Kremlin Knight

CHAPTER 8

Giovanni and his knights go on returning to the castle after a great effort in their journey that took place in the north of the country, so after two weeks of running onboard their mares, Giovanni arrived at the castle to reveal what he was concealing from the facts, When he reaches the castle yard, he is arrested by the guards and they lead him to their commander, unaware of what is going on and doesn't know what awaits him.

The guards bring Giovanni to the commander Vasily, where he tells him sarcastically,

"What brought you, Giovanni, did you come to admit the death of the tsar ?" Giovanni answered him with courage

"Yes, I came to tell you that I am the one who avenged Tsar Nikolai that your men were unable to do."

Vasily was astonished by what Giovanni had disclosed and said to him with astonishment and extreme suspicion, "You took revenge on the Tsar ! But who killed him, Giovanni ?" He said, "Gregori Raspoutine, I killed him and threw him into the Volga River."

Vasily replied in astonishment, "What ! The black monk, but how did you know that he was the killer."

Giovanni answered him in a sincere tone, "He is the one who planned to kill the Tsar and his family, I learned from one of his followers before I got rid of him, he is the guard who killed him in the Borovetsky forest."

Vasily knew that he was right in all that he had disclosed, and his tone of voice did not lie at all, so he replied to him in an angry voice, "Why did you not tell about that at the time?" Giovanni replied to him with words that emanate from sincerity and courage "If I told you what happened at the time, you would have ordered your men to execute him and take revenge on Tsar alone, but I wanted to kill him myself to avenge Tsar and my father Donatelli together who was murdered as the victim of Raspoutine's conspiracy for treason."

Vasily was surprised that he was the son of commander Donatelli, who was executed on charges of betraying Tsar Nikolai, as he regrets the incident that led to the death of his father, who is considered one of the finest knights of the castle and the noblest commanders who worked under their command,

As he did not believe that commander Donatelli was the one who masterminded that plot and killed the Tsar's wife, but this did not prevent Tsar Nikolai from reversing his decision regarding the death sentence, as he considered him responsible for killing his wife and injuring his only daughter.

Vasily was admired by Giovanni's courage and what he did despite all the difficulties that he faced and which the strongest knights of the castle failed to do, as he said to him with a broad smile "You remind me of your father's courage, Giovanni." Giovanni did not utter a single word, but Vasili's words made him shed tears.

Thus, all in the castle knew what Giovanni had made, and as a result, Vasily released him and honored him with the knight castle medal, which any knight had always dreamed of.

Thus Vasily announced the death of Tsar Nikolai throughout the empire and that he had been killed by Giovanni Donatelli instead of Raspoutine and his damned conspiracy, as he wanted to get rid of all his followers before leaving the country when they knew the truth, especially those working under his command in the castle.

Vasily's plan was very clever, especially since Giovanni had told him that he had killed the spy who worked as guards in the castle, so he wanted to get rid of them one by one to secure the castle and eliminate all traitors.

Vasily realized that trying to reach the spies is very difficult, especially since the castle is full of guards who are obligated to protect the castle, who number about five hundred guards.

Vasily thought for a long time and found that he had no solution but to investigate all the guards one by one, and during his investigation with the guards, he found that two of them resided in the village of Pokrovskoe, Raspoutine's hometown, where he was suspicious of them and asked,

"Do you know Grigori Raspoutine ?" The two guards were surprised by Vasily's question, and they looked at each other with signs of fear, and they answered together,

"No, sir, we do not know anything about him."

Vasily realized that they were liars, especially since they are from the same village where Raspoutine lives, and this increased his suspicions about them, then he ordered his guards to take them to the castle prison and severely torture them to force them to confess.

Vasily's suspicions were correct about them, they confessed under torture and severe beatings that they were spies of Raspoutine whom he trusted as his relatives in the village.

Vasily was not as cruel as Tsar Nikolai, although he was firm, he didnot sentence them to death, but he stripped them of guarding the castle andsent them to their village in Pokrovskoe.