Disclaimer: I do not own Aladdin.
Chapter 4
A Royal Duty
(Sultana Kamaria)
I settled back into my throne and watched the last peasant being escorted out of the throne room by a few guards.
"Well, that was the last one," I sighed, pretending to be interested in the fancy gold and crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling high, high above me. Jafar, standing straight by my throne in his black and red robes, bowed low. "Yes, Your Majesty. Shall I call in the guard to escort you to your chambers?" I shook my head. "No. Would it please you to escort me yourself today, Grand Vizier?" Jafar looked surprised but did not object.
As Jafar led me toward my chambers, I told him, "No, not that way today. I wish to speak with Jasmine on the way." Jafar nodded his head. "As you wish."
Jasmine's door was up ahead. I knocked on it, calling for the umpteenth time that day, "Jasmine! Jasmine, dearest, please, unlock your door." I almost expected Sorrah to come out and tell me to go back to my chambers, but instead, it was as if there was nobody in the room at all, all but for the faint sniffle that I heard. Sighing, I pounded harder on the door. "Jasmine, you're not doing yourself any good locking me out."
I heard a click. The door swung open, and Jasmine stood there with her hair plastered to her face by tears. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she was still wearing the red attire that Jafar had made her wear. I suspected that she hadn't put energy into changing and looking more like the Princess that she was in a few days. "Jasmine, please, pull yourself together!" I said, exasperated like any mother would be.
Jasmine didn't answer. In fact, she looked like she was making every intention to push the door back open and step inside, turning the lock again. She did, but not before I forced myself inside first. It didn't occur to me that Jafar was still waiting outside, nor would it have mattered.
I sat Jasmine down on the bed and looked at her puffy but still wide and beautiful brown eyes. "Jasmine, you're my daughter, but a Princess nonetheless. You must behave like one, dearest." I put my hands on her shoulders when Jasmine tried to get up, seeming guilty about something. Another matter occurred to me then. "Sweetheart, where is Sorrah?" "She's, uh, Sorrah's gone, errr…" Jasmine trailed off and looked at me guiltily.
"You wouldn't have." I stood up and stood my daughter down. She might be in distress, but this was too much. "Mother, I have every right not to act like the stuffy Princess people expect me to be, at least for a few days. My true love has just betrayed me, I'll never see my best friend again, Jafar's going to weasel himself into marrying me, you'll make me do it, and I will spend my life being the cold Sultana that I want to be least."
I stared at Jasmine, never really truly understanding what went on in her head. Now that it was out in the open, I wasn't really closer to understanding it. At least I could help her with some of the troubles. "Jasmine, I am not going to make you marry Jafar." She looked at me in disbelief. "You say that now, to make me feel better. Just see, in another year, I will be sitting on the throne next to the biggest-"
Her statement was smoothly intercepted. Jafar had strode into the room, quite uninvited. He bowed low to me. "Quite sorry, if I, might I say, interrupted something," he said, staring straight at Jasmine and smirking.
Jasmine glared at him, but I chose to act as if nothing at all had happened. "Jafar, I'm sorry," I said politely, trying to act as regal as possible. "Jasmine, I will be back later," I said, and took Jafar's offered arm and stepped smartly out of her chambers. As soon as I left, I could hear broken sobs coming from within and wished that I had never left. However, the warm feeling of Jafar's arm distracted me. I felt my neck burning.
"Majesty? Is everything alright?" I glanced at Jafar, who didn't even look like he wanted an answer to his stiff question. I answered anyways, just to annoy him. "Yes, perfectly. My daughter's gone into depression, the peasants are going to start a revolt, and your insane parrot just pooed on my shoulder." I broke free from Jafar and attempted to wipe Iago's waste off of my shoulder as Jafar allowed the colorful bird to land on his arm.
Jafar raised an eyebrow at me. I could tell that he was trying very, VERY hard to keep a straight face. It was just the type of thing that Jafar's sick humor found funny. I stared down my nose at him with my most menacing, (and recently perfected) Sultana glare and swept off to my chambers, which thankfully, were just around the corner.
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The next morning, I woke up with the fancy sheets tangled all around me. I was cranky, disoriented, and probably had dragon breath as I stumbled, standing and allowing the room to stop spinning before taking a cautious step forward toward the washroom. The handmaiden rushed forward to help me, but I stopped her. "It's alright, I can do this," I muttered, both to her and to myself.
