Chapter 4 How dare he

"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.