Rajah's Curse

Chapter 50: Lesser Men

I opened my eyes and found myself looking at my bed curtains instead of Jasmine in the pre-dawn light. I was truly awake this time.

A sigh escaped me.

It had been a long wonderful night and now it was over. I had to face another day.

I got up and had to throw my bed curtains open.

I thought that this would help the air feel less stuffy, but the entire bedroom was unusually warm this morning.

"Vinit?" I called out, looking around the bedroom for my manservant, but there was no sign of him.

Strange. Vinit was nearly as committed to punctuality as I was. If he was not here, then I must be up at an odd hour.

I glanced at my balcony. Its curtain was also drawn closed which was yet another strange occurrence.

I did not like this.

I strode over to the balcony and pulled back the curtain. Immediately, I was hit with bright blazing sunlight.

Gah!

I raised my hand over my poor eyes.

As my body became accustomed to the light and heat of another winter day in Agrabah, my mind attempted to make sense of the situation. I had had so many dreams last night. Between my past nights as Ren and sunny days as Rajah, it was hard to recall my last moments as Prince Dhiren, but eventually, I landed upon the answer.

I remembered going out with the sultan to some kind of orchard. We had returned in the late afternoon. I had eaten a cold lunch and then...

Nothing.

But no, that couldn't be right. Surely, I had gone to dinner. Surely, it wasn't...

I snapped the balcony curtain shut and returned to my rooms. This was bad. What was going on?

Why had I missed dinner?

Worse than that, why had I been left to sleep in to this late hour? I had missed my chance to do my morning training today. And, wasn't I suppose to meet with Captain Mira before noon? How many other meetings had I missed so far? And where was my damn manservant!

I stormed over to my main wardrobe. I normally bathed in the morning, but I wouldn't bother with that until I had talked to someone. I went rifling through my clothes. There had to be something in here I could easily put on myself.

The expensive outfits mocked me. Nothing would work. I slammed the wardrobe shut and proceeded to the dresser that held my exercise garments.

Only after I had finally selected something, did I hear the main door open and Vinit's voice. "Rājakumāra!" he cried. "You're awake!"

My head jerked up in time for me to see him close the door. "And where have you been?" I demanded.

"I sent a request for..." he trailed off suspiciously.

"For what?" I snapped.

"Lunch," he mumbled.

"Lunch?" I repeated to myself. Was it really that late? Gods, "What time is it then?"

His voice was barely above a whisper. "It's a quarter till...1?"

I lost my grip on the shirt I was holding.

How on earth?

This was even worse than I had imagined. I was supposed to be on my way to see Jasmine right now.

An image from last night's dreams filled my mind and I saw the princess's carefree smile.

Durga protect me...I had missed dinner. I was supposed to see her then. I wrote her a letter promising her that I would. What did she think of this mess? Was she-