silly teenager—albeit a teenager consulting a book bound in human flesh.
Her derision didn’t upset Jafar in the slightest.
“Well,” he said, “the genie may not be able to make you love me—weak fool that he is—and I may have failed so far, but there…are…other ways.” His eyes grew distant. “Soon I will break the pitiful laws of magic that bind him…and me. Then I shall raise the dead from their graves to do my bidding. Then I shall kill those who oppose me with a snap of my fingers. Then I will make not just you but all of the people of Agrabah love me!”
He wasn’t paying attention to anything or anyone in the room, now shrieking and staring off into space like a madman. The hand not holding his cobra staff balled up into a clawed fist.
Jasmine watched this transformation in horror, the genie in resignation.
Even Rajah had looked up from his toy to watch the human who was acting so strangely. A low growl formed in the back of his throat.
Jafar glanced at the tiger out of the corner of one eye. Seeming to recover from whatever fit had possessed him, he rolled his shoulders and relaxed his hands. His expression straightened back into Jafar’s normal snide superiority.
Then he snapped his fingers.
Rajah went flying across the room like a giant had picked him up and thrown him. The tiger smashed against the far wall, head first, and fell down like a lifeless sack of bones.
“Rajah!” Jasmine cried. She rushed over to him.
Rajah lifted his head woozily. He made little mewing noises, hurt and confused. Jasmine threw her arms around his neck.
“If I cannot have love yet, I’ll at least have fear and respect,” Jafar snarled. “The strength of a tiger is nothing compared to the magic I now wield. You would do well to remember that.”
Jasmine whispered in Rajah’s ear and stroked his neck. There was a black and bloody gash over his left eye and a giant lump forming behind an ear. When he went to stand up it took several tries and he swayed uncertainly.
The genie shook his head in sympathy.
“You’re a monster, Jafar,” Jasmine hissed.
“You have no idea, Princess,” Jafar hissed back.
Then he smiled that thin, closed-lip smile that reached to his ears but not to his eyes. He strode over to the genie, gesturing widely with his arms. “But I initially came here for a much happier purpose. Genie, I want you to create the most magnificent wedding dress the world has ever seen for my blushing bride! When we are joined as one I want the entire world to look on in awe and wonder.”
“I thought it was going to be a private ceremony,” the genie pointed out dryly.
Jafar ignored him. “I shall leave you two to it…bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding and all.…” He waggled his fingers and swept out of the room, striking his ebon cobra staff against the floor as he went. Self-importantly. The doors slammed shut—magically—behind him.
Rajah let out a mewling whine.
Jasmine glared at the genie.
Suddenly, he was wearing the garb of a tailor, holding needles in his lips and stretching a ribbon critically against her height.
“I…don’t suppose you know your measurements already?” he asked weakly.
That finally put her over the edge.
“How can you do this?” Jasmine demanded, coming very close to shrieking herself. The hysteria that had been building inside her for the past week threatened to burst forth and take over. She stood from where she had been cuddling Rajah and began to pace back and forth, trying not to explode. She crossed her shaking arms, trying to still them.
The genie shrugged apologetically.
“He has the lamp. He has the power. I have to do his bidding. That’s why I say: ‘What is your bidding, Master?’ Or did you miss that?”
“You have made the worst person the most powerful sorcerer in the world! He is mad! Agrabah is doomed! And I have to marry him! And you don’t care?”
“Of course I care. You think I don’t care? For a snippy little princess you don’t actually seem so bad and, yeah, I’d say your city is two shakes away from being a fascist dystopian nightmare. But—and pay close attention now—I have to do what he says.”
Jasmine opened her mouth to say something, but the genie wasn’t listening. He was staring into space dreamily, lost in memories.
“I had a master once. Nice guy. He wanted…are you ready for this? A bigger flock of sheep