Ishak Pasha scowled, shifting his weight angrily from foot to foot. He had several old wounds that made travel painful and difficult. But such was his loyalty to the empire, he refused to let Mehmed campaign without him. “Why would we take time from war planning to send an enemy king a fancy gift?”
Mara leaned conspiratorially toward Radu. “I have just heard the most wonderful rumor. King Matthias was sent a rather large amount of gold from the pope to aid your sister in crusading. And, by a shocking coincidence, he somehow came into the funds to buy his crown back from Poland.” Mara grew serious once again. “By using that gold for himself, he has stolen from the pope. It will not go over well among his European allies. We should make certain his loyalties remain firmly divided.”
Radu toyed with a heavy ring. “And it would not hurt to include a note about how much we look forward to a long and peaceful relationship with Hungary’s rightful king, whose crown we acknowledge and celebrate and whose borders we recognize and respect.”
“With just the right amount of threat implied should he set foot over those borders into conflicts that do not concern him.” Mara beamed. “I love playing this game with you, Radu. With one gift and one letter, we can take Matthias Corvinus off this map.”
Hamza Pasha stood, stabbing a finger toward her. “This is not some game to play at like courtesans!”
Mara demurely covered her face with her fan. “It seems to me that whatever way you are playing it has not served you particularly well up to now.”
Hamza Pasha stormed from the tent, followed by a less angry Ishak Pasha.
“Pay Hamza no mind,” Mara said. “He is still sore that I rejected his offer of marriage.”
“He wanted to marry you?” Radu asked, surprised. The other men around the table were leaving to begin the enormous task of repairing what could be salvaged and getting the camp on the road to Tirgoviste. Lada had done a tremendous amount of damage. They would limp all the rest of the way, but they would get there.
“Oh yes. Dear Hamza was madly in love with me.” Mara paused. “Sorry. I mean, he was madly in love with my position as a favorite of the sultan.” She smiled wickedly, touching her powdered hair as though there were ever a strand out of place. “It is my most attractive feature.”
Radu held out a hand to help her stand. “I am quite certain your most attractive feature is your remarkable mind.”
“If I ever found a man who wanted to marry me for that, I might just break my vow to never wed again.”
“Really?”
She laughed. “No. But speaking of wives, I know a very pretty one who is only two days behind me. You should send word to delay her. This is no place for women.”
Radu put a hand to his forehead in exasperation. In the madness of the campaign thus far, he had not even thought to warn Nazira to delay her journey. They had counted on being well settled in Tirgoviste by now.
Radu pulled out a sheet of parchment and cleared a place at the table to write his letter before something else demanded his attention. “Thank you, I will. If this is no place for women, though…”
“Never fear on my behalf. I volunteer to take Matthias Corvinus his gift in person. This country is simply awful, Radu. I do not understand how it produced you.”
Radu finished his hasty note. “It also produced Lada.”
“That makes far more sense.”
As Radu offered his elbow to walk Mara out of the tent, his thoughts returned sickeningly to the callous way he had referred to his brothers who had lost their lives. He treated them as numbers. After all he had seen, after all the lives he had watched depart this world, he could not afford to think like that. Because once he started, how would he stop?
* * *
“God above.” Kiril lifted one arm to cover his mouth and nose. “What is that smell?”
Radu smelled it, too, but he could not account for it. He was with his men, riding in advance of
the rest of the army. Their force was big enough to face any direct attack, and fast enough to get word back should something arise they were not prepared for.
Facing Lada, they could count on being unprepared.
In the distance Radu could just make out the dark smudge of the capital with a tree-lined road leading up to it. Aside from the skinny trees along the road, most of the forest around it had been cleared. It was smart—Lada had an unobstructed view of the land around the city—but it also meant she could hide nothing from them, either.
“Cautiously,” Radu said, gesturing for them to keep moving forward. They had not seen a soul yet, though the sky was splattered with dark birds like drops of ink. The last time Radu had seen so many carrion birds had been in Constantinople. He could not quite catch his breath, their cries pulled straight from his worst memories.
They rode closer, everyone gradually slowing their pace. A sense of wrongness grew as steadily and strongly as the stench. Behind him, Radu heard men gagging. Kiril leaned over and heaved.
Still they had seen no one. Not a single soldier. Not one trap or ambush. Radu undid his turban and wrapped it around his nose and mouth, though he could still taste the putrid rot through it.
Then at last, like a landscape of nightmares, Radu was close enough to see the odd, skinny trees lining the road.