A Whole New World (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,35
light to get a better look. It felt like real, pure gold: heavier than its tiny size would seem to have justified. Blank on one side. On the other was a strange, jagged symbol he couldn’t figure out. Ancient and threatening looking. Almost like a stylized lizard, or a…
“Parrot,” Morgiana filled in. “We think. A very angry one by the look of it. See? His beak opened there, and there, his claws, there.…You sort of have to use your imagination.”
“Oh, I see it now.…Jafar has a pet one, right?”
Morgiana nodded. He gave the coin back to her. It didn’t look much like a parrot, really. It looked evil.
“And they just…stay? They don’t disappear after a while, like the treasure of an ifrit in old stories?”
Morgiana shrugged. “Nope. They stick around. It’s all real.”
Aladdin didn’t like it. He couldn’t get his mind off the mountains of ancient gold buried in the desert.
“What about Princess Jasmine?” he asked finally.
“Jafar is marrying her. To cement his claim, I assume.”
“And she agreed to this? She wants to marry him?”
“Oh, yes, I’m sure she is all into a guy more than twice her age who killed her dad and is generally known to be evil,” Morgiana drawled. “When did you become such an idiot, Aladdin?”
“But she doesn’t love him!”
“No kidding, Kazem,” Duban said with a chuckle. “They say his own mother abandoned him at birth, he’s so evil.”
“But what choice does she have, exactly?” Morgiana demanded. “She should count herself lucky that he didn’t kill her outright along with her dad. It was probably some sort of bargain they made. ‘You marry me and seal my claim to the throne, and I won’t kill you.’ Why are you so surprised? It’s the first thing you men do when you seize power. Punish all the women.”
“I’ve got to stop the wedding,” Aladdin vowed.
“Settle down, friend,” Duban said soothingly, but whether it was to Morgiana or Aladdin, it was hard to say. “Aladdin, it’s not going to be a public ceremony you can just go to and say, ‘I object to this wedding!’ It’s going to be held in the sultan’s private chambers of the palace tomorrow night—only the highest highborn are invited. That’s why there was that parade today, to publicly celebrate it.”
“And by the way, just why…do you…have to stop the wedding?” Morgiana inquired sweetly. “Have you suddenly taken it upon yourself to defend women’s rights across the sultanate, or is there something you’re not telling us?”
Aladdin thought about lying. He was good at it—to other people. These used to be his two closest friends.
“It’s a long story,” was all he allowed.
“Aladdin disappears for a few days, Agrabah is overthrown, and suddenly he has an interest in rescuing a royal princess,” Morgiana mused. “I’ll bet it’s a long story.”
“Well, you have until tomorrow night to play the hero,” Duban said, spreading his fingers to show the food, the pillows, the other, younger thieves who were making themselves comfortable in preparation for hearing a good tale. “You even brought your own carpet to sit on,” he added, looking at the magic carpet doubtfully. “What’s up with that?”
“Part of the story,” Aladdin admitted.
“Yes, tell us the story. Let’s catch up. I haven’t seen Abu in ages,” Morgiana crooned, taking a grape and handing it to the little monkey. He accepted it from her with a politeness he didn’t usually demonstrate.
“I don’t…”
But Aladdin was prevented from having to say anything else by the sudden arrival of a swarm of tiny thieves: sliding down the ramp, leaping into the room, rolling and scuttling to present themselves to Morgiana and Duban.
“Mistress,” the first one said, opening up his hands.
In it was a golden bangle and an emerald necklace.
“Well done, Deni! Excellent. Who’s next?”
All of the thieves lined up to present something to her—even things as little as an empty leather purse or a single copper coin.
“I thought you said Street Rats didn’t have to steal food for the last three days!” Aladdin snapped accusingly at Morgiana.
She shrugged.
“Yes, I said they didn’t have to steal food. The parade was a perfect place to…remove the valuable possessions from all the idiots hypnotized by the magical buffoonery.”
“This was always my problem with you!” Aladdin swore at his old friends. “Yes, I steal, too—but only what I need. What I can’t get for myself. You do it as your day job. You have a whole little…organization of apprentices here who are going to grow up thinking this is an acceptable thing!”