Vast Fields Of Light

Epilogue

In the late afternoon on the day that they arrived back in Alamut, Tamina found herself knocking once more on Dastan's bedchamber door. She adjusted the belt on her gown, and smoothed a hand over her loose hair in an effort to distract herself from the fluttering in her stomach.

"Yes," she heard the Prince call out flatly from inside.

She entered the room. Dastan was standing by his bed, halfway through pulling on an open-fronted tunic, and the flutter inside her got stronger when his face lit up as he saw her.

"Oh!" He crossed over to her, smiling immediately, and raised a hand towards her before hesitating and letting it fall. "I was just about to come to your chamber."

Tamina noticed his eyes travel over the silk drape of her gown, and she smiled. "Well, you should know by now that I don't like to be kept waiting."

He half-grinned. "I do know that... but, I wasn't running late - was I?"

"Maybe not," Tamina muttered. She could not resist trailing her gaze down his torso as she looked down to the long scar above his hip, just visible at the edge of his tunic. Her brow furrowed and she looked back up to his eyes, doing her best not to react to the intensity of his gaze.

"Does it still hurt?"

After a moment Dastan made a show of smirking and shaking his head. "A scratch like that? -Hurt me?"

Tamina smirked back slowly. "Oh, I see..." She reached out her index finger to give a featherlight touch to the fabric of his tunic, just beside the scar. "So, if I was to press hard - just here..."

Dastan's smirk turned into a grin as he grabbed her hand gently and pulled it away.

"I wouldn't put it past you, Princess..."

She smiled up at him, watching his lips and thinking about bypassing all conversation - when suddenly a knock came at the door. Dastan dropped his head and groaned in frustration, and she snorted lightly and stepped away from him.

"Speak to your staff, Prince Dastan."

He opened the bedchamber door and spoke quietly to a servant. Tamina crossed to the window, sat down on the edge of the ornate sofa, and looked out at the warm haze of sunlight which picked out bright colours in the flowers and fruit trees below. She heard Dastan instruct the servant not to disturb them again. Looking down at her feet in their jewelled sandals, she told herself it was silly for her heart to be beating so fast simply because she was alone with him for the first time since leaving Alamut.

Dastan shut the door and she heard his footsteps approach. With another flutter in her stomach she turned to see him standing by her side and looking down at her, his eyes and the corners of his lips already softening. For a brief silent moment they both hesitated, and her muscles tightened against the nervous pleasure of the crackling air between them.

Her face was level with the scar on his side.

"Does it still hurt?" she repeated.

Dastan exhaled, sat down beside her and shifted until he was leaning back on the sofa. "Only if I twist or stretch suddenly. It really wasn't a deep wound."

Tamina sighed and turned on the edge of the sofa to face him a little better. "Thank the gods," she murmured as she brought a hand up to her breastbone - clutching at air for the hundredth time and giving a brief wry smile.