Chapter 51 Chapter 50

Turgut Bora and Selim Akso were waiting for us at the airport in Istanbul. "Thank God, welcome back in victory!" "Oh, I wouldn't call that a victory," I said, and couldn't help laughing. In less than an hour, we arrived at the door of Turgut's house. Madam Borra was clearly delighted at our presence.She and Selim served us coffee and what she called Polek, and half a dozen other dishes. "Well, my friends, tell us what you have learned." It was a tall order, and together we told him about the Budapest meeting, my acquaintance with Hugh James, the story of Helen's mother and Rosie's letter.Turgut's eyes widen as we describe Hugh James' discovery of his dragon book.

Now it was Turgut's turn to tell us that they were in big trouble while we were away in Istanbul. Two days ago, his kind librarian friend was attacked for the second time in the apartment where he now lives.The man they sent to watch him fell asleep on duty and saw nothing.Now they have a new guard, hope this one is more careful.All precautions were taken, but poor Mr. Erozan was in trouble. They have another message.Turgut swallowed his second cup of coffee and hurried to fetch something from his dreadful study next door.He came out with a notebook and sat beside Selim Axo.They looked at me seriously.

"I told you on the phone that while you were away we found a letter from a monk from the Carpathians about his trip to Istanbul. My friend Selim wondered It's not in Latin, but maybe the monk is a Slav. Shall I read it right away?" "Of course!" I said.But Helen raised her hand. "Wait, please. How and where did you find it?" Turgut nodded approvingly, "Mr. Axel actually found it in the archives—the one you saw with us. It took him three days to look through the manuscripts from the fifteenth century all the way through." to the present. It is found in some documents of the non-religious Church—that is, the Christian churches that were allowed to open in Istanbul during the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror and his successors. There are not many such documents in the archives , as they were usually kept by the monasteries, especially by the patriarchs of Constantinople. However, some church documents fell into the hands of the sultan, especially with new agreements with the church during the imperial era. Such agreements are usually called 'orders'. Sometimes the sultan accepts certain petitions related to church affairs. There are also these things in the archives."

He quickly translated for Axo, who wanted him to explain something else, "Yes—my friend made me aware of many such cases. He reminded me that after Muhammad the Conqueror took this Soon after the city he appointed a new bishop for the Christians, Bishop Gennadius." Axo listened and nodded vigorously, "The relationship between the Sultan and Gennadius is very good—I said that once the Sultan conquered the Christians, he was tolerant of them. Sultan Muhammad asked Gennadius to help him Wrote down an interpretation of the Orthodox faith, had it translated and kept it in his private library, there was a copy in the archives. And some other charters of the Church, they had to be presented to the Sultan. Those were there too. Ak Mr Sow was looking for a charter in a religious document in Anatolia, and between two pages he found this letter."

"Thank you." Helen leaned back on the cushion. "Well, I can't let you see the original, we can't take it out of the archives. You can go and see for yourself while you're here. It's written on a little parchment. Now I'm putting our English The translation is read to you. Remember, this is the translation of the translation, and some meaning may have been missed.” He read us the following letter: His Excellency Dean Maxim Euracius: A base sinner begs you to hear him. Since our exploration failure yesterday, there have been great differences in the team.This morning, we have a new approach.The abbot of Panacratos, having received a letter from our master abbot, speaking of our extreme, but unwilling to disclose, distresses, came to see us in person at St. Ayrin.On arrival, he spoke privately with our host, and revealed to us that what we were looking for had been removed from the city to a safe place in the occupied Bulgarian territory.He also gave us highly confidential instructions on how to get there safely, and the sanctuary we must find.The two abbots also told us that the guards in the Sultan's palace had come to ask the bishop about the whereabouts of what we were looking for.It is very dangerous for us to stay even one more day now.

Your Excellency, please forgive us for taking our own initiative and setting off without your instructions. If necessary, before this record reaches your hands, I may destroy it and report to you myself. lowly sinner, kirill parishioner April 6985 of My Lord's Era After Turgut finished reading, there was a deep silence.Selim and Mrs. Bora sat quietly.Helen and I looked at each other. "My AD 6985?" I said at last. "What does that mean?" "Medieval documents are dated from the time of creation in Genesis," Helen explained. "Yes," Turgut nodded, "According to modern calculations, 6985 is 1477."

