by Dan Davis
“They had to be driven out and frightened into submission. You could not have done otherwise.”
“I was foolish to think I could unmake the ancient feuds of those lords. It would have only worked if I could have killed every one of them and their entire families. And that would be killing Wallachia herself. My methods enabled me to take and hold my crown. But now my people are shattered and my enemies gather.”
“You shall weather the storm. You will endure.”
“Yes. But why?”
“To defend your people.”
He looked at me with something in his eyes. “You are not a subtle man, Richard. That is where you differ from your brother. You have cunning on the battlefield and in any feat of arms. But in politics, you have no subtlety at all.”
“Of this, I am aware.”
“And I am no different from you. I have never sought compromise or conciliation. It is not in my nature, as it is not in yours. My brother, however, is a peacemaker. Radu is a diplomat at heart and always sought to ease tensions and calm conflict throughout our youth, whether in childish games or in training or when William and I fell to arguing.”
“You argued with William often?”
Vlad sighed, looking up at the dark beams of the vaulted ceiling. “As a son might argue with his father, perhaps. A father and son of differing temperaments. And Radu would stand between us and profess his love for us both and beg that we calm ourselves.”
“Radu said he loved William? Is that true? Was this before William… violated him?”
Drinking down his wine, he called for more. “No. I think William loved Radu almost as much as Radu adored William. I speak as if it were all in the past for of course it is so for me but I do not doubt that their love endures even now. Radu begged William to give him the Gift of his blood but William said always that Radu was too young and he had to wait until he had grown into his prime years. And even then, William was reluctant to grant my brother what he wanted.”
“Why would he not do so? He uses his blood to bind followers to him. It is what he attempted to do with you.”
“Indeed and my own immortality was a source of great despair for Radu. He could not understand why William would give me the Gift, when William and I disliked each other so strongly, and at the same time deny it to Radu. But it was because of his love for him that William did withhold it, of that I am certain. He did not want my brother to become like one of us. Drinkers of blood, tied to the consumption of it, and denied the hope of a natural life. He tried to explain it to Radu but my brother heard only rejection. You are so pure, so beautiful. It would be an act of desecration to destroy you. Words such as that. But Radu wished only to be with William forever and William eventually promised that he would give him the Gift, in time. If he did not change his mind.”
“You said they had love for each other. But from the way you speak, it sounds almost as though they were tender with each other. I can scarcely believe it.”
Vlad took a sip and stared down into his drink. “They were, at times, I am sure. Radu is the fairest man in the world and his nature was always sweet and gentle but he is not a weakling. He has a sharp enough mind. I think William set out to make him his by seducing him body and soul but somehow William in turn became bewitched by Radu. They were at times like lovers, yes, but also like brothers, or a father and a son, or friends of the deepest kind, in the Greek tradition. Like Achilles and Patroclus or Alexander and Hephaestion.”
“And you did not try to save Radu from this wicked, perverse relationship?”
His head snapped up and he glared at me. I held his gaze and then he slumped, shrugging. “At first, I did try, but Radu would never speak of ending it. And soon my contempt for him overcame my pity. I resolved to abandon him to the fate he had chosen for himself in his weakness. As I say, I have never been a subtle man. Now I am older, I see that I should have tried harder. He is my brother and the bonds of family should be stronger than anything else. I should have sought compromise so that he was not entirely lost to me. But I did not and now I find that he is working hard to replace me in my own kingdom. And so now what should I do, Richard? Harden my heart once more and fight him to the death, throwing my surviving Wallachians against him and his Wallachians until only one of us is left alive?”
“Yes.”
Dracula scoffed, shaking his head.
“What else can you do, Vlad? If you give yourself up, he will have no choice but to have you killed.”
He pursed his lips. “I could flee. Take myself into exile.”
“You are the Voivode of Wallachia.”
It was as though he could not hear me. “I thought I could change the pattern. That I would be the prince for years, for decades, bringing stability and peace and safety to my people. Instead, I find I am just one more name in the litany of Wallachian princes. If I had been a shrewd prince, as Radu will be, then I might have turned the boyars, made them my allies, instead of enemies.” He threw back his head and downed the contents of his goblet before waving his servant over for more. “But a man cannot change his nature.”
I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. For years, I had thrown my lot in with this man and had helped him to defend his kingdom against the mightiest army on earth and just when we had won, he was throwing it all away.
“All you did here was for your people.”
He nodded slowly. “That is true. I swore I would do whatever was needed to save them. I would take any action required, no matter if it was a great sin or if it caused me personal danger or even humiliation. And so I find that I must follow this oath again by giving myself up in the interests of my people. By staying, even if I win the battle for the throne, it will be they that will suffer most.”
“But what about William? He must be killed.”
He pointed a finger at me. “That is your sacred quest, not mine.”
“But Radu will be a puppet of Mehmed and William. Our enemies are still the same. And you are simply walking away? Giving up everything we have fought for?”
