The Jewel Orchard Read online

  Abu stopped to think about it for a moment. Then he nodded his head again.

  “Where did you find them, Abu?” Jasmine asked gently. “Were they in the grape stand, or on the street outside it?”

  Abu ran over to the wall and started to tap it with his paws.

  “By the wall. I understand,” Jasmine said. “First thing tomorrow morning, we shall return to the area and look for the amethysts’ owner. You can show us exactly where you found them.”

  Abu helped Jasmine scoop up all the jewels.

  “Thank you, Abu,” Jasmine told the little monkey. “Now let’s get some rest. We’ve had a long day!”

  Early the next morning, Jasmine, Aladdin, and Abu left the palace—and this time, they took the Magic Carpet. Even though the sun had just risen, the market was already bustling with vendors setting up their stalls. As they flew over the market, Jasmine noticed that there still wasn’t any fruit among the many items for sale.

  When they reached the grape stand, the Magic Carpet landed softly on the ground and the three passengers climbed off. Abu pointed to the area where he had discovered the amethysts.

  “Right over there?” Aladdin asked.

  Abu nodded.

  “Let’s ask the vendors if they lost anything yesterday,” Jasmine suggested. She approached a tall man. “Excuse me, sir, but we found some valuable property in this area. Did you lose anything recently?”

  The man’s eyes twinkled greedily. “Like what?” he asked.

  “Some purple—” Jasmine began.

  But Aladdin quickly cut her off. “Why don’t you tell us what you lost, and then we’ll tell you if that’s what we found,” he said.

  The man glared at Aladdin.

  “Those amethysts are really valuable,” Aladdin whispered to Jasmine as he guided her away.

  Jasmine smiled at Aladdin, who still knew the streets a little better than she did. He had spent many years on them, after all.

  For most of the morning, Jasmine and Aladdin asked everyone who passed by if they had lost something. But no one had. Abu was ready to give up. He lay down to rest for a moment…and fell asleep. Even Jasmine was starting to worry that they wouldn’t be able to find the amethysts’ owner.

  “What happens next?” Jasmine asked Aladdin. “What should we do if we can’t return the jewels?”

  There was a long pause before Aladdin replied. “Well, we did our best to find the amethysts’ owner,” he finally said. “Let’s go back to the palace and make some signs that we can hang around the marketplace. We can also put the amethysts in the royal vault for safekeeping until their owner comes forward.”

  “That is an excellent plan,” Jasmine said. She leaned down to wake Abu for the journey back to the palace. But before they left, Jasmine paused. “The royal orchard should be on the other side of this wall. I’d like to take a quick look at it.”

  “Magic Carpet, can you give Jasmine a boost?” Aladdin asked.

  The Magic Carpet shook its tassels happily and folded itself into stairs for Jasmine to climb. Jasmine carefully stepped up so that she could look over the wall. What she saw was so unexpected that she gasped in surprise!

  “What? What is it?” Aladdin asked from the ground.

  “I don’t think we need to make those signs,” Jasmine said. “Look!”

  Jasmine knew she needed to climb down so that Aladdin could look over the wall, too. But she could hardly tear her eyes away from the amazing sight in the orchard. Several times a year, Jasmine and her father visited the orchards as part of their royal duties. But in all those visits, Jasmine had never seen anything like this.

  The fruit trees were still standing in long rows that stretched as far as Jasmine could see. There was still an arbor covered in grapevines on the other side of the wall. And each row still contained several tall fountains made from beautiful tiles.

  But the trees themselves had changed so much that Jasmine hardly recognized them! They were glittering in the bright sunlight, and Jasmine had to shield her eyes. “It’s not possible,” she said to Aladdin. “I just don’t understand how…”

  “What is it, Jasmine? What happened?” the prince asked.

  “The trees,” Jasmine replied. “They are covered in jewels!”

  Rubies as big as Jasmine’s hand hung from the apple trees. The pomegranates looked like glittering garnets. Gleaming yellow topazes had replaced all the lemons on the lemon trees. And peridot pears hung from the branches of other trees. Even the fountains were filled with glittering sapphires instead of cool, clear water.

