shake. We thought everything was all right as the shaking stopped and everything seemed to be holding its place. But the rocks above the entrance were shifting, and as they began to fall, my mother and I began to run. When I was away from the rockslide I turned around and my mother wasn't there." She paused again taking a steadying breath. "Some of the guardians that lived around the temple helped me dig through the rocks to find her body. I was the one that found her though; I will never forget the sight of her face."
Dastan squeezed her hand as she stared down at the water. She was quiet for a long while and he didn't need to ask her for the rest of the story; he knew.
He left her to her thoughts and busied himself with refilling the canteens and starting on building a fire. When he finished, he turned back around to see that Tamina had pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. He wanted nothing more than to go over and comfort her, but he kept himself from going to her.
He watched her the whole time she sat there.