He smiled. “I will not be dead, Richard. Merely biding my time for more favourable circumstances.”
“Such as what?”
He opened his arms, as if gesturing at his hall, at Târgoviște, at his kingdom beyond. “The boyars will grow tired of Radu, in time. His heart is too soft to rule. There will be rumours of his blood drinking and he will make many errors by trusting this boyar or that one. And in time, my people will want change. They always do. And I will be ready. My lands will have healed by then and the people will have grown fat once more.”
I could not think of anything that would change his mind. “But it will be as though Wallachia has fallen to the enemy. Radu will have Turks at his court. And he will do what William commands him to do.”
“And if William is foolish enough to come to Târgoviște, we shall come back and kill him, you and I.”
I scoffed. “You expect me to come with you? Into exile?”
He could not meet my eye. “If I asked it, would do you do so?”
“I cannot simply wait in the distance for years for things to change. I must stop my brother.” I took a deep breath. “And to do that, I need the sluji. William still has his immortals and so I need mine. I must stop him, Vlad.”
Dracula shrugged, as if it was no matter. “You must. And you should take the sluji. They are yours. Loyal to you. It is your blood in their veins, not mine.”
“I will take them, then,” I said. “But take them where?”
“You may go where you wish,” he said, sipping from his goblet. “I would have you go to my cousin Stephen and aid him. The hammer blow will almost certainly fall upon Moldavia next.”
“And where will you go?”
Vlad looked up again, leaning his head on the back of his throne. “I think I shall lose myself in Transylvania. Perhaps there will be some friends who will give me sanctuary. I will have to disguise myself in some way, perhaps as a merchant. Can you imagine
such a thing? It might even be amusing.”
“Radu will pursue you.”
“He is not the soldier that I am.”
“I will go with you. I will bring the sluji out of Wallachia along with you and we will fight off any attempt to take you. When you are safe and if Stephen will give us sanctuary, I will take the sluji to Moldavia and continue the fight.”
Dracula leaned forward and held out a hand to me, which I grasped. “You have been a good friend to me, Richard. That is just what we shall do. We must make our preparations in secret and then move without delay. All those men loyal to me who will face retribution if they stay must be urged to join us or to make their own preparations. I will leave you to speak to the sluji.”
When I returned to my quarters and summoned my companions, they were distraught to say the least. I had to have the same arguments I had just gone through with Dracula, and with myself, all over again.
“Are we going to, you know,” Walt said, dragging a thumb across his neck. “After all, if he’s not helping us no more then he’s just one of William’s immortals. And we all know what we swore to do with respect to William’s immortals.”
“I hate to say it but Walt is correct,” Stephen said. “We did our best as far as this land is concerned but it could not be saved. It is time to take our losses and put an end to it.”
“No,” I said. “There is still more that he could do for us.”
“I understand that you do not want to harm him,” Eva said. “Because you like him.”
“He is a good man.”
Stephen scoffed. “How can you say those words without them sticking in your throat? He is a monster. Surely, you can see that, Richard? Or perhaps you cannot.”
“Because I am a monster myself, Stephen, is that your meaning? Do not beat about the bush, if so. You may quake in your boots at the monstrous things he has done but they were enough to break the spirit of the Turks, were they not?”
“Our night attack on their camp broke their will. Wounded their Sultan.”
“What is that you say, Stephen? Our night attack? That is very interesting as I do not recall seeing you there.”
“You ordered me to stay away!”
“Because of your utter incompetence as a soldier, yes, which you display here again. It was a remarkable feat, beating that army with a band of peasants. Have you ever heard the like of it done before? Where has it been done? Is there word of it in your books of history? Tell me.”
He stood before me, almost shaking, but he kept his voice level. “It was done by the sluji and by your skill as a captain in leading them, not our dear prince or his useless boyars. This is not a proper kingdom, Richard. It is a loose collection of mountain clans who can never be ruled. We should never have spent so much time and effort here. Now we must leave and nothing has been accomplished at all. Everything is precisely as we left it only tens of thousands now lie dead and this country is ravaged.”
Eva spoke quickly so that I would not argue against Stephen’s words. “What is done is done,” she said. “It is in the past. We have fought William and his pet Sultan to a standstill where if not for our presence he would have conquered. We all agree that is true.” She looked at Stephen and he avoided her gaze but nodded his assent. “And we also agree that Vlad broke the will of our enemy but he also broke the strength of his people. More than that, from what Richard tells us, it seems Vlad has broken his will also. This is a land, a people, and a prince who are shattered. All we must decide is what to do now. What now brings us closer to William’s death?”
“Whatever we do next, we cannot do it from here,” I said. “Vlad Dracula is fleeing his kingdom. We shall go with him. And then I shall decide where we go next. But know this. Our quest remains the same as it ever was. We will find a way to kill William.”
Rob cleared his throat and spoke quietly from the corner. “We might never come back to this place. To this kingdom. Ever. It might be destroyed, overrun. It might become a new part of Rumelia.”
