princess-caspida

You understand why you must go through with this marriage.___ou say you couldn__ live with yourself if anything happened to Caspida. Yet you ask me to live with myself, knowing I sentenced you to this!_ He holds up the lamp. __hat__ the difference?__ look away angrily. __he difference is that this is my choice, Aladdin.___ell, it__ a stupid choice!__ stand up. __romise me you__l go through with it.__e shuts his eyes.__romise me! Please!__e opens his eyes then, and they are filled with pain. But he nods.__ have to hear you say it.___ promise.

This is Roshana, the last queen of the Amulen Empire, back when my people ruled all the lands from the east to the west. She is something of a legend among us. Every queen aspires to learn from her mistakes.___er mistakes? Surely you mean her victories.___hat?__ frown at her. __oshana was one of the greatest queens in the world. She ended the Mountain Wars, she routed Sanhezriyah the Mad, she____or a foreign serving girl, you are strangely well versed in Amulen history.___ spent a lot of time in libraries as a girl.___ere you there to dust the scrolls or read them?___urely Roshana__ victories outweigh her errors.___he higher you rise, the farther you fall. For all her wisdom, Roshana was fooled by the jinni, believing it was her friend, and then it destroyed her. Ever since that day, my people have hunted the jinn. There is no creature more vicious and untrustworthy.___his is not the story I heard,_ I say softly. __y people tell it differently. That the jinni truly was a friend to Roshana but was forced to turn against her. That she had no choice.___urely I know how my own ancestress died,_ returns the princess, a bit hotly. __nyway, it was a long time ago, but we Amulens do not forget.

For five hundred years my sisterhood has passed down a sacred vow,_ says Caspida coldly, __o destroy the one who destroyed our queen. You know this, and you speak these words only to deceive me as you deceived her. You would have me believe that you are capable of love.___elieve me when I say I wish that I were not!_ Angrily I round on her. __ do not tell you this for myself! Aladdin will die any moment, and the only way to save him is if you make a wish! Please, Caspida__hey will kill him at dawn!_ I point at the horizon, where the sun is minutes away from rising. __et me save him, I beg you!__ drop to my knees before her, doing what I never thought I could: grovel before a human. My pride unravels into smoke, carried away on the wind. Always I have thought myself above these mortals__, immortal, powerful, able to shift from this form to that. But I let all of that go now, and I beg as I have never begged before. __o what you like with me after that, but just let me save him!_ I dig my fingers into the earth, my eyes damp with tears. My voice falls to a cracked whisper. __lease.___hy?__ raise my face, finding her gaze unyielding. __ecause it was my idea. Him wishing to be made a prince. Courting you. Lying all these weeks. I manipulated him and used him, and now they will kill him for it.___hy would you lead him into the palace knowing that eventually the truth would come out and he would have to pay the price?___ecause . . ._ I grind my teeth together, wishing the earth would swallow me up. __ecause I was trying to win my freedom. Your people had captured the prince of the jinn__ardukha__ own son. The Shaitan sent me to free him, and in turn, he would free me from my lamp. If I failed, he planned to sink your city into the sea. I had to get into the palace. Aladdin was my only way in.___o you don__ deny that you__e a monster. You used him for your own ends.__ drop my head. __ know what I am. I know nothing can excuse what I did to Roshana, or to Aladdin, or to you. I__e wronged so many, and there is so much I wish I could take back. I can__ save Roshana. But please__ beg of you__et me save him.__aspida lowers to her knees and studies me. I meet her gaze, humbled utterly.__ou want me to believe that you love him,_ she whispers.__es._ The word is but a breath, a stir of air in my treacherous lungs. __e__e running out of time. I cannot reverse death or the hours. Time is the strongest magic, and no jinni__ot even the Shaitan__an rewrite the past. Once Aladdin is gone, he is gone. Let me save him, and I can help you win your city.

Tell me about your master.__ nod. __e is eighth in line to the throne, the son of____o, no,_ Caspida interrupts irritably. __ell me what he is like.___e is a gambler,_ I say. There is no point in lying about these things. __e is bold, but reckless. Brave, but impetuous. A man who . . . holds grudges._ Pausing, I finish in a whisper, __e would risk his life to save someone else, without even thinking twice.__aspida turns her head a bit, interest growing in her eyes. __nd he sets out on a mad voyage and sails straight into a nest of jinn.___y master is noble,_ I say with a smile, __ut I made no suggestions as to his intelligence.

When I saw you in the hall with Darian,_ he says at last, __ felt more angry than I__e felt in a long time. I was angry and . . . and afraid, that you wanted to be there, that you wanted him touching you. In that one look, I felt more than I__e ever felt with Caspida. Zahra, I think you__e right__ove isn__ a choice. If I could choose to love Caspida, maybe this would all be going differently, but I don__ think that__ possible. Not anymore.__ll the smoke inside me sinks as I stare at him. __hat are you saying?__e turns and meets my gaze squarely. As much I want to, I find it impossible to look away. The intensity of his copper gaze holds me entranced.__ think you know,_ he says softly. __r am I the only one who feels it?