COMPLETE! The Wasteland. A woman screams in the night. Spotlights flash on a pile of dust in the desolate patch of land that lay just beyond the tall crosses that picket the boundary of Encampment R-34. A group of curious students leave their bunkho...
To Matthias Corvinus, the worshipful King of Hungary, be this letter taken.
Day forty-six of my search for Vlad Tepes of Wallachia. As your envoy, I take great pride in tracking the son of Dracul and guarding the sealed note you have entrust'd to my care. The terrain here is unfit for rest. We move on, but exhaustion is near. Having arrived at the fortified city of Giurgiu, with no little grief and trouble, your small band of soldiers and I were met with the aftermath of a great attack. I have here written, according to your desire, a faithful account of the affair as it reach'd my eyes.
The men we had been trailing were ambush'd in the city. There were upwards of six thousand souls. A truthful tally was an arduous task in light of such beastly dismemberment. I must also account that, against my vanity, I hid my face to drive away all fear and concern. This assault was a surprise, I guarantee it, since weapons were left sheath'd and untrigger'd. The footstones of the square are still moist with Muslim blood. There is not a scrap of Wallachian colors amongst the bodies, which is to say that death did not touch them. Strangely, there are wild gypsy dogs in the square feasting on the lifeless. I could do no more than cover my nose and mouth. Your rider brought reports that the Sultan of the Turks, Mehmet II, direct'd the Bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha, to meet here with the Prince. An ancillary search shows that his garments are not within the city walls. Your men assume the Bey has been seized for some grim, forthcoming purpose.
As I had heard you state, before departing Hungary, Dracula's refusal to pay the Jizya tax on his country's non-Muslim population will prove to be his end. Although they fell in this courtyard, the Ottoman troops outnumber even the whole of Wallachia. I hope, with desperation, that I can discover the warrior Prince before word reaches the sultan of this ambush.
Am sending this by way of your returning emissary.
Writ at Giurgiu on the twenty-fifth of January, Fourteen Hundred and Sixty-Two
Ezzelin von Klatka
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