by Dan Davis
King Stephen smiled down at me. “I know all about Zaganos Pasha. My cousin and I spent years together before he claimed his kingdom and he helped me to claim mine and many a night we sat drinking wine and speaking about the evils of Zaganos Pasha.” He lowered his voice. “Or should I call him William?”
“Call him what you will, my lord, all I ask is that, in your service, my men and I be used to counter the Janissaries of the pasha. It is why the sluji were created.”
The king nodded. “You were right to come to me, Richard. Only Moldavia stands against the enemy. Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Serbia have fallen. Wallachia is Turkish in all but name. And both the Turks and the Wallachians are massing on my borders.”
“The Wallachians too, my lord?”
“Will it prove to be a problem for your men if they help me to defeat Radu, should he invade my lands? Your men are all Wallachians, are they not?”
“Most of them, my lord. But they are loyal to me, now. And anyway, Wallachia is not one people but many. There are more clans than I can name and they harbour hatred for each other and they seem to enjoy fighting each other whenever there is no enemy without. You can trust my men.”
“That is good. But it may be your men will not have to fight Wallachians at all, as the Turks have sent Radu thousands of soldiers for his army.”
I could scarcely believe he would be so open about it, after all his promises. “Radu has claimed to his people that he is holding the Turks at bay through clever diplomacy. But if this is true then his people will know him for a puppet after all.”
“He believes himself strong,” King Stephen said, a smile on his face. “He thinks he will conquer Moldavia and be only strengthened.” He laughed and turned to his lords in the hall. “What do you think, my friends? Shall we sit back and allow Wallachia to conquer Moldavia?”
Their roar of defiance shook the very stones of the walls.
The king smiled. “I shall not wait for Radu to launch his invasion of my kingdom. I will not have war on my land, on my people, when I might wage it on my enemy’s soil and spill the blood of his people instead of mine.”
I was surprised. “My lord, you mean to invade Wallachia?”
“His Turks are still arriving. Would you prefer to wait for him to gain his full strength? But I thought you were a great strategist, Richard the Englishman?” His men laughed.
“I would never claim that, my lord. But Radu will flee to the mountains and avoid battle.”
The king threw up his hands. “Wonderful! Then we shall raid his kingdom and rob it blind. In the end, his own men will overthrow him.”
I had fought to protect Wallachia for years and now I would be fighting to destroy that very land, those very same people. The thought twisted my stomach but it was not so unusual a turn of events for a mercenary. At least there could be some good to come of it.
“If Radu is removed,” I said, “you will be able to reinstate Vlad Dracula.”
King Stephen frowned. “Why would I want to do that?”
I hesitated, surprised. “He is your cousin, my lord. He is your friend.”
The king pointed at me. “Your friend, you mean. With Radu gone and my armies in his lands, yes, I could perhaps restore dear Vlad. But is that best for Moldavia? Is that best for me?”
“Is it not?”
The king stroked the end of his moustache. “He can be depended on to fight the Turk, that is certain. And yet we cannot always have war, eventually we must have some form of peace with the Turk. And the Turk hates Vlad Dracula.”
“They fear him.”
“Yes and they will come again sooner and with greater strength if Vlad is on the throne.”
I sensed that this was not the first time King Stephen had considered these points. “You have another lord in mind for the throne? Perhaps yourself?”
His men bristled and cursed my impudence but Stephen waved them down. “I would not step into that snake pit. There is another I would make Voivode of Wallachia. A man I have here at court.”
I remembered that there was an exile in the city. “You have one of the Danesti clan.”
“Yes. Basarab Laiot will be what Wallachia needs in order to pull together the warring factions within the kingdom.”
“Can he be trusted?”
King Stephen scoffed. “He can be trusted to act in his own interest. As can all men. Do you not agree?”
“All men, indeed. To one extent or another.”
“And so, knowing what I will do, who I must wage war on, and who I must put on what was my cousin’s throne, can I trust you to join us? And to follow my orders?”
