Chapter Text
Chapter Fifteen
She had found Giselle, her wounds now dressed, asleep with her head in Aurora’s lap. Aurora laughed softly when Mulan pointed out this was hardly the usual way around, but her fingers traced gently over Giselle’s temple, and she suggested that they not leave until the morning.
Mulan agreed, but did not sleep, even when Aurora drifted into her usual light and fitful slumber. During the night she packed their things, and paced the rooms, and drank cool water whilst looking out over the sky beginning to lighten in preparation for the dawn. Their horses were not yet prepared, but by the time that the others awoke they were otherwise ready to move on. It had been a long time since any of them had even wanted to risk waiting to see the celebrations. There was too much danger that they would be asked to stay for a still longer time.
On waking, Giselle seemed as bright as usual, although she moved with a stiffness that betrayed her injuries. With no guards outside their door, they had saddled their horses and were almost at the Palace gates when a shout came from behind them.
“Stop! Please, wait!”
It was not the threat that Mulan at least had half-expected, but nor was there the desperate thankfulness that had marked the voices of some of those whom they had helped. The three women stopped, turning in their saddles back to the Palace steps. The Sultana, robed in pale lilac and with her hair in loose waves around her face, ran down the steps with her bemused-looking guards following behind.
“Please…” she was a little out of breath by the time that she reached them, but still held herself commandingly and paused to regain her breath before speaking further. “I wanted to thank you,” she said, “for everything that you have done. Not for me… but for Agrabah.”
This time she spoke in the northern tongue, and Mulan replied in kind. “It is how we conduct ourselves… Your Majesty.”
“I want you to know,” said the Sultana, dropping intent gently into her words, “that you are always welcome here. And should you find yourselves in need, Agrabah will answer.” She motioned to one of the guards, who stepped forwards and offered up to her a small wooden chest. Ignoring their faint protests, she opened up the chest to reveal three gold rosettes, fashioned almost like lace at their edges, and with shining jewel-bright enamels set into the centre of them. Closing the lid again, she offered the chest up to Mulan. “The crest of Agrabah. I hope that someday it will be of help to you.”
Mulan accepted the chest; it was lighter than it looked, and at perhaps twelve inches in length would not be too large to strap to the saddlebags. However, she withdrew a pouch from her pocket, placed the three crests inside it, and then returned the empty chest back to the nearest guard.
“We travel light,” she said, by way of explanation.
The Sultana laughed, a sound which Mulan would have thought even recently would be impossible; it was bright and youthful, the early morning sun still spilling forth. “Very well. From that I understand also not to hold you longer. Fare well, travellers.”
“Wait,” said Giselle, barely before the words had spilled in the air. From beneath her cloak she withdrew the golden lamp; the Sultana’s eyes went wide, but it was with amazement rather than the lustful gaze Mulan had momentarily feared. Giselle rubbed gently on its bulging side; there was a flash of light and a wave of blue smoke as the same figure all but erupted out into the air.
It stretched its arms wide. “Oh baby, it’s good to be b-” The words died, the Genie looked sheepish, and he rolled down to an approximately human size as he floated next to Giselle. “Master. Your final wish?”
Giselle exchanged a look with Aurora that, Mulan was quite sure, nobody else was supposed to even come close to being able to read.
“Yes, Genie,” Giselle said. She turned back to him with a smile like she had not worn in many months on her face. “For my third wish… I wish you free.”
There was a moment of pure, incredulous silence. Mulan stared, the Sultana stared, the guards stared, and the Genie himself stared at Giselle with a look of awe on his face. It was made more dramatic by the fact that his jaw apparently didn’t have to follow the rules of anatomy in how far it dropped.
“You mean-”
“Yes,” said Giselle, more insistently. “Genie… I wish you free.”
As the Genie watched in dazed awe, light began to come from the golden bracelets around his wrists. He held out his hands as they began to glow, brighter and brighter, until Mulan had to shield her eyes and could only hear the air rushing around them and a sound like ice, and then she looked round to see the Genie looking at his bare, blue wrists, tears rolling down his face.
In an instant, he had enveloped Giselle in an oversized embrace. “Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank-” he hugged Aurora and Mulan in turn – his skin was warm, there-but-not-there, and he smelt of magic – and was about to hug Khan when the horse gave him a singularly unimpressed look for his trouble. Instead, he patted Khan on the nose. “Well, you know what I mean.” Without a pause for breath, he whirled back, the smoke of his lower half coalescing into legs and allowing him to strike a pose. “Ten thousand years! So much I gotta catch up on, so much I gotta…”
He trailed off, looking at Giselle with a smile that had a faint hint of pride around it. She was wearing much the same expression in return.
“I know it’s not been a lot of time,” he said quietly, walking over to lay his hand on hers where it rested on the pommel of her saddle. “But I’m not going to forget you, kid. No way.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Giselle replied. “Say, Genie, one more thing…”
“Ah ah ah!” He stepped back, waggling a finger at her warningly. “Three wishes! Wait, no, I’m not even a tied genie now! I don’t have to grant wishes at all!”
He seemed to have surprised himself all over again with this revelation, and Giselle took the moment to laugh. “I know. Not a wish, Genie, just… a favour.”
“A favour…” he drew out the word slowly, as if tasting it, trying it on for size, then seemed to grow a couple of feet as he declared: “I like it already!” Back down to normal again; it exhausted Mulan just to watch him. “What is it?”
“Keep an eye on Agrabah,” said Giselle. For a moment she looked across to meet the Sultana’s gaze. “Help it get back on its feet once again.”
Some of the mania faded from the Genie’s smile. He stepped upwards, lower body becoming a wisp of smoke once again, until he hovered level with her and could reach out to touch her cheek. “I can do that.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. He nodded in return.
With a deep breath, Giselle turned back towards the others, and lifted the reins in her hands – merely to make the point; a brush of her heels would be enough to set them into motion. “I believe we have somewhere else to be,” she said.
In some ways, it was not true, not yet – they did not know where their feet were about to turn, where they might end up. All they knew for certain was the danger; Mulan was no fool of that, and she knew that as long as they travelled from land to land they invited danger down upon themselves with every step. When she saw the peace in the Sultana’s eyes, however, and the happiness in the Genie’s, she remembered why they did. Because in another way it was true: they had to be somewhere else, today, yesterday, always moving on before the world caught on and tried too hard to fight them in return.
“I believe so,” Mulan replied, and saw Aurora simply smile.