Aladdin: A Tale of Terror

Chapter 22: Hardly a Sorcerer

The following afternoon Princess Jasmine had awakened with a sore lump on the back of her head. She lifted her head and a sharp pain shot like lightning from her brain down her spine and expanded into her back.

Raja perked up. With scrupulous eyes, Raja glared at the servant who brought the princess her morning tea. The servant placed the tray down and backed away. Satisfied the servant meant no harm Raja lowered her head back to the pillow.

After tea, Jasmine, still furious over last night's ordeal, went to the sitting room where she endeavored to plan another, more permanent escape. When she entered the room and saw her father slumped in one of the plump sofas with a hookah on his right and a stack of proposals at his left, she was forced to postpone her planning. She could not concentrate with him present.

She entered, and he said: "Do you plan to ignore me for the rest of your life?" Harun placed the mouthpiece of the hookah between his lips and inhaled.

"They were humble servants, not murderers," Jasmine scolded.

"Who knows how many of our personal belongings have pocketed over the years. Let it be a lesson to those tempted that the hands of thieves are easily, and swiftly removed."

"You did not even allow her a chance to speak up for herself."

"Why should she be allowed a defense when the princess herself had attested the crime?"

"But what if I was mistaken?" The princess asked.

"It does not matter. A princess's word holds much weight. What she speaks is the truth."

"I'm only human. I make mistakes, just as you do."

"Posh."

"Father, how am I to know what's right or wrong when I've lived a sheltered life?"

Harun let out a puff. The smell of spiced tobacco seeped into the room. "Jasmine, why do you irritate me with this nonsense? You will not leave this palace until you are married, and I will not have another word about it."

Jasmine rose to her feet. Raja perched up, anxiously awaiting Jasmine's attack command. "You may have cut down mother's fig tree, you raped my best friend of her life, and you murdered my one true love, but there is always an escape from this palace. Once I am gone I am never coming back." The next words she screamed: "You have taken everything from me!" Falling quietly again, she continued. "You will take another wife and may you learn to love your new child. You can raise him to be a prisoner, but you will never have me."

"Hopefully my new heir will be quieter."

Jasmine fumed.

"Child, you seem rather worked up about two measly servants. We can buy two more if that is your wish.".

Jasmine stared at her father and then, with his comment of her being quieter in mind, she filled her lungs with air and from her throat erupted a shrill, powerful scream that rang through the palace. Then, as abruptly as she started, she stopped, lingered for a moment, and then stomped away to her room.

On to the bed she threw herself and Raja took a place beside her. It wasn't until she rolled onto her side to pet Raja that she noticed the light emanating from outside.

Jasmine wondered what caused such a strange glow and went from the bed to the balcony. The red light floated out the window, out from Ja'far's sanctum. His shadow moved and danced, dipped in shadows splayed against the wall, no doubt conjuring something wicked in his cauldron of nightmares.

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All was quiet so that Ja'far could hear only the sounds of their footsteps as he and Navid walked down the corridor, their footsteps softened by the carpet through the great hall. They went by candlelight to shield away the encroaching darkness. As they went, the sconces and fireplaces snuffed out to allow the chilly desert night air in.