  Jasmine finally stepped down so that Aladdin could see for himself. He climbed onto the carpet, and his eyes grew wide when he looked over the wall.

  “Well, that explains why there hasn’t been any fruit in the market,” the prince said.

  “Let’s go,” Jasmine responded. She started walking briskly along the wall.

  “But Jasmine, the palace is this way,” Aladdin called, pointing in the opposite direction.

  “Oh, we’re not going to the palace,” Jasmine replied. “We’re going inside the orchard. Follow me!”

  “Jasmine, wait a second,” Aladdin said as he hurried after her. “Shouldn’t we go back to the palace and tell your father?”

  “Yes, my father must know about this, and right away,” Jasmine agreed. “But he will have just as many questions as we do. I want to bring Ahmed, the orchard keeper, with us. He must know something about what happened to the royal orchards!”

  Soon they came to a thick wooden door in the wall. When they stepped through the door into the orchards, Jasmine was once again dazzled by the glittering fruit trees around her. Abu started chattering excitedly as he pointed to the arbor, which was covered with tangles of grapevines. Hundreds of purple amethysts gleamed where the grapes had once grown.

  “So this is where the amethysts came from!” Jasmine exclaimed, going over to take a closer look at the clusters of amethysts hanging from the arbor. “I suppose that solves one mystery, doesn’t it?”

  “But now we have another mystery to figure out,” Aladdin said.

  Jasmine turned around to see him standing in the doorway of the orchard keeper’s hut.

  “Where is Ahmed?” Aladdin continued.

  “Maybe he’s inspecting the trees,” Jasmine suggested. She and Aladdin wandered through the orchard, calling Ahmed’s name loudly. Abu followed along for a while but decided to play under the arbor when he got bored. And the Magic Carpet rested inside the hut.

  Finally, after searching the entire orchard, Jasmine and Aladdin had to admit that there was no sign of Ahmed anywhere.

  Back at the hut, Aladdin had another question. “Why didn’t Ahmed come to the palace as soon as this happened?” he asked. “Doesn’t he know how serious it is?”

  “He must,” Jasmine said. “The jewels are stunning to look at, but the people of Agrabah cannot eat jewels. They need fresh, healthy fruit. And the water from the fountains is no use if it’s not actually water! Maybe Ahmed is at the palace right now.”

  Aladdin shook his head. “I don’t think so. His traveling cloak and walking stick are right by the table.”

  Jasmine glanced over at the table, too. She quickly noticed something else: an unusual-looking pouch made of beautiful blue silk.

  “What’s this?” Jasmine wondered as she picked up the pouch and carried it outside into the light. Jasmine pulled on a satin cord to open the small pouch. Then she peeked inside.

  “How beautiful,” she remarked. “Aladdin, what is this?”

  Aladdin leaned close to the pouch to take a look. The sparkling yellow powder inside it cast a gold light over his face. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before.”

  Suddenly, Abu raced out of the arbor. An angry hornet was chasing him!

  Abu tore through the orchard, running so fast that he didn’t see Jasmine and Aladdin standing outside Ahmed’s hut. Wham! He knocked into Jasmine, and she st
umbled backward before Aladdin steadied her. A tiny bit of the yellow powder spilled onto a wildflower near her feet.

  “Abu, be careful!” Aladdin exclaimed.

  “Oh, it’s all right,” she replied, but she was distracted by something on the ground. There, at her feet, was a bright bejeweled wildflower, right where the powder had spilled. Its delicate petals were made of red rubies.

  “Aladdin!” Jasmine exclaimed. “It’s the powder! The powder must turn things into jewels.”

  “How is that even possible?” Aladdin marveled.

  “I don’t know,” Jasmine replied. “But I am sure of one thing: it’s very dangerous. We have already seen what it did to the royal orchards. Imagine if it spilled in the fields and changed all the vegetables! Look at the fountains—there is not a drop of water to be seen. If this got into Agrabah’s water supply, what would we drink?”

  “Then it’s up to us,” Aladdin said firmly. “We must get rid of this immediately…before anything else is transformed!”

  Aladdin paused for a moment. “But how?”