We all stared at him.
“Yes, Rob,” I said, knowing he would not speak unless he had something important to say. “That is so.”
“Well, we never did go to that monastery, did we. Remember, that old dear up near Poenari with the story about her immortal husband. We always said we would go there when we had a spare few days. But we were so busy with the sluji and everything that we just put it off. Because it seemed there was always time in the future to do so.”
I nodded. “But if we do not go now, we may never go at all.”
“Leave it,” Walt said. “Who cares about that batty old bird and her nonsense? We ain’t riding down south with Radu and his cavalry charging about the lowlands.”
“She said they knew about immortals at Snagov. If that is true, it is not an opportunity we should pass up.”
“That may be,” Stephen said, “but we do not have time to ride there before our prince and the rest of the men flee the city. We must not be left behind in the country. What if our route of escape is cut off? What then?”
“We can be there and back in three days. There is time enough.”
Walt raised his hand. “Does any of us reckon there is anything to find? All we’ve heard is stories from old Serban and a mad old peasant woman. If once there was immortals in this country, they are probably gone. If they weren’t, we’d have run into them by now, wouldn’t we? And, I might add, if there are any sneaking around, so what? Why do we even care about them?”
“They would come from the children of Priskos,” Eva said. “They might know something useful.”
“That is true,” Stephen said.
“Wasting our time,” Walt sighed.
“It is three days, Walter,” I said. “We will be back here in no time and thence to exile.”
“Just us?” Eva asked. “The Order.”
I nodded. “Just us, and Serban, if you can find him.”
***
The monastery at Snagov was on a small island in the middle of a long, narrow lake and we crossed to it by an ancient boat moored on the shore for just that purpose. The people in the village said it was used to ferry supplies to the monks, who they spoke of in hushed tones.
Other than the stone buildings of the rather small monastery, the island was green with fruit trees and the kitchen gardens where monks or lay servants hoed the earth. It was actually quite lovely and I felt peaceful just looking at it and decided that no matter what the monks had to say on the matter, I was glad that I had come.
Vlad had not really understood my desire to visit, when I had gone to him before we left Târgoviște.
“If you are abandoning me, Richard, at least have the courage to say so.”
I frowned. “You think that I would skulk away like a coward? Is that truly what you think?”
He sighed. “No. But why ask them about immortals? They have never mentioned anything to me about it and I have been there many times.”
“You have?”
He puffed out his chest. “I gifted them a new bell tower, a chapel, and a new roof. I even offered to build them a bridge to the mainland. They declined.”
“Very generous of you, I am sure. I heard a rumour that they have some knowledge of immortals. All I will do is ask them to share it and return here.”
“Why would they have such knowledge?”
I shrugged. “Perhaps an old text in their possession?”
Vlad snapped his fingers. “That will be it. They have a magnificent library there. The monk in charge of it, decrepit old fellow, blind as a mole but sharp up here. Very well, then, I shall see you when you return. If they give you any trouble, remind them of the bags of florins their prince bestowed upon their house.”
“I will do so,” I had replied.
There was a monk in his black cassock waiting for us on the island landing as we moored the boat. He was a young man but he had a rather magnificent beard.
“You are welcome, my lord,” he said, smiling bu
t hesitant.
“No doubt you are wondering why I have come,” I replied. “I have questions regarding certain legends and I am told that you men here know the answers.”
He frowned and opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. The monk looked over his shoulder at the monastery buildings and then past me out over the lake, still frowning. “Perhaps you should speak to the hegumen, my lord,” he said, finally. Hegumen was their word for the abbot.
“Perhaps I should,” I said, smiling. “Well, lead the way, brother.”
As we set off toward the buildings, Stephen hurried up behind me and whispered in my ear. “Actually, the common form of address for a monk here is father, not brother.”
I turned around to tell him to shut up and saw Serban was on the dockside still. “Serban, what are you doing? Come on, I need you.”
He slumped sullenly up the bank. “Someone should guard the boat, sir.”
“Guard it against these dangerous monks, Serban?” I asked. “Come on.” Still, he hesitated so I grasped him by the shoulder and shoved him into motion in front of me.
The handsome buildings were of a pale golden sandstone and the trees, and fruit bushes were neatly pruned and the pathways smartly swept. Evening sunlight glowed from the walls of the new bell tower. Before we entered the monastery, three monks emerged from a dark archway and came to meet us. The foremost of them was a man of middle age, his beard tinged with white.
“Ah, here is the abbot now,” the monk from the dock said.
“Welcome, my lord,” the abbot said, as we drew to a stop in the long shadows. “I am Abbot Ioánnis.”
“I am Richard Ashbury, a soldier in service of Prince Vlad.”
“Ah,” he said, his eyes widening. “I have heard so much about you.”
“You have?”
“You have come far and arrived late. It is almost vespers and I am sure you and your men will require refreshments. Do you intend to stay for the night?”
“If you would allow it, father, and if you have space. The villagers will put us up if not.”