What else could I do? I had to work to bring about another battle against the Turks for the chance to kill William.”
I bowed. “War is my business, my lord.
King Stephen dismissed me and I was escorted back to my companions in our quarters in the palace. The city of Suceava was in the north of Moldavia, just on the eastern side of the mountains that separated the country from Transylvania. Even though Suceava was on the edge of Europe, with nothing to the east but the Tartars and the Golden Horde, it was finely built, with buildings almost as magnificent as those of Buda, though on a far smaller scale. I had expected Moldavia to be halfway to barbarous but it was no more so than Wallachia, at least in the large towns. The country, too, was fertile and crossed by countless rivers that drained from the north down into the Black Sea. The small country’s southern border was the Danube and where it met the Black Sea it was wide and the area around it was marshy indeed. It was no wonder the enemy intended to invade from Wallachia.
My men were enjoying the delights of a Moldavian tavern when I found them, sinking tankards of beer and gnawing on chunks of bread.
“I like it here,” Rob said as I sat down. “Serban likes it too much.”
The old soldier had his head on the table, snoring audibly even over the din of the ale room.
“What happened?” Stephen asked, pushing me a plate of half-eaten boiled pork in jelly. “Did he accept us?”
I related everything that the king had said in between mouthfuls of pork and beer.
“Basarab Laiot instead of Dracula?” Walt said when I was finished. “He will be worse than useless. Have you met him?”
“Have you?”
“I drank with him a few days ago. We played dice. I was not impressed by his wits nor his character.”
“Why?” I asked. “How did you come to play dice with a pretender to the Wallachian throne?”
Walt grinned. “An attempt to woo me, wasn’t it.”
We stared at each other. “Woo you?”
Walt was enjoying himself. “Promised me great wealth. Swore he would grant me an estate near Buzau. Said I would be a great captain in his armies. All he wanted was for me to tell him what the secret was. What the power of the blood magic was that gave you your strength and the strength of the sluji.”
Stephen gasped. “He wanted it for himself.”
Eva leaned over and punched Walt on his shoulder. “You did not think to mention this, you witless oaf?”
Walt rubbed his shoulder, still grinning. “Hardly seemed worth it. Wasn’t going to accept, was I?”
“Our agents brought word of him years ago,” Eva said as Stephen nodded. “We dismissed him as neither a possible asset nor a risk. He is a nobody.”
“Basarab is a duplicitous boyar who attempts to be cunning but is not competent at it,” Stephen said. “And this is who we would be fighting for?”
“No. We would be fighting to kill Radu and so remove one of William’s immortals.”
“Assuming Radu is an immortal,” Eva said. “We have no proof.”
I scoffed. “Come on, he must be by now. William would never have given him this much authority were he not bound to him by the Gift.”
“Very likely,” Eva allowed.
“And even if he is not then we should destroy him anyway, for Radu is an important ally in William’s plan of conquest.”
Walt grinned. “We’re going to break his heart.”
I fished a piece of gristle from the back of my teeth. “William feels nothing for any of his spawn, no matter what the fools believe.”
“That is a point to consider,” Stephen said, sitting up straighter. “Whether William feels any true closeness to Radu, will he not come to fight for him if his rule is at risk?”
“Zaganos Pasha is in the East with Mehmed,” Eva said. “Waging war against the tribes threatening to overwhelm the Turks there. He will not come here until his business in the east is concluded. You see, William understands the value of patience. His plans for conquering this entire land are almost complete. All he needs is Moldavia and he will have subjugated the lands from the Black Sea to the Adriatic. He will not be rushing back here in a panic, even if we threaten his beloved.”
I gestured with my tankard as I spoke. “If he does not return, we shall kill Radu with all the more ease. And if William does return to save his spawn, we shall kill him also. It seems to me that it is in our interest to join this war against Wallachia and to win it.”
