Disney's Aladdin:
The Bride of Mozenrath
By Jill Weber
Part 3 of 4
Characters (c) by Walt Disney Corp.


The next morning, it was Mozenrath's turn to wake up to a nightmare. He 
walked into his dining hall and stopped dead in his tracks. Xerxes 
twisted desperately to avoid him and wound up gaping so much that he 
ran into a pillar.

The dining hall was a lot cleaner than the last time he'd been in it. 
The walls had gone from off black to almost dove gray. The cobwebs were 
gone, the furniture sparkled and the floor looked clean enough to eat 
from. That was what he had wanted, his problem was with the table, 
which now sported silver candlesticks and the silver vase of almost 
fresh roses (from Jasmine's room). Even worse was the fresh hole in the 
wall surrounded by frilly curtains (from the bed in Jasmine's room).

The Mamluks were busy knocking another hole in the wall. Mozenrath 
opened his mouth to bark an order when he took a good look at his 
Mamluks. His words died in his throat, leaving his jaw dangling in a 
very un-wizardly fashion.

The Mamluks were wearing dresses. Not just any dresses, mind, but fancy 
silk dresses with lots of lace, frills and other frou-frou... plus 
elbow length gloves. The dresses had been slit up the side seems to 
make them fit, showing the rags underneath and making the whole picture 
even more incongruous. Much the same effect could be achieved by 
spreading sugar icing over dung.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!" Mozenrath bellowed.

Jasmine, now dressed in her usual sea-green outfit, hurried out from 
somewhere. "I'm making things pretty, as you ordered, My Lord."

Mozenrath stalked forward, ripping frills off his Mamluks as he passed 
them. "I did NOT order 'pretty'!" he snarled. "I ordered 'CLEAN'!" He 
looked around. "And I DEFINITELY didn't order a HOLE in MY WALL!"

Jasmine blinked back tears. (Easy to produce with all the cleaning 
vapors in the air.) "But My Lord. How can I clean up if the Mamluks 
keep dripping Mamluk parts all over everything? The dresses are ONLY 
until I have proper uniforms made!" She wiped the bridge of her nose 
with the back of her hand. "Meanwhile, don't they look cute?"

Mozenrath snarled at her. "CUTE?!? Mamluks aren't supposed to look 
CUTE!" he raged. He ripped the curtains down. "And I DON'T NEED 
WINDOWS! They compromise my security and they let in too much light!" 
He points his gauntlet. A bolt of blue black flame leaped out of his 
hand, closing up the wall and turning the curtains into ashes.

"YOU are not in charge here!" he bellowed at Jasmine. "I am the master 
of everything here!"

Jasmine gritted her teeth to keep from yelling back. She'd been unable 
to sleep; even knowing that Mozenrath had no designs on her body. Being 
this helpless had kept her from doing more than catnap in a chair. 
She'd amused herself by having the Mamluks clean and trying to figure 
out how to destroy that gossipy mirror.
The Mamluks refused to touch it and wouldn't let her touch it either. 
This was the only thing they had refused orders about. She needed to 
destroy that mirror, but she also needed to keep up her pretense. She 
managed to turn her snarl into a whine. "I thought you liked me!" That 
was a BIG mistake.

Mozenrath turned to look at the chair where Jasmine had been sitting. 
"No, YOU are the one who drank the love..." he stopped in mid-word.
Jasmine followed his eyes and hissed. During the night, the potted 
plant she'd dumped the tea in had twined ardently around the post. 
She'd missed that in the dark, or she would have destroyed the plant.

Mozenrath swung back to look at her, fury in his eyes. "You DIDN'T 
drink that potion! You've been FAKING!" He advanced menacingly. "Did 
you think you could make a FOOL of me!"

Jasmine snarled back. "I'm about twenty years too late for THAT!"

Mozenrath snarled and blasted at her with his gauntlet. Jasmine dodged 
behind a slow moving Mamluk. The bolt hit the Mamluk, scattering silk 
and less mentionable remains around the room.

"Is that the best you can do? Make a mess? And on your nice, clean 
floor, too!" Jasmine jeered.

