Free Memoirs of an Immortal Life by Candace L Bowser Page B

to kill us both. Vladimir drove us from his room before we could finish. Even in death, he will have no rest.
    Tomorrow at sunset, he is to be executed. I am astonished he continues to speak to Matthias given he is his captor. Perhaps it is his allegiance to the House of Baserab. In death may he find the peace he could not find in life. This is all that I can pray for, as his soul no longer can be saved. I must, in good judgment, do as has been done once before.
    When first I stood before him, my hand trembled as the dagger turned. The blade pressed to his throat made no sound as it was drawn.
    “Do it,” he had whispered.
    The arrival of Mihnea was not expected as his father’s lifeforce bled out at my feet.
    “You will bury my father at the Chapel. He will be taken to Sighisoara.”
    “Your father was a heretic who twisted the word of God to suit his own purpose.”
    “My father was a man who served your will and for his faith lost his only reason for living.”
    His armed men took the lifeless corpse of Vladimir Tepes into their possession and disappeared. Perhaps this is the will of God that I am not meant to be his executioner.
     

     
    15 May 1467
    Sighisoara
     
    The henchman’s axe came down upon his corpse at the command of Radu at dusk. His body was taken to the monastery where he had once come to me a young man broken by the treatment he endured but still filled with God’s will. Forgive me for failing you, Vladimir.
    The Ottomans demanded his head as proof of his execution. It is said it will be put on display in a jar and paraded about their kingdom. How did his life come to this? Where did I first fail him? Over and over to God have I prayed for guidance, only to be greeted with silence. Perhaps this is my penance. I shall never be relieved of the guilt I alone must bear for his fall from Grace and for the truth I must now hide.
    The man executed was not my Vladimir, not the man I grew to respect before he slipped from my grasp. His body was readied by the Priests for burial in the crypt as was dictated by Baserab Law and his son. What I witnessed as they dressed him in his royal robes, I am certain. Vladimir shall live on, forever immortalized. I know not what will happen now or what the future may hold. Mihnea is aged to sixteen and shall take the throne. It is said he is more brutal than even his father. Mihnea cel Rau they call him. Mihnea the Bad shall embody his father’s image of brutality and seek vengeance against those responsible for his death. This can be certain.
     

     
    1 June 1467
    Poenari
     
    I sit here alone, surrounded by darkness . I have seen things which are not possible. What manner of trickery is this? Is it I who is now punished for what happened to my beloved Vladimir? If I am to remain here within the confines of the castle then my faith must be renewed for that which is before me cannot be explained. Shadows and figures linger in the darkness; figures that no mortal man of God could possibly see. I am certain it was not Vladimir who met the executioner’s axe, but another whose appearance was similar enough to replace him.  Certainty lies in this, for the shadows which are seen can be none other than Vladimir. The curse placed upon him by my hand has bound him to this place, a constant reminder of the darkness he invoked. Mordecai questioned me at length. To Rome we are to travel in one month’s time to meet with Pope Pios to discuss my failure. I know not what fate awaits me there, but I shall accept whatever punishment Pope Pios deems fit for not only my failure to my charge, but also to God.
     
     

    4 June 1467
    The Vatican
     
    I await nervously my meeting with Pope Pios. Mordecai has said that I am to meet with him alone; no others shall be present, it shall be only the Pope, myself, and God who will bear witness to my punishment. I pray that should it be deemed my life must end, that it be known I did all that was within my power to care for Vladimir’s soul. I