Forest of Valens, near Constantinople

4th May 1453 A.D.

He had committed a heinous crime, but his ruthlessness had ebbed away as he crossed the woods. The silence that shrouded everything around him would have been welcome had he not had blood on his hands, the blood of a governess to an innocent baby. He did not mean to do it. It was an accident. She got in the way. He had lifted the baby from his crib and was all packed up and ready to go when she appeared at the door, no doubt on her usual round to check on the baby.

Why did she have to put up a struggle and start screaming? She had to be silenced otherwise the whole plan would have been shattered before it had even started. He had lost the element of surprise and the screams had cost him his head start.

It was a long way to the rendezvous point. He would not make it there. But nor did he want to make it there. He had disobeyed his master’s instructions to avoid bloodshed. And now he could not return to his master to complete his mission and deliver the precious cargo. He had to flee. He knew what his punishment would be if he had gone to his master with the blood of an innocent bystander on his hands.

He cursed under his breath and shook his head from side to side. He hated losing the rest of his payment. Yet it was better to be alive and with a bit of financial comfort than wealthy but dead. He decided his best chance was to hide in the forest of Valens, which was close enough to Constantinople to reach it under the cover of darkness and large and dense enough to disappear in it with his trail lost before dawn. Little did he know that things would not turn out to be that simple.