Impaler by Paulk Kate

Author:Paulk, Kate [Paulk, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: alternate history, Dracula, vampirism, vampire, Kate Paulk, historical fantasy, Historical Fiction, Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler
ISBN: 9781611360240
Publisher: Naked Reader Press
Published: 2011-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Twenty Four

The morning following Stephen's arrival, I summoned the most likely of the ships' captains to my presence. Captain Joseph Buckley, an Englishman who had contrived to earn the enmity of both factions in that nation's long-running civil war, traded throughout the Mediterranean, and had been trapped in Varna by the early onset of winter storms.

Of all the vessels in Varna's port, his was the only one without a cargo to take south.

Buckley entered with confidence and a definite tang of salt air. His hair and beard showed the effect of years at sea, and he walked with the gait of a man accustomed to the movement of a ship.

When he bowed, I smelled cheap brandy.

"Lord Draculea. How may I be of service?" He spoke Latin with the flattened vowels of his native tongue, in a voice more suited to bellowing orders than a royal audience.

I kept my reply businesslike and calm. "I have a gift for the city of Constantinople that I desire to present at Easter." That could reasonably be construed as a gift for the Sultan's puppet Patriarch. "For various reasons it would be inadvisable for the gift to arrive more than a few days prior to the date."

Buckley drummed callused fingers against his thighs. "Such a journey could be perilous," he observed. "The Throat Cutters view items of that nature with ill favor."

The captain had presumably earned his voluntary exile by speaking an unwanted deduction to the wrong ears. Such a fate was not difficult to incur in these fraught times. "You would, of course, be well compensated, both for your time waiting to depart and the risks of the journey, with more when I take delivery of the gift."

A slow smile warmed his eyes and face. "I should like to see Constantinople in Christian glory, Lord Draculea," he said softly. "Should the Ottomans turn as vile as the Mameluks or the Moors, nothing will be safe."

* * *

Stephen's presence did not delay my departure from Varna, as the task of ferrying my men across the harbor mouth would have taken several days in any case. It was still faster than marching back to Beloslav and crossing there.

I calculated that we could reach Constantinople after a march of five to six weeks. What happened at that point would depend greatly on where Mehmed had chosen to winter. If he was in residence in the city he had claimed for his capital, I would face his personal guards - a number greater than my entire army - in addition to the men garrisoned in and around Constantinople.

If he was directing the battle at any of his ongoing wars, Constantinople could be all but emptied of men.

My hope was that Hungary's offensive held him in Serbia, gathering defenses there. Stephen Bathory was more than capable of causing Mehmed trouble enough to keep him in Serbia throughout the winter, preparing to reclaim lost territories.

The question of where Mehmed wintered did not trouble me beyond its strategic implications: I had no way to know where the Sultan might be, and less control of his position.

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