Rajah's Curse

Chapter 13: Lovesick

That contract was still in Jasmine's bedroom somewhere. I thought of it as I sat out on the tallest balcony and anxiously watched Jasmine and Prince Ali fly around Agrabah.

Just as the negotiation terms dictated, Jasmine returned before sunrise. It was a relief to see her back on solid ground when I met her in her rooms. However, I soon realized that the carpet ride with Prince Ali had changed the princess. For the first time in weeks, she looked truly happy. She had even been ready to forget our fight. That all would have been great if she hadn't become obsessed with Prince Ali.

Jasmine went out with the prince nearly every night. They went to parties and explored Agrabah by moonlight. During the day, Prince Ali visited her study. He always had a distraction ready. The only time he did anything remotely useful was when he'd shown Jasmine Ababwa on a map. Besides that, he was constantly pulling Jasmine away from her work. And if by some miracle, Jasmine did find time to do work uninterrupted, she always found a way to mention Prince Ali and his many virtues to me.

She'd say things like:

"Ali is so considerate. He let me show him where Aladdin and I used to hang out and he listened to my stories about Aladdin for hours."

Or:

"Reading about these rare herbs from Ghama reminds me of when Prince Ali and I visited the Ghamese ambassador last week. Did you know that Prince Ali speaks Ghamese? He knows so many languages."

And:

"Aren't these flowers lovely, Rajah? Prince Ali convinced me to join in a festival the other day. We had so much fun dancing in the marketplace. He really is a great dancer. Because of him, we won these flowers as a prize."

I sat there and listened to it all like a good tiger, even though it made me want to gag.

Even listening to Jasmine talking about Aladdin had been preferable to this. She sounded wistful when she talked about Aladdin, instead of lovesick. However, that duty had long since been taken over by Prince Ali. He loved hearing about Jasmine's street rat. I suspected it had nothing to do with kindness, attentiveness, tact, or whatever virtue Jasmine gave him that day.

It was just sickening how many supposed virtues Prince Ali was acquiring. He seemed to gain a new one every day. Such talk made it clear that Jasmine was developing strong feelings for the prince, but all I felt was distrust. Every story she told me sounded too good to be true.

I desperately wanted to dissuade Jasmine from her infatuation, but there was no use explaining my misgivings to her. At the end of the day, Jasmine was less cynical than I was. She was more trusting. Right now, communicating my vague suspicions would only lead to more fighting between us.

No. I knew if I wanted to expose the prince, I would need proof.

So, I followed Prince Ali and Jasmine around whenever I could. I listened closely to his tales at dinner. I even searched his rooms but after two weeks of detective work, all I had were a bunch of strange observations.

I still thought he was lying to everyone during our dinners, even though Jafar kept finding support for his claims. And I would never forget Ali's creepy smiles when Jasmine told him about Aladdin for the first time, but that was just the beginning.

Despite a "thorough" Ababwa education, Prince Ali didn't know basic geography or the difference between a tax and a tariff. I often found his etiquette to be less than satisfactory and he was far too expressive for anyone who claimed to be raised in a court setting. Even Jasmine had a courtly mask of sorts. Prince Ali only had two modes: "charming" entertainer or toplofty oaf. Neither of those served as a good mask.

Instead, he had another accessory. Prince Ali wore a strange gold crown underneath his turban. I only caught glimpses of it, but it was enough. Who in their right mind needed to wear two hats on their head? Sometimes I even thought I saw him talk to it.

Even Jasmine's praise of the prince gave me this weird feeling beyond the disgust it caused. It was like I had heard it all before. I got the same feeling when I looked at the prince. He was just so familiar that it gave me a headache just thinking about it.

Also, Prince Ali smelled weird. Both him and his elephant smelled like monkey which was especially strange since most everything from Ababwa, from the actual Persian monkeys to the servants and even the assorted jams he brought as a gift, smelled of spice, metal, oil, and little else.

But then, the Ababwans in general were weird. Besides Ali's advisor, none of his servants seemed to talk. You never caught them gossiping, sleeping on the job, or even rolling their eyes. And I had a hard time distinguishing one Ababwan from another. Even though I was excellent at remembering faces and names, they all seemed to blend together. It was all very peculiar and made for a frustrating mystery.

Every time I felt like I was close to solving it, I would find myself floundering at the key moment. Whatever realization I was about to have would slip away and I would feel dizzy and sick. I was ill with disappointment, no doubt. I just knew I was missing something. Something that could explain all of this and show Prince Ali as the fraud that he was.

I would not give up. I had vowed not to fail Jasmine ever again. And I refused to be outsmarted by this idiot prince. One of these days, I'd find the proof I needed to figure this all out. Then I'd be able to show Jasmine the prince's true nature and he'd be discarded like all the rest of her suitors.

I just had to keep looking.