Rajah's Curse

Chapter 42: Good Afternoon

I sat in my new study staring fixedly at Agrabah's latest Ababwa trade treaty.

It made absolutely no sense.

Ababwa apparently had a fixed exchange rate with Agrabah so that all goods were 77 percent cheaper there and it had been this way for the last century without any of us knowing about it.

I glowered at the list of items. Nothing here was different from Agrabah's goods. It was almost as if...

I winced.

Another headache.

I resisted the urge to reach for my amulet and instead rubbed at my temples. It seemed like every time I looked at these impossibly small print documents, I found myself squinting and causing myself migraines.

I growled softly at the pain as it began to recede.

More than a week had passed since my birthday. Prince Ali should have returned by now and yet there was no sign of him. Jasmine wasn't terribly concerned about it, believing her cold response had scared the prince away, but I wasn't so sure.

Most of his servants were still in the palace. Though despite looking, the specific ones we'd encountered at the festival were nowhere to be found.

I didn't like it.

As something to do, I decided to start an investigation of Prince Ali and his golden country of Ababwa. Many of my new servants were dedicated to the task. I had sent some of them with the sultan's men to Ababwa. The rest of my Ababwa investigation team spent their time watching Ali's servants, giving me reports on their movements, and tracking down any and all material on the previously unheard-of kingdom of plenty.

So far, everything I had learned about Ababwa and its princes sounded like I was sitting at another dinner with Prince Ali himself. Every document I read from modern trade agreements to historical records to even travelers' journals supported the idea that Ababwa was a paradise with an unerring line of perfect monarchs going back until the end of time.

Such propaganda made me wish that Prince Ali would show up here in Agrabah with his flamboyant gift so I could test his perfection personally, preferably with a sword in my hand.

However, there were other times when I hoped he'd never be found. The fact that Jasmine's headpiece took so long to affect the prince noticeably still raised too many questions. Either Prince Ali had his own protective charm like me, or he was as perfect as my current information implied. Perhaps without Jasmine's headpiece to muddle his brain, he would be a more experienced and graceful prince. I already knew he was a fine dancer.

Rationally, I could acknowledge that there was little Prince Ali could do to get between me and Jasmine, but there were moments where I'd be sitting with my princess in a gentle daze of soft feelings only to be struck with a sudden shiver of unease.

Everything in my life had been going so well lately. Despite my best efforts, I was occasionally concerned that...

There was a knock on my study door.

"Come in," I called.

The door opened and Shalin, my new head secretary, appeared. Neat and reliable with his heavyset eyebrows and serious face, Shalin was just the person I had been hoping to see.

"Good afternoon, Prince Dhiren," he said, before adding the magic words. "It's time for lunch."

Yes!

Thank the mother goddess and, "Thank you, Shalin."

He nodded.

I stood up and strode over to the door to join him, ready to think of happier things. As we began walking down the hall, he asked, "Do you want anything done while you're gone?"