Captured For The Sultan’s Pleasure

Aabdeen woke up and saw the Sultan staring hard at him. He got up from the chair quickly, rubbing away the sleep from his eyes.

“I feel like she is in danger,” Jamal said to him solemnly.

Aabdeen looked out and saw that it was only the early hours of the morning. Darkness still covered the earth a bit and the weather was a little cold. Aabdeen realized that the Sultan was expecting him to get up and go look for his maid. Was the other man crazy? Why was he so worried about one maid anyway, when he had hundreds of others around? The Sultan had even gone through with his threat and had the kitchen head jailed. Aabdeen felt like he was suffering a lot just to secure his sultanate. The things Sultans pass through to ensure the kingdom was running smoothly. Perhaps, Sultan Jamal was going through the same phrase now. Aabdeen cleared his throat a bit, before replying.

“I understand. I’ll go and search for her.” He told the other man.

Jamal gestured his hands towards the door to tell Aabdeen to hurry up. The other man got up and went out the door, calling three guards as he left. Jamal began to pace the length of his room without resting. To say he was worried about Roksolana was putting it mildly, he felt like he could die if they didn’t find her just for one more day. Perhaps, he should have gone out to look for her himself. He shouldn’t think that way, he was sure that Aabdeen was doing his best to find her.

Aabdeen walked to the outskirts of the sultanate with the guards trailing after him. So far, this was the only place he had refrained from searching for the maid. Because it led directly to his own sultanate, and he didn’t want to accidentally give it away. It was the path he had taken to arrive in this sultanate without being spotted. If he decided to wage war against the people of this sultanate, this was the path he and his army would be taking. The surprise attack would enable them to defeat the people of Wadai’.

When he and the men had walked a bit more, they came face to face with trees that covered the pathway to his route and Aabdeen turned back to ask them to leave, then promptly turned back to the forest again. He ran over to what he thought was his imagination, shining his torch on the black figure. There was a man dressed in black lying unconscious on the floor with his face lying downward. When Aabdeen turned the man around, he heard loud gasps from the guards with him and knew that he had just found the maid the king had been worried about. Aabdeen crouched down and checked for her heartbeat and sighed when the slow beating of the heart reached his ear. She was still alive.

He passed the light in his hands to one of the men, picked her up gently and they made their way back to the Sultan’s. Immediately he rushed up the stairs, the Sultan came out and relieved him of his burden. Aabdeen rushed to get his medicine bag from the Sultan’s room and joined them in the next room. He had to fight the Sultan to stay away, so he could take care of her. When he was done, he got up and watched as the Sultan resumed his seating position beside the maid.

Aabdeen smiled slightly as he took in the scene before him. The Sultan had just handed him a way out of his predicament. If all comes down to naught, he could use the maid as a bargaining chip to get whatever he wanted. And Aabdeen was sure that he would get everything he asked from Sultan Jamal if the maid was in danger. Jamal’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

“Will she be okay?” Jamal asked.

“Yes, Sultan. She merely fainted from hitting her head on the stone. But luckily, the wound wasn’t deep,” Asleem answered.

Jamal sat close to Roksolana all through the day as she slept, refusing to leave her side even for a second. He mopped her body himself with a piece of cloth every time she sweated. He fed her the medicine Aabdeen brought over for her himself, and he also fed her some soup by himself. He couldn’t wait for her to wake up and tell him where she had been and what she had been up to, even to put herself in danger.

Roksolana felt a bitter taste in her mouth and promptly opened her eyes. She saw a strange man trying to push a spoon into her mouth and yelled softly. Roksolana sat up, looked around, and wondered where she was. When her eyes fell on the man, she saw him smiling at her like he was happy to see her. Who was he? The man moved closer to her with a piece of cloth and Roksolana yelled loudly this time, thinking that he wanted to tie her mouth with it.

Jamal paused in his action as he heard Roksolana scream. What was wrong with her? Didn’t she recognize him? Jamal dropped the cloth he was about to wear and raced to the next room when he heard a loud clang on the floor. Of course, she wouldn’t recognize Aabdeen. The two had never met before. He watched as Roksolana held a part of the broken piece of the ceramic bowl protectively in front of her, while Aabdeen had his two hands up in the air. If Jamal wasn’t worried that Roksolana might actually injure the other man, he might have laughed at the scene in front of him.

