by Dan Davis
We rode out in a long column, with the vanguard far ahead out of sight consisting of Vlad’s cavalry and behind them a core of lightly armoured veteran infantry, mostly survivors of Vlad’s peasant armies and led by his peasant officers. Then Vlad and his bodyguard rode at the head of the rear guard which was formed mostly of his bodyguard and fine troops they were.
I rode behind with the sluji and at the rear traipsed the monks and the lay brothers and other servants, some pushing hand carts and others leading ponies.
Radu I kept hooded and chained at the rear of my company, guarded by two trustworthy sluji under orders to keep him safe but above all to stop him riding off. Despite his seeming sincerity and newfound piety, I could never trust a man who had been for so long under William’s thrall.
If all went well then we would sleep within the safety of Bucharest that night and in the morning could send out scouting parties to watch for the approach of William’s Turks and begin planning our ambushes.
By the middle of the morning, Vlad rode back along the column and fell in beside me. We rode along a track with trees close by each side, the shadows beneath cold and still.
“I understand why you did as you have done,” he said without preamble. “Until this morning I had not understood just how well you played your part.”
“My part?”
“Your performance as a mortal man. As a crusader and a mercenary captain. Even though I knew what you were, how long you had lived and what you had done, I still believed in your subservience.” He smiled, his moustache lifting, and a brief laugh escaped from beneath. “And yet it was all pretence. You see yourself as a man above kings. You obey what orders you wish and ignore the ones that do not meet your aims. And you manipulate your superiors into doing what you wish. Even the lords and princes that do not really care for you, still they see you as a straight speaking and morally upright man. But all the while you hold our hierarchy in contempt while you stand above it.”
I rode in silence for a while to collect my thoughts while Vlad rode smiling beside me. We left the close confines of the wood and came out onto a long section of road where the woodland had been cleared. On both sides were wide and long meadows but they were covered in nothing but clumps of low weeds. The rear guard ahead of us filed through the woods where they closed tight by the road again beyond the meadow.
“I will not disagree with all you say,” I said, finally. “There is truth to much of it. But I do not see myself as above a king. It is impossible for me and my close companions to fit within a mortal nation. We have many times attempted to do so but as you say it is more a dramatic performance than it is truth. We live in a city or pose as a lord but we have no father and mother that we can admit to and so we seem to come from nowhere. We have no brothers and cousins with which to make a family. And we can make no children of our own to raise and any that we might adopt will age while we will not. Not in a natural sense. When we fight as mortal soldiers, we must hide our need for blood from our comrades and so we can never be at peace amongst them. As for kings and princes, I have known so many, both good and bad, that the inherent power of their authority has somewhat lost its ability to cower me. We are not above anyone, as such, but we are outside of them. We are the eternal mercenary, doomed to wander and to never fit within a nation, even our own.”
“What of my future as a prince?” Vlad asked. “If we as immortals are doomed to live outside of our nation, do you believe it impossible for an immortal to sit on a throne?”
“Impossible?” I sighed, thinking of Priskos and his claims that Alexander the Great was his grandchild, just as I was. Alexander and Caesar and other kings. All met their brutal ends. “How many kings have—”
I was cut off by the mighty blasts of coordinated firearms on both sides of our column. Hundreds of hand-gunners discharged their weapons and the men and horses around me, in front and behind were hit. Steel pinged and men cried out in pain and panic.
Horses fell and men fell with them. Ahead, I watched the cavalry of the rear guard riding one way and another in panic.
“We must charge the enemy!” Vlad shouted, drawing his sword and pointing across the meadow to the edge of the trees where clouds of smoke drifted from the shadows.
It would ordinarily be good advice but I knew it had to be William commanding this force. My mind rushed with realisations. William had somehow discovered my own plans and ambushed me instead from a prepared position. There could be stake pits, trenches or other defences that would cut charging Wallachian cavalry down before it reached the Janissaries beyond.
“Ride back for the sluji!” I shouted at Vlad and took my own advice, wheeling my horse and urging him back towards my immortal company.
Another blast ripped through the air and then another., far mightier than hand-guns.
They were cannons, firing from the head of the column behind me. Whether it truly was William or Basarab or Turks, they had planned their ambush well.
“Where is Radu?” I shouted at Eva.
“Who cares?” Stephen cried out. “We must flee!”
“William will be after him, you fool. Perhaps coming for him in person. Where is Radu now?”
“Rear,” Eva said, pointing. “Put your amour on, first, Richard, please.”
“There is no time,” I replied.
“A helm at least,” Eva said, fighting to control her horse.
“I will go get Radu,” Rob said. “Bring him here.”
“Very well. While you are there, tell the damned monks to flee into the woods if they have not already.”
He nodded and wheeled his horse around. I called to my captains.
“Put on what armour you can, quickly. We must act decisively but not foolishly. And listen, we must use the sluji to kill William. Zaganos Pasha is here and here is where he will die. Your enemies the Blood Janissaries have come to kill Prince Vlad Dracula but we will kill them. Arm yourselves, now. We will ride around this flank. Bring up the hand-gunners, we will advance behind them.”
