V THE FIRST
PROLOGUE
Page 3
So there was war
And so, with no fear in his blood and no mercy in his heart, Basarab assembled his ragged army of loyal Vlachs—horsemen, archers, peasants-turned-soldiers—and attacked the Hungarian fortress at Severin.
Victory was swift.
More followed.
Cities fell, banners burned, and still he pushed forward.
In response, King Charles, hubristic, impetuous and proud as he was, launched his invasion. He marched east with his loyal ones and his Cuman allies, leading an army—thirty thousand strong—into the mountainous fringes of Wallachia. Nobles and knights gleaming in the sunlight. He would teach the shepherd a lesson. He would crush the mountain brute. He would remind the realm who held the crown.
Nothing could prepare him for what came next.
Basarab extended a final offer of peace. But Charles, prideful and blind, refused and furthered his army’s march. The lesson had yet to be learned. Basarab would make him humble.
The Battle of Posada
From the shadowed ridges between Oltenia and Severin, beneath the canopy of the Forbidden Forest, the Wallachians waited. They knew the land. They knew the trees. And they knew what Charles did not:
The All-Seer had foreseen it all.
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Prologue Index
P-1
P-2
P-3
P-4
