Gaia
Daughter of Aladdin
J A Armitage
R Castro
Contents
Queen of the Sun
1. 17th June
2. 18th June
3. 19th June
4. 20th June
5. 21st June
6. 22nd June
7. 23rd June
Heiress of Shadows
1. 24th June
2. 25th June
3. 26th June
4. 27th June
5. 28th June
6. 29th June
7. 30th June
Throne of the Phoenix
1. 1st July
2. 2nd July
3. 3rd July
4. 4th July
5. 5th July
6. 6th July
7. 7th July
Goddess of Fire
1. 8th July
2. 9th July
3. 10th July
4. 11th July
5. 12th July
6. 13th July
7. 14th July
After the Happily Ever After…
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About J.A. Armitage
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Copyright © 2021 by J A Armitage
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Edited By Rose Lipscomb
Cover by Enchanted Quill Press
Proof Reader: Tina Merritt
Created with Vellum
Queen of the Sun
1
17th June
The man didn’t know who he was dealing with. He obviously didn’t know I was the princess. I’d hidden my face and hair well with my shawl. I guessed he also didn’t know that I wasn’t going to stand for being stolen from by a common thief. The light of the crescent moon was just enough for me to see which direction he’d taken after he’d so rudely pulled my bracelet from my wrist. I took off after him, chasing him down the empty streets. Streets I knew, well thanks to my nightly walks through the city.
The thief ran through the empty bazaar, twisting this way and that through the narrow alleys of covered spice stalls. He came to a stop ahead, and I could see he was debating his next move. If he turned left, he would get away. He was quicker than me, and his clothes were much better suited to running than mine. He turned right, exactly where I wanted him to go. I followed, quickly ending up in a dead-end. I could almost feel the panic rolling off of him as he realized he was cornered, but when he turned around and saw I was only a girl, well, his panic shifted into bravado. Big mistake! This “only a girl” was going to kick his butt!
“Come back to give me that pretty necklace of yours?” he sneered. “It will go nicely with the bracelet.”
I didn’t move. I didn’t need to. I knew thieves well. Some stole to put food on their tables. Over the years, this type of crime had fallen greatly, thanks to my parents’ generosity and many policies to help the homeless and hungry. Some thieves, like this one, stole for the sheer greed of it
“Come and get it,” I asserted. These kinds of thieves were cowards above all else, stealing from those they thought were weaker. This guy was no different.
He hesitated a little, but then moved forward, puffing his chest out and spreading his arms wide.
I held my breath and waited as he walked toward me. His confidence was now in full throttle. It would be his downfall. I slowly pulled my shawl lower. One look at my eyes, even in the dim light of the moon, would give me away as the princess.
When he was two steps away, his hand already outstretched to grab my necklace, I pulled a knife from my belt and pushed him against the nearest wall. Holding the knife to his throat, I pulled his bag from his shoulder.
“Heavy! I guess I’m not your first victim tonight.”
His eyes widened, surprised, no doubt that he’d found himself in such a situation, but then they narrowed to mean slits as I took his bag of loot.
The bag jangled as I slipped it over my own shoulder. “I’m taking my bracelet, but I think I’ll take the rest too. The Kisbu police would probably like to take a look at what’s inside.” I pushed the knife further so it marked his skin. “If you are foolish enough to have identification in this bag, I’ll keep it to myself, but if I so much as hear that anyone else has been pick-pocketed by an ugly balding man on these streets, I’ll make sure the police get that too. Do you comprehend?”
He wasn’t so tough now. He nodded quickly, and when I let him go, he took off into the darkness.
As I headed back through the streets of Kisbu, I pondered my evening. It hadn’t been the first like this, and no doubt, it wouldn’t be the last. That’s why I’d taken to carrying a knife around with me. The beautiful city was just outside of the harsh desert in my parent’s kingdom of Badalah, and it was an imperfect kingdom. A kingdom that had become infinitely better since the reign of my father, Aladdin, but still had a way to go.
Once a month, my mother, the Sultana Jawahir hosted a huge feast in the gardens of the palace to which the people of the city of Kisbu were all invited. Sometimes thousands of the hungriest families turned up. For many of them, it was the only decent meal they would eat that month. My parents had also opened up many trade routes throughout Badalah, bringing in much-needed food from the other kingdoms. As our land was mostly barren, we imported the majority of our food in exchange for the spices and coffee that did thrive in our hot climate. It was fair to say that my parents had turned Badalah into a kingdom that any person would be proud to live in. We were thriving, or at least we had been until a few months ago. Something had changed. Our feasts were more popular than ever as the people of Kisbu were struggling more and more. At the last one, for the first time ever, we ran out of food before we were able to feed everyone. Thieves like the one tonight were growing ife.
