Gaia: Daughter of Aladdin

by Armitage, J. A.

  “I’ll go and find him. I’ll come back and let you know how we fared.”

  I found Jamal and Freya deep in discussion in the garden. They both looked up as I neared them, but it was Jamal that spoke.

  “The Sultana is asleep if you are looking for her. The magic came over her, making her forget what we were doing and gave her a migraine. I thought it best to let her sleep today and worry about opening the gates tomorrow. People are getting fractious again, but I think they can wait one more day.”

  “Actually, that’s a good thing. I have a job I need to do, and I was hoping you’d help me with it. Both of you.”

  Jamal raised an eyebrow as Freya stood up.

  “Anything. What do you want us to do?”

  I glanced at Jamal, who looked at me with a surly expression. Genie was right about him. He made a fine leader. If only he wasn’t so angry with me, then I’d feel a lot more comfortable.

  “I want to go find my father.”

  “Again?” Jamal inquired, his voice full of contempt.

  “My mother remembered him this morning.”

  Jamal stood. “She didn’t remember him. She merely didn’t want me sitting in his seat.”

  “Right,” I agreed, “but she couldn’t articulate why. There was no logical reason she didn’t want you sitting there. There was a spare chair and three of us standing. It would have made more sense for her to offer one of us the empty seat.”

  Jamal sighed. “I have enough things to deal with other than go on another wild goose chase around Kisbu. Why not ask Genie to take you since you two are now so cozy?”

  “Jamal!” Freya admonished.

  I hadn’t asked Genie, and he hadn’t offered, even though he wanted me to be safe. The reason was his chains. The second he left the palace with his chains on display, the people would see what he’d become again. Some of them wouldn’t remember him, but those that did would panic. They’d guess the truth, that The Vizier was back. It would set up a major panic throughout Kisbu and Badalah, making the situation even worse than it already was.

  “I’m asking for your help. I want to find him because he was a great leader. You are doing an amazing job of leading this kingdom, Jamal. I’ve watched how you’ve taken the reins without asking for anything, and you’ve done everything you needed to do. I have no doubt that this kingdom would have fallen apart these past few weeks without you being here, but I can see how tired you are. I have to deal with The Vizier, and my mother can’t help. If my father comes back to the palace and we can convince him to stay, maybe he and my mother will fall in love with each other again. Then you can rest.”

  Jamal didn’t move, but Freya took hold of his arm.

  “Come on. We can’t let Gaia go alone. It won’t be a wild goose chase. We know where he’s been sleeping. Besides, Gaia is right. You do need a rest. If Aladdin comes back, we can all have a little time to ourselves.”

  Jamal’s expression softened.

  “Fine.”

  We left the palace through the staff entrance and made our way across town to the old bell tower.

  The door at the base of the tower was partially open.

  “I’ll go,” Jamal said, stepping forward, but I held my hand out to stop him.

  “I’d rather go up alone.”

  Jamal looked like he was about to argue, but once again, Freya took his arm.

  “Let her go. He’s her father. He won’t hurt her.”

  Jamal didn’t look particularly happy about it, but I ran past him and up the stairs before he could think of a reason to stop me.

  Aladdin dropped the copy of The Badalah Beacon he was reading and made to jump out of the window the way he had before.

  “Please don’t!” I said. “I’m here to help you. You remember me? From the palace the other day? I’m Princess Gaia, daughter of Sultana Jawahir.”

  He nodded, and his demeanor relaxed. “I remember you. Why are you here?”

  “I’d like you to meet my mother.”

  His eyebrows shot up, and he backed up a little. His eyes darted to the window.

  “I’d like to take you to the palace and give you some clean clothes and a shave and then introduce you to the Sultana.”

  “Why? Why are you so interested in me? Why won’t you leave me alone?”

  “I only want to help you.”

  “I don’t need help.”

  I looked down at the clothes he was wearing. They were filthy and ripped. He was clean, but his clothes weren’t. They were the same clothes he’d left the palace in all those weeks ago.

