Chapter 4 Three

A week ago.

Mirza helped me remove the sultan's robe; I stopped when I was about to remove his clothes. No, I need to lift his shirt; the wound is near his left waist. Mirza again helped me to raise the sultan's clothes. I doused the wound with alcohol and then doused my hands; I heard the sultan groan in pain.

"Hold a moment, Your Majesty, I will stop the bleeding. "Mirza, you look for help; maybe the palace is looking for His Majesty now. However, he must immediately return to the palace."

Mirza obediently followed my instructions and immediately ran out of the warehouse to seek help, leaving me alone with the sultan.

I carefully cleaned the sultan's wound with a lump of cotton that was not too big and immediately covered the injury with a clean cloth that was quite thick. It seems like the injury is quite deep, and I don't have the proper medicine or tools to treat it. I looked at the sultan; he appeared to be shivering. I put the back of my hand to his forehead. Oh, Lord! His body was scorching. I immediately checked the cotton for blood and smelled the blood, and my eyes widened.

Could he have been poisoned?

I immediately turned to my medicine box and took something to rub on the stab wound directly. After that, I replaced the cloth I used to cover the injury with new gauze and immediately bandaged the wound.

"Your Majesty, you can hear me? "Drink this to relieve the pain," I said while handing him the pain reliever I had made myself.

"Your Majesty," I said in a half-whisper and trembling. He must get help immediately. The next second, he tried to open his eyes. The golden net is so beautiful when it reflects the firelight from the oil lamp. I was stunned for a moment.

"Tahira...," he whispered, which made me frown for a split second.

"Your Majesty, drink this; it will help reduce your pain."

With slow and weak movements, he took the medicine I offered him and drank it. It is a chewable medicine made from herbal plants. I rechecked my medicine box, and the sultan spoke again.

"Tahira..."

My movements stopped, and my body turned towards him. We looked at each other; he looked at me with his glazed eyes.

"You want to kill me? Why does this medicine taste so bitter?" He spoke softly; I frowned momentarily, then smiled to hide my laughter.

"Your Majesty, if I were trying to kill you, I wouldn't do anything," I said. I looked again at the bandage. Hopefully, the bleeding had stopped.

"Do you have other interests with me?" He asked. I looked at him for a while, not understanding the question's meaning.

"Do I look like that?" I answered him with a question. He just fell silent.

"Your Highness, Let me tell you a little about myself; I am just a tramp. Every day, I only think about how I can survive until my death. I don't have anyone in this world, and you still ask and feel suspicious that I have certain interests with you??!" I smiled while pouting, then said, "That's ridiculous."

We stared at each other for a few moments; then, I chose to turn to my medicine box. Looking at the sultan made my heart flutter, and it was strange.

"You look familiar," he said, making me immediately turn to him.

"Oh yes?! Of course, all vagabonds might have come to the palace and begged for food, but Mirza and I never thought of doing that."

"Why? You will get food there."

I smiled mockingly.

"I never taught to beg; as long as I can still try, I will do it; after all, God has guaranteed my share in this world, which can never exchanged, let alone stolen."

My hand reached out to check his temperature, but he put one of his hands to my face and stroked it gently. I was shocked and stunned by his actions. No man had ever touched me like this. I wanted to step back, but my body seemed to be locked by something. Then he, with an effortful movement, leaned his body towards me so that we were very close.

"What is Your Majesty trying to do?" I asked quietly, feeling wary.

She smiled a beautiful smile even though her face looked pale. I couldn't even do anything and dodge when the sultan kissed me right on my lips.

I was shocked; this was my first time. And I just stood still. I wanted to reprimand by saying something, but what happened was that our kiss became more passionate. This sensational kiss made me lost; when I heard the hoofbeats, I immediately turned around in surprise and ended our kiss by going to the barn door. That's better; apart from giving me time to recover from the shock and regain consciousness, I also want to neutralize my disturbing heartbeat. I opened the warehouse door and found Mirza and a man wearing a dark brown velvet robe approaching me.

"His Majesty is inside; I'm just giving first aid to his wound," I said, and the man immediately entered the warehouse after giving a code to the two other men who had come with him.

"Where did you meet him?" I asked when Mirza and I were still standing in the warehouse doorway while the sultan was trying to be carried by the robed man and another man who came with him.

"On the way when I looked for help. "He just happened to be passing by on the road. I stopped him and asked for help; it turned out he was the royal Commander looking for His Majesty's whereabouts," said Mirza. I nodded once, then turned to the men walking towards us.

"Thank you for helping him," said the man in the brown robe who was the royal Commander. Mirza and I bowed respectfully.

"It is our duty to protect your majesty," I answered. Then, the royal Commander took something from inside his robe pocket.

"Take this as a reward for what you did for His Majesty."

The Commander handed me several gold coins; I immediately accepted them amazedly and bowed in thanks.

"Don't tell anyone about this incident," he said before he left and got a definite answer from us. I looked at the commander-in-chief before he left; for some reason, his eyes were different, surprised and confused. I don't know; maybe it's just me, or is he like that when dealing with new people?

Does he suspect us?

Various assumptions ran through my head and made me a little scared.

"Hopefully, your majesty is fine," Mirza said, making me turn to him. I remembered the kiss again and unconsciously touched my lips; my face felt as if it was burning.

But why did he kiss me? Is he drunk?

"You are okay?"

With a surprised face, I turned to Mirza.

"Y-yes! I'm fine. Come on, let's sleep; it's late," I said, turning around to avoid looking at her. Mirza is very sensitive; she can tell if I am hiding something or being distracted by something.

"Where do you want to sleep?" Her question stopped me from entering the fruit warehouse.

"How about here? Besides, Uncle Zaidan let me sleep here tonight and eat as much fruit as I can."

"Is it true?" Mirza's voice, shrill with excitement, pierced my ears. I groaned and covered my hungry ears. We went into the warehouse; I packed the medicine box, the cotton, and the bloody gauze. I grabbed the gauze I had previously used to cover the sultan's wound. And the kiss came back to me, too disturbing.

"You think he'll be okay?" Mirza squatted before me, staring at the bloody gauze in my hand now.

"Yes, he must be fine; the palace will treat him very well," I answered, then chose to roll up the gauze and put it in a pile. My medicines and closed the medicine box.

"What do you think happened to your Highness?" Mirza is still curious. We chose to lie down some distance from the pile of fruit on a burlap sack that was slightly torn at the bottom.

"I don't know, but he seems to have been poisoned," I answered, making an assumption.

"Is it true? Will he die?" Mirza asked with a worried face. My gaze turned to the ceiling of the warehouse roof.

"Hopefully not, why are you worried?" My eyes started to close, and sleep began to caress me.

"He's our Sultan, our king; who would take care of the city as well as him?"

I smiled mockingly.

"He doesn't care about people like us, go to sleep," I ordered in a sleepy voice and soon fell asleep. That night, the sultan's kiss became one of the dreams that adorned my sleep.