I couldn't help sighing, "This letter is very vivid, but it has nothing to do with my business," I said sadly, "Why do you think it has anything to do with Vlad Dracula?" Turgut smiled, "Young skeptic, let me try to answer. Selim knew the city well, and when he found this letter, he knew it might be useful. He showed it to a friend." , who was the librarian at the old monastery library in St. Ayrin, which is still there. The friend translated this letter into Turkish for him, and was very interested in it, because it mentioned His monastery. However, he found no material in his library relating to this visit in 1477—either it was not recorded, or the record has long since disappeared."

"If the mission they're describing was secret and dangerous," Helen pointed out, "then it might not have been recorded." "That's right, my dear lady," Turgut nodded towards her, "anyway, Selim's monastery friend helped us with an important matter - he consulted the oldest The history of the church, found the abbot who was the recipient of the letter, and he later became the bishop of Mount Athos. However, when this letter was written to him in 1477, he was still in Lake Chenagov. Abbot." Turgut said emphatically with a triumphant tone. We sat there excitedly, silent for a while.

Finally, Helen spoke first, "We are people of God, from the Carpathians." She murmured. "Repeat, please?" Turgut stared at her with interest. "Yes!" I answered Helen, "from the Carpathians." It was a song, a Romanian folk song, that Helen had discovered in Budapest.I told them about the old songbook we had been looking through together in the Budapest University library, and about the detailed wood-carved dragon above the pages and the church hidden in the woods. Turgut listened, his eyebrows almost raised to his unkempt hair. I flicked through my materials, "Where's that thing?"

After a while, I found the handwritten translation in a folder in my briefcase, and I read it aloud to them, pausing every now and then to let Turgut translate for Selim and Mrs. Bora: They rode to the city and came to the gate. They came from the kingdom of death to the great city. "We are servants of God, from the Carpathians. We are monks, we are saints, but we bring only bad news. We bring news of the plague to the great city. We serve our master and weep for his death. " They rode to Ayutthaya.they entered the door Dacheng wept with them. "Oh, my God, it's strange and frightening," said Turgut. "Is that all your folk songs, ma'am?"

