11Huge shout out to LoveShipper, who has been leaving such lovely comments! I'm so glad you're enjoying it! Comments make my day and let me know that people are actually reading and enjoying this story, so many thanks! 3
"What are you doing?"
He'd had just about enough of this.
Calm. Remain calm…
Remember the export deal.
Remember the negotiations.
Remember what's important. Only, every time he told himself that, Aladdin's thoughts drifted back to Kassim.
That's why he had found himself in his friend's room that afternoon. Talking with Jasmine hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped, and catching up with Babkak had gone even worse. Long story short, Aladdin knew he had stalled his trip to the dungeons long enough. Maybe bringing some sort of peace offering like a book or a deck of cards would cushion the inevitable blowout when he finally made his way down to visit Kassim.
The last thing he had expected was for Ahmed to beat him to it.
The vizier had his servants scouring the room, tearing off bed covers and digging through chests.
"Stop!" Aladdin bellowed, but the search didn't come to a halt until Ahmed gave the word. "I'll ask you again," he went on, trying in vain to keep his voice level. "What are you doing?"
"Why," Ahmed began with an innocent smile, "searching for my jewels, of course."
Aladdin took a long, steadying breath through his nose. "Despite what you think he may have done, he's still my Royal Vizier and you have just about as right to go through his things as you do to command my guards."
"My apologies, Your Highness, but it seemed to me that you were doing nothing this morning to aid my plight. Here it is, already past noon and I've seen neither hide nor hair of any sort of reparations, so I felt as though it was time to take matters into my own hands."
"What you feel is irrelevant. This all has to be handled a certain way, so if you want your jewels back, you need to cooperate—"
"Oh, but I already have them back," came the satisfied reply. "Well, half of them, at least. My men couldn't find the pendant, but this…" He beckoned forth one of his servants, who handed him a broad necklace that could only be described as gaudy. "This is what I found in your vizier's chest of clothes."
Aladdin blinked. Had the earth opened up and swallowed itself whole, he couldn't have been more shocked than he was at that moment.
He kept his lips pursed until he could form the right words. Stuttering would get him nowhere and it would only make him seem even more of a fool than he already had been.
I can't believe I believed him…
Kassim had lied to him. But what else is new?
Knock it off and don't you dare jump to conclusions. He heard that in Jasmine's voice and it made him wish she were here to deal with this.
She's a much better ruler than you'll ever be.
Shut. Up.
"But this is only half of what I'm missing," Ahmed continued when Aladdin couldn't find the right words fast enough. "Give me some more time and my men will unearth the pendant. I'm sure it's around here somewhere…"
"No." Aladdin crossed his arms even as his head spun. "I want you all out of this room, now. We'll discuss this matter in one hour, but until then, you are to remember that you are a guest in this palace. You will not trespass anywhere else, or you can sail back to your king and tell him the negotiations are off, do you understand?"
A long beat of silence passed and Aladdin could have sworn he saw Ahmed's mouth twitch into an almost-smile.
"Perfectly."
"Good. Now, I will meet you in the main hall in an hour, where we will all discuss this like gentlemen."
Aladdin waited until the last of them filed out before surveying the damage. Kassim was going to kill him. The room was a mess with clothes and pillows strewn all about, and books unstacked and out of order. Not that Kassim had made a habit of keeping his room tidy anyway, but this was far worse than its usual appearance.
When the door creaked back open, Aladdin felt the pang of an oncoming headache.
"I said, I'll meet you in—Oh, Omar…" He let his shoulders sag in relief. "Sorry, come on in."
"Whoa…" His little brother took in the sight with wide eyes. "What happened in here?"
"What didn't?"
"You've got that right…" As Omar lifted his confused gaze, Aladdin felt every raw emotion like a knife to the chest. "Why are they doing this? Babkak told me what happened. Is Kassim gonna be okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, he'll be just fine." The lie tasted bitter on his throat, but he didn't know what else to say. Not the truth. Never the truth, right?
Or did you forget who the real liar is among you four?
Brushing away the condescending hiss of his inner critic, Aladdin began picking things up. He needed to do something with his hands. Needed to be useful, productive. To feel in control of something, no matter how small, even while the rest of his world continued to fall apart.
Omar joined him without hesitation, silently cleaning up the floor before going to straighten the bed.
"Maybe we should go see him?" Omar suggested after a good ten minutes of tidying. "I mean, remember how lonely it used to get down there…?"
"That's what I was planning to do," Aladdin said. "I was just…" Stalling. "I wanted to bring him something, then I found Ahmed in here and…" Blowing out a sigh, he slumped down atop the bed. "They found it."
"Found what?"
"The missing jewels. One of them, at least."
"In here?"
Aladdin could only nod, feeling the static of Omar's confusion pierce the air.
"But… But he… He wouldn't do that. Why would he do that?"
"He wouldn't… He didn't, I mean… I don't know. He shouldn't, that's for sure."
"Maybe," Omar began, perking up slightly, "they planted the jewels in here to make Kassim look bad."
"Why would they do that? What would be the point? They're here to negotiate an export deal, not fulfill some sort of elaborate scheme. It's just a messy situation Omar—probably one big misunderstanding, Babkak says. But… I don't know. How can you misunderstand evidence like that?"
Omar shrugged, his face falling once more. "Why don't you ask Kassim?"
"Yeah…" Aladdin carded a hand through his hair, grateful not to have the usual weight of his turban adding to the heaviness in his heart. "Yeah."
