Chapter 64
Episode 64
Why Prince Vlad would not pay tribute and honour to the Turkish Sultan
The air in the war room crackled, thick with the scent of lamp oil and the nervous sweat of men. Prince Vlad, his gaze as sharp as the steel of his sword, surveyed the map spread across the table. Maps, he mused, were like prophecies, hinting at what could be, but so easily twisted by the hands that guided them. Before him lay the weighty question, the one that gnawed at the edges of his resolve: the tribute.
"He demands it," declared a grizzled captain, his voice rough with age and battle. "The Sultan, he claims it is his due. An offering from a vassal."
Vlad’s jaw tightened. Vassal. The word tasted like ash in his mouth. He, Vlad III, Drăculești, Prince of Wallachia, paying homage to a foreign power? It was an insult to his lineage, to the very soil of his land. He remembered his father, Vlad II, caught in the same gilded cage of obligation, forced to send his sons, Vlad and Radu, as pawns to the Ottoman court, a bitter price for a fragile peace. But Vlad had learned. He had learned the Sultan’s hunger, his insatiable desire to expand his reach, to swallow kingdoms whole.
Keep reading "Episode 64"
Open the same story in AIBookCraft. Later chapters may require an active subscription.
Free on iOS & Android · No signup to read