Mozenrath laughed. "And here you cleaned my Citadel for me, Princess. 
How SWEET of you to work so hard." He blasted at her and she dodged 
behind another slow moving Mamluk.
"ME? Work for YOU?" she laughed, dodging Mamluk segments. "All I did 
was delegate." She snatched up a Mamluk arm and threw it at Mozenrath. 
By then, even the slowest of the remaining Mamluks had fled the room. 
Jasmine dodged behind a pillar, which Mozenrath promptly blasted.

Jasmine scooted from pillar to post, throwing Mamluk fragments at 
Mozenrath to keep him off balance. She managed to stay one jump ahead 
of Mozenrath's blasts. When she came to the entwined pillar, Mozenrath 
blasted it, and the plant, to splinters.

Jasmine ducked and covered her head to avoid the blast and the 
splinters. "Serves you right, tattletale," Jasmine muttered to the 
plant remains. She dove toward the table, grabbing a silver candlestick 
as she passed it.

"Amateur!" she hooted, spinning around to throw the candlestick. "You 
couldn't hit a sand dune you were standing on!"

Mozenrath blasted at her again. Instinctively Jasmine parried with the 
candlestick. The bolt was deflected, but the force ripped the 
candlestick out of her hand.

Jasmine stooped under the table. Mozenrath blasted at it, splintering 
the chairs on his side. Jasmine slipped out the other side. She stood 
up and grabbed the silver vase. Mozenrath blasted at her once again. 
She held up the vase and deflected the blast. This time she was ready 
for the shock. She deflected a second shot as she ducked behind chairs. 
She managed to retain her hold of her pathetic weapon even though the 
metal heated rapidly.
Mozenrath destroyed all the dining room chairs, but Jasmine managed to 
deflect any blasts that she couldn't avoid. Gracefully, the princess 
danced around the table, then almost fell when her left foot suddenly 
stopped moving. She looked down. A severed Mamluk hand had grasped her 
ankle. The Mamluk parts she had strewn around were creeping toward her 
like something from one of Genie's elaborately illustrated campfire 
stories.

Mozenrath smiled and lowered his gauntlet. "Looks like you've LOST, 
Little Princess."

Desperately, Jasmine swung the heavy vase and released it. Mozenrath 
laughed when the vase didn't even come in his direction. "Your aim..." 
he started to sneer.

His gloat was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. He jerked 
around in the direction of the noise to see the remains of his 
hideously expensive magic mirror crashing to the ground amidst sparks 
and small explosions.

Mozenrath turned his attention back to Jasmine, who was now wrapped in 
Mamluk parts like some bizarre mummy. "That's seven years bad luck, 
Little Princess," he snarled, pulling back his gauntlet and firing it 
up. "Starting NOW!"

"SA-LEEN!" yelled Aladdin. He squinted over the waves at the first rays 
of the rising sun.

"This is a BAD idea!" screeched Iago, flapping his salt-laden wings. 
"This is the WORST idea you have EVER come up with, and THAT'S saying 
something!"

"You're right," rasped Aladdin tiredly. His eyes felt grainy and his 
vocal cords felt like he'd been eating live coals. "If you have a 
better idea, don't be shy."

Abu snickered.

"Oh, shut up, furball," snarled Iago. Then, sounding more like Aladdin 
than Aladdin did at the moment, he bellowed: "SAAA-LLLLEEEEEEEEEEN!"

They'd been searching along the coast for Saleen all night. They had 
even tried the island where Saleen had turned Aladdin into a shark. Now 
they were back in the area where Jasmine had first met the mermaid.

Aladdin was tired, but the thought of sleep had been kept from his mind 
by his fear for Jasmine. Aladdin, Iago and Abu were kneeling on Carpet, 
watching the waves for any sign of the water elemental. Aladdin was 
'dressed up' for his interview, wearing jade green pants and shirt with 
a forest green vest, turban and cloak. A gold earring dangled from his 
left ear lobe.

A small door appeared in the earring and Genie, wearing a yellow 
sou'wester peeked out. "No sign of the target on Sonar, Cap'n!" he 
reported with a salute.

"Keep looking, Genie," Aladdin rasped. "We've got to find her." He 
leaned over Carpet's hem. "SA-LLEEEEN! We want to talk to you!"

