Epilogue

A few months had passed.

Engin was mostly back to his old self.

He still thought of Zefra from time to time, though even those memories came less often now.

Siddin had promoted Naila to head maid.

The bundle of coins she had received for poisoning Prince Sheikh remained hidden in her cupboard.

Siddin remained Crown Prince.

Prince Sheikh survived the poisoning, but he never truly recovered. The entire left side of his body remained paralyzed, leaving him unable to walk or even lift his arm without assistance.

His speech returned only in broken sounds, never enough to form a sentence still he stubbornly refused to leave the room that had once belonged to Zefra.

Elsewhere in the palace, the chief eunuch inspected a line of women taken as prisoners of war.

Their men were dead. Their children had been sold. Some would enter the Crown Prince’s harem. Others would be sold or kept as servants.

He moved slowly along the line, lifting chins and examining faces and bodies before deciding where each woman would be sent.

Weeks later, Raya had survived the grueling selection process and earned the Prince’s favor. That night, attendants bathed her, perfumed her skin, arranged her hair, and prepared her to enter the Crown Prince’s chamber.

Raya held a maroon silk scarf against her chest and smiled.

Those who wear the crown carry its weight, but those beneath it suffer its consequences.