“What about our lads?” Rob said. “The sluji are Wallachian. They will not want to fight their former lord’s brother and they especially will not wish to do it for the Danesti clan to benefit.”
Rob’s concerns worried me because if he felt them they were likely worth considering.
“The sluji have sworn oaths of obedience,” I said. “They will obey or they will suffer the consequences.”
“You might first attempt to explain to them that they will be fighting the Turks, as they have sworn to do, when they are fighting Radu.”
“If you insist, Rob,” I said. “Now, enough of this disgusting beer. Have them bring me wine.”
***
Stephen sent requests for aid to Mattias Corvinus, who was instead concerned with central Europe. Likewise, Moldavia’s traditional overlords the Poles also declined to be drawn into the fight. Their concern was for the east and the north of Europe, not the Balkans to their south. They did not believe that the Turks could threaten them.
My men joined with companies of Moldavian cavalry and we raided the lowlands with hardly any opposition. Radu was careful to stay in his castles in the high places of Wallachia and no matter how many villages we burned and no matter how many crops we destroyed, Radu would not be drawn from his places of safety.
He sent companies of Turks against us, some of them Anatolian but mostly Rumelians from Bulgaria. When they were too many, we ran. When we had the advantage, we attacked them with everything we had and we destroyed them. And even then, Radu would not come to face us.
Eva and Stephen used their agents to spread word of Radu’s treacheries and to seek boyars who would come over to Moldavia’s side and many of the Danesti clan replied that they would be willing to turn on their prince, for the right incentives.
Still, Radu the Handsome stayed in the mountains.
Along with Moldavian captains that I rode with, I eventually persuaded King Stephen that only an all-out invasion would be enough to force Radu to lead his armies in person. In autumn 1473 we brought Radu to battle near Bucharest at a field near the River Vodnu. It was a rather sad and brief affair, with little glory to be had for anyone.
For all his charisma and personal command, Radu was not a bold general by nature. Far from it. But the presence of so many Turkish soldiers had emboldened him and we baited him into an attack in which we enveloped and crushed his army.
As his army crumbled, Radu abandoned his men and fled his camp. He fled in so much haste in fact that he abandoned his treasury and all of his wardrobe. The man had more clothes than a king of France. He left his battle standards and his new wife. He had lost all legitimacy in the eyes of his people and soon they would be willing to declare Basarab as the new Voivode of Wallachia.
But I would find out all of that later. First, I had to catch him and kill him. A company of Rumelian sipahis fled with Radu and I led the sluji after them. It seemed that they were making for the fortress of Giurgiu which Radu loyalists yet held and so we had to stop them before he reached it. No doubt King Stephen could besiege it and no doubt Basarb could command them to surrender but by then Radu would have been long gone across the Danube. And I wanted him.
“The woodland!” I said to my captains. “If we can reach the woodland before them, we shall have him.”
I made half of my men dismount and told them to meet me at Giurgiu. We took their horses as remounts, stripped off as much armour and equipment as we dared and then set off across country. We stopped only in the darkest of night and I had them up again well before dawn, trusting their immortal eyesight to keep us on track. We cut across the marshland and finally reached the wood, exhausted and tired but ready.
We were hardly in position when Radu and his sipahis came cantering from the north toward the fortress. Radu, still the proud peacock that he was, rode at the head of them in shining armour and a great headdress upon his helm, with a glittering golden band around it studded with rubies.
“Do you reckon that’s him?” Walt muttered before we sprung our ambush.
My sluji swarmed on the sipahis from both sides, pulling them from their horses and drinking their blood while they screamed.
I made straight for Radu and caught him in indecision. He began riding back to save his men before seeing the speed and strength of the sluji and he wheeled his horse about to make for the fortress. Instead, my lance point caught him in the flank and threw him from the saddle. He landed on his helm, his neck bending under him. I jumped down and was on him, pulling his helm from his head.