Two of the sluji came galloping up from the rear. “My lord,” one cried. “Master Robert sends word. Please forgive us, my lord, we did not know.”
“Know what?” I shouted. “What is the message?”
“He said you had sent him for the chained monk and we released him to him. But then Rob came and asked for the same thing. He has chased after him and the monk. Heading due east, into the woods.”
“Can you understand what these fools are saying?” I asked Eva. “Who did you release the chained monk to? Who is Rob chasing?”
“It was Serban, my lord. Please, forgive me.”
My mind raced. Serban had freed Radu and led him away? What it meant, I did not know, other than one thing.
“We are betrayed,” I said to Eva. “Serban has betrayed us.”
“Let him go,” Eva said. “Rob will catch him.”
“One handed? No, I will go and I will bring Radu back here.”
“He is not important!” Eva cried.
“He is our bait,” I snapped. “William will take him and run. I will not lose him again.”
“Let someone else do it.”
I ignored her. “Vlad!” I rode quickly to where he was shouting a stream of orders. “Radu has been taken from the rear. Taken to William. I will bring him back.”
“Why?” he said.
“William wants him. He is my bait. You command the sluji and attack one flank of the enemy, there. Break through the men there and join the rest of your army. If we are separated, I will see you at Bucharest.”
I turned and rode toward the rear, past my immortal soldiers. It seemed wrong to abandon them but I knew Vlad would lead them well enough and I would return to them soon. Worse would be abandoning Rob and losing my one chance at snaring my brother.
Walt, Eva and Stephen fell in behind me and a handful of squires came with us. The group of monks were standing together at the rear with the lay brothers in the centre, the abbot at the forefron
t. He waved his hand to beckon me to him.
“You should flee, you fools,” I shouted, “you will be killed.”
“We shall stay,” the abbot said, firmly. “None shall kill us.”
“The bloody Turks will,” I cried. “Where is Radu?”
“Gone. There.” He pointed through the woods. “You should flee also, Richard. Do not pursue him. Let Serban go, he is nothing but trouble.”
I left them to their impending deaths and rode in the direction he had indicated. We had not gone far into the cold dark of the woodland before I found three bodies upon the ground.
Throwing myself from the saddle I found Rob on his back with a sword thrust up through his neck and out of the top of his skull. His eyes were open and unseeing and he lay soaked in blood.
“God, no,” I cried. “Rob!”
A few steps away, Radu lay on his back in his monk’s robe, alive for the moment but clutching at his throat where it had been cut. Blood gushed through his fingers, soaking his robe, and when his eyes met mine they were wild. He knew he was about to die.
Serban crawled away on his belly through the pine needles, though he glanced over his shoulder and sighed, rolling onto his back. I strode over to him and saw his loins were drenched with blood. His guts were spilling from the wound and he stank of his innards. He should not have been alive but he was and I knew then that he was an immortal.
“He should not have tried to stop me,” Serban said, snarling. “I warned him but he would not—”
I reached down and wrapped two hands around his throat and pulled him up, lifting him off his feet and throttled him. His eyes bulged.
After a moment, I threw him against a tree trunk and released my grip enough for him to breathe.
“Why?” I growled through clenched teeth. “Why betray me? Why kill Rob?”
He coughed. “Never betrayed you. Was never yours.”
A chill seized my heart. “You are William’s?”
He smiled. “Not his either. Our people have been here since before the Christ was born.”
“Your people? What people? Immortals?”
“Tried to make you see. Understand. But you want only to kill us all.”
I leaned down. “Did you tell William we were coming? Where to ambush us?” I saw in his eyes that it was true. “You must have, you have been gone since we reached the monastery.”
He coughed blood and clutched at his slippery guts. “I wish it did not have to be so.”
“Why take Radu? Why kill Rob?”
“You have lost. William will control Wallachia. Radu was… a gift.”
I grabbed his hair and pulled his head back. “Where are the other immortals? Who are the other vampirs in Wallachia?”
He smiled again and winced. In the distance, the guns fired and men shouted. Hooves drummed on the earth. Steel rang out on steel. I had already tarried too long.
I drew my dagger and sawed through Serban’s neck until his head was cut from it. I threw it down, disgusted with him and with myself.
Walt cradled Rob in his lap after having drawn the sword from his skull. Eva knelt beside him and had one arm around Walt’s shoulder and her other stroked Rob’s blood-soaked hair. Walt wept freely but I was numb. From beside Radu, Stephen shook his head. Radu Dracula was dead also.
“We will return for Rob’s body,” I said to Walt. “And bury him properly. But now we still have work to do.”
Walt cuffed his cheeks and when he looked at me I saw white rage and black despair.
We rode back through the wood directly toward the sounds of battle to find hundreds of bodies lying in the meadow. The sluji had dismounted and were fighting in a ragged line against the Blood Janissaries. So many had fallen on both sides and more were being killed every moment. With horror I realised that the Janissaries had the upper hand. There were more of them alive and the sluji were dying quicker.
