Twenty-Five

 

Even in his lamp, Amani heard the name of Briska's daughter, Maram. He pressed his ear to the spout and tried to listen harder. How could this peasant boy know Princess Maram?

At first, Amani wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. It appeared his new master – Aladdin, his name was – had chanced to meet the princess in a bathhouse, and he'd fallen in love with the girl, much as Amani had fallen for her mother. Unlike Amani, though, Aladdin planned to marry the girl.

The Sultan would never let his precious daughter marry some starving peasant boy. Amani owed it to Briska's memory not to let the girl fall into the wrong hands. Yet as he listened...it seemed the boy truly loved Maram. Whether Maram felt the same was another matter, though.

So much for asking for riches. The boy was about to ask for a love spell, and Amani had never been so happy at his own shortcomings. Even if he could cast such a thing, he could not cast one on Maram.

Amani emerged from the lamp, pre-empting the summons from Aladdin. He took a deep breath, ready to refuse the boy's command so firmly he never asked again.

Aladdin met Amani's gaze squarely, and asked for a palace.

Amani suppressed a snort. If it wasn't love spells, it was riches, always.

But as Aladdin detailed what were quite modest requirements, as far as palaces go, it dawned on Amani that he wanted the palace for Maram, and Maram alone, for Maram was marrying someone else.

Amani stared at Aladdin in wonder. How could he be so calm, knowing the woman he adored would be another man's wife? What kind of man wasn't willing to fight for the woman he loved?

Amani hadn't stood by idly. No, he'd fought for her love and won it and...

...landed himself in his current predicament.

Perhaps there were better ways to go about winning a woman's heart, and her hand. For Maram was not married yet. And Amani owed it to Briska to see her daughter happy in marriage, as Briska herself had never been.

Amani bowed low before departing. He would build Maram a palace better than anything the Sultan had ever seen, and he would do everything in his power to find out where the girl's desires lay, and see that she had the husband her heart wished for. Whether it was the man she was going to marry or Aladdin or some foreign prince, it mattered not. He would grant the girl this one wish, for her late mother's sake. For she did not deserve her mother's unhappy fate.