Aladdin - the Arabian Nights

Chapter 24

The old man scurried off from Jasmine's palace as soon as the trade was made, and he did not, as Jasmine might have expected, continue on his way to try and obtain some more old lamps, even though now that the people had seen their princess was willing to make the trade, there were plenty who would have been willing now themselves. Instead the old man made his way down the short path that led between Aladdin's palace and the Sultan's, where he slipped inside and made his way unseen to a room on one of the top floors, dark and shadowy and filled with sumptuous red furniture, where he pressed a secret panel in the wall. It slid apart, revealing another room, dark and shadowy as the first one with walls of red brick, but instead of a living space it was filled with all manner of strange mystical equipment which most of the people of Agrabah would have been horrified to find in anybody's possession, much less in the quarters of somebody at the royal palace. No sooner was the strange man safely inside the secret room than he burst into cackles of triumphant laughter.

And the old man began to change. He straightened his posture, suddenly appearing a good foot or two taller than he had previously. The long white beard came off, revealing a small twisted black beard on a face that, while not young, was not nearly as old as he had previously seemed. The features which had pointed at his being decrepit, his bad teeth and mottled hands, faded away, until he once more gave off an air of regal dignity. At last, the filthy rags were exchanged for rich, fine robes of black and red, complete with long, pointy shoulder pads, and a tall red-and-black turban adorned with a long red feather and a gleaming red ruby. A red parrot fluttered out from the rags, where he had been hiding underneath at the back and giving the illusion of a stooped figure.

Iago cackled gleefully. "She fell for it!"

"Yes." Jafar smiled nastily. From the depths of the filthy rags he pulled out the lamp, seemingly old and worthless and just the sort of thing you would give away without a second's thought – if you didn't know any better. And as Jafar had suspected, Jasmine hadn't. As he had suspected, she had preferred to step up and defend a poor, crazy man who was being mistreated. Soon she would realize her mistake. He had always suspected the princess was too softhearted for her own good.

The lamp... at last, it was his. Jafar revelled in the power he now held, those unlimited wishes. The world was his to command. Iago fluttered eagerly beside him, nearly as hungry for this power as Jafar. But first, Jafar had a ragged upstart turned prince to attend to... and a little shrew who needed to be taught a lesson in respect.

Jafar rubbed the lamp and watched in gleeful anticipation as the blue smoke billowed from the spout, arranging itself into the form of the Genie. Genie made as if to address Aladdin, to advise him again to just tell Jasmine the truth and see what she said instead of trying to keep him a secret forever, something he often did when Aladdin rubbed the lamp these days. But this time he had gotten no further than, "Al, you really can't keep this up for..." when he looked down and saw that the triumphant figure holding his lamp was not Al.

"I... don't think you're him." Genie peered at Jafar as if hoping he might be mistaken about this, all with a sinking feeling that what was about to happen next could not possibly be good. Shifting into the role of a casting director, Genie tried to make light of it, leafing through a large casting guide book he had pulled out of nowhere and declaring that "the role of Aladdin will be played by a tall, dark, sinister, ugly man." But he has scarcely gotten this far when Jafar interrupted him by snatching the book away (it promptly vanished into thin air), grabbing Genie by the beard, slamming him to the floor, and outright stepping on his face.

"I am your master now," Jafar declared in his voice like a hiss.

"I was afraid of that."

Leaning forward with a glint of eagerness and menace in his eye, Jafar told Genie his first wish. "Tonight, when everyone in both palaces is asleep, you will take Aladdin's palace and remove it to a certain remote place I know – in Africa. And you will make sure everyone in the palace remains inside – including Princess Jasmine." His eyes glittered hungrily. "Especially Princess Jasmine."

The last thing Genie wanted to do was grant this wish, and do something so harmful to Al and his wife, whom Genie liked a lot from the very little he had gotten to see of her. But what could he do? He was a Genie; he was bound by ancient magic to grant whatever wishes were asked of him to whoever possessed his lamp at any given time, no matter what he wanted. As much as he would have liked to tell Jafar he wasn't going to do anything he said, he had to agree to grant this wish as soon as it was the time Jafar specified.

A nasty smile spread across Jafar's face. "Good." And now, he said, they were going to discuss some other wishes. He wanted to be very sure that when he arrived at... his new palace, he would find himself in complete control, and know that both Aladdin and Jasmine were about to get what they deserved.

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The Sultan of Agrabah woke up from a restful sleep in a good mood, and got out of bed thinking about going to pay his usual morning visit to Jasmine – it would once again be only Jasmine he was seeing today, since Aladdin was away having another well-deserved celebration after stopping that war. He always liked to know how his daughter was doing, and to see how happy she was since marrying that wonderful Aladdin he had been so lucky to find for her.

But after he had dressed and was about to head out, the Sultan looked out his window, where he could normally see Aladdin's palace on the horizon – and found that this time he couldn't. The entire building – and it was pretty hard to miss – was quite simply gone, as though it had vanished into thin air.

Puzzled by this, and rather alarmed since, after all, his daughter was supposed to be inside this vanished building, the Sultan lost no time in calling for Jafar.

His Vizier appeared at once, almost as though he had been waiting for the Sultan's call.

The Sultan pointed out the window at the place where Aladdin's palace no longer was, begging for Jafar's advice. "Where can the palace have gone?" More importantly, if she had been in the palace this whole time – "Where has my Jasmine gone??"

Jafar arranged his long, twisted face into an expression of sorrow and regret. "I did warn Your Majesty that the boy had made this palace using magic."

The Sultan shook his head. "Magic... I can't believe the boy would do such a thing..." He pressed Jafar to tell him what he thought could have happened to it. Jafar replied that the magic had clearly stopped working properly, either that or Aladdin had decided to discontinue the illusion, and now the palace had doubtless vanished from their world, lost in another realm of unholiness.

The Sultan was quite disturbed at this. "And... Jasmine? Where is Jasmine?"

Jafar shook his head. "She must have been transported too," he replied. "I'm afraid there is very little hope of getting her back. Of course," he went on, "this would never have happened if you had not allowed her to marry such a boy...."

The Sultan helplessly put his head in his hands. "I can't believe it of Aladdin," he murmured. "He always seemed so trustworthy... so well brought up...."

Jafar resisted the urge to respond to this with a contemptuous sneer, but instead nodded as if he agreed. "I deeply regret what you must do to him now, My Liege."

The Sultan looked up at him, puzzled. "What do you mean, Jafar?"

"You know our laws." Jafar subtly edged his golden snake-staff forward, so that the ruby eyes looked directly into the Sultan's. "As Sultan, you must uphold them."

The red ruby eyes of the snake-staff began to glow. Their red light reflected in the Sultan's eyes, seeming to penetrate into them, making the Sultan's eyes appear red as well.

"I... must uphold... our laws," repeated the Sultan.

"Aladdin has used magic," Jafar went on. "He has taken your daughter away from us forever. He must die."