Chapter 10:
I'm sent down, alone, to fetch Mozenrath and Xerxes. Everyone must be discussing about what I could be keeping from them. Personally, I'm kind of glad for that curse Nasira put on me. Makes it a lot easier to hide my secret.
I open the cell door and light illuminates Mozenrath's figure. He looks up and me and glares.
'Does he think that will make me go away?' Glaring back at him I sing again to make sure he will not attack me the moment he is released.
I unchain him and help him up. The glazed look in his eyes doesn't mask their glittering black orbs. But when I really look at them, I can see they're a midnight blue. Tearing my gaze away from his, I give him his orders.
"You are to walk up with me up the stairs. When we get to the throne room, I will release you, but you cannot attack the other guests or I will make you my slave forever. Now go."
We stop just outside the throne room.
"I release you." I whisper into his ear just incase anyone is around. He glares at me, but behaves. For the eel, I whisper that he is to act like he normally does but cannot attack anyone. I push open the door.
The rulers are standing in a circle, whispering to each other. They all turn to look at us as we enter. Aladdin walks up to us. He looks suspiciously at me and glares at Mozenrath.
'What exactly happened between these two?'
He turns back towards me.
"Thanks Evangeline, not very many people would've gone down there alone. Especially with this guy."
"Aladdin, I'm hurt. You don't think I can be well behaved? Never mind. What exactly did you bring me up from my cozy little cell for?"
Aladdin gestures for us to follow him instead of answering Mozenrath's question. Some of the rulers glare at us as we break into their little group chat. The Sultan speaks first.
"Mozenrath, as much as I hate to say this, we need your help." Mozenrath's eyebrows shoot up.
"And why do you need my help Sultan?"
"Nasira, Jafar's sister, has found a way to revive him."
"And why does this concern me?" He asks with a bored tone of voice.
"Because she's also going to revive Destane." Aladdin cuts in.
I don't know how to describe what happened next. It was almost like Mozenrath went into shock. Could he go into shock? I snap my fingers in his face, but he grabs my arm, hard. And he did it with the bone hand. The blunt tips dig into my skin.
"Stop!" I tell him
"You're hurting me!" Aladdin intervenes, grabbing Mozenrath's arm and taking it off of mine.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"Now, what is it with this Destane guy?" I wait for his answer.
"Destane was the most powerful sorcerer before I was. He was insane, power hungry, cruel..."
"Gee, where have we heard that before!" Iago says sarcastically.
"I am nothing like him!" Mozenrath's face has turned red from anger.
"Touchy."
"Iago, I would suggest you shut up now." I look into his eyes to make sure they're still glazed over. He stops talking, so I assume that he's still under the influence of the song. I turn to face Mozenrath.
"Hey, are you okay?" I whisper to him and rub his arm. He looks shocked from the affectionate gesture, but doesn't recoil.
"Yes, and if you could stop doing that, I would be better." I lower my arm back down by my side.
"Destane was my old mentor, until I managed to defeat him, turn him into a mamluk, and take control over his kingdom." I sense that there is more to this story, something that he desperately wants to keep secret.
Seeing how shaken up he is by all of this, I can't help but feel pity for him.
'Woah, I'm feeling pity for this prick. Just yesterday he was ordering me around like a servant and calling me stupid.' I must not be feeling too well. Can sirens get sick?
"Mozenrath, if he comes back, what could he do?" Jasmine asks him.
"Destroy the world. Then he would continue to travel to other realms and destroy or enslave them. He would do this until there was nothing left but those loyal to him. Jafar and Nasira will try to stop him, but he would overpower them completely."
"Then how did you do it?" I ask him. "If Jafar and Nasira couldn't overpower him, then how could you have done it. You're fairly young and..."
"I'm 21." I pause.
"Okay, so am I but, still. You must have been young when you took control over your kingdom. How old were you when you overthrew Destane?"
"I was 17."
"So how does a 17 year-old boy take over an entire kingdom and overthrow an all powerful sorcerer?"
"I drugged his food and drink with sleeping pills. So, when he was passed out, I removed his magic. It's an extremely painful process, so he woke up a few times, but he was too drugged up to do anything about it. Then I injected him with the mamluk serum. He never saw it coming. But that's why it worked. If I had been confrontational instead of underhanded, it would have never worked."
