Demon Dragon

Edirne (Adrianople), city prison.

Mahmud II stood inside a massive arena, looking down at the "grand spectacle" about to unfold below.

Dozens of rebels found to have colluded with Orhan were shoved and driven into the vast circular arena by fully armed Janissary guards.

The Janissary corps was an elite force, much like the Mamluks, trained from young heathens. However, their source was usually not slaves bought with money, but a "blood tax" levied from the Christian lands they controlled.

Mahmud II's Janissary guards, meanwhile, were akin to the Kheshig Army. They included many hostages sent by Christian princes, raised in the imperial court from childhood. Many had even grown up alongside Mahmud II.

Vlad III, Skanderbeg, and the others had all come from these guards.

"Your Majesty, I was wrong! I was merely blinded for a moment. Please forgive my sins!"

"By the Sacred Fire, I am your most loyal servant, Your Majesty!"

"Mahmud, you are cruel and tyrannical! On the first day of your reign, you strangled your infant brother in his swaddling clothes. How are you any different from a beast? The Sacred Fire will sooner or later deliver divine punishment upon you, condemning you to the fire pits for ten thousand years!"

Voices mingled chaotically. Some begged bitterly, while others cursed at the top of their lungs.

But as a tremendous boom echoed from the dark, bottomless cavern before them, nearly everyone immediately fell silent. Only the quiet sobbing of women and children sounded from time to time.

A Janissary guard beside Mahmud drew his bow, intending to shoot the old man who had insulted Mahmud, but Mahmud raised a hand to stop him.

"It is nothing. Mere barking from a loser."

Mahmud II did not care in the slightest about such harmless accusations. In the