where am I?” he muttered, swaying. He was clearly drugged.
“Get out!” Azra shouted. “Leave now!” But before either of them could do anything, the door flew open again.
And this time there were five witnesses. Servants from the harem, eunuchs, and at the front of them all, with a poisonous smile on her lips, stood Defne. “Good Lord,” Defne said with fake shock. “What do we have here?”
“The sultan’s favored servant with a man in her room.” Azra felt the world drop out from under her. “No. This is a setup.”
“He came in without—” “Enough,” Defne snapped. Then she turned to the others.
“You all saw it. A man in this woman’s room. The punishment for adultery is death.”
Less than an hour later, Azra was in chains. The guards dragged her to the cells without listening to a word she said. Guard Tarik, still dazed from the drug, was locked in another cell.
Neither of them fully understood what had happened, but Azra did. Or at least enough of it. This was Sofia Sultan.
Now it all fit. The drugged guard. The conveniently timed witnesses. Defne’s smile. They were all pieces on a board she had not even known she was standing on.
The news reached Sultan Selim at dawn. He was in his chambers when Nasir entered, his face pale. “My sultan, there is something you need to know.”
“Say it.” “It’s… it’s the servant Azra, my lord.” Selim stiffened at once.
Something in his chest tightened with a force he barely recognized. “What about her?” “She’s been arrested.”
“A guard was found in her room last night. There are witnesses. She’s been accused of… adultery.”
The silence that followed was crushing. Selim did not move. He did not speak. For a moment he looked like a statue carved from stone.
Then, slowly, his hand closed into a fist. Hard enough that his knuckles turned white. “Who brought the accusation?”
“Witnesses from the harem, my sultan. Five people say they saw her with the guard Tarik.” “Who brought the accusation?”
Nasir swallowed. “The formal complaint was made by the concubine Defne and… and supported by the queen mother.” Again that terrible silence.
Selim knew his mother. Knew her games, her manipulations, her need for control. For years he had tolerated it because, whatever else she was, she was still his mother.
But this… “I want to see the prisoner,” he ordered. “Now.”
The cells beneath Topkapi were a world away from the splendor above. Damp, dark, and thick with the smell of mold and despair. This was where traitors, thieves, and those who had offended the empire came to die.
And now Azra was there. When the door opened and torchlight spilled in, she lifted her head. Her eyes, swollen from crying, widened when she saw who had come.
“Selim,” she whispered. He came to her and crouched before the bars. The sight of her chained hands, torn dress, and tear-streaked face struck him like a blow.
Something inside him gave way. “Tell me it isn’t true,” he said in a rough voice. “Tell me this is a lie.”
“It is a lie,” Azra answered, and tears spilled again. “I swear on my father’s memory, on everything sacred to me, I never touched that man. He came into my room drugged.”
“When I realized he was there, the witnesses appeared seconds later. It was a trap, Selim. Someone—”
“My mother,” he finished, closing his eyes. “You know?” “I do.”
“I know her methods. I know her poison.” Selim opened his eyes and looked at her with such force that she caught her breath. “But I also know the truth, Azra.”
“I see it in your eyes. I always have.” “Then you believe me?”
He reached through the bars and took her hand. Their fingers locked together in the dark. “I do,” he said.
“I believed you from the first day you looked at me without fear. From the first time you spoke to me as a man and not just a sultan. I believe you because I know you.”
“Selim,” she whispered, holding his hand as if it were the only thing keeping her alive. “But the law… There are witnesses. Five of them.”
“I know what the law says.” “The law says I have to die.”
Selim looked at her steadily. In his eyes was something she had never seen before—absolute resolve. “The law also says the sultan is the highest authority in the empire,” he said.
“That my word outweighs any testimony. That I, and only I, decide who lives and who dies.” “Selim, you can’t go against your own mother for me.”
“I’m only a servant.” “No.” His voice cut through the air.
“You are not only a servant. Not to me. Not for a long time now.” He rose, but did not let go of her hand. “Tomorrow there will be a hearing. The whole court will be there, and I will have to choose between tradition and truth.”
“And what will you choose?”
