The Game of Time and Crown

Fourteen

When I woke up the next morning Darius was already wide awake and packing his things.

"You're not planning to make me a bait aren't you?"

He turned to me.

"Bait?"

I haven't forgot about our argument yesterday but I have no one to rely in here.

"You're gonna leave me here so they would find somebody to interrogate and then waste their time."

"Great thinking. I wish i thought about that but your lucky I didn't."

How could he act so normal?

I faked a sarcastic laugh.

"Napa gave us some food and water. Since they are also short in supply, this wouldn't last for a month," he told me.

My eyes went wide.

"W-why do we need the food to last for a month?" I nervously asked.

"If we are on foot, the travel to the north is a month. If we have carriage it would be faster," he explained.

"We have a horse?!"

"Which is suppose to just carry one person not for a long time. We wouldn't want to a***e it. Don't worry, we will not be travelling at night so.."

I shook my head unbelievably.

"Can we not?"

That would cut the time to almost half.

I couldn't believe I will be going to walk and ride a horse in the middle of the dessert nowhere in my idea that I have ever dreamed of that.

"We need to settle in one place at night so we will not attract any foreign dangerous animals. If we have a carriage it would be safe but we don't have one," he said.

My God.

I sighed and almost tear up.

"I just want to go home," I frustratingly said.

I have this strong urge to just shout at people's facing hoping that it would return me to time. I haven't really focused any attention to it because I don't want to be depressed over it. I don't want to feel it again. But now, I just want to punch someone in the face.

I inhaled sharply and tried to relax myself. Darius seem to notice it and worriedly looked at me.

"You're not sick are you?"

I shook my head but I didn't said anything.

He took out his dagger and cleaned it.

When I felt myself calm enough, I stood up.

Napa walked us through the door until the entrance of the village.

"I wish you safe travel. May the deities bless grant you what you came there for."

Darius nodded and bowed his head.

He first mounted the horse then lends his hand. I took and and he pulled me up making it easier for me to ride the horse.

Napa's wife came to us running with a cloth in her hands. He handed the black one to Darius and the dark green one to me.

When I unravel the cloth, I realized that it was a cloak. Since it was so early in the morning, I already decided to wear it and Darius did too.

I nodded and smiled at them as we both gone out to travel again.

"I wish I could just stay there" I whispered

"That's unusual because the other night, you are yelling you want to leave and go back," he said.

"You listened?"

"It's hard not to listen when you're yelling. I was thankful we didn't wake anyone up."

Aa everything went silent, my mind came back to what Napa's wife told me.

The common issue that I see already is the pressure he have. The weight of every eyes looking at him and this happened. This piece of information changed the whole perspective I had of him. Before, I was so sure that he did it but now, I don't even know anymore.

The pieces just don't match up.

As we begin to move away from the village, the eeriness and quietness began to envelop again. I am no longer worried about anything now. Not sandstorm or a wild snake. I am thinking about Darius' identity.

"You're not nagging?"

I tried to look at him but failed because I cannot turn around.

I badly wanted to talk to him but I don't know how. I don't know what to say and what he might think. I remembered what Napa's wife said, she said that the king was so fond with Darius that he gave him the title and imagining that, I don't think if he's as smart as what other people are saying he wouldn't waste an opportunity given to him.

Besides, I don't want him to think that dragging me in this chaos is fine with me.

I already made myself clear yesterday.

We trail a road that seems to be endless. I only see sand and sand and brown and nothing more. We made stops to let the horse rest and drink some water. We were almost hitting up different roads because I noticed that the sands were diminishing already. As the sun sets, we began to approach a cement road that have lots of buildings with lights on it.

I highly doubt if it's a house because there were so many people in it. Particularly not so good looking men.

"Please tell me we're not heading that way," I said

Those men look like thugs and I don't even need to remind myself because I've watched so many movies where they were ambushed in alleys and every single thing they had was taken. If that happens, we will never survive, considering if they left us alive.

"Do you have any places in your mind?"

"None! But come on! It's dangerous," worriedly said.

"Let's just hope we can bribe them."

That didn't even eased up my mind. We are entering an alley with ancient version of gangsters and I am with a prince. A prince! I don't even know if he knew something to defend ourselves!

As we enter the alley, all of the men looking goons turned their gazes on us. Darius unmounted the horse but he advised me to stay and hold the leash.

He walked beside the horse while all of the the tugs looks at us. I looked at Darius and he's wide alert.

We entered a pub? I am not sure of what it is but as soon as we got in, there were even more people inside.

"Don't remove your cloak but remove your hood," he whispered.

It is a Pub.

I winced when I saw the stage. There were woman dancing in there, fortunately they are dressed. A lot of men are here, drinking and eating.

Darius went straight to someone and asked if there are rooms where we cans stay. The man immediately nodded and lend us to one of the rooms.

"How much?"

The man smiled.

"Twelve."

I looked at Darius because I don't know how the currency in here works.

"Bars?" Darius asked.

Bars? Gold Bars?

The man nodded and my mind went blank for a moment.

"You're overpriced."

The man laughed and then peeked at the window, two men with bulky bodies came in.

This is what I'm talking about.

