Aladdin swallows.
With a laugh of triumph, Darian pulls Aladdin’s sash, and the lamp comes swinging into plain sight. Curious murmurs rustle through the crowd; they aren’t sure what it is he’s discovered, but they know it must be important by the way Darian shouts excitedly. Aladdin grabs the lamp’s handle, trying to tug it away from the prince. I feel nauseated as once, twice, thrice I am nearly sucked into the lamp, only for Aladdin to regain possession of it.
“Sorcerer!” Darian cries. “Jinn-worshipper!”
The crowd picks up his cry, and the words echo across the room. Caspida angrily intervenes, grabbing Darian and pulling him away. The lamp, still bound to Aladdin, is torn from his grasp, and Aladdin catches it.
“What is this?” she asks, but by the dread in her voice, I think she already knows.
“Yes, thief,what is this?” asks Darian, smirking.
“It’s a custom of my people,” says Aladdin hoarsely. His face isdrained of color, but still he tries to maintain his cover. “You know. Symbolizing light and... good fortune... All Istaryan grooms carry a lamp to their wedding.” He stares challengingly at Darian, daring the prince to announce that Aladdin had stolen the lamp fromhim, thus condemning them both.
“Liar,” snarls Darian. “You conspired with the jinn to pass yourself off as a prince, when you are nothing but a criminal. And with the jinn’s help, you murdered the king!” Darian pulls a vial from his pocket and holds it up. “This was found in his rooms—a deadly poison called Serpent’s Bite, the selfsame potion that took the life of our king!” He throws a finger toward Aladdin. “Murderer! King-killer!”
Aladdin’s jaw drops open. “The king? I didn’t—”
“Every word this man speaks is a lie!” Darian declares. “He is no prince. This man is a fraud and a criminal! His own parents were traitors, beheaded by my father for stirring up rebellion. He is not Rahzad, prince of Istarya, but Aladdin, a common thief who has plagued our city for years!”
And with that declaration, my glamour hiding Aladdin’s true face shatters and dissipates, revealing his true image. Recognition flares in Caspida’s eyes, and with it, dark anger.
“Aladdin,” she whispers, raising a hand to her temple. She blinks hard, as if unable to understand what she’s seeing. “Can it be?”
He steps forward, a hand raised. “Princess, I can explain—”
“Be silent,” she orders coldly, her gaze icing over. Then, stepping closer, she whispers angrily, “I have never been so humiliated in my life. You have ruined me and killed my father! I thought... I thought you a friend.Bothof you.” She blinks away a tear, her eyes burning into Aladdin’s. “May you carry the weight of this betrayal to your grave.”
Aladdin shakes his head furiously. “I may be a thief and a liar, but I’m no murderer! I swear it—I did not kill the king! Caspida, please believe me!”
She doesn’t look at him. Defeated, Aladdin turns to me, and I can only smile sadly.
Darian turns and scans the room, his eyes probing, searching. And then they fall on me. His eyes grow wide.
“Of course,” he murmurs. “The pretty servant girl.”
Without another word he turns, drawing a dagger from his belt. He slices through the sash and grabs the lamp. The world seems to spin around me as my bond with Aladdin, which had grown so familiar to me it was like another limb, snaps like a twig. A new bond forms between me and Darian, strong and absolute, threads weaving together and coiling around us both, until our wills are knit into one. He turns to me, his eyes hungry.
“Monster!” he cries, pointing. “Reveal yourself!”
No point in hiding anymore. If it’s a monster they want, then a monster they shall have.
Every eye in the temple suddenly turns to me as I begin to shift, hair, clothes, and even the ring in my hand turning vaporous. It feels almost good to finally shed my human form and burn with all my power before them. Red smoke roils around my feet, growing and swelling to surround me. My eyes are locked with Aladdin’s, and he watches wretchedly as I am unbound, thread by thread. The court gasps and recoils, and Caspida and her handmaidens regard me with repugnance.
Here I am, mortals. Look and tremble, for I am the jinni of the lamp, the daughter of Ambadya, the monster in your midst.
Up I rise, borne on a cloud of scarlet smoke. I burn with fury and channel my anger through my shape-shifting magic, red lightsflashing in my smoke, my eyes glowing like coals, my skin turning translucent to reveal the fire raging inside me. I am a creature of nightmare and shadow.
Shouts of fear ring out, and the nobles stumble over one another to escape the temple. Sulifer calls for his soldiers.
“Seize him!”
The soldiers run to Aladdin, as Pasha and his men fall aside to create a protective perimeter around Caspida, who already stands surrounded by her handmaidens. The girls look up at me with rage and disgust, and brightest of all is Caspida’s quiet, controlled anger, her eyes wounded by betrayal. And it seems it is not Caspida at all who stands before me, but you, Habiba, on the mountaintop, as your death came to swallow you. Their gazes all pierce deeper than they can know, and I realize how stupid I was to ever think them friends. I should have known better than to open myself to such inevitable pain. When did I forget to stay aloof and unattached? When did I let my armor soften, leaving me vulnerable? This is what I get for playing human.
The soldiers approach Aladdin warily, their lances down and angled at his chest. The thief stands still, his gaze still on me, his shoulders slumped in defeat.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, his voice lost amid the screams and shouts, unheard by all but me. He alone can meet my eyes without disgust or fear. He alone still sees the girl inside the monster. But it is not enough.
I hurl myself at the soldiers, whirling around him in a long coil of red smoke, driving the soldiers back. Darian stands gaping, half afraid, half delighted with my display.
