Bright We Burn (The Conqueror's Saga #3)(64)

Nazira pursed her lips in a scold. “I told you, husband mine. We are not being separated again. We are a family.”

Fatima dismounted daintily, smiling at Radu with her head ducked. “It was not such a bad trip.” She was a terrible liar, and her efforts to make him feel better made him want to send her right back home. She deserved comfort and peace.

“Besides,” Nazira continued, “I have always wanted to see where you came from.” She smiled, an expression both generous and obviously false. “It is lovely!”

Radu laughed. “It is wretched. Lada left nothing unharmed. But someday I will take you into the countryside. Snagov is lovely, a little island monastery in the middle of a great green lake. And the mountains at the Arges will take your breath away.” He eyed the castle warily. “Are you certain you do not want to go back to Edirne and wait until my work here is finished?”

“I am certain.”

“We are certain,” Fatima added.

Radu sighed. “Very well. Would you like to do my work for me, then, and allow me to return to Edirne right now?”

Nazira laughed, though it seemed a little quieter and more forced than normal. Then her face turned somber. “My brother? Did you find his body?”

Radu dropped his eyes to the ground. “He has been buried with all the love and respect he deserved. I washed and dressed his body myself, and saw to his burial. I can take you to his grave later.”

“Thank you.”

“I am so, so sorry that—”

Nazira put one hand on his face, forcing him to look at her. “I will receive no more apologies from you on the matter. All I ask is that you mourn the brother we both loved. And do so without guilt. I cannot have your guilt on top of my sadness.”

Radu nodded, feeling selfish. It really did place a burden on Nazira. If she did not blame him, he had no right to force her to forgive him.

“Good.” She brushed her hands as though wiping away the remnants of Radu’s guilt. Then, her voice going oddly loud given the topic, she said, “I am going to settle into my rooms with Fatima. Please meet me on the north tower alone in an hour’s time.”

Radu frowned, puzzled. “I have not been staying in the castle.”

“Well, that must change. You will need our help, as will the Danesti brothers. We will all stay here now.”

Radu could not discuss the truth of the situation with her in public. Though, having her around would be an excellent buffer between himself and the Danesti demands. Nazira would probably have ideas on how to handle it, too. “Whatever you wish. I can show you to your—”

“Fatima and I are quite capable of settling ourselves in. Doubtless you have important work to see to. Just meet me in that tower”—she pointed to the tower where, as children, Lada and Radu had watched Hunyadi enter the city—“in an hour.”

Radu bowed. “Whatever you wish.”

Nazira went onto her tiptoes and patted his turbaned head. Her eyes shone with emotion; she smiled, though she looked on the verge of tears. “You deserve every happiness,” she whispered, then turned and went into the castle with Fatima.

Radu really did not understand women.



He used the time Nazira had given him to find Aron and apprise him of the current plans, including the scouting groups he had sent into the mountains.

“I am sorry I do not have longer to speak,” Radu said, though he was the opposite of sorry. “I am supposed to meet my wife. She had a very long journey here.”

“Yes, of course. Will you be joining us for dinner? It would be nice to have someone to talk to besides Andrei. And Nazira is far more pleasant to look at than he is.”

“At the risk of offending your brother, I quite agree. We should begin talking marital alliances for you. I will write to Mara Brankovic and see if she has any suggestions for how we can best use that to strengthen your power.”

“Yes, I suppose that is the next step. It will be nice to have more company, too. I had forgotten how lonely this castle can be,” Aron said, his eyes sad above the dark circles that never quite went away.

Some of Radu’s resentment drifted away in a surge of sympathy. “I think our childhoods had more in common than we realized at the time,” Radu answered.

Aron nodded, then smoothed the front of his new velvet waistcoat. “Perhaps there is a close relative of your cousin, Stephen of Moldavia.”

It was a good idea. Stephen had been aggressive on the borders, and a marital alliance might smooth things over. “I will look into it immediately.” The sooner things were settled here, the sooner Radu could leave.

He bid Aron farewell and made his way through the castle and up the steps to the tower. He was a bit early. One of Nazira’s guards was leaning out, looking over the landscape with his back to Radu. Radu did not know whether Nazira had a reason to request they meet alone. He would wait until she arrived to ask the man to leave, though. He closed the door behind himself loudly so the man would not be surprised.

“I am afraid the view is rather bleak right now,” Radu said, with as much cheer as he could muster. The man was facing the direction of the graves. Thousands of dark patches of newly turned soil made a pattern like farmland with a tragic crop. “Did they give you food in the—”

Radu’s words died on his lips as the man turned around to reveal eyes as gray as the water in the Great Horn of Constantinople.