Now I Rise (And I Darken Series, #2)(24)

“Yes, Mother,” Timur said.

Tohin stomped toward the storage building. Timur shook his head, giving Radu a long-suffering smile. “I have three children of my own, and she would still dress me if she could. You know how mothers are.”

Radu’s return smile was reflexive. He did not, in fact, know how mothers were. But he knew what it was to have someone watching out for him. He stared at the remaining barrels, wondering. Lada was already playing with fire, taking up with Hunyadi. She might respect the man, but he had never shown kindness to their family. Who knew what purpose he had in taking her in?

Radu had been flattered and angry when she demanded he come help her. But perhaps he should have been afraid. For Lada to ask for help, surely she was teetering on the edge of the destructive end the old woman saw for her. And though she had never asked for Radu’s help growing up, he had helped her. He had worn away her edges, talked their way out of trouble she would have welcomed. Maybe … maybe she had always needed him. And he always chose Mehmed.

Someone shouted his name, and he hurried back to his duties.

His duties to his God. His duties to the Ottoman Empire. His duties to Mehmed. Lada would have to figure it out on her own. He owed her nothing.

But the promise of the guilt he would carry if she died without his help clung to his skin like a shadow.





10





February




LADA TRACKED A group of fifty Janissaries. They were a long-range frontier group, used for enforcing the empire’s will in vassal states. Hunyadi had no particular reason to attack the Janissaries, but he demanded no reason to kill Turkish forces.

Up until now they had only fought more Bulgars, brief flashes of blood and screaming and swords breaking up monotonous riding, camping, sleeping outside.

Lada was proud of her men. They were as good as or better than any that Hunyadi rode with. And he noticed. After their canyon victory, Hunyadi frequently consulted with Lada and asked her advice.

She had studied his tactics, but only on paper and in theory. Watching him in the field was something else entirely. He always thought three days ahead—food, water, defensible locations. But he was not so set on plans that he could not respond with lightning-fast force to an unexpected threat or opportunity.

This Janissary group was one such opportunity. Lada looked uneasily at Nicolae next to her.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“I think they could have been me.”

She looked back at the men they stalked. He was right. They were the same—boys stolen and turned into soldiers who served another land and another god.

“We let them go, then,” Lada said. She could not help imagining Nicolae on the other side of the meadow. Or Bogdan. Or Stefan, or Petru, or any of her men. She did not want to feel this companionship with the Janissaries, but it could not be avoided.

The Janissaries came to a sudden stop. Lada tensed, fearing they had discovered her ten men tracking them. Instead, they shifted direction and started heading straight for Hunyadi’s camp.

Lada gestured sharply. Her men ran, silent and low to the ground. She pantomimed drawing crossbows. Still running, they fixed their bolts. If the Janissaries did not already know the camp was there, they would in a few minutes. Hunyadi would be caught unaware. Lada gestured to her men to head back to the camp.

“Go warn them,” Lada whispered to Nicolae.

“What are you going to do?”

“Delay them, idiot. Now go!”

Nicolae disappeared into the woods. Lada stood. “The sultan is the son of a donkey!” she shouted in Turkish.

The Janissaries turned as one, arrows already nocked to bows and pointed in her direction. She had cover, but it would not take them long to find her. She darted to another tree. “I am sorry. I should not have said that about the sultan. It is an offense to donkeys, which are perfectly serviceable creatures.”

Lada peeked around the tree. Their weapons still at the ready, the Janissaries were searching the dense foliage for threats. Lada laughed loudly, the sound ringing through the trees. “Are you Janissaries? I have heard that Janissaries are not fit to lick the dust from spahi boots.”

“Who is there?” an angry voice shouted, while another cursed her. Their leader barked an order for them to be quiet. Then he called out, “Show yourself, woman!”

“Why do Bulgars make terrible farmers?” she answered.

There was silence. She peered from behind the trunk, amused to see the Janissaries trading confused looks. Most of them had lowered their bows when no attack came.

“What?” the commander shouted.

“I said, why do Bulgars make terrible farmers?”

One of the Janissaries in front sheathed his sword. “I do not know.”

The commander barked at him for silence, but the Janissary shrugged. “I want to know.”

“So do I,” another called. Most of them nodded, a few grinning at this odd forest interlude.

“Because they confuse the pigs for Bulgar women, and cannot bear to slaughter their wives.”

A chorus of snickering laughs broke out.

“Who are you?” one of the men called. “You should not be in these woods. It is not safe.”

A volley of arrows rained from the sky onto the men.

“I know,” Lada said, coming from behind the tree and letting her shaft join the others.