DILRUBA : A tale of sweet revenge

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                           ꧁ ☪ *ೃ༄꧂
                          
                               R A B I A

"Innocence." He whispered and let out a mocking chuckle but it didn't sound like he was mocking me, it sounded more like he was mocking himself and the whole world. I was dumbfounded, perhaps because he was not the ugly looking fat Sultan I expected him to be but in reality he was the most handsome man I have ever seen. 

This World is also funny. The most beautiful face has the ugliest heart, but what is the use of the face if they have a heart of ice and stone. 

"You are more beautiful in person than in that portrait." He said and I came back to my senses. His lips curved upwards as he smirked down at me. He still had his fingers on my chin and anger took the best of me, I bit his fingers making him help in pain. 

"Allah," He cried out. "Woman, are you insane!?" 

"Yes!" I replied as I stood up and pointed my fingers accusingly at him. Have I lost my mind? Yes. "And so are you."

"Insolent!" He exclaimed in an unbelievable tone. Maybe he didn't expect me to bite his fingers or point my fingers at him and call him insane. But neither did I expect to be here biting his fingers but here we are. 

"Hatun, do you realize you can lose your head after those little stunts you keep pulling off." He said in a dangerously low tone as he took a step closer and that's when I realised how small I was compared to him. 

His aura made me uncomfortable. The way he walked, the way he talked demanded full submission. I despised it. 

"Don't think I don't know you tried to escape." He added. "If you try that again, I won't go easy on you."

"I will do it again." I said in a low tone as tears started forming in my eyes. "I will keep on doing it until I'm finally out of here."

"Sevgilim, don't waste your energy in vain." He said as he laughed at my words mockingly. "This is my palace. Not even the leaves here move without my knowledge. It will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to escape this place."

At this point tears were running down my eyes like a waterfall without a stop but I refused to wipe my tears nor step down. "I will try. I will keep trying, even if it means I'd lose my head in the process. I will keep trying."

He fell silent and stared at me with a mix of emotion. "You'd rather die than be here?"

"Yes," I replied stubbornly. "I will never love you or give birth to your children, Sultan Murad. A monster like you doesn't deserve love and care!"

"How can you play with someone's life like an animal!?" I spat at him viciously. "You don't see anyone below you as a human but as toys and animals. Do you even know the value of a human life?" 

"You had me abducted on my wedding day by a group of savage barbarians who almost killed me, sold me to you, brought me here and caged me like I was some kind of an animal and forced me to change my name too. What am I? An animal? Am I not a human? Is that how you people treat people here?" I went on and he kept on silently listening to me with a hard glare. 

"Not even animals are treated like the way you treated me."

"You may be the Sultan, the Padişah but you cannot force me to love you because you are deprived of love. Start treating people like they are human and not animals then they will love you without you forcing them to." I said. "You can force anything but not love, Sultan Murad. You will never hear me say the word love along with your name in the same sentence unless it is ‘I would love to see your destruction, Sultan Murad’."

"Enough!" He gritted out as his eyes burned in rage. "I'm the Sultan of the World, Sultan Murad Khan. I can have anything I want. I didn't bring you here to have your love, I brought you here because I wanted you. I'm the Sultan, I'm entitled to have the most beautiful things in the World and you," He pointed at me. "You are one of those things."

"I'm not a thing," I cried out and that's when my eyes fell on the knife sitting in the fruit basket on his table. I ran past him before grabbing the knife but he acted quick, he grabbed my arms. Wrong move. I closed my eyes and pushed the knife forward stabbing him but he didn't even flinch. 

I opened my eyes to see that I struck the knife on his right shoulder, 2 inches deep. His eyes moved from his wounds to my hand holding the knife and finally to my face. I gulped. My hands were trembling. I can't believe I stabbed someone. Not just someone but the Sultan. 

I stabbed someone. 

"The palace tainted your innocence too." He said before taking my hand away from the knife then taking the knife out. He didn't even blink an eye. 

"If you really want someone dead, go for the heart or the throat." He instructed me like I didn't just try to stab him. 

He took a white cloth from the table before wiping his hands that were drenched in his own blood while I was trembling like a cat that almost drowned. After wiping his hands clean he took my hands too. 

"Or they'll kill you before you can kill them." He added as he wiped my hands without moving his gaze away from mine. 

"But It will take more than a stab to kill me, Sevgilim." He said. 

I pulled my hands from his grasp before wiping my tears with the back of my sleeves. Will he punish me now? Of course he will. Is he going to put me in a sack and throw me in the cold water of Bosphorus like Maria said or will he feed me to his hungry lions like Çiçek said.

Then it hit me. What if he threw me into the cage of those hungry lions? 

Mistake. I've made a grave mistake. I shouldn't have stabbed him. At least not today. 

"Don't throw me to your hungry lions." I said in an inaudible tone making him lean in to listen to me. 

"What?" He asked. 

"I said don't throw me to your hungry lions." I repeated. "You can put me in a sack and throw me in the Bosphorus but don't throw me in the cage of the lions."

I have heard alot of stories of him throwing people to his lions from the girls in the Harem when we were in the Hammam together. They said he feed those people who dare to disrespect him to his lions who shred them to pieces and chew them clean. 

He laughed. "Who said I'll throw you to the lions?" He asked still laughing. 

"Çiçek said you throw people into the lions cage if they don't listen to you and disrespect you." I said as I scowled at him. His laughter died and he cleared his throat. 

"Well, she's right." He confirmed making my panic rise. "Now that you have disrespected me and tried to kill me, I think I'll feed you to my lions."

My eyes grew big and tears started rushing back. Today is my last day. I can't believe I'm going to die and not even a piece of my remains will be left to be buried. I will become a food to the hungry lions. I didn't even have a nightmare last night. 

"But you are too small for my lions to share." He said as he narrowed his eyes at my appearance. "If you listen to me, I'll spare you."

"No." I replied quickly. "I won't cause any more trouble in the palace. I won't stab you too and I'll listen to Nigar Kalfa. Just don't feed me to your lions."

"Very well then," He nodded. "You can go back but make sure you don't tell anyone about anything that happened here."

"Not even Leyla?" I asked. 

"Not even Leyla." He repeated. 

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