Aladdin: The Thief of Aisha

Chapter 34

The hair behind my neck stood up. Something was behind me. I whirled around. "The Grand Vizier!" I cried. I took a step toward him, then stopped. Something about the look in his eyes made me stop. "What are you doing here?" My eyes narrowed. A lot of strange things have been happening, I thought. Was the vizier involved?

"Princess Aisha, don't be afraid," said the vizier. "Please stop crying."

"I went into Aladdin's palace to find him, then the house rose into the air and flew away and landed here." I sniffed. "Aladdin is not here, and I want to go back to my father."

"Princess, I just spoke with your father. He asked me to come and talk to you."

"Talk to me? Why?"

"Aladdin is not who you think he is," said the vizier. "Your father has asked me to be your protector, and the only way I can do that is by marrying you."

"Me marry you?" I shivered and brushed off invisible crawling things on my skin. I wished I was somewhere else. "I don't feel anything for you. Aladdin is the person I love."

The vizier closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. "No, Aladdin cast a spell on you to make you fall in love with him. He pretended to be a prince—"

"This cannot happen. Take me to my father at once," I said.

"You don't understand, you will not see your father again unless we are married. In fact, you have less than twenty-four hours to agree to our marriage and consummate it. Otherwise, your father, the Sultan, will be put to death."

"No! Please, leave father out of this," I cried. The tears poured down my cheeks. "Why? All these years you stood by Father's side, you were busy plotting evil. Who are you? You are not the vizier I've known for years."

"I am, but things got out of hand," said the vizier. "Your father stole my love from me. He married your mother."

"But they were in love. My mother loved Father. If she loved you, she would have married you."

The vizier shut his eyes again. "That is true. I thought I would survive it. I tried to live with it. Your mother loved to ride. I gave her the horse as a gift on her birthday, and she fell from that horse and never recovered from her injuries. I was guilt-stricken. I wanted to leave Zamaja, but then there was you. The older you got, the more you looked like your mother. And I fell in love with you too."

I looked at the vizier's old wrinkled face, and the bitter taste of bile rose to my mouth. I swallowed hard and forced it down.

"The more those princes came around, the more I became convinced I had to do something. But you didn't want them, either, so that was fine. Until Aladdin came along and everything changed. Despite the circumstances of his upbringing, he has a good heart."

Tears streamed down my cheeks. "Please, don't harm my father or Aladdin."

"Princes Aisha, you must agree to marry me and have until tomorrow night to decide. The lives of your father and Aladdin are in your hands."

"Please," I whimpered.

The vizier looked around. "Nice decoration. Maybe we'll keep it and move it back to Zamaja."

What power could move a palace in the twinkle of an eye? "How were you able to move the palace?"

"Oh, Aladdin never told you the secret." The vizier opened his cloak and showed me an old lamp hanging on his belt. "A genie that grants wishes lives inside this lamp. He and I go back a long way. Aladdin got it first, that's why he could build his castle and bewitch you." The vizier smiled. "But I can make better use of it. Just by the lamp being around me, it amplifies my own powers as a sorcerer."

"So it's true," I said.

"What is true?" asked the vizier.

"That you are a wizard."

The vizier laughed. "He who must not be named." He tossed his staff into the air. As it fell, it turned into a hawk. The hawk squawked and flew around the room. As it descended, it turned into a black cat, then into a bat, and, as it landed, into a black snake. The vizier extended his hand out and caught the snake. Seconds later, it reverted into a staff.

I whimpered. I was done for.

"Later, my princess," said the vizier and walked away.

I knew what I would do. He would never have me. Over my dead body.