Chapter 5: The Deal

Back at the palace, Jasira opened the secret passage, looking to see if everything is clear. As she step out and wait for Desdemona, Jamal suddenly entered the room.

"Jasira!" He yelled as he stomped towards her.

"Oh, Prince Jamal." Jasira said, slamming the door shut at Desdemona.

"Hey!" Desdemona cried.

"How may I be of service to you?" Jasira asked as she bows to the prince.

"The guards just took a girl from the market! On your orders!"

"Your mother has charged me with keeping peace in Agrabah. The girl was a criminal." Jasira declared.

"What was her crime?" Jamal questioned.

"Why, holding the prince hostage, of course." Jasira lied.

"She didn't hold me hostage, I ran away!"

Jasira then put on a look of shock. "Oh, dear! Oh, how frightfully upsetting! Had but I known..."

"What do you mean?" Jamal asked, confused by Jasira's words.

"Sadly, the girl's sentence has already been carried out."

"What sentence?" Jamal asked with worry.

"Death..." Jasira said, in a sinister tone. Jamal gasped in horror. "By beheading."

"No..." Jamal is in a state of shock. He suddenly had a horrible thought of the poor girl begging for her life as she's about to lose her head.

"I am exceedingly sorry, my Prince." Jasira feigned guilt, as she walked behind him and placed a hand over his shoulder. "I only did what I thought was right."

Jamal then turned to Jasira, with a threatening glare. "You'll pay for this." he warned, before marching out of the room.

Behind Jasira, Desdemona shrugged through the secret door and flew on top of Jasira's shoulder, taking deep breaths. "So, how did it go?" she asked.

"I think he took it... rather well." Jasira answered with a smirk, which Desdemona shared as well.

At the courtyard at night, Jamal sat by the fountain, with his head on his knees. All he could think about is that last moment where she found out he was a prince in the worst possible way. He can't help but suddenly imagine the poor girl being dragged to the gallows as she cries and pleads for mercy, having a sack placed over her head as she waits for the blow to her neck. Probably praying for her prince to rescue her, but never came.

Raya walked up to Jamal with a look of concern on her face.

Jamal looked up at his tiger, allowing her to see the sadness in his eyes. "It's all my fault, Raya. I didn't even know her name." Raya gives Jamal a hug so he can let it all out.

Unbeknownst to the devastated prince, Aaliyah wasn't beheaded. She's indeed imprisoned in the dungeon. The pale light of the moon shined onto her from one of the barred windows. Rats scurried throug the sandy floor.

The street rat was shackled to a wall in the palace dungeon. It was a cold, dark tower, with solid stone walls to keep its prisoners inside. It was grimy, dank, and cold with other shackles on the bleak stone walls. The only light came from a single barred window, which was so high on the stony wall that even the tallest man could not have reached it. The walls beneath it were scratched and worn from constant attempts to scale it, but the iron bars that were still in place indicated that none had succeeded. Pale moonlight shone through the window, casting the depressing shadows of its bars across the dungeon.

Alone at the base of the tower, Aaliyah is locked in a sitting position on the cold stone floor, as her hands had been yanked up above her head and shackled there. She's struggling to get out. However, after some struggling, she stopped and just sighed.

Her eyes then drift to two large objects wrapped in cloth, though one is smaller than the other. She could only cry. When she was first dragged here, she noticed two bodies lying on the floor, without their heads. That's because their heads were placed between their legs. To her complete horror, they were both female. One was an elderly woman, and the other was a child. The expression on the child's face, unseeing eyes starting back, will continue to haunt her dreams. However long that may be, as she feels this will be her fate as well. She prays to Allah for their souls to find peace.

She was also thinking about the boy she met a while ago, whom she thought she could fall in love with, is actually the Prince of Agrabah.

"He was the prince. I can't believe it." she said to herself, "I must have sounded STUPID to him!"

"Yo-ho, Aaliyah!" Aaliyah suddenly heard Aba calling her. She looked up and see Aba from the window waving her paw.

"Aba, down here!" Aba climbed down to Aaliyah. "Come on, help me out of these."

But Aba started screeching angrily at her, and then started imitating Jamal. "Ah, phooey!"

Aaliyah shrugged. "Hey, he was in trouble. But he was worth it." she sighed.

"Yeah, yeah." Aba muttered, getting a long skinny piece of metal out of her pocket to pick Aaliyah's locks.

"Don't worry Aba, I'll never see him again. I'm a street rat, remember? And there's a law... He's gotta marry a princess. He deserves a princess..." Aaliyah said sadly. Her hands are now free, and she rubs away the soreness. "I'm a fool."

"You're only a fool if you give up, girl."

Aaliyah and Aba turned to look at a corner of the dungeon, where a creepy-looking old woman with a hunched back sat on the ground. She wears a tattered brown robe and shawl, and brown sandals.

"Who are you?" Aaliyah asked her.

"A lonely prisoner, like yourself." The woman replied. "But together, perhaps we can be more."

"I'm listening." Aaliyah said hesitatingly.

"There is a cave, girl... a Cave of Wonders, filled with treasures beyond your wildest dreams." The woman said, showing Aaliyah and Aba a handful of rubies.

The two were mesmerized.

The woman snatched the rubies back. "Treasure enough to impress even your prince, I'd wager." she said, turning away from them.

Aaliyah and Aba didn't see or hear Desdemona popping her head out of the woman's cloak. "Jasira, hurry it up. I'm dying in here."

The disguised Jasira elbowed Desdemona back into the cloak as Aaliyah started speaking. "But the law says that only a princess can-"

"You've heard of the golden rule, haven't you?" Jasira asked, cutting Aaliyah off. "Whoever has the gold makes the rules."

"So. Why would you share all of this wonderful treasure with me?" Aaliyah asked as she stands up.

"You look more agile than I am to go in after it."

"One problem... it's out there, we're in here?"

Jasira shook her head. "Things aren't always what they seem." She pushed lightly against a stone and slide it away, revealing a hidden staircase. She then held her hand out to Aaliyah. "So, do we have a deal?" She asked.