Rajah's Curse

Chapter 56: Dead Men

"Sultan Hamed," I breathed, my cheeks stinging, "you needn't slap me awake."

Though, perhaps this was another part of my punishment. First abandonment and now-

"Yeah, uh, I'm not Hamed," a male voice responded.

"What?" I rasped.

"Come on," the voice ordered. It was a bit too young to be Hamed, but it sounded familiar. "Up and at 'em. Open your eyes."

That was easier said than done. My eyelids felt so heavy.

SMACK!

"Ow!" I moaned. He'd slapped one of my already sore cheeks.

"Sorry," the voice said with perfect insincerity. "I thought you'd gone back to sleep."

I managed to crack an eye open and glare up at a face I'd thought I'd never see again.

My mouth and other eye opened in disbelief.

"Yeah, I know. We're technically rivals, but desperate times," he was saying seemingly oblivious to how impossible this encounter was.

I couldn't stop myself from uttering the obvious, "You're supposed to be dead."

Aladdin cocked his head to the side and said, "I think you have the two of us mixed up. Weren't you the one declared dead like a decade ago?"

He had a point but...but... "I must be dreaming," I guessed. I had been doing a lot of that recently and our surroundings certainly seemed to corroborate the idea. The simple orchard had transformed into a fantastical landscape. Though the sandy paths remained, just past them the grass and leaves on the trees appeared to be made of glass or perhaps diamond. Each tree was also filled with laughably large and delicious-smelling fruit-shaped jewels, and the tree trunks, including the one I was currently leaning against, were all made of engraved gold.

However, this splendor had been revealed to me when the sultan left and I was in a lot of pain for this to be a mere dream. My cheeks still stung. Other parts of me ached and my mouth and stomach felt like they had been hollowed out by a half-dull saw blade.

I had never experienced dehydration like this before. It made everything worse. Earlier my burning eyes had not had enough moisture for me to-

"Hey!" Aladdin snapped, "Do I need to slap you again?"

"No!" I snapped right back, my focus returning to him and the strangeness of his presence. I'd only seen Aladdin a few times before this. Even so, I felt like I'd seen him just yesterday. He had the same cocky look and was covered in ratty clothes and that monkey smell he wore like cologne.

"Good," Aladdin said. My eyes stopped scanning his attire to gaze at his smiling face. "Hamed said you were in shock, but my hand hurts, so less slapping works for me!"

Aladdin stood up and offered me a hand, presumably the unhurt one.

"Sultan Hamed," I corrected him. I did not take his hand. Standing sounded like a headache waiting to happen. "Is he here too?" I looked around. Maybe if the sultan was in a good enough mood, he could explain what this dead man was doing here.

"Nope," Aladdin answered. "He sent me to come get you on account of this being the Sultan's Garden and Hamed not being sultan anymore."

"I see..." even though I did not. If this was a place only for sultans, what was Aladdin doing here?

"Anyway..." the street rat decided to ignore my refusal. He grabbed my forearm and pulled. Considering our difference in size, he should not have been able to move me. And yet, he managed.