"Drag them all out," Sodeeq commanded his army. "Remember to put the men separately in the cargoes. Put the women in groups of the twenties each in separate ships also. And make sure to take away any form of weapons, down to pins from the women. And remember that stubborn woman stays in the same cabin with our Sultan." He finished barking out orders, dragging an unconscious Jamal with him.
The Wadai' as they were called had come raiding this small tribe of the sultanate because one of the people from the sultanate had managed to convince Jamal that their Sultan Selim had something important that might interest the young Sultan.Thinking they were going to get treasures like gold, silver, weapons among other things, Sultan Jamal had set off to the unknown. Sodeeq had tried to warn his best friend that there was possibly nothing on the other sultanate they didn't already have on their land, but Jamal had proved stubborn. Even stubborn to the point of insisting on leading the army himself. He had brought the best of the army and fifteen of their best ships.Who would have thought that all the Dar Sila tribes were warriors, including the women and the children? Sodeeq had never seen anything like that before. Especially the woman who had made his Sultan the way he was now. Sodeeq had a feeling that if the tribe wasn't celebrating and half-drunk already, they never would have emerged victorious.Sodeeq heaved a sigh of relief as he dropped Jamal to the bed as carefully as he could to not jerk his wounds. He turned to glance at the woman still unconscious on the floor and frowned. In all his years of training with his Sultan, he had never been able to hit the man, yet a woman had injured him seriously to the point of losing consciousness.Sodeeq hoped they weren't bringing troubles along with them, considering the action Jamal had decided to take by letting a whole tribe of warriors survive. And, considering that they hadn't gotten anything out of it, Sodeeq prayed the Dar Sila tribe would not become rebellious over there.Moving as quietly as he could, Sodeeq opened the medicine cabinet and brought out medicines and bandages. He would have to clean up Jamal's wound himself since the man despised it when people touched him. After picking up the essentials, he went back to his Sultan.Tearing the clothes off with scissors, Sodeeq examined the extent of the sword's damage and gasped softly. It was a deep wound but luckily, it was not that deep. Still, it would likely take a long time to heal properly. Doing the best he could, Sodeeq cleaned up the wound and bandaged it after applying some medicines on it. He hoped it would be enough to keep the Sultan alive until they got home. After all, he's been through the worst things.Moving out of the cabin, Sodeeq barked an order to no one in particular, "Set sail immediately." But he knew his orders would be obeyed immediately. He was the general after all.Roksolana's head throbbed so much she didn't want to get up, but the soft swirling of her body around was enough to inform her something was moving under her. She opened her eyes slowly and saw herself on the floor. She looked at the strange board and realized that she was on a ship. What would she be doing on a ship? She forced her eyes to focus and looked around.As soon as her eyes settled on Jamal, the memories came flooding in. Hatred flooded her entire being. The man had slaughtered her entire family, how dare he sleep peacefully? Realizing she was no longer bound, she felt her left leg for her knife and realized it was still there. She brought it out and got up very fast, which made her dizzy. She shook her head to fight the dizziness before advancing towards the bed Jamal rested on. As she raised the knife to strike, waves of dizziness clouded her head and mind. She fell on top of Jamal's unmoving body, knowing in her subconscious mind that the knife had embedded itself somewhere.Jamal woke up feeling a hot searing pain rising from his left arm and right stomach. His whole body felt like something heavy had been placed on it. He opened his eyes to find someone resting on him. Who had dared to do that, despite knowing that he hated being touched? "Get up this instance, if you still want to live." He commanded the person.When Jamal didn't get any response from the person holding him tightly, he rolled the person to the floor roughly. He was surprised to find a knife firmly holding itself in his arm, he yanked it out and threw it across the floor. That was when his eyes fell on the person he had handled roughly.Looking at Roksolana on the floor, the fresh injury on his arm, and the knife on the floor, Jamal was able to connect the whole picture. She had attempted to end his life again. Jamal realized that something must have happened to make her fall unconscious and fail in her new mission.Grunting, he got up and got medicines and bandag
It was almost nighttime when Jamal spotted a moving figure along the rail of the ship while he was discussing with his shipmaster. He didn't give it much thought until he noticed the dark pony hair shaking itself as the figure moved. He would recognize that hair anywhere. Knowing that Roksolana had somehow cut herself loose and was trying to escape made Jamal angry. He handed over the piece of paper in his hand to the man beside him and ran as fast as he could over to the woman who was responsible for his pains.Roksolana moved as stealthily as she could. She had woken up to an empty room and was bonded. She had deemed herself lucky when she saw her knife with a bloodstain on it a few feet away from her. With little effort, she had cut herself free, pocketed the knife, and dashed out from the room. She had been disappointed to find herself on a moving ship, which she knew nothing about the location it was headed to.As she moved quietly along the rails, she prayed no one w
