Rajah's Curse

Chapter 4: Fragile Things

Princess Jasmine and I started to bond after that night but it was a fragile alliance. We were cautious with each other and stuck to safe topics. Surprisingly, politics was the easiest thing for us to discuss. We had similar ideologies on a lot of different policies.

Princess Jasmine kept surprising me with how much she understood and her knowledge of economics and taxes quite simply outclassed mine. I tried to pretend like it didn't bother me, but it did.

One day, she taunted me after a particularly grueling meeting on updating Agrabah's wood taxes. "It was nice to see Rikisha patronizing someone else for a change. Doesn't feel good, does it?"

"Shut up," I snapped.

The princess stared at me in shock.

"I apologize," I said swiftly, "That was uncalled for."

For some reason, I felt a need to compete with the princess like I had competed with my brother, Kishan. It was foolish, feeling that I had to best a little girl. I should know better.

Princess Jasmine wasn't bothered by my outburst. Instead, she said, "So, there is a person, underneath your political facade after all."

"You sound like my brother," I couldn't resist saying. She didn't know it wasn't a compliment.

"At least I sound like someone. You sound like everyone. You tell me that you believe in one thing during our talks, but at meetings, you say everything but that," she told me. "I can't tell which is real."

"It's all real," I said. My voice was still rough with annoyance at her and myself. "Politics is complicated."

The princess sighed. "People are complicated. Sometimes I wish, I could replace the entire court with animals. They don't play these types of games."

My irritation vanished as I tried to keep a straight face. "Animals? Princess, do you want a zoo instead of a court?"

"Maybe," she said defiantly.

My mouth twitched, but I refused to smile. I kept my tone light and casual. "Zoos are a lot of work," I pointed out, "and there are already a lot of animals around here."

"It wouldn't have to be a big zoo," she said.

I raised my eyebrows. "The court has over 100 people in it."

Princess Jasmine glared at me. "Fine. Maybe I wouldn't want a zoo, but it'd be nice to have a pet. A real pet, not like the animals in the gardens."

A pet. Sometimes I forgot just how young the princess was. "What type of pet?" I asked.

"A tiger," the princess said decisively. "I've always liked tigers. My mother..." the princess stopped and all the playfulness left her voice. "This is going to sound childish."

"So?" I asked. She was a child after all. Even if we both forgot it sometimes, underneath all that intelligence, she really was just a child. It was not right that she was so serious most of the time. Even Kishan and I had played some at her age.

The princess grimaced and then she muttered something.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"She promised me a tiger for my birthday...when I was older."

"Oh. That's-"

"No, don't say anything," she said, obviously embarrassed. "I said it was childish. You don't have to use your court talk to baby me like Rikisha and the rest. I got enough of that when my mother died."

"Princess," I began.

"Do you want to go with me to my father's study and prepare a tax proposal for the next meeting?" she said in a rush.

There was a pause. I wanted to talk about the other things. I wanted to talk to Jasmine about her mother, her troubles at court, and even her love of tigers. There was so much more to her than the princess who was trying to get involved in politics. There was more to me too.

"Come on," Princess Jasmine said, "Let's prepare something that even Rikisha and her pretentious courtiers can't ignore."

She looked desperate and I could tell today was not the day to bring up those things. Instead, I grinned and said, "Alright. Let's see what we can do."

I followed the princess to her father's study.

I knew that there were a lot of unsaid things between me and Princess Jasmine. I still felt like I was trying to woo a political ally instead of a friend. But she was only 10 and we weren't going to be married until she was at least 15. I told myself that I would have plenty of chances to improve my relationship with the princess.

Back then, I had thought time and patience would fix our problems. In the end, I never got to find out.