"I forget, do we have a plan 'B'?" Iago inquired snidely. He flapped 
his wings in a futile effort to dry them.

Genie pulled a beehive out of his pocket and held it up. A stream of 
honeybees swarmed out and dumped honey all over Iago.

"Will you QUIT?!" howled Iago, spattering honey all over his 
colleagues. 

Abu began scraping honey off Carpet and eating it. "I mean, if this 
cockamamie scheme doesn't produce results, we gotta come up with 
something else. I don't WANT another princess. I just got THIS one 
broken in!" 
"We'd better start thinking of another plan," Aladdin admitted. "This 
looks like a bust. We'll try until the sun's up, then head back for 
Mozenrath's place for a showdown. For now, Genie, go back inside. I 
don't want her to see you."

Genie slammed the door shut and the outline of the door 'zipped' out of 
sight.
"Lower, Carpet," Aladdin instructed. "As low as you dare." Reluctantly, 
Carpet, inched closer to the waves. "SA-LEEN!" bellowed Aladdin as 
loudly as his raw throat would allow. Aladdin leaned even farther over 
Carpet's hem. "SA--"

A wave curled over Carpet's edge and yanked Aladdin underwater. 
Instinctively, Iago launched himself from Carpet, only to be brought 
down by a combination of salt and honey.

"We have a winner," he muttered. "If you can call this winning."    
The inside of the earring was spacious, at least for the shrunken 
Genie. The ceiling was vaulted; a crystal chandelier hung from the 
center. One wall was lined with pictures of Aladdin and Jasmine; one 
was covered with pictures of Abu and Iago (the Iago dartboard was taken 
at an especially flattering angle.) The third wall had a life sized, 
autographed portrait of Genie's girlfriend, Eden, the green skinned 
genie of the bottle.

The fourth wall had an entertainment center, complete with big screen 
television, VCR and stack of videotapes, including Aladdin, Return of 
Jafar, Jasmine's Enchanted Tales, Little Mermaid and Jaws. Genie was 
sitting in a bean bag chair, ignoring the popcorn popper that was 
spewing popcorn all over his Mickey Mouse hooked rug. He was chewing 
his nails nervously (and with typewriter sound effects) as he watched 
developments. He could intervene at any time, but picking the wrong 
time would mean curtains for Aladdin and Jasmine.
On his screen, he could see Aladdin spinning helplessly as he was 
dragged under water. Aladdin's left arm was pinned to his side by 
Armand, Saleen's sidekick. The octopus wrapped six arms around Aladdin 
and started to squeeze. Saleen swam around them, laughing and flicking 
her spiky fish tail. Everything had a greenish hue, except for Aladdin, 
who was turning blue.

Saleen clapped her hands. "So, decided you couldn't live without me, 
did you, handsome?" she gloated. "What's the matter? Catfish got your 
tongue?"

Aladdin lifted his free hand to his throat and rolled his eyes. Genie 
pulled on an aqualung and prepared to jump in, in spite of possible 
consequences.

Then Saleen relented. "Guess if I want answers, I ought to let you 
catch your breath... at least long enough to speak. And this had better 
be good! You interrupted my beauty sleep!"

She made a throwing motion at Aladdin and a surge of bubbles frothed 
around the drowning Street Rat. Seconds later, Aladdin started 
breathing again... and so did Genie.

Saleen flipped her fin and circled lazily around Aladdin and Armand. 
"Let's not beat around the sea weed. You wouldn't endanger yourself 
without a good reason, what is it?"

Aladdin scowled. "Revenge against that treacherous Princess who I 
THOUGHT loved me!"

Saleen's eyes brighten and she coiled around Aladdin's shoulder like a 
cat, all but purring. "You mean you and Ms. 'He worships the ground I 
walk on' had a lover's quarrel?!"

Aladdin twisted his head to look at her. "QUARREL?" he cried. "The 
prissy little snot dumped me for my worst ENEMY!"
Saleen laughed and darted away. "Really? And WHO might that be?"

"An evil wizard named Mozenrath."

Saleen disappeared in a swirl of bubbles. Then she was back, holding a 
big book covered with scales. The title read: "The Big Book of Evil 
Elementals, Djinn and Mages. " Never heard of him," she muttered. 
"Can't be much of a wizard."

