Darker Jewels

For

Lou Puopolo who knows the Count almost as well as I do.

Author’s Notes

Until the last three hundred years, for much of Europe Russia was a land more legendary than China, and more unknown than Africa: fewer Europeans went there, and of those who went, not many returned; those who did were not given the same enthusiastic reception as those who brought news of places more easily accessible and/or exploitable. While Europeans were aware that Russia existed—that it was a real place actually there—they knew little or nothing about the country itself or the peoples inhabiting it.

There were exceptions, of course. The Poles have an extensive history of rivalry with Russia, and the Swedes have occasionally gone to war with the vast and mysterious country. The Baltic States of Estonia and Livonia (modem north Latvia, and part of Estonia and Lithuania) spent the better part of eight hundred years in uneasy dealings with Russia, and the problems resulting from their conflicts continue to this day. The Mongols of the Golden Horde, the descendants of the soldiers of Jenghiz Khan, ruled Russia for more than three hundred years.

Through the Greek Orthodox Church eastern Europe and the Middle East maintained a degree of contact with Moscovy—the duchy that was the heart of Christian Russia—when western, Catholic Europe had generally turned its attention elsewhere. One of the few active conflicts between western Europe and Russia in the Middle Ages occurred because of religion: in 1237 a group of German knights of the Teutonic Order were sent to convert Russia to Catholicism. The Russian forces, under the young Novgorod prince Alexander Nevsky, met and defeated the German knights on Lake Peipus in April of 1242. For that act of heroism and faith, and for his later political acumen in dealing with the invading Mongols of the Golden Horde, Nevsky became a saint of the Orthodox Church.

But through the medieval centuries Russia’s face was turned eastward, toward Sarai, where the Golden Horde gathered to extend the empire of the Mongols and Tartars to the north and west, beyond the limits it had previously set. During that time, most of Europe had few dealings with Russia.

By the time of Grand Duke Ivan III, later Grand Prince Ivan III the Great, Czar of all the Russias (reigned 1462—1505), Russia had directed the greatest part of her energies to reclaiming lands from the Tartars of the Golden Horde. Because of the struggle in the east, there had been losses in the west to Sweden and Poland that blocked Russian access to the Baltic, a situation Ivan Ill’s son Vasilli III tried to reverse but without significant success.

The energetic, ambitious, ruthless successor, Grand Prince Ivan IV the Awe-Inspiring, came to the throne after his father, Vasilli, in 1533- A capable, relentless, and intelligent man, Ivan was a complex and contradictory leader who suffered from an uncontrollable temper and an abiding sense of paranoia. With uncommon perseverance he and his Russian forces drove the Mongols back from central Russia and also succeeded in regaining, for a time, a Baltic port for Russia, which brought Russia back into the European view once more, and at a time when she was needed.

For Europe had troubles of its own; the Ottoman Empire was expanding, seizing territory in Greece and eastern Europe as part of a continuing expansion that was increasingly alarming to the rulers and Church in the west. There were attempts to make common cause with the Orthodox churches and Catholic Church against the Islamic Ottomans, but such alliances were generally short-lived and difficult, as much for reasons of what is now identified as culture shock as any conflict in military agenda. There were also very real, pragmatic problems resulting from the tremendous distances that had to be crossed, in a country famous for the severity of its climate.

One of the reasons that there is relatively little historical material available on Russia during the tempestuous years of 1100- 1650 is the number of times major cities were besieged, sacked, and destroyed, ruining what few written records there were. And the amount of written records was small. In Russia at that time adult literacy has been estimated at five to nine percent of the population, the city of Novgorod having the highest rate, Murom the lowest of those where any estimates were possible. Unlike the tradition of the Catholic Church, Orthodox priests were usually illiterate, and records usually found in European churches do not often exist in Russian ones. Ironically, those who could read and write were generally competent in more than one language, the most usual combination being Russian and Greek or Latin. What little education was available was most often provided by priests to male children. Females were very rarely given any formal education.