"Yes, mostly," Helen said with a smile. "And our dragon is just above the page, hidden in the bushes - there must be a connection between the two." "I wish I could see that," Turgut sighed. His wife gently put her hand on his arm, and he clapped her hand in relief, "No—look—the plague!" He turned to Selim, and the two had a quick argument in Turkish. "What?" Helen's eyes narrowed because of her concentration. "The plague in the song?" "Yes, my dear." Turgut stroked his hair back. "In addition to this letter, we also found an incident in Istanbul during this period. In the late summer of 1477, in the hottest In 1999, there occurred a disaster which our historians call the little plague. It claimed the lives of many in the old Pella district of the city. The bodies had their hearts pierced before they were burned." "Do you think that if these monks were the ones mentioned in the song, they were the ones who brought the plague to that city?" "We don't know that, of course," Turgut admitted, "but if your ballad describes the same monks—" "I've been thinking about something," Helen put down her glass, "Paul, I can't remember if I told you that Vlad Dracula was one of the first people in history to use disease in war." one." "Germ warfare," I added, "Hugh James told me." "Yes," she tucked her legs under her body, "Dracula liked to send people infected with the plague or smallpox as Turks to the enemy's camp when the Sultan invaded Wallachia. Infect as many people as possible before they die." If this event wasn't so horrible, I'd be laughing.The king of Wallachia was as creative as he was destructive, a brilliant foe. "I see," Turgut nodded. "You mean, maybe these monks, if they were monks, brought the plague from Wallachia." "But that doesn't explain one thing." Helen frowned. "If some of them were suffering from contagious diseases, why did the abbot of St. Ayrin let them stay there?" "Indeed, ma'am," Turgut admitted, "even if it is not this plague but another contagion—but we have no way of knowing." People sat there dejectedly, thinking. "Even after the conquest, many Orthodox monks went through Constantinople on a pilgrimage." Helen finally said, "Maybe it's just a group of pilgrims." "But they were looking for something that they apparently didn't find on the pilgrimage, at least not in Constantinople," I pointed out, "and Brother Kirill said they were going to enter Bulgaria pretending to be pilgrims. It seems like they weren't really pilgrims—at least that's what he said." Turgut scratched his head, "Mr. Axo has thought about this," he said, "and he explained to me that during the invasion of Constantinople, most of the Christian relics in the churches in the city were destroyed. Destroy or steal. Of course, in 1453, there were not so many treasures here, not as rich as when Byzantium was prosperous, because the most beautiful antiques were stolen during the Crusade of the ancient Romans in 124 and - of this with absolute certainty - were carried back to Rome, Venice, and other cities of the West." Turgut spread his hands and made a gesture of protest, "My father told me that the horses in St. Mark's Church in Venice were stolen from Byzantium by the Crusaders. You see, Christian invaders and Turkish invaders as bad. Anyway, my fellows, some of the treasures of the churches were hidden during the invasion of 1453, and some were brought out of the city before the siege of Sultan Mehmet, and hidden in the monasteries outside, or Smuggled to other countries. If our monks were pilgrims, maybe they came to town to see a holy relic and found it missing. Maybe a second abbot told them how a big icon It was safely transported to Bulgaria, but we couldn't tell from the letter." "I understand now why you want us to go to Bulgaria," I controlled myself again, not to take Helen's hand, "although I don't yet know how we will investigate this story further when we get there, let alone how we will get into it." The country. Are you sure we have nowhere else in Istanbul to explore?" Shaking his head sullenly, Turgut picked up the cup of coffee he forgot to drink just now, "I have exhausted all channels, including some-forgive me-I can't tell you. Mr. Axo consulted All sources, own books, friends' libraries, and university archives. I've spoken to every historian I could find, including one who specializes in Istanbul tombs - you've already visited We've got some beautiful tombs. We can't find any account of foreigners being buried here during this period. Maybe we're missing something, but I don't know of any other way we'll find out anytime soon He stared at us seriously, "I know, it will be difficult for you to go to Bulgaria, my friend, if it wasn't even more difficult for me, I would go by myself. I am a Turk, and I can't even attend their academic conferences Participate. No one hates the descendants of the Ottoman Empire more than the Bulgarians.” "Oh, the Romanians have done their best," Helen told him clearly. "But—my God," I leaned back on the couch, feeling the tide of unbelievable things hit me more and more frequently, "I don't know how we're going to get to Bulgaria." Turgut leaned over and put the English translation of the monk's letter in front of me, "He doesn't know either." "Who is it?" I moaned. "Brother Kirill. Listen, my friend, when did Rosie disappear?" "A little over two weeks ago," I said truthfully. "Your time is already very tight. We know that Dracula is not in his Snagov grave. We don't think he's buried in Istanbul, but"—he tapped the letter—"this is a Evidence." He picked up the translation again, ran a finger across it, and read aloud, "It is very dangerous for us to stay an extra day now. Here, my friend. Put this in your bag. "Turgut leaned over, "And, I learned that there is a scholar in Bulgaria, you can ask him for help, his name is Anton Stoichev." Hearing this name, Selim Akso nodded, "In today's world, Stoichev knows the medieval Balkan Peninsula better than anyone else, especially Bulgaria. He lives near the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia—you Be sure to find out about him." Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Helen suddenly grabbed my hand, which surprised me. "Then I'll call my aunt," Helen said firmly, pinching my fingers. "Eva? What can she do?" "You already know that she can do anything." Helen smiled at me, "We need a big bribe." "Bribe," Turgut nodded. "Of course, Selim and I have considered this issue. We've got 20,000 lire that you might need." Now I'm staring at him, at Axo.Something about their faces suddenly felt very familiar to me. "Who are you?" I said. Turgut and Selim glanced at each other, and there was some sort of communication in silence.Then Turgut said in a low but clear voice: 'We work for the Sultan. "