  “If you won’t come to the palace, at least, let me buy you some food and a clean outfit.”

  He wavered then spoke. “You have food?”

  I didn’t. I’d not thought to bring any. “I don’t have food now, but I can bring you some tomorrow.”

  I looked out of the window at the palace. There was no way I was going to be able to get him to the palace without force, and I didn’t want to do that. I needed him to be comfortable when he met my mom for the first time...again. My eyes drifted down to a restaurant on the street. It had a sign saying closed like most of the other restaurants in town. Distribution problems due to the city gates being closed had forced most food businesses to shut. Well, I was going to open them, and I was going to make sure my father was there when I did.

  “Come to the window,” I said, beckoning him over. I pointed down to the restaurant that was rather aptly named The Sultan’s Shawarma. “Come to the restaurant tomorrow evening, and I’ll make sure you get fed.”

  He didn’t answer, but then I didn’t expect him to. He was wasting away, though, and the skin was loosening on his bones. He would come. If he’d come to the palace for free food, he’d go to a restaurant.

  Back at the palace, I ran straight up to my parents’ room and began to rifle through my father’s wardrobe. Pushing his ceremonial clothing to one side, I picked out a pair of simple pants and a shirt. I might not be able to get him to wear them, but I could try. I also found some shoes and bundled them all up into a bag, which I dropped off in my room. My next stop was to see my mother. She was having dinner alone in the dining room. She barely registered me as I took a seat next to her. Before I even spoke, I knew she wasn’t herself again. The building and fading of the magic exhausted me more than if my mother had lost her memory for good. It gave me hope then pulled it out from under me.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked my mother hesitantly as a member of staff brought me a plate of spicy chicken and couscous.

  She looked up from her food and stared right through me.

  “The headache gone?”

  “Mmmm,” she answered, going back to her food.

  My plan was starting to feel like a colossal waste of time. My father didn’t want to go anywhere, and my mother barely knew what day it was, let alone who my father was. All I could do was talk to her and hope she took some of it in.

  “I was thinking of taking you to the city gates tomorrow,” I began, taking a bite out of the chicken. “You promised that you’d instruct the guards to open them so that people in Kisbu can eat. I thought we could go down after breakfast and help deliver the food.”

  My mother played with her couscous, moving it around the plate with her fork and not taking a bite. With all the starving people in Kisbu, it pained me to see my mother voluntarily not eating.

  After dinner, I helped her to her room and got her ready for bed. She didn’t complain, but neither did she say anything else. She was compliant, letting me pull her nightdress over her head. Our roles were reversed. I was no longer the child. It broke my heart to see her like this. She gave me a small smile as I said goodnight to her, but when I returned it, she’d already closed her eyes for sleep.

  The pain I felt over my parents intensified and began to burn under my skin.

  Wherever The Vizier was, the magic was definitely intensifying. It made me wonder if he was in Badalah. He knew where I lived, and he’d made it pretty cl
ear to me that he blamed me for his previous downfall.

  I’d kept my wits about me while I was out in Kisbu earlier, and nothing had happened, but the pressure was building. I could feel the heat seeping out of my pores. Like a schoolboy around a hot girl, cold showers were fast becoming my best friend. I could release all the heat from my body and then cool down afterward. It was annoying, but it was also a necessity.

  As the night crept in, I wandered the palace toward Genie’s room. There was no point in hiding where I was sleeping. Half of the staff already knew, and the other half had forgotten who either Genie or I was. It made for interesting conversations with guards, who, most of the time, appeared bewildered.

  As I passed the open terrace, I glanced out to see Jamal and Freya together. They were just chatting quietly among themselves, but I sensed an intimacy between them I’d not seen before.

  I was surprised by the pang of jealousy that reared up within me. I was with the man I loved, and I’d never had true feelings for Jamal, but watching him with my best friend caught me off guard. It felt like I was being left out. It was my own fault, I knew that, but Jamal and Freya were the only two people in Kisbu who hadn’t lost parts of their minds.

  I pushed the feeling down and carried on walking to Genie’s room.

