The brotherhood of wolves

Chapter 8

MURAD II

Sultan Murad II was dining in the palate garden accompanied by his mother Emine.  A dinner of 30
dishes of meat placed on the table,  mostly brought on golden platters arranged on a large tray one at the time, delicious dessert like baclava and puddings waiting their turn on silver plates, all types of exotic fruits and pitches of lemonade and sherbets to quench the thirst was completing the picture, his moment of serenity this time disrupted by disturbing news brought by one of his spies who just arrived, destroying his appetite.
Bad news aroused his anger, almost choking with food from indignation, wallachian infidels dared to mocked him again by killing his best vizier and the three hundred soldiers who accompanied him.
This time he will show no mercy he thought aloud pacing up and down, he will no longer ask them to pay they taxes in gold to the Sublime Porte, for every human life taken he will ask twenty more instead,.. he will take their kids and women to make them learn that Ottoman power is not one to be taken for granted!
"How reckless, how dare they to face me? !!
I, who led thousands of legions in battles!!!
I, who conquered half of the world !!
A simple vassal in a tiny country he dared to confront mee?!! " he said in a loud resounding voice full of pride,the echo of his voice echoing throughout the palace, patience and gentleness were not some of his best qualities.

Full of anger, ripping his turban off his head and slamming it onto the polished marble floor, with a heart like a beating drum he takes a seat on the couch next to the coffee table pounding his fist on it smashing a porcelain plate, he cut himself deep, blood gushing down in a stream staining the rose-coloured marble floor.
From the silk pillows on which she was lying, his mother jumped fritened crying for help, royal guards rushing in followed by the servants.
The Sultan seeing the commotion he created, loosing his temper, began to shout profanity at them.
Valide Sultana ( mother of Sultan) regaining her composure she asked one of the guards to bring the doctor of the palace who come in a blink of an eye. 
A

fter a few well done stitches made by the doctor, she asked one of the slaves to bring refreshments and a narghilea (shisha) trying to distract him from what happened. They never kept secrets  from each other,  delicately tried to make him relieve his soul but Murad was still too angry for that and despite the very close relationship they have he rejected her initiative to confess.
Stretching back on the couch, with a passive attitude, Murad began to puff from the alabaster narghilea, raising clouds of hashish in the air, his outburst of anger calming down significantly, he was known among his own as an impulsive and violent individual, who could not control his temper most of his violent outbursts ending with severe punishments or beheading against the opponent.
At a gesture of clapping made by the sultana's hands, some instrumentalists began to sing soft music, with another clap of her hands two odalisques made their appearance dancing lasciviously to oriental rhythms. Sultan watched them dance lost in thought, after a while gaining a better mood, unexpectedly a thought came to him remembering that sometimes in order to learn secretly the doings of the viziers and other statesmen, he would change his clothing and wander around the city in disguise. Enlightened by this sudden though, he planned to change in to a simple robe and try to infiltrate the palace courtyard accompanied only by his loyal protector Mohammed, in finding out information about what happened  (mocking name given in the past by the Turks to peoples of a religion other than Mohammedan, especially Christian) to his men at the Ghiuri land.

Said and done, the two went together to roam the courtyard of the palace,
at that hour of the evening, his soldiers, after a day of military training, were huddled in groups around the fire, having dinner and talking quietly to each other.
Moving from one group to another they finally reached a group of five who seamed more secluded than the rest; sitting  in front of a fire behind a tent and drinking tea they listened in silence what the five strangers were talking in a low voice.
By the language they spoke in they seemed to be romanian, luckily Mohammed understood their language well, being born among them on Romanian lands, taken by force when he was merely a child of 10 years old and brought at the Ottoman court, able to understand a few other languages and dialects also, thanks to the education received at the Turkish court.
Endowed with intelligence and noble education and for his loyal nature the sultan has chosen him as confidant and protector, accompanying him everywhere he went.
Mohammed became the most important man in the sultan's service, becoming his eyes and ears, feared by all, he was only acted  on the sultan's orders and was not accountable to anyone else.
Eavesdropping to what the five's whispered, his eyes wide with astonishment explained the sultan they saying, intuiting more than understanding what they were talking about.
From the conversation come out words like werewolf, undead, unclean spirit, devil or something similar. 
The sultan astonished, was thinking that what he heard was far from the facts officially related to him, and by the fear with they were talking it seems to be true not creations of a overheated imagination.
He himself was not one estranged with supernatural, having an avid interest in magic and star reading, he come across in his life time over some very interesting  events who lead him entering the possession of very old inscriptions dating back to the Garden of Heaven and even at the very creation of the world.  
His attention being captured by what he found he made the decision to investigate in detail,
he must find out the truth behind what is being said in one way or another.
Returning incognito to the palace a plan had formed in his mind, he ordered that the five Wallachian soldiers to be taken and imprisoned in the palace dungeons so that the next morning they could be interrogated and tortured if necessary.