Just as I had made it to the reassuring frame of the bathroom door, bugle calls sounded outside loudly. I was so startled that I nearly fell over again. There was a knock at the door. With a questioning look at me, the handmaiden motioned to the door as if to open it. I nodded at her. The small girl pulled open the door to reveal Razoul, captain of the guard. "Your majesty," he said, saluting smartly.
I smiled. "Hello, Razoul. Is there anything you would like to report?" "Yes, Your Majesty," said the ramrod straight guard. He saluted again and bowed deeply to me. I tried to look more regal as I replied, "Well, what is it?" Razoul's face fell and he hesitated slightly before saying, "Er, the street rat that we exiled a few days ago is at the gates, m'lady. He's currently being held by two of my men. Should we stick to his original punishment?"
For a moment, I was so surprised that I couldn't answer. The street rat, he was back? I had clearly stated my dislike toward him, and his punishment if he was to return to palace grounds: on pain of death. I flashed back to that day, only a few days ago. He couldn't have forgotten something like that, it was impossible, unless he was daft somehow. That meant that he was here with a purpose…
"Well, show him into the royal entrance hall," I ordered Razoul. Razoul's eyes widened. "B-but, surely…" I roared at him, in no mood for arguing, "Do not question the orders of your Sultana! Now go!" Razoul bowed low and scurried out of the room, murmuring, "Right away, Majesty, right away." I smiled. Having power was pretty fun sometimes.
I summoned the handmaiden back, and she soon dressed me and fixed up my hair. I walked out of the room feeling quite refreshed and ready to greet the day, including the troubles that were sure to come with it. Sure enough, on his knees and held by two guards at the elbows, was the street rat, right in the middle of the grand entrance hall. I swept in, the cool air rustling my skirts. "So, I see that you have come back," I said, sinking into the soft cushioning of the throne.
What surprised me most was the garb that the street rat had clothed himself in: women's underwear, what looked like a tutu, and a sari. "Hmmm, I see that you have much to explain also," I added hastily. One of the guards pretended to sneeze, but it was a bad attempt. I knew that he was snorting. The street rat looked up at me sheepishly, red. "Er, I beg pardon, Your Majesty," he said shakily.
Sadly, I shook my head.
"I cannot make an exception to the rule: that who comes back after being exiled is on pain of death, not even for the almost-Sultan of Agrabah. I will not torture you: you will die quickly. Feel lucky, because my daughter still loves you. I will make sure that you know exactly how much pain and distress you caused: Jasmine won't leave her room, I am sad to see her like this, and Sorrah…" I saw a flicker in the boy's eyes. "She has run away into the city. If we find her, she will die," I concluded. Aladdin's eyes widened.
"Please," said the rat, whispering now. "My death wish is to see Jasmine, just one more time," he said. I saw no harm in that, so I replied, "Alright, but at sunset, you will die." With that, I dismissed him, guards and all.
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Back in my chambers, I was debating. Jasmine was sure to try and save the street rat's life, even at the cost of her own. He no longer loved her, but Jasmine remained ever loving toward him. I wondered how broken her heart would be when she saw him at her door, coming back to visit her. I shook my head to clear it of such thoughts. I could not worry about that. The law was the law, and I could not begin making exceptions to it whenever I favored somebody's feelings. The entire Kingdom would collapse if I did.
Instead, I found my mind wandering to a place that was the second-most thought that I didn't want to think about right now: Jafar. I heated up behind the ears again just thinking of Jafar's arm, looped right around my own. "You cannot marry," I reminded myself. "Now that Jasmine is the heir to the throne, and your husband is dead, I cannot marry again." Sighing, I laid back into the covers.
This wasn't right. It was my royal duty to execute Aladdin…and try to forget all thoughts of a certain Grand Vizier.
A/N: Please review! No, I have not received writer's block. It's just that I found a little trouble getting "inside" of the Sultana's character. I was aiming for regal, motherly, and trying to be good to her subjects, and please review to tell me if I did a horrible job or a good job at it, because I tried my best. I'm not sure who the next chapter's point of view will be from. However, I know that it will NOT be the Sultana's.