Aladdin snarled. "HE says his the premier sorcerer of our age!"

Saleen sniffed disdainfully. "So? You're not very old. A sorcerer your 
age is pretty callow." She flipped through the book. "I don't see him 
in here," she complained, holding the book so Aladdin could read it.

Aladdin reached out his free hand and flipped a few pages. "Here, with 
a 'z'."

"Oh." Saleen tilted her head and studied the page. "He's kind of 
cute... for a human."

Aladdin managed to keep from throwing up, but just barely. "I'm glad 
you think so," he said. "I was hoping you'd be willing to help me trick 
him."

Saleen swirled around him, depositing the book somewhere out of 
Aladdin's sight. "So? What does tricking him have to do with finding 
him cute?"

Aladdin took as deep a breath as he could manage with three fourths of 
Armand's arms digging into his ribs. "Jasmine is staying at Mozenrath's 
Citadel. He says he wants a wife, but I think he's just stringing her 
along. If something BETTER came along, I'm sure Mozenrath would dump 
Jasmine like a bowl of rotten Odiferous cheese."

Saleen twined herself around Aladdin's shoulders again. Aladdin was 
beginning to feel claustrophobic. He was also beginning to worry that 
she'd look too closely at his earring.

"What makes you think that Mozenrath will prefer an elemental to a 
princess?" she asked, idly twining a strand of his bangs around one 
finger. "YOU didn't."

Aladdin growled the best he could in such suffocating circumstances. "I 
thought she was in love with me! That I was important to her! But she 
LIED! Mozenrath isn't as sentimental as I am. He's only interested in 
POWER! He'd drop her in a Gomorrah second if someone as beautiful and 
powerful as YOU came along!"

Saleen floated off, preening. But there was still skepticism in her 
eyes when she looked at Aladdin. "So now I'm better than your princess, 
but you refused to be mine before!" She twitched her tail thoughtfully.

Aladdin gave her an adoring look. "I've finally come to my senses," he 
said, trying desperately to convince her. "I'm all yours... forever!" 
he paused, then added. "As soon as I THROTTLE the life out of that 
faithless princess!"

Saleen actually looked a little flustered. "Wait here a minute." She 
swam off, gesturing for Armand to follow. As soon as Armand released 
him, Aladdin slumped with relief, taking his first full breath since he 
had been pulled underwater.

Armand swam over to Saleen and she showed him Mozenrath's entry in the 
book. "According to this, Mozenrath is pretty hot stuff. He probably 
has Princess Jasmine under some sort of spell." She gave Aladdin a 
sideways flirtatious look that was wasted, because the Street Rat 
wasn't looking at her. He had his eyes closed as was apparently trying 
to get as much air into his lungs as he could.
 Saleen snorted and turned her back to Armand. "But as long as Lover 
Boy back there doesn't know it, I see no reason to pass this 
opportunity up. It will be SO much fun to see his face when he realizes 
that he strangled an innocent..." she had a giggle fit and couldn't 
continue for a moment.

Armand made a grumbling noise. He pointed several tentacles at Aladdin, 
and used two more to form a noose. Just in case his point wasn't coming 
across, he used yet another tentacle to make throat-slashing gestures.

Saleen just flipped a hand at him. When she could stop giggling she 
said. "Oh, Armand! I KNOW it could be a trap! But he's not malicious 
enough to come looking for me just to do me harm, he's a HERO! Besides, 
I can handle him, even if he brings his genie into play." She giggled 
again. "And even his precious genie can't save him from that bargain!" 
An evil grin passed over her face. "As soon as he murders Jasmine, he's 
MINE!"

"I KNEW this was a bad idea!" wailed Iago. The parrot lay in the center 
of the Magic Carpet, both wings covering his eyes. Abu chattered 
anxiously as he ran around Carpet's hem, looking for any sign of 
Aladdin. Carpet circled anxiously, also looking for any sign of his 
friend. Suddenly, water fountained upwards, carrying Aladdin and Saleen 
with it. Carpet swooped over, grabbed Aladdin, and twirled (as per 
orders) as if to escape.