"I'll come with you if you'd like."
For a moment, he considered it. There would probably be arguing, maybe even some shouting, knowing himself and Kassim. The last thing he wanted to do was use Omar as a shield for their impending confrontation, so he shook his head.
"Thanks, but I think this is one visit I need to make on my own. But hey, why don't you hang out here for a while? Just until I come back. I don't trust Ahmed not to come through with his goons again."
Omar's brows pinched at this. "If you don't trust him… why do you think he's telling the truth about Kassim?"
"I don't think that."
"Then why are you acting like you do?"
"I… Look, it's complicated, all right? I…" Aladdin huffed, sliding off the bed. "I'll be back later."
Only when he got halfway down the hall did he realize he had forgotten to grab a peace offering.
Serves you right.
The first thing he noticed upon reaching the dungeons was that Kassim didn't look all that lonely.
"No, you don't want to play that card yet. It gets revealed only as a last resort," he instructed his companion. The guard, for his part, seemed equal parts confused and intrigued by the game. "That's it. See? You're getting it. Slowly, but you are getting it…"
When Aladdin cleared his throat, the guard's head snapped in his direction and the man launched instantly to his feet. Kassim barely spared him a glance, playing his next cards through the cell bars as if the game hadn't just come to an abrupt end.
"Your Highness," the guard greeted with a fist clasped to his chest. Aladdin acknowledged him with a brief nod, then waved him off.
Kassim began cleaning up the cards. "I remember teaching you how to play this."
"I don't think now's the right time for sentiment."
"Hey, it was worth a shot."
The silence that followed was asphyxiating. Kassim was clearly waiting for him to make the next move, so Aladdin stepped forward.
"I'm sorry about this morning," he said. That was as good a place to start as any.
Kassim simply hummed, shuffling all the cards back into the deck and prying himself off the floor.
"Everything happened so fast…"
"You can say that again." Leaning against the wall, Kassim finally met his gaze. "So, how long do I have to stay here, huh? Did you clear things up with Ahmed?"
Aladdin couldn't help the wince that struck his features. "About that… It's worse."
"Worse? How the hell could it be worse? I didn't take it," Kassim pressed, enunciating every syllable as if it would make everyone believe his words. "If I did, wouldn't I have stashed it somewhere? You know what? Go ahead. I give you full permission to scour my room from top to bottom. You've probably searched it already, so I'm just wasting my breath, aren't I?"
It was a low blow, but Aladdin couldn't bring himself to return the jab. "I didn't, but Ahmed did before I could stop him."
Kassim raised a brow. "And?"
"And…" Aladdin forced himself not to squeeze his eyes shut. What he wouldn't give to just sink into the floor and disappear. "He found his jeweled necklace. You know, that one he had on when he first arrived?"
Explaining the minor details did nothing to soothe the shock on Kassim's face. "What? But… B-But how?"
I don't know. I don't know and there seems to be only one explanation…
"The pendant is still missing… Kassim, I need you to look me dead in the eyes and tell me how on earth those jewels got in your room."
"You still don't believe me, do you?" Kassim's eyes were dark now; his tone low and dangerous.
"I don't know what to believe! I have everything hitting me all at once and I don't know what's true and what's not!"
"Okay, now it's your turn to look me dead in the eyes and tell me why it's so hard for you to give me the benefit of the doubt on this."
"Because it's the kind of thing you would do, okay?" He hadn't meant to shout, but the exasperation sent his voice soaring.
Kassim let out a low chuckle that was anything but humorous. "And abandoning your friends is just the sort of thing you'd do."
"I'm not—" Aladdin took a breath, closing his eyes for a moment to recenter himself. "I am not abandoning you. I'm just trying to do this right."
"Really? Really, Al?" Kassim made a sweeping gesture to the cell. "Because this doesn't seem right to me. I mean, why would I even do something like that? Like I told you before, I don't need either of those things! I live in a damn palace! If I really wanted something that gaudy, I would go get one or five of my own."
"I don't know, Kassim, why do you do anything you do? Maybe you wanted to see if you 'still got it,' I don't know." The heat in his chest rose with his growing desperation. The explosive battle of wills he'd been hoping to avoid was now in full swing and he didn't know how to stop it. "The only thing that's predictable about you is that you're unpredictable."
"And the only thing that's predictable about you," Kassim shot back, "is that you always turn your back on your friends when the going gets tough."
"Not always—"
"Yes, always! I wouldn't even be down here right now if that wasn't true!"
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
Even Kassim seemed to be taking a breather, his heated glare having shifted to the floor.
"Did you come down here just to interrogate me?" he asked a moment later. All the fight had drained out of his tone, leaving only a hard bitterness in its wake.
"No. I came to tell you about the jewels, too."
Kassim shook his head, crossing to the back corner of the cell and sliding down the wall. "You know, I can't wait to see us try to come back from this. That should be interesting."
Aladdin opened his mouth to say something—anything—else, but his voice refused to work. That was fine, he supposed. The loud shuffling of the cards in Kassim's hands was speaking volumes.
This conversation is over, they seemed to tell him. There's nothing more you can say here.
And even if there was, he doubted Kassim would listen.
Note: This story is fully written, so it's just a matter of me posting all the chapters. There will be twenty chapters in all, so whoever has been sticking with me so far, just know that this story will not be abandoned and will be posted in its entirety a few chapters at a time over the course of the next month or so.