Thanks again for all your reviews! As I said before : you're awesome! Sorry for and spelling and grammar mistakes in that chapter. I checked but as always I'm sure I missed a few. This is supposed to put a little twist to the story... Hope you like it.

"Good evening young traveler."

Keyla winced when she heard somebody talk to her - at least she assumed that somebody was talking to her. She had still been standing outside on the street, looking for a way to get back up to the balcony and into her room when the voice had sounded in her ears. It was familiar and she realized it was the merchant. When he stepped out of the shaddows near the main gate now, she tensed up but he was smiling at her.

"That's quite a disappearing act you pulled on us but I assume you went to the palace and as you said it was a private matter, I won't ask any questions."

"That is appreciated. I would like to go back to my room now... I suppose you have a spare key?"

The merchant was laughing now and nodded his head yes. Keyla was grateful he made good on his promise and didn't ask any invitingly reached out a hand towards the main gate, asking her back inside. Keyla breathed a sigh of relief without the merchant noticing. If he had been suspicious or merely curious she might have been in quite a lot of trouble now. But luckily he didn't seem to care too much what she had been up to tonight.

She entered the inner courtyard and stopped dead in her tracks, almost causing the merchant to walk right into her. He avoided it by taking a step aside and out of the corner of her eyes Keyla could see a soft grin on his face. Obviously he had planned this little surprise on her. The courtyard was filled with people - all of them servants to the merchant - who were busying themselves with various tasks. Keyla had never seen so many concentrated people working hard in one and the same place. She glanced at the merchant, allowing her feeling of surprise to shine through.

"What is all this?"

"Oh. We're providing gifts for the royal guests at the wedding - perfumes and creams."

"Stupid wedding..."

Keyla hadn't been able to stop the words from leaving her mouth. She had only whispered them btu it seemed the merchant had heard none the less. She could have cursed herself for reacting on instinct like this but she was sick and tired of hearing about Dastan, the princess and their wedding. She just wanted to get away from it all. The merchant's eyes had widened and jusst as she had expected him to, this time he didn't keep his curiosity to himself.

"Pardon me?"

"Oh. Nothing. It was nothing."

"Did you just curse at the soon to be married royal couple?"

He still sounded curious instead of angry but Keyla barely even noticed. She had switched into a defensive mode by now as she almost always did when she felt attacked in some way. Her voice was harsh, harsher than she should have allowed it to be. After all she was a guest in this man's house. But to her utter surprise the merchant rose both hands and smiled at her. His next words took her by surprise and they made her worry...

"And if I did?"

"Then I would tell you that you're not alone with your emotions. A lot of the Alamutians think this union is... questionable to put it mildly."

"You think the princess is making a mistake?"

She couldn't keep the feeling of sheer horror from her voice. Those people truly believed Dastan wasn't good enough for their princess. They knew nothing about him! The urge to protect him came naturally to her. She had been his friend, his ally and close companion for too long to just stop protecting him from one minute to the next. The merchant was smiling mildly at her, acting like he had never even said the words and shrugged his shoulders.

"You were the one cursing at the couple."

"Well..."

"I guess your distaste has something to do with the reason you were at the palace?"

"Sort of..."

Keyla told herself to be very careful with whatever she said now. There was something going on here, something that made her skin crawl and let a cold shiver run down her spine. It sounded like the merchant was part of a group of people who rather would have wanted all the Persians invading their city dead instead of now taking over their city and making a union with their princess. But maybe it was natural - no free city wanted to be invaded by an empire's army...

"We heard a lot of stories about the Persians and their armies and let me tell you, none of them were very flattering..."

"You know what they say about stories and fairytales."

"That there always is an ounce of truth to them."

"Yeah well. That as well..."

She had wanted to make the merchant see that the Persians - and especially the stories about them - were not as bad as the Alamutians believed but she failed. She wasn't even sure wh she tried. She had been the one to tell Dastan that loyalty to the king meant to give up freedom and now she was the one to defend him and his army. It wasn't that though. She just wanted to defend and protect Dastan from the bad opinion people seemed to have of him and the rest of the Persians... But the merchant wasn't interested in hearing her defense. He had more pressing matters on his mind.

"Did you get into the palace?"

"Let's just say I did do what I came here for. And now that my work is done I would like to leave for Azaak again. The sooner the better."

She had kept her voice cold and harsh on purpose. These questions the merchant asked her about the palace made her feel uncomfortable. It seemed like he was about to ask her for a good way in. Wouldn't she have known any better - and had believed this man was too much of a coward to do something like this - she would have believed that the merchant and other Alamutians planned some sort of uprising against the royal couple... She swallowed hard. She needed to get out of this city - and fast. But the merchant would not even let her go to her room.

"Oh that's a shame... I was hoping I could interest you... in a little mission..."

"What kind of mission?"

"A delicate one. But from what I just heard from you, it seemes you're the right person to do it."

"What would I have to do."

"Well you would be traveling again but only within city limits. You would be a... messenger."

"Sounds simple enough."

"A messenger on a delicate matter. If you get caught... well let's just say it might not be to good for you."

Another cold shiver ran down Keyla's spine and her breath caught in her throat. She felt sick all of a sudden. She was right! She couldn't believe this was actually happening but she was pretty sure she was walking right into a scheme being planned to somehow cause an uprising against Dastan and the princess, maybe stop the wedding from happening or even worse than that. She couldn't allow that to happen. She had always protected her friend all her life and he had done the same for her. Even being angry with him now, she couldn't just walk out on him like this. Keyla took a deep breath and forced a small smile on her face.

"I have been involved in delicate affairs before, believe me. And I have never been caught - not once."

"That is good to hear. Well then... What say you?"

She had to do it, she knew that. If the Alamutians actually planned to cause any harm to Dastan or the princess she needed to warn him about it and the easiest way to achieve that and have accurate and useful information for him was if she stayed near those people she believed were planning to betray their princess and the Persian prince. She nodded her head in agreement, causing a satisfied grin to appear on the merchant's face.

"I agree."

"Good."

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