There was definitely a change in the atmosphere, something that no one but me seemed to have noticed, so I’d taken to walking through the streets of Kisbu at night to try to find clues as to what. So far, I’d come up empty.
Giving it up as a bad job, I headed back to the palace, pulling my shawl further over my head so as not to be spotted. Going out alone was not only forbidden, it could be dangerous. Tonight, the thief ran. I might not always be so lucky. I was the princess and heir to the Badalah throne, not some kind of street vigilante. After sneaking through the back gate and running along a hidden pathway through the palace grounds, I climbed the vines outside my window and stepped onto my private terrace, smoothing my clothes as I walked. My Phoenix watched me attentively from his perch on a potted fig tree.
I moved closer to pet my gorgeous majestic bird, catching a glimpse of the gold rings around my hazel eyes in the reflection of his.
“Oh, come on, Asher.” I said, firmly stroking the bright red feathers on his back, watching as he closed his eyes. “You know how I hate being cooped up in here. How would you like it if you couldn’t stretch your wings every night? You’d be pretty upset, I would imagine.”
Asher gave my finger an affectionate nip and tucked his head under his wing to sleep.
My bed had already been turned down. The chambermaids had made it up, expecting that I’d go to sleep earlier. I chuckled, wondering if they knew I rarely climbed into bed until after midnight.
After pulling my bracelet from the thief’s bag and placing it back on my wrist, I looked through the bag to see what else he’d stolen. As I expected, there were a number of purses and
some jewelry. I’d give the bag to one of the more discrete guards the next day to take to the police. I pulled the bed sheet half over me and quickly fell into a peaceful slumber until I was awakened by my squawking Phoenix the following morning.
“What in Badalah, Asher? What could possibly possess you…” I stopped, following his line of vision. “Mother!” I said with a startle, pulling myself up in bed. “What are you doing here so early?”
Sultana Jawahir smiled. “You, my dear, need to get moving. Your father received word late last night that a very important Sheik, his son, and his envoy are traveling here. They should be arriving in the early afternoon,” she said as she disappeared into my closet. That was my cue to jump out of bed. The last thing I wanted was for my mom to pick out my outfit, even less did I want her to find the thief’s bag of stolen goods I’d stashed there last night.
“Why does that matter to me? I’m sure you and father will host an elaborate dinner in the guests’ honor.” The comment came out more contentious than I’d wanted. My parents did their best to help the less fortunate, but as Kisbu was growing at a faster rate than we had jobs available, the wealthier families of the kingdom were taking advantage of the situation and paying their help barely enough to keep a roof over their heads.
I lowered my eyes, “I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated, that’s all.”
“Is everything all right, Gaia?” My mother asked, looking at me through eyes that were nothing like mine. Like most of the people in Badalah, her eyes were a deep brown. As an adopted child, I looked nothing like most of the people in Badalah, and my golden ringed irises were what set me apart more than anything else.
Sultana Jawahir was beautiful by all standards, and even though I might not be blood-related to her, I saw a lot of me in her.
I smiled, “Yes, I’m fine. I probably didn’t get enough sleep. I’ll pick something nice to wear.”
“Very well,” my mother nodded. “I’ll leave you to find an outfit. Breakfast will be brought to you shortly.” She turned to leave.
“Please make sure the papers…”
“We all know!” She hollered back at me with a chuckle.
The newspapers of all the kingdoms were my morning reading material. I’d been getting them since I’d started reading at the age of two. Knowing what was going on in the other kingdoms was important to diplomatic affairs, and as the heir to the Badalah throne, it was my duty to keep up to date. The Badalah Beacon kept me abreast of things in my own kingdom; the others gave me a worldview.
I picked a suitable dress from the closet. The wrap-front attached with straps, giving way to three tiers of long layers of sheer fabric while soft ruffles adorned the neckline. I pulled my hair into a smart ponytail and grabbed a pair of heart-shaped earrings that would go well with the dress.
A knock at the door alerted me to my chambermaid’s arrival. She quickly moved toward my side table, placing a tray down with a thick pile of papers folded upon it.
“Thank you, Freya.”
“Princess Gaia, good morning. Your mother asked me to draw a bath for you. I’ll add the rose oils if you don’t mind?”
“The rose oils? Why, whatever for? Those are for special occasions, or for when my parents are presenting a possible suitor.”
No sooner had those words left my mouth when I realized exactly what was happening.
I looked Freya straight in the eyes. “Are they presenting a suitor?”
Freya quivered, “I do not know, Your Highness.”
I sighed. The sheik and his son. I should have known. My mother wouldn’t expect me to meet them if she didn’t have an ulterior motive. My parents didn’t expect me to marry someone they picked out for me. I was free to marry who I wanted, but the problem was, at least in my mother’s eyes, that I didn’t want to get married at all. In fact, her pushing me to get a boyfriend was more of an attempt to get me out of Genie’s library and to socialize like any normal eighteen-year-old. Pointing out that I wasn’t a normal eighteen-year-old did nothing to sway her.
