Kremlin Knight

CHAPTER 1

On one of the quiet nights in the Kremlin Palace, Tsar Nikolai and his preserved wife celebrate the birthday of their only daughter of beauty and elegance, who was the focus of attention and admiration of all attendees. Suddenly, the Tsar shouted,

"Donatelli summoned the rest of the guests to the party," and Donatelli says,

"Your command, sir."

Donatelli, who was entrusted with commanding the guards and protecting the castle, was known to be a loyal, noble fighter with courage and prowess, as he did not be negligent to perform the tasks entrusted to him by Tsar Nikolai, who was known for his extreme cruelty, ruthlessness, and extreme rigidity.

Donatelli was descended from a Russian father and an Italian mother who had emigrated to the Russian empire during the Roman wars, but he had married a Russian girl, and they had a single child, Giovanni, whose mother died when he was seven years old, so he was raised in the confines of his father, who was known for his great love for him.

Donatelli was close to Tsar Nikolai and the Tsarist family and was loved by family members as he was constantly visiting it in response to their needs and asking for help if necessary.

On an autumn day, Tsar Nikolai went on a military mission to Saint Petersburg to repel foreign attacks against the country that was represented by the French empire, which was seeking to expand its influence in the east, setting the Russian empire in its sights and this prompted it to stir up sedition inside the country and incite the Russian people against Tsarist rule who were suffering from the oppression of the feudal lords and clergy loyal to Tsar Nikolai,

As well as the enslavement of the velvet layer of the aristocrats to landowners from the miserable peasants, the majority of whom were Orthodox Slavs.

During that mission, Tsar Nikolai ordered that the castle be guarded after he returned from St. Petersburg and entrusted Donatelli with the task and placed him at the head of the guard.

He was entrusted to protect the family and to take great care of it, for Tsar had a lonely girl called Mayoshka and he had a son called Alexander, who died at the age of six after a severe struggle with tuberculosis, which led him to his death at an early age, leaving him only his only daughter, Mayoshka.

Mayoshka was an intelligent, discerning girl with charming beauty, as she loved good and peace, rejecting violence and the policies of absolute Tsarist rule.

Where she believed that absolute rule should not deprive people of their legitimate rights and that the enslavement of the aristocratic class to landowners is not entirely satisfactory.

Mayoshka was well aware of the oppression of the Russian people by Tsarist rule without her father's knowledge of it, as she was afraid to reveal him because he loved her so much. After all, she was his only daughter and the sole heir of the Tsarist family of the Romanov dynasty.

The Tsar was afraid of the enemies lying in wait for him who was trying to take the throne from him and seize power, and she is a single girl without having a successor after him.

The night Tsar went to Saint Petersburg, his wife asked Donatelli to tighten the guard of the castle, as is the custom in every absence of the tsar outside Moscow to protect her daughter, Princess Mayoshka, so that nothing would happen to her. She said to him,

"I recommend you to protect the castle well, Donatelli, the castle is now subject to your protection after Tsar's absence" Mayoshka replied with dissatisfaction,

"You always fear for me, mom, why all this fear I am no longer young ?" The mother said,

"I know this, my love, but our enemies are many and the situation of the country is never reassuring." She turned to Donatelli and said to him,

"Do what I have commanded you, Donatelli." Donatelli replied with confidence,

"My lady, rest assured, let you and your beautiful princess rest in peace. I will not allow anyone to pass the royal gate even if that cost me my life." She said to him,

"This is what we have taken us from you, Donatelli" and he replied to her with a smile,

"Thank you for your confidence, madam" then he went out to the courtyard of the castle. Mayoshka was concerned about her mother's conversation with Donatelli, so she asked her

"Why did my father go to Saint Petersburg, mom? Is there something dangerous ?" She said to her,

"I do not know, Mayoshka, but he told me that things will be fine and he told me that he will bring you a beautiful dress from St. Petersburg in honor of Prince Edward to his wedding."

"Well, mom, good night," said Mayoshka.

Mayoshka was betrothed by the English king to his son Prince Edward when he saw her and admired her at the Christmas party, but she refused because he was from the bourgeois class and because she sympathized with the low class of the Russian people who were feeling their pain, as she did not announce this to her father and claimed that she will not marry until the country stabilizes from the existing turmoil,

Tsar Nikolai did not object to this then, although he was cruel, he was kind and tolerant with his daughter Mayoshka.

Then Donatelli instructed his guards to fortify and surround the castle and not to allow anyone to penetrate the castle even those close to Tsar Nikolai.