Darius smiled at the man and looked at two goons behind the man.

"How much for a night?"

The two looked at each other, confused.

"I already told you, Twelve."

"I'm not asking you," Darius ignored him.

"Five, for you to guard the room against this man," Darius offered them.

The two shook their heads.

"Twelve."

"Six," Darius replied.

"Eleven."

"Seven."

"Ten."

Darius shook his head.

"Nine," he offered.

The two looked at each other and they both nodded at Darius.

They turned to us and walk towards our direction ignoring the owner of the pub.

Darius got something inside the bag before throwing them an apple each.

We entered the room and since I am too confused to even know what is going on, I asked him.

"What just happened?"

"Bargain."

"I didn't understand a single thing."

He turn to me and sighed.

"One room have two guards, the man offered us the room for two for twelve bars of gold. Now, they will split that in three and they will have four each. So I offered them and not the main guard for nine bars. We got the room three bars lower and they got half increase," he explained.

As I try to process what he just said that is how I realized how he outsmarted the king once and why he is impressed.

"I thought you can go lower?" I tried teasing him.

He looked at me and smirked.

"If I offered them Nine bars in the first offer, we'll have to increase. Nine bars is what I really wanted to land."

"You just trick them by going lower at first," I whispered almost not being able to believe.

"Aim high, hit low but better than nothing."

I can't help but to smile because damn, this man thinks before I could even process what is even happening.

I roamed my eyes around the room. There is a window and a big bed and two torches that are both lit.

"We've gone through the dessert already, we're heading straight to the mountains tomorrow," he informed me.

I was about to sleep when I realized something.

"Where di you get your bars?"

He stopped and slowly turned around.

"I always have some that I always leave with Caspian since some mercenaries won't speak without bribes."

"Bribe for what?"

"Information about someone or something we're trying to find."

My mouth formed an 'O'.

"How much do you have left?"

He didn't answered but instead he turned away from me.

"Darius? How much do you have left?" I repeated.

"Dar--"

"Six."

I felt my knees wobble. We won't even be able to afford any room for that anymore. How about the next coming days?

Darius sat in front of the table and took out an apple and cut it in half with his dagger before giving me the other half. We started eating and Darius refilled the water bag in the reservoir that is inside the room.

I looked at him. There is no doubt that he looked exactly like Prince Darius and the only difference they have now is that Darius looked so rugged and a bit dirty with all the sweat and the sand from the dessert but I don't think that even affects on how he looks. He still looked like he is sculpted by the Greek Gods which is impossible but I think that is the easiest way to put it.

I was so busy staring at him that I didn't even noticed that he was already looking at me.

"Do you want to ask something?"

I shrugged and continued eating my apple.

I think he should know that I knew about his identity. But what if he's not yet ready to open about it?

Why would I think he would want to talk about that? I will just tell him that I know so he wouldn't have a hard time pretending.

Yeah, and maybe he'll opens up too but I don't really care if he doesn't or anything.

I shook my head violently.

Darius looked at me worriedly.

"Have you lost your sanity?"

"How dare you!" I shouted at him

"Your face looks like you're already walking back at Persia."

"Your face doesn't look like Jamshid," I blurted in surprise.

I covered my mouth in embarrassment and tried to take back what I just said.

"We don't really look alike. I'm not a bloodline of the king."

"What?"

He took one apple and I thought he was going o eat it but instead, he faced towards me.

"I was Eleven when the king went to the city. After a long day of visiting the governors he went through the market to visit it. He bumped me and I didn't knew he was the King so I didn't bow which is strictly forbidden."

He smiled and walked towards the end of the bed.

"He patted my head and he said I am a boy who stand up for what I believe. He gave me a riddle so I won't be punished."

I listened to him very carefully.

"How can I get the apple for free?"

He sighed and smiled while he looked at me. I almost forgot to breath when he did that so to ease up the tension that I am feeling, I turned my eyes away from his gaze.

"The other kids actually shouted and answer. Steal it or just ask the seller."

He tried to catch my eyes.

"What do you think is the answer?" he asked me.

"Ask the seller nicely or do something or a favor in return so it's free," I confidently answered.

He laughed.

"Tell the merchant you're going to sell it for him."

It took me actually a second to understood it.

That didn't even crossed my mind.

"You could've just asked nicely?" I tried to contradict his answer.

"In Persia, there is no such thing as given out of sympathy. Everybody is trying to make a living so that's impossible."

"Or maybe you just didn't try?" I challenged him

"If my answer is wrong, I wouldn't have become a Prince."

He smirked at me but it soon faded.

"I wouldn't be dragging you in to this mess," he sadly said.

I had the urge to reply and this time, I followed it. One thing I learned from my mother is that you can create a bond with a person if you try to make them feel better and even if I don't want to accept that I am right here and moving far away from Persia, maybe this is where destiny wants me to be, to be with this man.

"I wouldn't have met you." I smiled and turned around.

I covered the redness of my face due to embarrassment with my cloak and then proceeded to pretend that I am asleep.

Now I don't know where I am going to, but I'm just gonna trust Darius that he knows where he's going.

We're in this together now, there's no more backing down.