"Sultan."Jamal turned to find Sodeeq standing behind him, spotting a black eye and looking worried. Jamal realized that Roksolana must have gifted his best friend with the look. He tried to contain his laughter, but couldn't. The woman was a fierce tiger. His woman was a fighter."I'm not sure what is funny, but your lady had refused to eat even a bite since three days ago," Sodeeq explained.Jamal rushed out of the bed, straight out of the room. If she hadn't had any food for three days, she would be trying to kill herself. Was that how much she hated him? He flung the door open as soon as he got to her side. What he saw made his heart sink. Roksolana was lying on the floor, looking vulnerable.Roksolana felt weak after starving herself for three days. Her heart continued to mourn the death of her family and tribesmen after she couldn't summon tears anymore. She missed the meadows at her home. She missed seeing little children run around. She missed seeing wome
Roksolana watched at the fading figure of the man's body and sighed. Understanding that from the little time she had been with the man, he would make true his threat if she wasn't out by his allocated time or if she injured the maids. It's not like she would do that anyway. She wasn't about to let out her anger on innocent women who might be victims of their circumstances just as she was. She undressed and got into the bathing pot. She was surprised to find the water warm and relaxing.She didn't fail to notice that the maids were afraid of coming near her, judging by the distance they were from her. She decided to relieve their fear."I won't hurt you. I just said that out of anger."The two women moved to her immediately and began to help her. They shared companionship in silence for a few minutes, until one of the women broke the silence."You are lucky to get the attention of the Sultan." She told Roksolana."What Sultan?" Roksolana asked."She mean
Roksolana felt bored being left alone all by herself for two days. Ever since the incident between her and the general had happened, he had stayed clear of her. His assistant, Sodeeq had suddenly gone missing from her presence too. Even Ayeshat hadn't come around to check up on her. As a matter of fact, no one had bothered to ask her if she was hungry or wanted to eat. They hadn't even brought a plate of food for her to even think about rejecting. She was so famished right now, she wouldn't mind eating even a human.Roksolana felt uneasy about it all. It felt like this was a calm before a storm. She didn't know why, but she felt like Jamal was up to something. What it was she didn't know, but she knew it had to be bad. Judging by her experience of him, she knew he must have given the order for no one to come near her or even act as if she existed.Was he still angry at her about the incident? After walking away from him and calming down, Roksolana had realized that she had
Jamal simply looked at her, before choosing to ignore her again. Roksolana was surprised by his actions. He had done it twice in thirty minutes and it was getting on her nerves. What was with him and the treatment he was giving her? Jamal readjusted his clothing at the sleeve, pretending that he hadn't heard what Roksolana said. He was boiling with anger. He had arrived at his sultanate only to find the shore empty, devoid of any security. His brain had immediately told him that they could have easily been besieged if it was an army from another sultanate that found that weakness against them. Turning to the second in command, he spoke. "Why was the shoreline not guided?"The man trembled as he answered, "I left people here for security. I didn't realize that they slacked off, Sultan.""You didn't realize?" Jamal barked in anger. The other man fell to his knee immediately.Roksolana became afraid of the man she was looking at. This was no longer the man sh
Jamal watched as she was dragged off, her knees scraping the floor and her voice still pleading for the men he had already ordered their death. He wondered what type of woman she was not to care about her own life. Any other woman would be on her knees pleading and groveling for her life. Jamal knew flogging a woman thirty times is like offering death to the woman the hard way. If the flogging doesn't kill her, her body would be marred for life. And a woman's beauty is in the spotlessness of her body."Sultan, stop them. She's just a woman and thirty strokes of the cane would kill her," Sodeeq pleaded to Jamal."Choose then. Your men staying alive or her not getting flogged," Jamal offered Sodeeq.Sodeeq's eyes widened at what the words implied. The sultan just gave him a chance to make a choice and that had never happened before. It was a pick one, leave one choice. If Roksolana got flogged, his men's lives would be spared. But if he chose Roksolana instead, he
Roksolana heard voices whispering around her somewhere in her subconscious mind, her body felt like it was on fire. Forcing her eyes open, she looked at the environment she was in. She was lying on the bed in a strange room, women in hijabs and cheap clothing crowded around her. She looked at her arm and failed to see the traces of the clothes she had on before. Alarmed, she forced herself to look at her lying body and saw that she was naked. She got up and immediately regretted the action. Her back hurt badly, and she cried out in pain."I see you are awake." A woman spoke.Roksolana looked in the direction of the voice. Sitted on an expensive chair was a woman clothed in the most expensive clothes Roksolana had ever seen. Expensive jewelry complemented the expensive dressing. The hijab on her head screamed expensive, with all the beads adorning it. Roksolana had never seen such expensive dressing before. Roksolana didn't fail to see the other women in the room bowing