  Jasmine frowned as she closed the silk pouch and tied it shut. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “But we’ve got to get it as far away from Agrabah as we can.”

  “That sounds like a job for the Magic Carpet,” Aladdin said. He whistled and the carpet jumped up.

  “Ready to take a ride?” Aladdin asked. He held out his hand to help Jasmine climb aboard the hovering carpet. Then Abu scrambled up, too. Jasmine clutched the pouch tightly in both hands as the Magic Carpet soared into the sky.

  “Now we just need to figure out where we’re going,” Aladdin said.

  “Let’s travel to the desert,” Jasmine suggested. “The farther we can get from Agrabah, the better.”

  “Magic Carpet, can you take us?” Aladdin asked.

  The carpet’s tassels wagged in agreement. The Magic Carpet picked up speed, traveling so fast that Abu’s hat almost blew off! The monkey clasped it with both hands to make sure it stayed on his head.

  It didn’t take long for the Magic Carpet to zoom across the city limits of Agrabah. The sandy desert stretched as far as Jasmine, Aladdin, and Abu could see. Soon even the beautiful towers of the palace were just a speck in the distance.

  “What do you think, Jasmine?” Aladdin asked. “Is this far enough?”

  The princess shook her head. “I think we should go just a little farther,” she replied. “We can’t be too careful with this strange powder.”

  Jasmine glanced back to see how far they had flown from Agrabah. Suddenly, her eyes opened wide. “Aladdin, look behind you!” she exclaimed.

  Aladdin turned around to see another magic carpet zooming through the sky behind them.

  And it was flying faster with every passing second!

  Jasmine gasped. “It’s Ahmed!” she cried. “I think…I think he’s following us!”

  She and Aladdin watched as the other carpet flew through the sky at top speed. Soon it was close enough that Jasmine could see the expression on Ahmed’s face. His forehead was wrinkled in concentration and he was scowling.

  “He looks upset,” Aladdin said. “Maybe he knows what we have…and maybe he wants it back.”

  “Faster, Magic Carpet, faster!” Jasmine urged. “Don’t let that other carpet catch up with us!”

  The Magic Carpet was quick to do as Jasmine said, flying faster than it ever had before.

  But that only made the other carpet go faster, too! Soon it was just a few feet behind them.

  The Magic Carpet zoomed up so steeply that Jasmine’s heart started pounding.

  The carpet zipped and zoomed, zigzagging high and low over the desert sands in a desperate attempt to get away from the other flying carpet. But no matter what it tried, Ahmed was right behind them.

  “Hold on, everybody!” Aladdin yelled. “We’re going for a flip!”

  Jasmine grabbed the edge of the Magic Carpet and held on tight. Up, up, up…and then whoosh! The Magic Carpet turned an upside-down loop.

  And as it did, the silk pouch tumbled out of Jasmine’s lap!

  “Oh, no!” Jasmine cried. She watched as the pouch fell quickly toward the ground.

  But it was too late. The pouch had already opened, spilling the sparkling yellow powder all over the desert dunes.

  Then, as everyone watched, the few cacti that had sprouted from the sand turned into glimmering objects made of emeralds.

  “Whoa!” Aladdin suddenly shouted. “Watch out!”

  Jasmine looked away from the glittering cacti just in time to see that the two magic carpets were about to crash! All four of the passengers—Jasmine, Aladdin, Abu, and Ahmed—started to scream as the magic carpets swerved wildly, avoiding each other by inches!

  The Magic Carpet had no choice but to make an emergency landing in the middle of the desert. When Jasmine stepped onto the sand, her legs felt very wobbly. Then she burst out laughing. Abu was dazzled by the cacti and he was trying to grab bits of one with his little paws, but it was no use. The emeralds were there to stay.

  It was one of the most beautiful sights that Jasmine and Aladdin had ever seen, but they could only enjoy it for a moment. All too soon, they realized that the other flying carpet had been forced to make an emergency landing, too.

  And Ahmed was walking right toward them!

  Jasmine took a deep breath. “We had to destroy the powder, Ahmed,” she said in a firm, confident voice. “We had no choice. It was too dangerous to keep within the walls of Agrabah.”