  I didn’t need any invitation to stay the night.

  4

  4th July

  Pain shot through my face as my nose hit the floor. The agony and shock of being hurled out of bed with such force caused my body to erupt, setting the covers on fire.

  “What’s happening?” I screamed, pulling myself to my feet. On the other side of the room, Genie stared at me as though I were a feral creature invading his room. With blood dripping down my face, I picked up a vase and threw the water, flowers, and all into the inferno that the bed had become. It barely made a dent in the flames.

  Genie recovered from his shock at finding a girl he didn’t know in his bed because that was what had happened. He’d forgotten me again. I saw it in his eyes as he grabbed the flaming covers and tossed the whole lot out of the window. We both watched from his terrace as the covers blazed, then finally settled to the ground in a blackened heap.

  “Why are you in my room?” he said, handing me a handkerchief to stem the bleeding.

  He wasn’t scared of me, even though he didn’t recognize me. His throwing me from the bed had been a reaction to the shock of waking to find a stranger in his bed.

  Sadness crept into my very soul. He’d forgotten me before, but I’d hoped that after we’d made love, his memory of me would be fixed. It seemed I was wrong.

  “You invited me into your bed.”

  He shook his head as though trying to find the memories trapped inside it.

  I kissed his cheek as tears fell down mine. “I’ll see you later.”

  His face showed a look of confusion that broke me to my core. Whatever this magic was or where it was coming from, I needed to stop it.

  I threw on a robe, left his room, and ran to my own in bare feet, feeling torn. I had two main problems to deal with. The cause of the magic, namely, The Vizier, and the effect of it, and the people of Kisbu going hungry. I’d been putting too much energy into the latter, thinking if my mother and father met again, the problems would solve themselves. The bigger issue was The Vizier, but I didn’t know how to deal with him. He’d not shown himself since attacking me in Urbis. I didn’t even know if he was still there or if he’d made it to Badalah. It certainly felt like he was closer, but there had been no sightings of him as far as I knew. I sat on my bed. Asher flew to my lap.

  “I’m sorry, Asher. I’ve not been a good friend lately, have I?”

  He gave me a whistle then, opened his wings, and took flight. I watched as he crossed the room and picked something up from the desk on which his perch rested before bringing it back over to me.

  He dropped the yellow envelope on my lap and flew out onto the terrace to stretch his wings.

  I turned the envelope over in my hands. The return address was stamped on the back. Urbis Central Archives. My heart rate increased as I remembered my request to Derek, the Junior Archivist, who had helped me at the archives. I’d asked him to send me information in a yellow envelope.

  With mounting excitement, I ran my finger under the wax seal, breaking it.

  Inside, wasn’t the birth certificate I’d hoped for, but a number of newspaper clippings and a handwritten note.

  I moved the clippings to one side and began to read.

  Your highness, I hope this letter finds you well. I’m afraid I haven’t found any more information out about your siblings, but I did notice something odd. I don’t know if it pertains to your particular query, but I think the top article will bring a smile to your face. Yours sincerely, Derek Waterton, Junior Archivist.

  I put the letter to one side and picked up the pile of newspaper clippings. As Derek had predicted, the first one did make me smile. It was an old copy of the Badalah Beacon dated January 14th of the year I was born, or possibly the year after if I was born in December.

  It was a photo of my mother and father looking so young. In my mother’s arms was a tiny baby. Me.

  The headline read ‘Royal family welcomes new arrival.’

  I read the article underneath. It mentioned I was a surprise to the people of Badalah and that I’d been adopted, but where from was very vague. I guessed that was because my parents had been deliberately vague when interviewed for the article. There were quotes from both my parents saying how delighted they were to have me and how much they loved me already.

  I set it aside with the intension of showing it to my mother later. If she saw it, she wouldn’t be able to deny that my father existed.

