Roksolana woke up feeling cold and hungry. Even more, she felt afraid. She had been left alone for more than three hours since Jamal had left abruptly and if she was to guess correctly, she would say that it was already the middle of the night given how dark it was in the room already. No one had even thought about coming in to check on her or even to light the room. Did the Sultan plan to punish her by making her feel anxious? If that was his plan, he was doing a good job already. Her stomach grumbled in protest of being neglected and she clasped her hands on it. By the time her stomach protested the third time, Roksolana decided that she couldn't hold on anymore and stood up to go to the door. She was halfway through the door when she thought she heard footsteps sounding in the dark and paused. Has the Sultan finally arrived? It can't be the sultan. He wouldn't be sneaking about in his own

She patted the cheek of the first man but there was no response. She did the same to the other two, she didn't get any response from them either. Who could have done such a thing? Roksolana blamed herself for leaving them in such a vulnerable state. If she hadn't tied them up, they might have been able to defend themselves. She placed her ears on each of their chests, she was relieved when she heard faint breathing from each of them. As she looked at the unconscious men, she wondered what was going on. First, she got attacked by an assassin while at the Sultan's house. Now, the royal guards got attacked at the place where she was supposed to be punished. What were the chances that she was the target and not the Sultan? If she looked at it correctly now, the intruder back at the Sultan's house didn't have any reason to attack her when he saw she wasn't the Sultan. The man would have killed her

Roksolana looked up to see Lady Miriam looking at her with a smug look on her face. Roksolana stared at her, gauging her reactions. Had Lady Miriam found out that she told the Sultan about her and her lover? The Sultan must have told her about it. Was that why she had been so happy to see Roksolana tied to some board and getting roasted by the sun like a sacrificial lamb? "This is what happens when you make the Sultan's favorite mistress angry at you. Next time I ask you to fetch me a meal, you will do it right," Miriam told her. Roksolana heaved a sigh of relief. Lady Miriam didn't know anything about what she and the Sultan talked about. The woman was merely angry with Roksolana over her late meal. She watched as Lady Miriam climbed up to the board, standing in front of her. Miriam lowered her head to Roksolana's ear, then whispere

Roksolana watched as the black man knocked the other guard out too, before carrying him back to the fire ground. As the black man bent over to drop the man on his shoulder, Roksolana gasped. It couldn't be. Her mind was playing a cruel game on her. Because a dead man couldn't be alive. She watched as the man turned to her and walked towards her dark side, stopping when he got to her. She couldn't see his face in the dark anymore, but she was no longer afraid of who it was. Perhaps, the pain had made her numbed. She felt a hand gently touching her cheek and shivered at the sudden warmth of it. "Sorry I'm late, my lady." The man spoke and Roksolana gasped again. "Asleem." She said, her voice barely a whisper just before she fainted. Asleem looked at the woman in front of him a

Roksolana woke up feeling disoriented. The light in the room felt like it could blind her and she closed it back, opening them slowly to adjust her eyes.  When she was finally able to focus, she looked around at her surroundings. The room she was in seemed strange to her but she also felt like she had been in here before. How had she gotten to a room anyway? The last thing she remembered was her still tied to the board and a man standing close to her, looking at her with pity and shame in his eyes. Roksolana felt the man was familiar, she shook her head trying to remember what the man looked like. She gasped loudly and sat up straight in bed. The sudden movement made her head throb and she fell back to the bed. "Asleem." She said, a single tear sliding down her face. Ja