“Drop that, Dawn,” Jamal said.

Roksolana looked in the direction the voice had come from. As she spotted Jamal standing half-naked by the door, she dropped her weapon and ran to him. She wrapped her arms around him tightly and sighed into his chest. When she felt his arms around her, she began to cry. If he was here, that means she was no longer in danger and he was alive. She let go of him and stared at the site of his injury before placing her hand on it.

“Are you okay, Jamal?” Roksolana asked.

“Yes, Dawn. I’m fine.” The Sultan replied to her.

Aabdeen watched the two people in front of him and marveled at their display. A maid and a Sultan? True, he had suspected that there was much more involved with the two of them but he hadn’t expected them to be involved this much. She had even called the Sultan by name and he hadn’t seemed to mind at all. Or were they having an affair together? He wasn’t even sure they remembered that he was here. He cleared his throat to gain their attention and watched as the maid tried to separate herself from the Sultan who didn’t bother to let her go.

“I have to get a new bowl of medicine for the lady,” Aabdeen said pointing to the pieces of ceramic on the floor.

“Dawn, this is Aabdeen. He has been treating me and he also helped me look for you,” Jamal said as a way of introduction.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Roksolana smiled at the man apologetically.

“Sorry about earlier. And, thank you for saving me.” She said, bowing her head slightly.

Aabdeen smiled back at her to show that he wasn’t angry.

“Get a maid to bring her a change of clothing immediately, and bring her friends here on your way back,” Jamal instructed Aabdeen.

The man bowed slightly before walking out of the room. As soon as Jamal saw that Aabdeen was gone, he pulled Roksolana back into his embrace and kissed her on the lips. He was never letting her get out of his sight ever again, Jamal thought as Roksolana returned his kiss. As regards that, he needs to make her see the reasoning and make her accept to be his mistress before her friends arrive. So, he broke off their kiss, held her hand, and walked them to the bed where they sat.

“Where were you, Dawn?” Jamal asked.

Roksolana bit her lower lip and wondered if she should tell him about Asleem’s part and his treason plot. But she realized that if she did, the Sultan would order the death of Asleem and she didn’t want to lose her friend. She had to find a way to stop Asleem from pushing through with her plan, and also find a way to make Jamal release her people soon. She still has to cook up a story to explain her disappearance all the while.

“When I was trying to escape, I fell and hit my head against a stone and fell unconscious. When I woke up, I found myself here.” She lied to him.

The lie sounded petty even to her ears. She watched as Jamal stared at her for a while before shrugging off his shoulders.

“How are you?” She asked him.

“Better. But, you owe me a wish for the pain I passed through,” Jamal said.

A wish? That’s all he wanted? It was better than Roksolana thought.

“Okay, Sultan. I owe you a wish.” She answered with a smile.

Jamal stared at Roksolana for a minute, waiting for her to take back her word. When she didn’t, Jamal was surprised. This was the first time she ever addressed him as Sultan. Had she finally accepted his sultanate as hers? Or had she said it unknowingly? Or maybe he heard her wrong? He was about to ask her if she had said it when a knock sounded on the door. Roksolana got up, opened the door and Jamal saw a maid standing there holding some clothes in her hands. The maid bowed down when she saw him. Jamal stood up, moved towards her, and took the clothes from her. He pointed his second finger to the stairs and watched as the maid scrambled off. He handed the clothes to Roksolana, who looked at him questioningly.

“Do you want your friends to meet you like this when they arrive? He said pointing to her black clothes.

Roksolana took the clothes from him and walked back to the bed where she dumped the clothes. She removed her cap and was about to lose the buttons on her shirt when she realized that Jamal was still standing by the door. She stared at him pointedly.

“Can I stay?” She heard Jamal ask.

“Is that the one wish I owe you?” Roksolana asked.

“Of course not,” Jamal answered, leaving the door. Rocksolana heard him telling her to hurry up because her friends would be there soon.

