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
Jamal stood by the entrance of the room, watching as the royal physician fed Roksolana some herbal medicine with a spoon. She had remained unconscious for three days and he was beginning to get really worried about her, but the doctor had assured him that it was due to the medicine doing its work.The only thing that had made him stay calm was the fact that she was no longer coughing and her temperature had returned to normal. Her wounds were healing nicely too and she seemed to be breathing well. She had also stopped muttering in her sleep.When Jamal had first heard her mutter a man's name, he had been furious. But then, she had mentioned two other names and he had realized she must have been calling for her family. He felt guilty about that knowing that he could have alleviated her worries about her family but he had chosen
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
Roksolana regretted not eating first before she opened her mouth to decline the Sultan's offer. She felt so hungry and even her stomach protested by grumbling.When they arrived at the kitchen, the guards dumped her in the hands of the kitchen head and disappeared without a word. She figured that they must have done that a lot of times that no explanation was needed between them anymore.Roksolana stood still as the woman examined her from head to toe and prayed that she wouldn't deem her unfit for the job. True, she doesn't know how to cook or do anything in the kitchen but she was willing to learn rather than going back to Lady Miriam or the Sultan. She sighed out loud when the woman smiled at her."It's late already. Go and clean up, then get something to eat.
Jamal picked up the bottle of alcohol he had ordered one of his men to get for him and stared at it. He opened it up and drank a large quantity of the drink, wishing his trouble would disappear as the alcohol burned his throat and lungs. He couldn't stop thinking about Roksolana and her rejection of him. Jamal wondered what exactly she hated about him. He took another gulp and sighed.Even if he had killed her family, it was a normal occurrence during the war. Besides, the number of injuries he had gotten from her was enough to kill a man. Especially the wound she gave him in his left stomach. The injury had nearly gotten infected if it wasn't for his royal physician. So why was that not enough as payback for her? Deciding that he had had enough from her, Jamal emptied the rest of the content in the bottle into his mouth and walked out.
Roksolana woke up and felt someone beside her, she became afraid. As she opened her mouth to shout, she felt a hand clasp her mouth shut. The figure moved over her, holding her in place with his body. She hit the person in the face and heard him grunt as he moved away from her immediately.Roksolana moved up quickly and gave the person three rapid punches in the face. One on the cheek, the other on the forehead, and the last one on the nose. The man let out a soft yelp. Roksolana was about to hit the man again when he spoke."It's me, my lady."The man spoke so softly Roksolana almost didn't hear him. She was sure either her ears had heard the wrong voice or her mind was playing another dirty trick on her. There was no way the voice could belong to who she was thinking
Jamal woke up with his head pounding. He felt like heavy stones were placed on his neck rather than his normal head. He got up and grunted from the pain he felt for doing such a simple task.Looking around, the surroundings felt strange yet familiar to him. Where was he? And why wasn't he in his house? He looked around once again and saw that he was in Lady Miriam's house. What was he doing there? The last thing he remembered was him drinking alcohol in his house. He tried to crack his brain but couldn't remember anything else.He felt someone moaning softly in pain beside him and looked at the person. He was surprised to see Lady Miriam looking like she was in so much pain but was trying really hard to hide it and turned to her immediately."Are you okay?" Jamal
Roksolana looked at the dough and flour one of the maids had given to her and wondered what she was supposed to do with it. When she saw another maid pour her potion of flour into the bowl containing the dough and mixed them together, Roksolana decided that must be what was required of her. She poured her portion into the dough too and began to mix, noticing how strong it was. She was still battling with the dough when a figure fell upon her and she looked up. Roksolana saw a woman looking at her with a frown on her face."What do you think you are doing?" The woman asked.Roksolana felt embarrassed as the woman laughed at her when she had explained. She felt even worse when the woman had called the other maids to come and see what Roksolana had done.Tired and angry,
Jamal felt afraid and vulnerable and got angry at the feelings and the man who had fueled such emotions in him. He needed assurance and comfort from someone. He just walked on without thinking about his destination and became angry when he saw himself standing in front of the kitchen. Why was he here? The woman in there was the last person who would even think about alleviating his worries. As he turned to leave, he saw the kitchen head running towards him and realized that he couldn't leave anymore."Sultan." The woman bowed to him when she got to where he stood. "To what do we owe such a visit? Did we do something wrong?" The woman asked, shivering and fear reflecting in her voice.Jamal thought she might faint if she continued that way. Was he always inflicting fears even in the heart of the women? How can he get out of the place
Jamal released his hold on her and he looked into her eyes intently."I believe you, Dawn. I agreed that I might not have believed you at first but that was because you were so full of vengeance that I couldn't trust you. If you had told me about what you learned later, I would have believed you completely without a doubt," he explained to her."I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Sultan," she apologized too."I think I like it better when you call me Jamal," he told her."Or you mean you like it better when I yelled your name?" she asked and chuckled.He chuckled too and held her hair to play with them.