  I picked up the next one, surprised to see it wasn’t from the Beacon, but from the Draconian Sentinel. The article was remarkably similar to the one I’d just read except it was king and queen of Draconis, our neighboring kingdom, who were the ones smiling down at a small child. The article was almost word for word the same as the one I’d just read. It was as though Princess Azia Rose had just appeared at the Draconis castle one night. The article didn’t say that’s what had happened, but it also didn’t say where she’d come from. It didn’t take a big leap of faith to see why Derek had picked this article out for me. I lifted my eyes to the top of the page. The date read January 2nd, the same year as mine.

  I put it to one side and found a small clipping next. It wasn’t the front page like the others, so I couldn’t see which paper it came from, but I didn’t need to. It mentioned the king and queen of Floris. There was no mysterious adoption here, but a baby had been left on their doorstep, and they’d decided to take it in. It mentioned that the baby was a boy. I thought back to my knowledge of the royal family in Floris. They had one daughter, no sons. Princess Lilian if memory served. The name caught my attention. Before all this mess had started, I’d read something about Princess Lilian of Floris. I pulled out the stack of newspapers I’d hoarded when I first noticed something going on. I sifted through them until I found what I was looking for. A Copy of the Floris Buckle. I’d been tracking the blight that had overcome the flowers in their kingdom, coming seemingly from nowhere. The last copy I’d picked up had a wedding on the cover. Princess Lilian and the palace’s head gardener, Deon.

  I read the article with interest. I’d read so many articles from so many kingdoms that a lot of them had blurred together in my mind, but this one had stood out. The wedding had started out between Princess Lilian and Duke Remington, and she’d swapped suitors halfway through and married the gardener. It brought a smile to my face now, just as it had the first time I read it. What a scandal it must have been. And yet she looked so happy in the arms of Deon.

  I looked at the small scrap of paper that Derek had sent. The little boy that had been left on the king and queen’s doorstep. They’d named him Deon.

  My body was abuzz with so much excitement that I had to leave the flammable papers and walk
out to the terrace to let some of the excitement out in the form of flames from my fingers. I gave a phoenix call. Asher flew through the flames, weaving between them. The fire didn’t bother him at all. I pondered the information I’d found out. Was it possible that Azia and Deon were my brother and sister? I’d seen two babies born in the memory, but I’d walked in halfway through. The Vizier had said siblings. A thought occurred to me. I ran back inside and picked up the old copy of the Floris Buckle with the photo of Princess Lilian and Deon. I studied his eyes. It was hard to tell in a black and white photo, but was it possible that he had a golden ring around his iris too? I searched through the old newspapers until I came upon a copy of the Draconian Sentinel. One more recent than the one announcing Princess Azia’s adoption. I pulled one out of the stack and stared at the picture on the cover. It was a photo of Azia’s brother lying on the ground with his eyes closed. A man with long white hair leaned over him, and at the very edge of the photo, the princess Azia running into the shot. Her head was slightly to the side, so yet again, I couldn’t see her eyes. If only newspapers printed pictures in color and I could have my answer. I’d met some of the royals before. My parents often took me on their royal visits, but I’d never paid attention to the eye colors of the young princes and princesses. Why would I have? My own eyes always had the hint of gold around the iris, but it was only in times of high emotion or intense stress that it really shone out, almost lighting up.

  I looked at the remaining snippets cut from newspapers. These were birth announcements. One from Atlantice and one from Enchantia. Both from January, eighteen years ago. There was nothing in them about adoption, but it was a strange coincidence. Five kingdoms, each having a child either born to or adopted by the royals. I needed to find out about the other kingdoms, but first, I needed to sort out the more immediate problem.

  Folding the newspaper clippings up carefully, I put them with the huge stack of newspapers I’d already amassed, to look at them later. There was something that linked us all; I just wished I knew what it was. Something that went beyond our births. It was insane to think I might have four brothers and sisters out there, quintuplets. It wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility, but it was rare. If, of course, I was right. None of it made sense in my mind. I needed to mull it all over. Normally I’d do my best thinking bouncing ideas off Genie in his office, but I wasn’t in a hurry to venture back there today. Him not remembering who I was hurt more than I ever imagined it would. Instead, I was going to do what I’d set out to do before getting the letter from Derek.