Captured For The Sultan’s Pleasure

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 down to her.

“Who… who are… you?” Roksolana managed to ask.

“Lady Miriam. And as of now, your mistress.” The woman answered.

This was the lady Miriam? The concubine? She’s so beautiful. Roksolana thought to herself.

“The Sultan gave you to me as my personal maid, which means that I don’t have to share the same maids with the rest of the harem ladies. From today, you will start living here. And, you are not allowed to work for any of them.” Lady Miriam told her.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Roksolana looked around at the room she was in. There was the bed she currently sat down on. Across the bed was a table, and sitting on it was a gold cipher, some books which were probably written in Arabic, a silver cup, and some knitting tools. There were also two gold chairs in the room, one of which the lady sat on. There was also a cupboard which Roksolana was sure was filled with clothing. If a servant room was this expensive, Roksolana wondered how the rest of the house was or even the harem.

“You are lucky to work for me. You are the first-ever personal maid this harem has. Plus, you don’t get to mingle with the rest of the servants. Express your gratitude to me now.” The woman commanded.

“Thank you, my lady,” Roksolana said to the woman.

“Good. What’s your name?” Lady Miriam asked.

“Roksolana, my lady.”

“Never mind, I’ll just call you maid.” Lady Miriam said.

The woman would be trouble, Roksolana realized. Seeing as none of the maids standing looked envious of her but rather looked sorry, she knew she probably should brace herself for whatever her future holds with the woman. She prayed it wasn’t more trouble than she already was in.

“The maid would be showing you to your room. And, you have two days to rest your back. If you don’t report back to duty on time, get ready to be punished.” Lady Miriam said.

A maid helped her put on some clothes and just like that, she was moved out of the beautiful room. She followed the maid through some dark corridor, out to what seemed like the back of the house they had just left. Roksolana couldn’t believe her eyes when the maid assigned to bring her to her room stopped in front of a house that looked like it could collapse at any point in time. She was even more surprised when they got into the room and she saw that there was no single piece of furniture in the room. The only thing in there was some straws which Roksolana guessed was the bed she was supposed to sleep on.

She saw the maid stretch her hands with some pieces of clothes in them and she collected them. Roksolana saw that they were the clothing of the lowest materials she had ever seen. Still, she smiled at the poor maid who looked embarrassed to be there.

“Thank you,” Roksolana told her.

“I’ll help you apply some medicines to your wounds.” The maid offered.

Roksolana lied down on the straw bed and pulled down the clothes she had managed to put on a few minutes ago. The maid applied the smooth paste in the small container she had brought out on the wound. Roksolana felt a little bit relieved each time the medicine touched the site of her injury. After the maid was done, she helped Roksolana cover herself up again.

“Thank you,” Roksolana told the maid.

“No. Thank you.” The maid replied. At Roksolana’s surprised look, the maid explained. “My brother was among those that were ordered to be killed by the Sultan. If it weren’t for you, I would be mourning him now.”

“He didn’t kill them?” Roksolana asked surprised. She remembered seeing them when she was about to faint then, but she thought she was hallucinating.

“No. For a reason, he simply told them to each get thirty strokes of the cane each.” The maid explained.

So, she hadn’t got beaten in vain. Her efforts had paid off. She didn’t mind the discomfort she felt anymore, since she had been able to save the lives of people.

“Do everything Lady Miriam asked you to. She’s currently the favorite mistress of our Sultan and he does everything for her. Just pray she is always happy and you would enjoy your stay with her.” The maid said.

“What happens if she isn’t happy?” Roksolana asked out of curiosity.

The maid went on to feed Roksolana some titbit of events that have happened around the current favorite mistress. How she had boiled water and poured it on another mistress simply because she felt the Sultan wasn’t giving her enough attention. How she had ordered a maid’s hand be chopped off just because she didn’t place her jewelry nicely. How she had ordered a man’s eyes to be removed claiming the man had stared at her for two seconds more than necessary. The maid told Roksolana how Lady Miriam maltreated everyone at the harem until the Sultan got her a separate house to live in. The maid told Roksolana how every maid in Wadai’ tribe avoided going to her place to serve her.

After the maid was done, Roksolana realized that Jamal had deliberately made her a slave to the cruel woman on purpose. Why he did that was what she couldn’t comprehend. She was still trying to figure out why he would change towards her all of a sudden. Maybe she slapping him had made his ego surface or maybe because she had rejected him despite being the Sultan.

“Just be careful.” The maid told her.