EIGHTEEN
Aladdin didn't bother to greet his mother when she returned. "What did the Sultan say?" he asked eagerly.
Maman set her cloth-wrapped bundle down. "The Sultan said the princess is to marry the Vizier's son, and he is building a magnificent palace for her. You are too late, my son. I told you she would only bring hurt and heartbreak."
A magnificent palace...where had Aladdin heard those words before? Not from his mother, surely.
It wasn't until he sat down to the noon meal with his mother, the remains of the royal repast the djinn had brought for them the previous night, that he remembered it was the djinn who'd mentioned palaces. And how he could build them.
"Maman, I need you to go back to court, and speak to the Sultan."
She stared at him. "Did you not hear what I said?
