Aladdin - the Arabian Nights

Chapter 13

Aladdin waited impatiently outside his bedroom (which now had a proper door on it) for what was probably only a few minutes but felt like much longer. He'd heard his mother eating her dinner and thought about going to join her, but he was far too nervous to eat. Was Jasmine okay?? Genie had assured him that he would take care of everything, and Aladdin knew he couldn't help make sure of that by standing here, but it felt better if he did. Genie would reach Jasmine on time, wouldn't he? Aladdin hadn't been too late finding out what was happening to her!

At long last, Genie materialized in front of him. "How'd it go?" Aladdin asked him without preamble. "Is Jasmine okay? Jafar didn't...?" He couldn't bring himself to say it.

"She's fine," Genie assured him. "I got her away from Jafar and into your room, no problem. She won't be seeing any more of him tonight."

"What did you do with him?" Aladdin asked curiously.

"I found a good place for him," Genie replied with a grin. "He's in the outhouse."

The... Aladdin's eyes grew wide, and he couldn't help but laugh at the idea. He had no inclination either to feel sorry for Jafar or to worry about the consequences of treating him this way....

Genie laughed too, but then his face grew serious. "Be careful with Jasmine when you go in and see her, Al," he told him. "The poor girl's had a rough night – she doesn't need another scare. I tried to tell her she was all right on the way over, but she can't see me, and she's zooming through the air at top speed – " he abruptly disappeared from sight to indicate how Jasmine hadn't been able to see him; Aladdin's head spun around the room for a moment before Genie reappeared with a poof in another part of the tiny space – "I don't think it was much help."

Aladdin didn't know why he'd have any problems with Jasmine now that she'd arrived here. "She doesn't have anything to be scared of now. Not with Jafar in the outhouse." He had to grin again at the thought. "I'll just go in and... tell her I rescued her." His heart beat faster as the implications of this sank in. This was really happening. He was finally going to get to meet Jasmine. He straightened his purple vest and tried to stand taller. "Genie, how do I look?"

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Princess Jasmine lay trembling on her rich turquoise covers. Her huge brown eyes darted round the unfamiliar room, though this didn't help her much as there was no lighting in here, save for a tiny bit of moonlight which her eyes hadn't adjusted to yet. She could smell something, though – a musty, unclean sort of odour very different from the palace. Where was she?!

At least she was away from Jafar now, not that that was much help – for all she knew, he could be lurking nearby, ready to pounce at any moment. She should have known, two months ago when he'd started defending her protests to her father against marrying some unknown suitor she'd never met, that he was up to something. She had known he would never take her side unless he was getting something out of it, but she'd just been so glad that somebody was finally supporting her that she hadn't even cared what. When she'd found out he wanted to marry her... and worse, that her father had agreed! At first she could hardly believe this suggestion was serious – no one could really expect her to end up with Jafar. "I will never marry you!" she'd told Jafar, and she'd tried to reason with her father, to tell him she simply couldn't agree to this. But her father, always so attentive and really a lot more lenient with her on this subject than a lot of fathers would be, wouldn't even listen. He had just ordered her to agree to the marriage and forbidden her to say another word, staring right through her with a horrible, detached look in his eyes as if she wasn't even there. Jasmine could hardly believe it. True, she and her father had been at odds with each other ever since she'd grown up and her suitors had started coming, they were constantly arguing these days as she tried to get him to see how she was feeling about it all – but he had never shunned her like that before; far from it, he was almost a little too aware of Jasmine. If he had been a little less attentive she might have been able to slip out and see the city sometimes – not that the guards and the rest of the harem wouldn't have stopped her. But now here he was, actually ordering her to marry a man she detested and not even caring what she felt about it. How could he do this to her, Jasmine had thought. How could he ever allow this?!

But she hadn't really started worrying until she'd been informed that the marriage-room would be completely private, meaning her beloved tiger Rajah, her only friend and loyal protector who had always faithfully chased away all of Jasmine's unwanted suitors, sometimes with their clothes a little worse for wear, would not be allowed anywhere near. Jasmine had been counting on Rajah to protect her from Jafar just like he had from all her other suitors – and now that hope was gone. How was she going to get out of this?? She'd seriously considered just running away and becoming a common girl, and she would have done it too, if she had gotten a moment alone to slip away in. (She'd tried.) She had tried so many times to tell somebody that she hated Jafar and couldn't marry him, to get someone on her side who could help her, maybe speak to her father on her behalf – she'd told everyone in the harem, every wife and concubine and handmaid she could get a moment to talk with. But no one would listen to her, either telling her it wasn't their place to talk to the princess, or else bothering her about preparations for a wedding she didn't even want and telling her what a good match Jafar was and what a good idea it was to have the princess married to someone as trustworthy as the Royal Vizier, and usually adding that she was a bad, disobedient girl for always refusing to do her duty and had no right to reject yet another suitor now that her father was finally giving her to someone she knew. Apparently they thought that had been her only problem with all the other suitors. Well, Jasmine knew Jafar, all right. That was how she knew she hated him!!

That night, she'd been absolutely petrified. She'd tried to refuse to come out of her quarters and take part in the wedding, she'd resisted every step of the way – nothing worked. No one cared what Jasmine wanted. Especially not Jafar, and he knew how much this was hurting her, she could see it. She almost thought he was enjoying seeing her suffer. The look on his face made her feel sick.

Jasmine was never quite sure how she'd gotten through the whole night of marriage celebrations without anyone noticing how very far she was from consenting to this. Her father wouldn't even look at her, much less rescue her; he'd just stared straight through her as if he couldn't see her... By the time she was stuck alone with Jafar in the marriage-room, she was about ready to snap from the stress of everything. She'd backed as far away from Jafar as she could possibly go, she'd ordered him to stay away from her, and he'd advanced on her and told her to come here and stop being silly, and she would not give in, she would fight him off all night if she had to....

And then – Jasmine had no idea what had happened. Something had come whooshing into her room and snatched her up, the force of it tossing her onto her bed, which had promptly risen into the air and been carried away at a terrifying speed. Jasmine had tried to look and see where she was going, but whatever was carrying her had been moving too quickly, and the wind whipped in her eyes so that she had to keep them shut, clinging to her bed to avoid falling off, with no way of knowing where she was going or what was happening to her. She'd thought, at one point, that she'd heard a voice, reassuring her that she was okay and advising her to hold on tight, but with the force of the wind in her ears she couldn't be sure, and she was in no place to listen to strange disembodied voices anyway. And then she'd been set down here, and when she'd opened her eyes, whatever had been carrying her was gone. There was only silence. She was curled up on her bed with the covers clutched to her mouth, torn between wanting to scream and feeling terrified that someone might hear her, alone in the middle of this dark, unfamiliar room – or at least, alone as far as she could tell.

What was going on? Was Jafar behind this somehow? She couldn't think why. He wouldn't have an easier time consummating their marriage here than he would in the palace – unless he was just trying to shake her up so badly that she would stop trying to fight him. Or had someone else brought her here – wherever here was? Then who? And why? What was going to happen to her??

Just as Jasmine's eyes were beginning to adjust to the dim light so that she could make out a very small, bare room surrounding her, and she was wondering whether it wouldn't be better to get up and have a look at her surroundings, rather than just sitting here and waiting for who-knew-what to find her... a door opened and a figure appeared in the shadows.