As Jamal kept running with an unconscious Roksolana in his arms, he kept praying to Allah that she had merely fainted because of either fright or how she had witnessed the death of her captor and not because Aamil had done something wrong to her before his arrival at the scene. When he heard Roksolana whimpering a little as he kept running, he slowed down in his run.He still blamed himself for the torture she went through. If he had noticed that she was missing all those times that she had been gone, then he would have looked for her everywhere. If he had listened to her and reasons about why she kept asking those weird questions about Sodeeq, then he would have guessed that something was fishy somewhere. If he had searched for her a little harder all through the night, then he might have been able to find her a lot sooner than he did.And to think that he wanted to turn away from the building because he had been suspecting the wrong person makes him want to s
Jamal took a step backward when he heard the name that the man had used. There was only one person who called him such a name in the entire sultanate. From what he also knew of the person, he was already dead. How possible was it for a dead person to be alive again? When Jamal looked at the man again, he saw his eyes flashing fire and dagger at him."But…" Jamal started but couldn't find a way to express his thoughts.He could remember that day quite well. Jamal and his brother, along with their mother, and Sodeeq and Sodeeq's brother had all gone into the building to play hide and seek. Aamil, Sodeeq's brother, had been the one seeking while the rest had gone into hiding. Jamal and Sodeeq had hidden together since the two were inseparable friends while Jamal's brother had gone with their mother to hide. They had been so engro
Roksolana woke up feeling disoriented. When she looked at the room where she was, she couldn't remember where she was or how she had gotten to the place. She tried to look around some more to study her surroundings but her head felt like ten building blocks had been placed on it. When she tried to touch the place that hurt, she saw that she was tied to a chair and she winced. She whipped her head slightly to remember exactly how she had gotten into the predicament she was in but nothing appeared in her brain or even tried to appear. She was blank like she had suffered a memory loss.She was still trying not to panic while trying to remember how she got to being tied to a chair in what seemed like a half-burnt room with all the blackness that even years of abandonment has not been able to erase away completely. One thing she knew was the fact that even though she couldn't remember how she got
As Jamal and his entourage marched on to the locations, fear was already radiating on the Sultan's face. Beads of sweat had already adorned his forehead, showing that he was not just afraid internally but also externally. For all that he cared about, the general could have killed Roksolana by now, and yet, they were still walking instead of racing to the location. If he hadn't killed her yet, the man could be molesting her or beating her up to punish her.He couldn't understand what exactly was the grudge between the general and his woman. Where it was, it had to be a lot for the general to have kidnapped Roksolana and held her captive. Or maybe Asleem was right in his observations and words and the generous was truly an enemy instead of the best friend Jamal thought that he was. But why would the general be trying to kill him? What could he have done to the general to warranty him trying to
Jamal stretched on his bed to relax his strained muscles and body. After Roksolana had left him and Aabdeen in the morning to discuss, Aabdeen had come clean with him and told him about who he truly was and why he had done everything he did. Of course, Jamal had been very furious with the other man and had even sent him away from his sight but he could understand the other Sultan now that he was alone. The man had just wanted to protect his people and everything else in his sultanate.But it still hurt him that the man had lied to him. During the period when he had met the man he thought was simply a physician, Jamal had grown fond of the man to the extent that he thinks of him as a friend instead of the mere physician that the man was supposed to be. So, finding out that the man had lied made him feel a little betrayed. Yet, Jamal found out that his thought was not centered on punishin
After they got away from the fighting ring, Jamal stopped dragging her along with him at a fast pace and just walked slowly but he still didn't let go of her hand that he held on to. Roksolana didn't mind how fast or slow they walked because her mind was centered on the burnt scar she had seen and not on the speed of their walking pace. Each time she tried to erase the doubt in her mind that the scar wasn't the same as that of the assassin, her head kept reminding her that she was just trying to cover up for the general.As soon as they got into the mansion that the Sultan lives in, Roksolana saw Jamal looking at her in an odd manner and she wondered what was going on in his mind. Could he be angry because she had gone to the ring without informing him first? Although she did get permission from him to train, she realized that she should have still let him know when she was going. If sh
Next? Roksolana thought. She was right about Lady Miriam since she had just heard about what she was doing next."We kill the king. This time, he won't be able to escape since I already got everything into place." The strange yet familiar voice Roksolana always heard from Lady Miriam's room responded."Are you sure it will work this time?" Lady Miriam's weak voice said to her lover."Very sure. The Sultan would be breathing his last before a week from now," the man answered.Roksolana got angry. At first, she wanted to open the door and confront the two lovers but she decided against it instantly. She knew that her confrontation would only stop the attack temporarily and Jamal's life would still be in danger. If she
She pointed to Aabdeen next. "This means that you are the Sultan of Jedi? Why then did you disguise yourself? And you were both going to kidnap me? Why?" Roksolana asked with a surprised tone.Aabdeen sighed and rose from his seating position beside his sister. He knew that he had only two choices and that was either to kidnap the Sultan's favorite mistress or tell the harem leader the truth. He decided to just kidnap her but his sister spoke up before him."Yes, we are from the Jedi sultanate and he is my brother. It's also true we wanted to kidnap you but it was because we had no other choice and that was why we did everything that we did," she explained."You had better start explaining yourselves before I let the Sultan know about your true identities," Roksolana told them in an angry tone. She felt betrayed by the people she thought were a friend to her and Jamal because they turned out to be a charade.Princess Azeezat took her time