"Wait a minute." Jasmine interrupts.
"Nasira said that by the next new moon she will have resurrected Jafar and Destane. That's four days away. So what if she hasn't done it already? Could we stop her before she brings them back?"
"Well, yes, but it would be difficult. We'd have to find out where she is going to resurrect them and exactly when she's going to do it."
"Why don't we ask the oracle."
"Evangeline, you don't have to do that." Jasmine tells me.
"No, I want to do it. Besides, I'm not the one who has to ask it, right?"
"She is right." Says one of the rulers.
"We could ask the oracle how to defeat Nasira."
"Great then, it's settled. I'll go get the oracle out of my room and we'll ask it how to defeat Nasira." I walk out of the room, cheerfully, feeling many pairs of eyes burning holes in my back.
...
I carefully hold the oracle as I walk back into the throne room.
"Who wants to ask?"
"I will." The king of Quirkistan steps up.
"I already know almost everything there is to know, and this is of great importance. So I will ask the oracle."
He takes the oracle from my hands.
"Oracle, please answer my question. How do we defeat Nasira and keep her from resurrecting Destane and Jafar?"
The oracle glows and lifts itself from the king's hands. A pale woman floats above the scepter.
"To defeat Nasira and keep her from resurrecting Jafar and Destane, you must find the Pharaoh's Scarab, located on the shores of Agrabah. Once the scarab is in your possession, you must go to the Cave of Wonders where Nasira will be performing her ritual. Place the scarab in the well where she'll place the potion ingredients she'll need for her ritual and Nasira's powers will be taken away when she attempts to bring Jafar and Destane back. If you do not do this, Nasira will succeed and we will all be doomed. Especially you two." She points at me and Mozenrath.
People decide to ignore that part. Another ruler asks,
"When will Nasira perform the ritual?"
"On the night of the new moon."
"Who should we send to retrieve the scarab?"
"The Princess, the Hero, the Granter of Wishes, the Carpet, the One Who Turned from Darkness, the Protecter, the Dark Guardian, and the Vessel of Angels."
"Well, we know that Genie is the Granter of Wishes, the Protecter is Abu, the One Who Turned from Darkness is Iago, Jasmine is the princess, I'm the hero, and Carpet is the carpet. But we don't know who the Dark Guardian or the Vessel of Angels is." Aladdin states calmly.
"Well, let's ask." Says the king of Quirkistan.
"Who is the Vessel of Angels and the Dark Guardian?" Another ruler asks.
"The young girl who hides a secret from you all, and one from herself is the Vessel of Angels. And the Dark Guardian is the one who has dealt with Destane before."
The oracle vanishes, and everyone stares at me and Mozenrath. The king of Quirkistan hands the oracle back to me.
'Oh boy. What happens now?' I think.
'What the heck is the Vessel of Angels? And what is the Dark Guardian? Well no one else seems concerned about it, so maybe I should just ignore it.'
"She said we'd find the scarab on the shores of Agrabah. We know the way, right guys?" Aladdin appears hopeful with his statement.
"You know the way, I don't." Says Mozenrath.
"Well you could..."
"I will not ride that infernal carpet." He interrupts with a huff. I have an idea.
"You could always ride with me." I tell him. He looks at me skeptically.
"You're telling me that you know the way to the shores of Agrabah?"
"Yes, I am. I passed it on my way here." I practically lie through my teeth.
"We can take Onyx."
"We're going to ride your dog? Is it possible that you are even more crazy than I thought?"
"You shouldn't judge people by their appearances. After all, not everything is what it seems to be." I see my eyes change from a dark purple to a bright orange in the mirror behind Mozenrath.
He clearly doesn't know what I mean by that, so he disregards my statement completely.
"Fine, I'll ride with you. But before I go on this quest with you, I'll need my gauntlet." Aladdin opens his mouth to object, but I'm quicker to speak.
"Deal. You get your gauntlet, and in return you help us stop Nasira."
He takes my hand in his flesh one and shakes it. I pull it away from his and he says,
"Excellent! When do we leave?"