The Golden Horde Read Online Free Page A

The Golden Horde
Book: The Golden Horde Read Online Free
Author: Peter Morwood
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they were so reluctant to have a new Tsar forced on them by anything less permanent than death.
    “Father,” said Ivan quietly under cover of three yelling councillors venerable enough to have better manners, “Father, this is, er, a great honour you want to confer. But could you not have asked what I thought before giving orders to the Council?”
    Tsar Aleksandr glanced at the squabbling men in the chamber. Their argument, no longer anything to do with the succession, was spreading fast and becoming more partisan with every boyar and bogatyr involved. Then he swung around in his great chair and eyed his son from head to heels in much the way that Ivan had seen potential buyers eye their purchases. Speculative; wondering about the value; suspecting a waste of money. It made him feel like a slave on the bidding-block – much as the Tsar had often complained the responsibilities of the crown made him feel.
    “No, my son, I could not. You might have refused the honour, and then I would have had to force you. This way, the councillors do it for me.”
    Ivan was shocked at such duplicity. “Force me? What makes you think that I’d need forced?”
    “That you haven’t accepted my bidding without question, for one,” said Tsar Aleksandr, a touch cool. “I didn’t think you preferred to become Tsar in the usual fashion. Are you so keen to see me in my grave?”
    “Dear God, no! I just… I don’t want to be the Tsar of Khorlov until I have to, that’s all.”
    “You have to do it now, Vanya. You’re my only son, and the child of my heart. But you’re also bound to obey the command of your lord. I say you will be Tsar, and so you shall.”
    In the background the Council resolved its differences for the present, and as the noise in the hall died to a more normal murmur Ivan lowered his voice to an abnormally quiet one. “But why? You’re well, in good health, your …”
    “… Mind is sound? Was that it?” The Tsar smiled faintly, the smile of a man enjoying a private joke. “Since you married Mar’ya Morevna and she brought her spy service as part of her dowry, your simple, trusting old Papa has known much more of what goes on in his domains and kremlin than he ever did before. I know what’s been said about my temper over the past year, but you – bless you, Ivan, you refused to believe it.” The smile stretched briefly wider. “Or at least you made sure nobody could report back that you did believe it.”
    “You were testing me,” said Ivan slowly, feeling stupid that of all the possibilities this one hadn’t occurred. His eyes narrowed as he bit down on the surge of anger that left a taste like acid at the back of his throat. “You were putting me through an examination, to see if I was a suitable Tsar before I had no choice.”
    “Yes.”
    “Your idea?”
    “Mine and Strel’tsin’s. But mostly mine.”
    “Then damn you.” Ivan shifted his glare to Dmitriy Vasil’yevich, who met it with equanimity. “Damn you both.”
    The High Steward bowed slightly as though complimented on some masterful piece of statecraft which, in a crooked way, it was. Both the Tsar and his Steward were well satisfied with what they’d learned about their Tsarevich, for all that he was bristling with outrage like a tail-trodden cat, otherwise he wouldn’t be standing here right now.
    “Damn away, Ivan,” said Tsar Aleksandr, completely unruffled. “It won’t change a thing. At least you’ll have good and trustworthy advisors to help you. Dmitriy Vasil’yevich knows more about how this realm should be run than both you and I together, and your wife has reigned alone in Koldunov since her father died. Never feel so proud and confident that you don’t need their advice. You have another advantage: a better relationship with the other Princes of the Rus than I could ever gain.”
    “Have I?” said Ivan, and laughed hollowly. “There’s no love lost between me and Aleksandr Nevskiy, and as for Kiev and
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