Introduction

Hi all,

The King of the World is a long story that I wrote some years back. My love for vampire stories made me dig into the details of Dracula and the vampire legends. I did a great deal of research into these "dark corners" of history. I became so fascinated by the Romanian myths surrounding vampires and the old ages.

One morning, this story came into my mind. It might have been accumulating in my mind for a long time, but it came out as words in just around 4 hours. I wrote it down at one stretch. 

Till now, I have been circulating this amongst my friends. I have put it up on sale at Lulu, so, if any of you are interested in getting a hard copy, check out at Lulu Bookstore. 

I have also included a link to download the PDF version of the novella. Please fell free to download it and distribute it amongst your friends. 

I am anticipately waiting for your comments. Please leave it in this blog or shoot me an email at visakhcr at gmail dot com.

Thank you for taking out time to read this. I will be writing more.

Visakh

Acknowlegements & Preface

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank Bram Stoker and all horror novelists who entertained the world with their wonderful stories.

I want to thank the people who have put the story of Vlad Tepes online for sharing with the world.

I want to thank Google for its wonderful search machine that gave me all the information that I needed from tips to write a novelette to history of Vlad III.

PREFACE

This novel is a work of fiction. Some of the characters in this story have historically existed, but the events mentioned are completely a work of fiction. So, if you are an historian, please don’t get provoked by the stories that I interwove into the events that actually occurred.

Chapter One

The old man was watching the snow. The day had started fine with some hope of sunshine and he had come out for a walk. But, by the time he reached the park, it had started snowing. So, he cuddled himself under the old bench which was covered by a dented tin sheet.

His eyes wandered around. The entire road was deserted. Apart from some cars on the sides, there was nothing other than snow in the street. The old man's eyes began to feel the weight of the tiresome walk and he slowly dozed off.

There, on top of the mountain stood a castle. The king and his army were falling against the enemy. And on top of the tower, that overlooked the river stood a lady in a flowing gown. She looked at the raging war. She looked towards the heaven and murmured a prayer. And then she jumped to the river.

The old man opened his eyes. He heard an gasp and saw that a boy was sitting beside him. He was looking intently at the old man.

'Looks like you had a bad dream. You are sweating in this snow!’ the boy exclaimed.

The old man touched his neck and felt the beads of sweat flowing down. He quickly wrapped the blanket a around his neck and said, 'Yes. I had a bad dream. And I have been seeing it for years'.

The boy looked surprised.

The old man studied the boy. He looked like in his teens. He was wearing a blue jacket and a jean. His head was covered in a red scarf. He looked like a middle class boy in that area.

‘Can you tell me your dream? May be I can give you an interpretation.’

The old man looked irritated. ‘I know what it means’.

The boy became sullen by the old man’s reply. The old man noticed the change in the boy’s face and felt guilty. He tried to cheer him up.

‘I didn’t mean to be rude. My dream has got a long story behind it. That’s why.’

‘Story behind a dream! It will be a wonderful one. I love stories. If you don’t mind, can you tell me your story?’

‘It’s a very long one. And might not be as interesting as you think.’

‘Any story behind a dream will be interesting. And I have got the entire day. Please tell me the story.’ The boy pleaded.

Finally, the old man thought that he will tell the story. ‘Anyway, it had been a part of my life for a long time. And maybe if I tell it to someone, it will give me more peace’, he thought.

And then he began his story.

Chapter Two

‘It happened long back, when the world was small and divided’, the old man started. ‘After the crusades, the enmity between the Christian and Muslim kingdoms was aggravating day by day. Peace never existed. During the fourteenth and fifteenth century, the Muslim kingdom existed till Turkey which was called the Ottoman empire and the Christian empire started from Hungary. The separating region between these two powers was a small kingdom called Wallachia.’

The boy was intensely gazing at the old man. He continued the story.

