A SULTANA'S LIFE| MAGNIFICENT CENTURY| ✔️

CHAPTER 02

"Wake up" I was shaken awake for the third time since I've been captured. It has been three days since I've been captured, if it wasn't for them waking me up I wouldn't have known how much time has past.

"We're here let's go," the girl from the first day said making me sit up so fast I got dizzy.

"Here? Where's here?" I asked standing up and pulling up the cloak I was given a while back. I placed it over my shoulders before securing it at the front by a button.

"Istanbul," She said before pulling me out of the room for the first time in those three days. I couldn't help but take a deep breath from the refreshing air that was filled with the sea's scent.

I looked forward trying to hide my emotions as they walked me off the boat and over to the fancy looking carriage. I got in to see three other girls who looked just as bad as I did.

"Hello there, what's your name?" One of them asked nicely looking at me with a warm smile.

"Rose, you?" I asked looking at her.

"Malin," she said playing with the ends of her blonde locks. We both turned to a girl with almost white hair obviously from a foreign land.

"Emily," she said looking down shyly. I turned my gaze to the last girl in the carriage who had very curly hair that was almost red.

"Karla," she said when she noticed my gaze on her.

"Nice to meet you all, although I wish it was in better circumstances," I said sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck.

"You've also been kidnapped?" Malin asked turning her full body my way.

"Yes I'm from England; where are you from?" I asked.

"I'm from Poland, Emily is from there too, but Karla is from Ukraine," she said pointing at the girls who nodded their heads in confirmation.

There was a banging on the door of the carriage making us all jump as it opened again to show the same man that kidnapped me standing there.

"Come out your four," he said harshly making us scramble out like mice running away. We stood beside each other as a woman walked over to us.

I looked behind her to see the biggest castle I have ever seen in my life. It was even bigger than the castle in London, I've seen it only once ,I went with my father as he finished some paperwork he had in the castle since he was one of the staff members and needed
permission.

"Cennet hatun here are the girls" the man who bought me here, who I still don't know the name of, said pointing at us.

"Which one is the one Handan sultan asked for specifically?" She asked looking at us, her eyes lingered at me for a moment longer.

"This one," he said pulling me from the group and threw me in front of her. I almost lost my balance but managed at the last minute to keep myself up.

"Come with me all of you," she said and started walking towards the huge doors. We walked in behind her until we reached a huge hallway with an even bigger door to the side and that's where she walked in through.

"This is the Harem girls and that's where you'll be staying," she said in a hushed tone to not wake the sleeping girls that were sleeping on mattresses on both sides of the Harem.

"Now come along so you can take a bath before bed," she said and started walking in deeper.

After taking off our dirty clothes we walked into what they called a Hmam or in other words an Arabic bathroom. We were only covered by a small towel that barely reached my mid-thigh. The floor was really soft and slippery so they gave us wooden shoes to prevent us from falling down.

We stood in a line as a doctor looked us over to see if we were sick or had any infections because apparently if we ever met the Sultan privately, whatever she meant, and made him sick then it could cause bad things to happen.

I sat down on the marble beside a small sink that was filled with steaming hot water and what looked like a silver plate, I filled it with water and spilled the water over my head feeling my muscles relax as the warm water ran over my dirty skin.

After we finished our shower we were taken back to the Harem wearing sugary white dresses that were long enough to cover our ankles.

"Karla and Rose will sleep on this side, as you can see the Aghas prepared where you will sleep but only this once," she said and pointed at the mattresses that were prepared on the floor before she walked to the other side with Malin and Emily.

I laid down under the covers pulling them up to my chin whispering a "goodnight," to Karla who said it back before pulling out the cross again and prayed one last time that night feeling fear rise up even more in my system.

What happens to me now? What will fate hold for me? Do I have to prove myself like Cennet said? Or should I just continue living like the other girls here?

Cennet said that if a girl was lucky enough to spend a night with the sultan she will gain many enemies to herself but in return, she will gain more power than the other girls especially if she bore him children, specifically a son.

Not much different from other countries if you ask me, all kings want are sons and they don't really care about daughters; the only difference was that here it was always an illegitimate child and it's very rare for a sultan to marry and as Cennet said the last sultan to marry was Sultan Suleiman and that was a couple of sultans back from the current sultan.