He looked so much like Vlad that for a moment I thought it was him but then I saw how the man’s features were far more refined. His jaw was squarer and his brow higher and his nose less of a spear point. He roared at me and drew his sword half out of his scabbard before I wrestled it from him and threw it aside.
Still, he got to his knees and pulled a long dagger from his belt. I grappled with him as he rushed me and I knew at once that he was an immortal. Radu was strong and a well-trained fighter. He tried to trip me and twisted to get inside my guard. But I butted his face with my helm, crushing his nose and he released his grip. Tripping him, I forced him down and slipped his own knife under his throat.
Blood streamed down his face.
“Not so handsome now, are you, boy?” I said. “I am going to send William your head.”
I was about to slit his throat when Eva stayed my hand.
“Richard!” She held my arm. “Let us not be so hasty.”
“He is an immortal, Eva. He must die.”
“And so he will,” she said, trying to get me to look at her. “But why not speak to him first? He may know William’s plans.”
Radu’s eyes glanced back and forth between us. “I will tell you nothing!” he said, in French.
“Quiet!” I said and cracked his broken nose with the butt of my dagger, causing him to flinch and wail, though I held him fast. “The world knows William’s plans. Conquer Christendom.”
“He may have some secret. Something. We should question him.”
“Perhaps. But the Moldavians will not wish him taken prisoner. The Wallachians opposed to him would see him dead also, lest his continued existence give heart to his faction and to the Turks and so prolong the war. And what is my status that would allow me to take a royal prisoner? I cannot take him and expect to keep him unchallenged. He must die.”
Eva looked around at the sluji, who were feasting on the sipahis or rummaging through their equipment. “What if we take him in secret? Tell the world he is dead and only we shall know he lives.”
I hesitated, looking down at Radu. “They will expect to see his body. Let us provide one. We could use one of his men, although I doubt any of those filthy Bulgars could pass for Radu the Handsome.”
Eva nodded to herself as she t
hought it through. “We must mutilate the corpse’s face. We shall dress him in Radu’s shining armour and fine underclothes and carry away the real one.”
“But carry him to where? Where can I keep him for questioning that he will not be seen?”
Stephen stepped forward. “Richard? We are not so far from the monastery at Lake Snagov.”
“Yes?”
“Perhaps that abbot would hide him there.”
“Why would he do that?”
“All the money that Dracula showered on that place must count for something. The abbot loved Dracula, you could tell by the way he spoke about him. He’s loyal to Vlad Dracula and I bet he would hold Radu as his prisoner without giving him up. The monks are, of course, utterly loyal to the abbot and none would speak of it.”
Eva looked down her nose at him. “Radu is an immortal.”
I sighed. “Oh yes.”
“What’s the problem?” Rob asked. “Ah, he needs blood. Well, you said the old boy in the library knew all about us. About strigoi.”
I shook my head. “I imagine if we tell the monks we brought a cursed blood drinker into his house, he would throw us into Lake Snagov. He would have to bleed his brothers to keep Radu alive.”
Eva sighed. “I suppose it is worth the attempt.”
Rob nodded down at Radu. “Exactly. And if it all goes pear shaped, we’ll just kill the bastard.”
I ordered Radu’s clothing swapped with a soldier of similar height and frame and stood admiring the finery he was now dressed in, Walt smashed his face in with his mace. As the false Radu’s body was delivered by my men to Stephen, I took the real Radu north to Lake Snagov.
***
The abbot came down to the dockside and watched us row across the lake to his island. Behind him came first half a dozen and then a score of black robed monks, spread out across the bank.
“Richard Ashbury,” he said, his face grim. “It has been some time since we saw you last. Do you mean us harm?”
“Harm?” I asked, confused, and then looked at my men as the abbot would. We were all, to one extent or another, wearing armour. Our men waiting with the horses behind us at the village were likewise arrayed for war. “My apologies for coming to you in this manner. Of course I mean you no harm, father. Why would we?”