‘Lying between two powerful kingdoms that are fighting each other causes a lot of problems. Both of them try to get control of that small region. And the same was happening in Wallachia. The rulers of Wallachia were constantly changing sides to meet their political ambitions. And in the middle of fifteenth century, the throne was seized by Vlad II. He was serving as a military governor of a nearby province. Being a man of high ambitions, he gathered supporters and seized power and became the king of Wallachia.’

‘For half a decade, Vlad II was able to follow a middle ground between his two neighbors. But after some time, the Turks invaded the nearby province of Transylvania. But he remained neutral. The forces of Hungary were able to drive the Turks out but they were furious about Vlad II neutrality. Vlad II and his family fled Wallachia. One year later, he came back and regained the throne with Turkish support. But for their help, Vlad II sent many boys and his two sons, Vlad III and Radu to be kept as hostages by the Turks.’

The boy seemed looked at the old man. He seemed to be visualizing the events in front of him as he narrated. The old man continued.

‘The Varna Campaign was a big event led by John Hunyadi against the Turks. Vlad II didn’t support Hunyadi and the Christian army was completely defeated. Hunyadi escaped and he turned hostile towards Vlad II. Vlad II was assassinated and his elder son, Mircea was buried alive. One of Hunyadi’s trusted man was made the prince of Wallachia,’

The boy wondered whether the old man’s eyes became moist when he told this. But, he continued without a pause.

‘The sons of Vlad II, Vlad III and Radu, who were kept as hostages by Turks were released and Turks supported Vlad III as their candidate for Wallachian throne. Vlad III succeeded in that, but only for a short time. In two months, Hunyadi made his supporter Vladislov II as the prince. But he suddenly changed sides and became pro-Turkish.’

‘The fall of Constantinople took the entire Christian empire by surprise. Hunyadi was killed in the war against Turks and Vlad III was able to get back the throne of Wallachia. And his reign started.’

The man paused. The boy looked at him eagerly. The old man smiled at the boy and continued.

Chapter Three

‘In 1456, the state of Wallachia was suffering economic anarchy. For years, the economy and business of Wallachia was completely dominated by German Saxons. They were ruthless and cunning. The nobility called boyars, were also a prominent power and mostly unfaithful to the king.

One week after Vlad III became the prince, he made the town of Tirgoviste as the seat of administration. He called a meeting of his ministers and advisors.

“Our land is going through a financial crisis. Also, we have a law and order problem. I want proper laws to be framed that maintain law and order. And I want a solution to prevent the breakdown of economy.”

Vlad III retired to his chamber and called for his army chief. Soon, he was ushered into his chamber.

“My lord, me, Nicole, chief of army, presents myself for your service.” Nicole was a well built man of proportionate height and weight. He had cold eyes that looked like the eyes of a hawk. But he was not as tall as Vlad III.’

‘Tell me how Vlad III looked like,’ the boy interrupted.

The old man gave an irritated look and said, ‘It’s not important to the story. And don’t interrupt me suddenly. Vlad III was around six and a half feet tall. He had a slim muscular body. His eyes were fierce and looked liked that of a lion. His nose was a little long and he kept a moustache.’

The boy felt that the description closely matched the old man’s looks. But he didn’t want to interrupt the old man since he feared he might stop telling the story.

The old man continued from where he had stopped.

‘ “I called for you because I have some other important matters to be decided other than what I told the court. But before that, I want your full loyalty. Show me that you are loyal.”

The army chief didn’t hesitate. He took his sword and placed it at Vlad’s feet. He bowed and said, “I, Nicole, take an oath on my life that I will serve my lord and will be faithful to him. I place my life in my lord’s possession.’ With that he stood up, made a cut in his thumb and dropped the blood on the sword.

Vlad was really impressed. He embraced Nicole. “Now you have my confidence. I have decided to save Wallachian economy from the clutches of those parasitic German’s. And I want to clean the nobility by flowing down a river of boyar blood. This is what I want you to do.”

Nicole was impressed by the ferocity of speech of Vlad. “Only a true patriot can speak like this” he thought.

“I will serve my lord in this patriotic act by whatever way I can,” declared Nicole.

