THE TIDES OF TIME

- Chapter 28 -

He did not wait until morning. He couldn't. The moment Blagun supplied him with the uniform of Sofia's guardsman, Jovan changed and left. He made his way toward the Ulpia Serdica Fortress at a steady pace. Not only did he not want to attract unwanted attention - not that he counted on coming across many individuals in the dead of night, but he also knew his way to the Fortress by now. His inborn skills and experience as a Navy Seal taught him one thing: how to memorize every single detail, and how to figure out his position, regardless of the time of the day. Or year, Jovan smiled to himself the moment that thought crossed his mind.

Since he made this journey alone, Jovan devoted his time to rethinking and recalculating his options. And each time he kept arriving at the same conclusion. Getting inside the Fortress was not the problem because Blagun provided him with the knowledge of half a dozen hidden entrances and passages. Finding his way around the Fortress also was not a problem that Jovan was concerned with. He spent years as a Navy Seal, and special missions were his specialty. He knew how to think on his feet and how to think one step ahead of his enemy. But what concerned Jovan the most, was the way he and Jagoda would escape once he freed her. All because Anil described the way Jagoda was knocked unconscious and beaten the last time he saw her.

The sheer thought of the possibility that Jagoda could be hurt again, injured even in the smallest bit, and that she was being held captive in a dungeon, turned Jovan's blood ice-cold. Knowing that her own sister did this to her made it worse. Knowing that Zora could have gone so far as to plot against her own father - and potentially Blagun's father as well, added a layer of unspoken resentment that Jovan could not get past. But, he was perfectly aware that emotions were not a good factor when it came to rescue missions. They clouded one's judgment. They blurred one's vision. They numbed one's senses. And he could not afford to make a mistake.

He made it inside the Fortress at dawn, once the front gate opened. The streets surrounding the Fortress were still deserted and unoccupied. Jovan sighed. He wondered if the streets of the grand Sofia looked this dark, gloomy, and unwelcoming when the great Lala Şahin Pasha lived, or whether the city fell into despair after Zora took over. Either way, this was not a city that attracted new visitors. Not by the least.

Jovan waited until the city slowly began to wake up. The merchants reopened their little shops and their market stalls. The taverns began to open their doors to visitors, both local and out-of-town. No longer able to deny that he was hungry, Jovan decided to enter one of the taverns. He hoped to go unnoticed, but he realized just how wrong he was to even hope for it the moment he stepped inside. All the heads turned his way at the sight of his Fortress' guardsman clothes. All the conversations stopped. And all the men hid their swords and daggers. Jovan shook his head with disgust. The only thing Zora was good at was instilling fear in her people.

"What will it be for the guardsman of the grand Fortress?" The bartender approached Jovan with fear as he sat down by the bar, and bowed his head in a sign of instilled respect.

"Anything hot, and anything stomach-filling," Jovan replied.

"We've plenty of that, Sir," the bartender nodded, bowed his head again while offering Jovan a rather cautious smile, and walked away toward the back of the tavern.

"You must be new around here," said a man silver in his winters of small build yet with piercing eyes, as he sat down beside Jovan.

"You may say that." Jovan answered the man's rhetorical question, keeping in mind to stay in character as a dry-humored soldier. "Is it that obvious?"

"Ask Yourself that question. The Fortress guards never come to this part of the city." Saying so, the man gestured at the bartender to bring him his choice of beverage.