Novel Square
“It’s you?”
Roksolana let go of the dagger handle. Her mouth was wide open and her hands trembled. She had expected Jamal to dodge the sword. He could have dodged it easily, so why hadn’t he? Seeing him in pain hurted her beyond words. She ran to his side and helped him up.
“You really stabbed me, Dawn?” Jamal asked her, as he sat down on the bed.
He knew it was her? No wonder she had felt like he was just toying with her earlier.
“Why didn’t you dodge the attack?” Roksolana asked.
“Because… I wanted to… see if you would really… hurt me,” Jamal said, stretching each word.
A single tear slid down her face and she swiped it away.
“You stupid man. How was I supposed to know that you won’t dodge it?”
Jamal watched as Roksolana fawned over him, looking helpless and sorry. He decided to forgive her for attempting to kill him.
“Go away, Dawn.” He told her.
“No,” Roksolana said, holding his hands.
“I need to call the guards to get the physician, so they can’t find you here. Go,” Jamal told her, pushing her slightly towards the door.
Roksolana ran down to the floor of the house crying. She hurried into the bare room and climbed down the window. She ran to the side of the bush just beyond the window and waited to hear some commotion from the house to signal that the Sultan was being taken care of.
It was while she was still waiting for the noise that she thought that she saw a figure moving in the dark. Roksolana cleared the tears away from her eyes to be sure that she hadn’t imagined it. Sure enough, a man was at the window she had just escaped from trying to get into the house.
Roksolana became apprehensive as the person got into the house. The man had to have an evil motive for getting into the house through the window in the middle of the night. She got out of her hiding place and listened for rushing footsteps trooping into the house, but couldn’t hear any.
She got angry as she thought about how incompetent the Sultan guards were. Two strange people had broken into the room twice in a row and the guards hadn’t even found out anything. Roksolana wondered if the Sultan was okay and if the knife wasn’t as deep as she had thought.
Roksolana ran to the window and jumped in as she remembered that Jamal was badly injured. No matter how much of a good fighter he was, he wouldn’t be able to defend himself with the injury she had just given him. She grabbed a chair and ran up the stairs, banging the door of his room open as she got to its front.
Roksolana saw that the intruder was clad in black like her and he had his dagger suspended in mid-air, probably surprised by the sudden way she opened the door. The man turned to her and she saw that he was the same man who had tried to kill Jamal the last time through the mask on his face. She threw the chair in her hands at him, watching as it hit him in the arm. The impact threw the man off-balance and the dagger fell off his hands. Roksolana’s eyes fell on Jamal, cursing under her breath as she saw that he was unconscious.
The masked man turned to pick his dagger and Roksolana rushed into the room, pushing him far away from the dagger. She picked up Jamal’s sword before the man could regain his balance and slashed his arm. The man removed another dagger from his pocket and rushed towards Jamal with the weapon raised. Roksolana stopped the dagger from touching Jamal by placing her sword under the dagger and swiped it away from the Sultan. The masked man turned towards her and frowned at her before rushing towards her. Roksolana picked up another chair from the room and threw it at the man.
As the man defended himself against the chair, Roksolana slashed his upper chest with the sword and saw a burnt scar. Before she could ponder about the scar, the man attacked again. This time, Roksolana hit him with the tilt of the sword and kicked him hard in the stomach. When the man saw that he couldn’t win against her, he threw his dagger at her. Roksolana moved away from the dagger, it hit the wall and stayed there. As the man flew out of the window, Roksolana withdrew the dagger from the wall and threw it at him. She heard the man grunt a bit, a soft thud sounding from outside.
Roksolana waited for a minute more, listening for sounds. When she didn’t hear any, she moved to the window and closed it shut. She turned to look at Jamal’s unmoving form and fear took hold of her. Had she killed him? Didn’t he say that it was only a minor injury? Had he lied to her?
Dropping the sword in her hand, she rushed to Jamal’s side and shook him gently. When she didn’t get any response, she placed her ears on his heart and calmed down as she heard faint heartbeats. She shook him again, violently this time, and she heard Jamal groan in pain.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .
Unsure about what to do, Roksolana began to cry. She didn’t know if it was safer to remove the knife than leave it in him. She wondered about the supposed guards who were watching the Sultan. Haven’t they heard about the commotion while it went on? She thought about alerting them but quickly decided against the idea. For all she knew, they might be working for the intruder and that would put the Sultan in more danger than he already was. She had to convince the Sultan to change every one of them when he was alright. But for now, his health was paramount.
Roksolana sat down beside the Sultan and began to cry. He was in so much pain because of her carelessness. He could have also lost his life because of her and that is if he didn’t die from the wound she gave him. She held his hand and rested her head on the bed, still sobbing.
Roksolana felt someone standing behind her and turned. Her eyes grew round in recognition as she saw a man wearing an all-black attire standing behind her with a sword in his hand.
“It’s you?” Roksolana asked, surprised.
As the man moved towards her with the sword, Roksolana pushed the chest away from the table. Its loud thud as it hit the ground was the last thing Roksolana heard just before the man hit her with the hilt of his sword and she fainted. She hoped the sound was loud enough to draw the guards’ curiosity.