"Carpet!" Aladdin barked. He pulled back on Carpet's hem, 'forcing' 
Carpet to come around. Iago and Abu clutched at each other, not needing 
any acting skill at all to reveal their dread. One wrong move would see 
them all turned into shark chow.

Saleen watched this display through narrowed eyes. She held herself 
upright, with her hands on hips, scowling at all of the land dwellers. 
When Carpet flew back to her, she snorted and waved her hand at her 
lower body. Her fin turned to legs and her clothing turned into a gold 
dress. Her peal jewelry remained the same. 
"I still don't see what the big deal over legs is," she said to 
Aladdin. She gave him a shark's grin. "You'll LOVE having a tail... and 
gills." Before Aladdin could respond to that. She suddenly reverted to 
'charming young girl', though as far as Aladdin knew, she was none of 
the above. She twirled around like any a human girl on a normal date. 
"What do you think of the dress?" she asked, as if honestly wanting his 
opinion.

Aladdin steeled himself and held out his hand. "Maybe something a 
little less flamboyant," he suggested. "Perhaps, sky blue?"
She took his hand and stepped across to Carpet. "Like your genie?" she 
asked dryly. But her dress faded to Genie/sky blue. "Mind your manners, 
fishbait," she muttered to Carpet.

Aladdin ignored Carpet's slight shudder. "It's my favorite color," he 
told Saleen. "That's why my former Genie wore it all the time."

"Former Genie?" Saleen asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"I freed him," Aladdin said truthfully, intentionally leaving out minor 
details. First of all, he left out exactly WHEN he had freed Genie. 
Secondly, he neglected to mention that Genie helped him now for 
friendship's sake.

Saleen smiled brightly when she fancied that she didn't have Genie to 
deal with. Then she sat gracefully and pulled Aladdin down with her. 
"Well, let's go, guys!" she said gaily. "The sooner we get to 
Mozenrath, the soon I can claim my prize!" She snuggled up to Aladdin, 
who managed to not pull away, shudder or be ill.

They reached the border between Agrabah and the Land of the Black Sand. 
Aladdin looked at Saleen and raised an eyebrow. "You ready to play your 
part?" he asked.

Saleen fluffed her hair. "Of course, my pet, ring away."

Aladdin rang the bell with one hand. With his other hand, he tossed his 
earring over his shoulder to Carpet. Carpet, Iago and Abu disappeared 
around a sand dune.

Mozenrath stared at his shattered mirror. Then glared at Jasmine. 
"That's seven years bad luck, Little Princess," Mozenrath snarled, 
pulling back his gauntlet and firing it up. "Starting now!" Mozenrath's 
glare was almost hot enough to fry eggs. "Do you have ANY idea what I 
had to go through to GET that mirror?" he snarled, advancing on 
Jasmine.

Jasmine hitched backward the best she could in her Mamluk straight 
jacket, stopping only when she backed into a pillar. She answered 
sardonically. "You mean, you DIDN'T pick it up in the marketplace?"

She thought Mozenrath was going to explode from internal pressures. 
"NO! I had to go on an extremely hazardous quest to appropriate that 
thing! Fighting a dragon at the end of it was the EASY part. Not to 
mention all the work I put in afterwards to make it WORK RIGHT! And, 
unlike your pet Street Rat, I don't have a GENIE to do all the HARD 
stuff!"

Jasmine sniffed disdainfully. "'Appropriate!' Steal it, you mean. And 
you're always insulting Aladdin for being an EX-thief. As for doing all 
the hard work, if you had a few friends, or even a few employees, you 
wouldn't HAVE to do everything by yourself, you snotty little low-life 
BRAT!"

Mozenrath gaped at her speechlessly for a moment, then he pulled back 
his arm and Jasmine thought she was done for. Then Mozenrath's gesture 
was interrupted by a loud chime.

Mozenrath's head snapped around. Xerxes sideslipped over to him, being 
careful to not get between the black fire and the princess. "Is Bell 
you gave Hero!" Xerxes announced.

Mozenrath nodded. "So it is." He glared at Jasmine. "It looks like 
you've been saved by the bell, Little Princess," he said. "For now..." 
he made a sudden gesture. There was a flash of light and Jasmine was 
enveloped in darkness before she could even try to duck.

To Be Continued