  Ahmed bowed before her. “Thank you, Princess,” he said. When he looked up, his eyes were full of gratitude. “I agree completely!”

  Jasmine and Aladdin exchanged a look of relief.

  “I was afraid that you didn’t know what the powder could do,” Ahmed continued. “When I saw you flying away from the orchard, I knew that I had to warn you at once!”

  “So that’s why you were following us,” Aladdin said.

  “I am so grateful that you have succeeded where I failed. Out here, the powder cannot harm our crops or water,” Ahmed told Jasmine and Aladdin.

  Jasmine nodded. “And now this beautiful cactus will be a delight for anyone who comes across it in their travels. And it’s so sturdy that greedy thieves won’t even be able to take the emeralds!”

  “But,” Aladdin began, “they could take the jeweled fruit in the orchard if they see what it looks like right now.”

  Jasmine closed her eyes as she imagined what might happen: some people in Agrabah might be so eager to take the jewels that they would pick every bejeweled apple, mango, pomegranate, persimmon, and grape. The orchard would be bare and ruined. We have to get back as soon as we can, Jasmine thought.

  Then she turned to Ahmed. “But where did the powder come from?” she asked.

  For a moment, Ahmed looked a little embarrassed. Then he started rummaging around in his vest pocket. “A few days ago, I was watering one of the oldest apple trees,” he began. “As I shoveled some dirt aside, my shovel struck something hard. I dug around in the soil and found this.”

  Ahmed handed Jasmine a small silver box that was studded with jewels. Inside the box, Jasmine found a scroll of parchment paper. It was yellowed with age and its edges were tattered. The scroll looked very, very old.

  Jasmine unfurled the scroll. Her brow furrowed as she read the words written on it.

  “It looks like…some sort of recipe,” Jasmine finally said. “But it says nothing about what it actually does.”

  “I grew very curious, Princess,” Ahmed admitted. “So I decided to make the recipe myself. Just for fun. I was very surprised when those ingredients transformed into the yellow powder.”

  “What made you decide to test it on the orchard?” asked Aladdin.

  “No! No! I never wanted that to happen!” Ahmed exclaimed. “You see, as I finished mixing the ingredients, a high wind began,” he continued. “I tried to cover the pot as quickly as I could, but it was too late. The wind had already scattered th
e powder throughout the orchard!”

  “I remember that windstorm,” Jasmine replied. “It knocked several tiles off the palace roof.”

  “Oh, Princess, I could hardly believe my eyes,” Ahmed said. “I ran from tree to tree in disbelief. Each one had been transformed into a tree of jewels! It was a beautiful sight, but I had no idea how to reverse the spell!”

  Jasmine nodded sympathetically. “Come. We will all go back to the orchard and find a way to undo this spell.”

  Jasmine, Aladdin, Ahmed, and Abu quickly hopped onto their flying carpets. The carpets lifted into the air, soaring through the brilliant blue sky on the way back to Agrabah. When the palace towers finally appeared, Jasmine breathed a sigh of relief. But she knew there was work to be done.

  Aladdin glanced at Jasmine. “You look like you have a plan,” he said quietly.

  Jasmine shook her head. “Not yet,” she whispered back. “But I’m going to come up with one!”

  At last, the flying carpets landed in the royal orchard. Jasmine was relieved to see that, apart from some bees buzzing in confusion around the jeweled fruit, the orchard was exactly the same as they had left it. All the sparkling fruit was still on the trees.

  “We don’t have much time,” Jasmine said to the others. “It will not be long before more people come to investigate what has happened to the fruit. We must reverse the spell as quickly as possible. Ahmed, will you take us to the tree where you found the silver box?”

  “Right this way, Princess,” Ahmed replied.

  Ahmed led Jasmine, Aladdin, and Abu through the orchard to the grove of apple trees. The oldest tree of all had thick, gnarled branches and silvery bark.

  “Let’s keep digging around the tree,” Jasmine suggested. “If there is a way to reverse the spell, perhaps it was buried here, too.”

  Abu went right to work, using his little paws to dig so hard that huge clumps of dirt flew up in the air!

  Jasmine started to laugh. “That’s the spirit, Abu! We can all help,” she said encouragingly.