I looked for Vlad as I advanced and saw him hammering his sword against the breastplate of a fallen figure in elaborate Turkish armour.
William.
My brother fought against Vlad, one against the other. Dracula in his magnificent plate and William on his back, his face twisted in hatred as Vlad whipped his sword down on him. William held his blade up to defend himself, holding it with two hands, one on the blade itself.
The men around them fought their own desperate battles to the death, bodyguards fighting bodyguards, and immortals against immortals. My sluji were almost wiped out. My captains had all fallen.
And yet Vlad had almost achieved victory. He had William down, almost at his mercy.
I aimed my horse for their fight, drew my sword, and charged at them.
Vlad’s sword blade broke and he fell upon William with a dagger in hand and they grappled. Vlad worked his arm down and his blade under William’s helm, cutting and stabbing into him.
By God, I thought with a thrill as I came closer. He has done it.
Just then, four Janissaries rushed forward, raised their hand-guns and fired them as one into Vlad from a yard away.
The shots ripped through Vlad’s armour and through his flesh, deep into his body. He jerked and fell back from William and the Janissaries pulled their fallen master away.
“No!” I roared, almost upon them.
Vlad lay as if he was dead and I was running out of time before William’s men got him away from me. My horse was nervous of the noise and the stink of smoke and the mass of men I was forcing him towards but I had to force my way through the line to reach William. Vlad had wounded William severely and there would never be a better chance to finish him once and for all.
My horse fell under me, shot by a dozen Janissaries behind the line. The beast went down hard, as if his legs had been cut off, throwing me and I fell on my neck. It hurt like the devil and I was dazed but I rolled to my feet to find a company of Janissaries rushing me with their swords and axes.
I killed one as I fell back and then Eva and Stephen arrived on horseback, flattening some and driving the rest back. We rushed into them together and killed them.
But the rest were fleeing. Some mounted, others on foot.
“I need a horse!” I shouted and a squire rode over, leaping off and offering me his hands to boost me into the saddle. Once seated, I looked for the fleeing enemy. They were retreating through the woods, with companies of Janissaries covering the escape.
“Sluji! Form on me!”
We had been all but obliterated. Many of my men lay wounded and were calling for blood but there were dead squires all over the field and my immortals were bleeding to death in their dozens. Others were dead and limbs and heads littered the field.
Vlad Dracula lay on the field with two of his men at his side. His helm had been removed and his eyes stared up at the sky, blood soaking his hair.
“Is he dead?” Walt shouted. “Is he dead?”
His men seemed stunned. I could not spare time to deal with Dracula or his men.
“Sluji!” I cried to any that yet lived. “Our enemies flee. There. We stop for nothing. Every one of them will fall.”
Despite all they had been through, they found their horses and formed up on me. We were so few and they were exhausted and wounded but still they formed up and we chased the enemy into the woods.
The Turks had engaged the Wallachian army further along the track and the fighting there continued. Whatever the outcome, it did not matter to me. All that mattered was catching William. I prayed that he was already dead, killed by Dracula’s blade and his men carried nothing but William’s corpse back toward the Danube, but I doubted God would grant me such luck.
A half dozen immortal Janissaries rushed suddenly from hiding behind a stand of trees with their lances up and we had to pull up and cut them down before continuing. Two of my men were killed in the exchange. But then we were on again.
Every half a mile or so we crashed into another ambush in the woodland. Each time we killed them but I lost men in turn and so our numbers dw
indled and our progress slowed.
“His men spend their lives to grant him a few yards more,” Walt shouted, wiping his blade off on a Janissary’s red robes.
“And mine spend theirs to gain it back,” I said, looking at the few men I had left. Our horses were hanging their heads and if they survived the day, not one of them would be fit for anything other than food for the hounds by the morrow.
“Be full dark soon,” Walt said, looking up. “How will we find him then?”
“When we reach the Danube, we will follow the bank in both directions. You will take half the men one way and I the other. If you find him, send a man back to me and I will do the same.”
Walt puffed his cheeks and shook his head but we rode on for the river and came out of the trees with the moon already up. It was cold and my men shook and there was not one of us who was not disheartened.
“By God,” Eva said, riding up to my side with her hand outstretched. “Is that them?”
“It is. A score of the bastards.”
“They see us,” Eva said.
I squinted, trying and failing to see what their eyes could. “Is he with them?”
“Can’t tell,” Walt said, drawing his sword and sighing. “Is that a boat drifting across the river?”
A dark shape moved slowly out there, not far from the bank.
“William may be within?” Stephen suggested.
“Another boat is drawn up on the bank,” Eva cried. “I see it in the grass.”
“And twenty Janissaries guarding it,” Walt growled. “Letting their master get away.”
“Dismount,” I ordered. “Form a line!”
We pushed our useless horses away and formed up with the Danube shining in the moonlight nearby. From the long grasses by the river, the remnants of the Blood Janissaries advanced. They outnumbered us two to one but I would not let them stop me. William was so close, I could almost taste him.
I led the charge, pulling ahead of my tired men.