It hadn’t always been like this. In fact, my parents had always made it quite clear that they wanted me to carve my own path, but just like the kingdom, something had changed with them. In the past few weeks, they’d been paying more attention to the hundreds of marriage proposals I received daily. Three weeks ago, they started bringing potential suitors to the palace to meet me. All unofficial, according to my mother, but the sudden change disconcerted me. I’d not changed, and neither had my opinion on the subject.
I sat down to enjoy my fruit and tea and start reading my newspapers while Freya ran the bath.
The newspapers only added to the general feeling of unease that had been burdening me for months. It seemed that one by one, all the kingdoms were experiencing problems. Not just small problems either—threats of war, kidnappings, magical abnormalities. When I’d brought it up with my parents, they had dismissed me, saying that Badalah was fine. And, apart from the poverty becoming more obvious and the petty thieving, it was fine. We were still a great nation, but it was as if something was coming, something that I couldn’t foresee and something that I couldn’t put a stop to.
I pushed the papers aside and stepped into my bath to ruminate over everything I’d read. Nothing particular had happened overnight, but the Queen of Atlantice was still a mermaid, and the Queen of our neighboring kingdom Draconis, was still asleep. It had been months now, and they were no closer to finding out why. Every single morning, the news agitated me, and every morning, I let it sit like undigested food in my stomach. I needed to speak to my father about it again.
“Gaia, my dear child. I think you are reading a bit too much into all of this,” my father, Aladdin, said when I brought it up later.
He paced around his office, one arm behind his back as was his way. He was a good looking man and youthful for his age with only a touch of grey in his black hair, and as he spoke, he gesticulated with his free hand, a habit I’d always known him to have. He ran the kingdom of Badalah with exuberance rather than training.
But despite his words, I wasn’t about to be silenced over something that I truly felt was off-kilter. “So, you are saying I’m overreacting?”
He let out a boisterous laugh. “Well, since you’ve put it that way. Yes. Yes, I do believe you are overreacting. Look, you are of age now. You’re a beautiful young lady and extremely intelligent, sometimes to a fault. Regardless of what you’ve read, you should be exploring other things in life right now. Not occupying yourself with matters that simply don’t concern you.”
His words rubbed me wrong. “Let me get this straight. You’d rather I busy myself with shopping and fawning over boys? Spending my time on useless pastimes, which are of no benefit or interest to me?” I put my hands on my hips. “Explain to me exactly how that’s supposed to prepare me for my role as the future sultana of this kingdom?”
“Gaia...”
“You’ve seen the papers,” I interrupted him, pointing to today’s stack of papers. “Something is wrong. It’s happening all over, and I can feel it here.”
I didn’t mention the sudden increase in crime I’d noticed and the need to carry a knife with me when I left the palace. I didn’t think he’d take kindly to me roaming the streets after dark. Only Asher knew about that, and that was how I wanted it to stay. Once upon a time, I would have told my father. He’d grown up on the streets himself after all, but he’d changed recently. Up until a few months ago, he encouraged my learning and inquisitiveness. Now he dismissed everything I said.
“I don’t know what you want me to do, Gaia. I’ve read the papers, and I continue to monitor them daily. So some of the other kingdoms are facing difficulties. It happens.”
“But that’s just it,” I continued. “It’s not just difficulties. The problems all seem to be magical in nature.”
“Well then, we don’t have a problem here. There’s been little to no magic in Badalah since The Vizier was overthrown, and the genie became human. All of
that happened before you were born. I really see no cause for concern.”
“What about Elder?”
My father shrugged his shoulders. “What about Elder?”
“They don’t have much magic either, but they are struggling with a curse.”
“I don’t know where you’ve heard that nonsense, but it’s not a curse. It’s an illness, a plague even, but it only affects wolves. I believe the Red has it all in hand. I spoke to her advisors recently.”
I groaned in frustration. My father had done well because of his optimistic attitude, but in times like this, it didn’t help matters. Elder didn’t have a newspaper. It was the advisors that I’d heard the news from too. I’d been listening at the door when they visited my father. He had taken the news in his stride, but there was something about it that had struck me. I had a feeling that the people from Elder were playing the problems they were having down a little...or a lot.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that the kingdoms are all having difficulties this year? I can’t remember there ever being problems like this in any of the kingdoms before now.”
“It’s coincidental, yes, but things can’t always be perfect. I think some of the kingdoms were due a bit of bad luck, to be honest. We’ve had peace throughout all the kingdoms for years.”
“Bad luck?” I huffed. “You think this is all bad luck?”
Gaia: Daughter of Aladdin Page 1