Vlad was satisfied and dismissed Nicole. “A new dawn is going to launch. Wallachia will become a state of power and prosperity and I will achieve my dream,” he thought.

The next two months were full of activity for the army. By king’s orders, the German merchants were asked to leave the state. If they disobeyed, they were to be executed. It was during this period that Vlad started execution by impalement, one of his favorite methods. Those merchants who saw the situation of their friends and relatives fled the state.

Slowly Wallachia started recovering from the financial crisis that loomed on it for years. The local trade flourished and agriculture boomed. The people were happy and Vlad III won their heart.

The next campaign was against the boyars. For devising plans, he called a meeting of his top officials.

“I want all the unfaithful boyars to be executed. But it should not be hastily done as we did with the merchants. I want a plan to be devised that will slowly and methodically eliminate those who are against me.”

The army chief came out with a plan and it was accepted by Vlad. And that plan was called the “Good Easter”.

Chapter Four

The next day Vlad made the announcement.

“All nobles are invited for the party to be held in my castle on this Easter. Those who do not attend will be dismissed from my court and banished from Wallachia.” It was a command that all should attend the feast.

And as expected, on Easter, all the nobles and their family turned up. Vlad threw a wonderful party with all the delicacies from around the world. As per the nobles request, Vlad agreed to give a speech.

“I have the immense pleasure to have all of you for my party today. I know that this is a rare and wonderful event in the history of Wallachia. I want my state to become the hub of prosperity and happiness. And I have been making and executing some strict laws.”

Vlad paused. The nobles clapped in agreement. Vlad scanned his audience and continued.

“I wanted to ask you one question. I know we rulers are always short lived. I wanted to know how many rulers have you served in you lifetime.”

He looked questioningly at his audience. Some answered four, some five, some six and some eight. And a very old boyar answered ten.

“Those who have seen more than one ruler in their lifetime please stand,” Vlad requested. Almost all of them stood up.

“I order my army chief to arrest all these people and I convict them as traitors.”

There was a gasp from the people. They started running and there was utter chaos. By that time, the doors were locked. Soon, all of them were taken as prisoners.

“The old ones and their family will be executed. The healthier ones will be kept in prison and will be marched north from Tirgoviste to the ruins of the castle in the mountains above the Arges River. And they will construct a new castle there.”

Vlad was vehemently opposed by some of his ministers against this supposedly cruel act. Vlad replied to their complaints.

“I am the king of Wallachia. I have the right to do anything that will be good for the general public. These boyars were the ones who cheated us and made our economy weak. Many of them were spies. They were just living in luxury ignoring the poor peasants and traders. I don’t want this to happen in my state. I want everyone to be happy. These are the people who killed my father and brother. My brother was buried alive by them.” He faltered a bit. Quickly, he regained his composure and continued.

“Whatever I did in the past, doing now and will be doing in the future will be only for improving the conditions in my state. As some people are saying, I don’t derive any personal pleasure from killing people. I ordered to impale them because it is a slow and painful death. Whoever did a crime should not be killed with a single blow. It should be a slow and painful death. And my experience with the Ottoman’s had taught me that impalement is the most painful way to death.”’

Chapter Five

‘After successfully completing his campaign against the nobles and traders, Vlad took interest in building new castles and monasteries. He took great interest in building a monastery in the island of Snagov near Bucharest.

Vlad donated a lot of money to churches and monasteries. At that time, he was an Orthodox Christian. (Later he converted into Catholism).

The word Snagov means “human body” in Bulgarian. Snagov is a lake. The monastery of Snagov was in the middle of the lake. When Vlad III came to know about the bad situation of the monastery, he took personal interest and built a very beautiful and eerie new building.

During this time, Vlad made some additions to his castle in Tirgoviste. The famous Chindia tower which became a landmark was built by Vlad III. He reinforced the castle of Poienari and built a personal house nearby.

Vlad was very strict in maintaining a good military order in the state. He took interest in training his troop, the art of guerilla warfare. It proved very useful in driving away the Turks in the coming years.'