The tent flap lifted, and a janissary stepped in, spear propped on his shoulder. He held the way open for Mehmet, who swaggering in with a delighted air, every inch the conqueror.
–wait.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” he said, strolling forward. His armor was smudged, dusty; a few curled auburn locks had fallen loose of his turban. His grin dominated his face.
But Val’s gaze went straight to the sack he carried. The one stained dark on the bottom. The one that, when Mehmet halted in front of him, began to drip down onto the rug.
It reeked of blood.
Mehmet chuckled. “Prince Radu, I come forth victorious, and I bring you a gift.”
Val wanted to look away, but he couldn’t turn his head. He started up a low, frantic chant. “No, no, no, no–”
Mehmet upended the bag without ceremony. A human head fell out, and landed with a wet sound on top of the chest, inches from Val’s face. It rolled once, and fetched up against his wrist, face-up. Death had a way of distorting features, but he knew that nose, and those open, sightless eyes. The silky black curls on his head.
Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos. Emperor of Constantinople.
“No, no, no, no–” The chant became a wail, a high, keening sound that burned his throat. He had no more tears, but he choked, and hissed, and howled over the head of the man he’d met as a boy of four, learning how to walk in his dreams for the first time.
Mehmet chuckled again, so,sopleased with himself. He crouched down beside Val, and caught a handful of hair in one dirty, gloved fist, pulled tight. The pain didn’t register. There was only the dead face staring up at Val, and the white flash of teeth in his periphery, the feral grin of his tormentor.
“I’ve brought you your emperor, Radu,” Mehmet said. “So that you can finally meet him, face-to-face, in the flesh.” He breathed hotly in Val’s ear. “His head is mine, his palace is mine, hiscityis mine. I have walked through his holy houses, and touched your people’s relics with my own hands. The Roman Empire ismine. As are you.” He leaned in close, so his lips were against Val’s ear. “Never forget that.”
“No,” Val managed through chattering teeth. “I won’t forget it.”