Jamal sat down on a seat downstairs, he was tapping his foot as he waited for Roksolana to dress up. He was still tapping his foot when Aabdeen came in with two women and a young girl, all of whom he recognized as Roksolana’s friends. He watched as they looked around the house in amazement. When their eyes fell on him, they all bowed in shock.

“Sultan.” They chorused at once.

“Seyiddah!”

Jamal heard Roksolana shout from the stairs, while the woman stayed rooted in the same spot. Jamal gave them an order to be at ease in his presence and watched as the three of them ran to their friends, hugging her and checking her for injuries. He smiled as he watched Roksolana’s face lit up at the way her friends fawned over her. In a single day, four strange women had stepped foot into his house and it was because of Roksolana. Jamal found out that he didn’t mind at all and that it was worth it considering the smile on her face.

When they were done with their whispering, all four of them walked down the rest of the stairs and stood in front of him. One of them bowed in front of him and spoke.

“Thank you for finding Roksolana, Sultan.”

“I didn’t find her. Aabdeen did,” Jamal told the woman. She turned and bowed to Aabdeen before turning back to him again. “We are leaving now, as we will not like to disturb you.” She told him and all three of them bowed before him.

“I’ll be leaving with them,” Roksolana told the Sultan.

Jamal watched as all four of them walked out of the house. He heard some of his guards ask about Roksolana’s health and her cheerful response to them. He would give her friends just thirty minutes to spend with her and then he was taking her away. He was already feeling eager to use his one wish to get the one thing he had been longing for from her. Jamal rushed to his room, wrote a royal decree, and put his royal seal upon it. He dressed up after he was done and went back downstairs. Deciding that he couldn’t wait any longer, he signaled for Aabdeen to follow him.

Roksolana apologized to everyone for making them worried. She also promised them that she would plead to the Sultan so that he can release the kitchen head since she was back safely. She was still trying her best to explain why she had gone missing when everyone in the room fell to their knees. Roksolana turned to see who had come in to demand such respect and nearly froze when she saw Jamal standing by the door.

“What are you doing here?” Roksolana asked him. She heard soft gasps filling the room and she clapped her hand over her mouth. She had forgotten that they were in public.

“You forgot to take your medicine,” Jamal said with a smile, pointing to the medicine Aabdeen carried in a tray.

By now, the maids no longer bowed and simply watched the scene before them with interest. Roksolana walked to where the two men stood, grabbed the medicine, and drank it all, showing the empty plate to Jamal who simply smiled. Jamal turned to Aabdeen who dropped the tray in his hands and brought out a royal paper.

“A royal decree,” Aabdeen said loudly for everyone to hear.

Roksolana watched as everyone in the room, excluding the Sultan and Abdeen, bowed down again. She grudgingly did the same, wondering what the royal decree was about and who it was meant for.

“The maid, Roksolana shall from this moment henceforth no longer be a maid. She shall be a royal concubine for the Sultan. Every living thing on the Wadai’ sultanate is expected to accept the decree and show her the respect befitting for her. Anyone found disobeying this decree shall be put to death immediately,” Aabdeen read out.

Roksolana shot up her head. What? She was a royal concubine now? Why didn’t Jamal ask her first? She thought as Aabdeen walked to her and placed the decree in her hands. Everyone in the room all turned to her and bowed. Even Aabdeen bowed his head slightly towards her.

“Greetings, Lady Roksolana.” They all chorused.

Jamal walked towards her and lifted her up from her kneeling position.

“Why didn’t you ask me if I wanted this?” Roksolana asked him in a whisper.

“This is the way I want to use my one wish, Lady Roksolana,” Jamal answered. When Roksolana opened her mouth, Jamal placed a finger on it. “They are still waiting for you to tell them to rise.” He said, pointing to the maids.

Roksolana looked around and saw that everyone was still bowing to her.

“Seyiddah, get up. Everyone, please rise.” She told everyone.

“Thank you, Lady Roksolana.” They all said before rising.

So, she was back to being a lady? Roksolana thought. She couldn’t refuse to accept the position since she had promised to fulfill a wish of his. Besides, his people were all gathered around them, and refusing would mean that she wanted to insult him in their presence. Perhaps, she could help her people better this way.