A Whole New World (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,45
from a platter. It was surprisingly juicy and well cooked. “Extra guards, lookouts on the street corners—yes, I saw them. Even the well-disguised young woman in blue. I thought Agrabah was wonderful under its new ruler.”
“Not all change is good,” Duban muttered, drinking something that was very obviously not water out of his own cup, and then shaking the droplets out of his beard.
“We thought the Peacekeeping Patrols would be the usual market guard trash,” Morgiana said. “But they are—something else. Something unnatural. Nobody knows who they are, or where they come from. And last time I checked, there weren’t caravans coming into the city carting dozens of identical soldiers from foreign lands.”
“And they have been keeping the peace very well,” Duban growled. “Just an hour ago a thief was found tacked to the city wall like a bug, a dagger in each of his wrists and feet and neck and heart. Not one of ours,” he added hastily.
“There’s also the little problem of inflation,” Morgiana drawled, pouring herself some wine out of a leather flask. “It’s no joke.”
“Inflation? Like money?” Jasmine asked. “What has that to do with anything?”
“Do you see this orange?” Morgiana asked, spearing one from the table with her dagger. “A week ago you could get a dozen for a single silver shekel. Now? This one orange will cost you twenty golden darics. Or golden jafars, or whatever you want to call the sorcerous coins.”
“When you can bring forth gold from the sky,” Duban explained, seeing Jasmine was still confused, “when anyone can reach up and take as much as they want—gold stops having value. Like sand.”
Morgiana pointed her chin at the tiny piles of gold in the corner of the cavern. “That is all basically worthless now.”
Aladdin was reminded once again of the mountains of treasure now buried under the desert. A strange thought occurred to him. Had this all happened…before? Was the treasure buried not because of some mad old sultan who wanted his wealth to die with him, but because someone nearly destroyed the world by bringing too much gold into it? With the help of a genie, whose lamp was the only “worthless” thing in there…Maybe it was all hidden to protect people from the power of wishes.
He rubbed his head. Deep thoughts were not usually his thing. He suspected that was changing, too.
“This can’t have been part of Jafar’s plan,” Jasmine murmured. “I don’t think he foresaw this.”
“You said there was a bigger plan, though, right?” Aladdin prompted. “Something worse?”
“Worse than worthless gold?” Morgiana asked archly. “I have a hard time imagining anything beyond that.”
Jasmine nodded. It was like with a moment’s rest and a single cup of water she had regained herself and her former energy.
“We need to stop Jafar. Listen: he has a lamp with a genie enslaved to it. So far he has made two wishes: one to become sultan, another to become the world’s most powerful sorcerer. The genie wasn’t able to grant his third wish, because it broke the laws of magic.”
“What was it?” Duban asked breathlessly.
Jasmine blushed, faltering in her role as storyteller.
“Jafar wanted a willing bride,” she finally said, forcing the words out. “He wanted the genie to make me fall in love with him.”
“Oh,” Morgiana said, a little disappointed. “Is that all? Why?”
Jasmine didn’t take it as an insult, Aladdin was relieved to see.
“Because that’s what he wants, besides power,” she explained. “More than anything Jafar seems to want to be loved and admired—that’s why he has those parades, and gives all the coins out, and makes those speeches from the balcony. He wants everyone, including me, to love him.”
“That’s not what I would wish for. No offense,” Duban said, equally dumbfounded. “What about all that good stuff you hear about in myths and legends? Like a horse faster than the wind, or a ship that can fly through the stars? That’s what I’d want.”
Morgiana’s eyes narrowed at Aladdin.
“I’m sorry, do I understand correctly that you have brought the object of obsession of the world’s most powerful sorcerer into our secret hideout?”
“Um. Yes…?” Aladdin offered with a chagrined smile.
“She could be a useful negotiating point,” Duban offered.
“If he knew I was here, he would have already attacked,” Jasmine said quickly. “I don’t think he possesses the power to see through walls. But let me continue.
“He was enraged when the genie couldn’t—when he couldn’t make me fall in love. Magic can’t do that, or directly kill people, or bring them back from the dead.