As is usually the case in these stories, a great many of the characters are based on historical figures and, although presented fictionally, are as accurate portraits as the exigencies of plot will permit. In this book the following characters are actual historical figures: Istvan Bathory, Prince of Transylvania and King of Poland; Czareivich Ivan Ivanovich, the twenty-eight-year-old heir accidentally murdered by his father in 1581; Czar Ivan IV Grosny (the Awe-Inspiring or Terrible); Czareivich Feodor Ivanovich, Ivan’s single surviving heir, possibly a victim of Down’s syndrome; Father Antonio Possevino, Jesuit and Papal emissary to the Russian Court; Pope Gregory XIII the Great; Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England; Father Edmund Campion; Richard Chancellor, the first English Ambassador to Russia; Sir Jerome Horsey, English Ambassador at the time of the novel; Nicholas Bower, who was a clerk or secretary for Sir Jerome; Prince Vasilli Andreivich Shuisky, although I have shifted his age by a decade; Ivan and Dmitri Shuisky, his brothers; the Nagoy family; the Kurbsky family; Nikita Romanovich Romanov; Boris Feodorovich Godunov, eventual regent to Czar Feodor Ivanovich, who was married to Boris’s sister Irina; Marya Skuratova, Boris’s wife; Erzebet (Elizabeth) Bathory, Istvan’s cousin, known later as the Blood Countess.

Given that the story is set in Russia with characters who would be, in fact, speaking Russian, I have elected Russian usage for names of all Russian characters. Therefore, Vasilli instead of Basil; Feodor instead of Theodore; Ivan instead of John; Marya instead of Maria; Gavril instead of Gabriel; Feodossi instead of Theodosius. I have also included the use of the patronymic, that is, the middle name which means son-of: Ivan Ivanovich—John son-of-John; Anastasi Sergeivich—Anastasius son-of-Serge or Sergeant; Galina Alexandrevna—Helen daughter-of-Alexander. Upper-class Russians of the period rarely used the patronymic when dealing with the middle or lower classes.

A word about sixteenth-century Russian pronunciation—most, but not all, Russian words are accented on the next-to-last syllable, although there are exceptions, such as Feodor, pronounced FAY- oh-dor, Nikolai, NIK-oh-lie, or Anastasi, AH-nah-sta/i-zee. There are also names with double stresses, such as Boris, BOHR-EES; Ivan, EE-VAHN; Sergei, SEHR-GEYI. A few names are accented on the last syllable: Mikhail, Mik-hie-EEL; Gavril, Gahv-REEL. Male patronymics more closely follow the pronunciation of the father’s name: Ivanovich is Ee-VAHN-o-vich, Andreivich is Ahn-DRAYI- vich, although Grigori, Gree-GOH-ree, becomes Gree-goh-REI- vich in the patronymic. Women’s names are not as varied: Galina, Gah-LEE-nah; Xenya, ZEN-yah; Ludmilla, Lood-MEE-lah. Female patronymics more often follow the next-to-last-syllable rule: Ev- geneivna is Yehv-gyen-YEAV-nah; Ivanovna is Ee-VAH-NOV- nah; Borisovna, Bohr-ee-SOHV-nah.

I have followed this with regard to other nationalities as well: Polish usage for Polish characters (with the exception of the honorific for the King, which at that time translated as Exaltedness; I have used the more familiar but less accurate honorific of Majesty), Hungarian for Transylvanians, transliterated Greek for Greeks, English for English. As much as possible I have done the same for clothing, food, and weapons.

There are a few landmarks that will not be identified by contemporary usage: Saint Basil’s Cathedral (the one with the nine mismatched onion domes in bright-colored geometric patterns) on Red Square is the Cathedral of the Virgin of the Intercession and tomb of the Holy Fool Vasilli on the Beautiful/Red Market Square: in sixteenth-century Russian, the words “red” and “beautiful” were very similar and used interchangeably. The harbor fortress of Arkhangelsk on the White Sea had not yet been built; the first English ships arrived at the fur-trading-and-fishing port of Novo-Kholmogory. This was also a Russia before vodka. The potato had only recently arrived in Europe from the New World and was a rarity in most places. Within a decade of the time of this book, the Poles developed vodka and by 1596 were exporting it to Russia.

Although the members of the embassy of Jesuits sent by Istvan Bathory of Poland are fictional, King Istvan did send several priests into Russia on diplomatic missions, not only in conjunction with delegations from the pope, such as Father Possevino, but separately as well.

For their help in finding historical references and specific information, I would like to thank the incomparable Dave Nee (again), Joseph Lindstrom (for the first time), and Leighanne Barwell (also for the first time). Any errors in historicity are mine and not theirs. Thanks are also due tangentially to Maurine Dorris and the committee of the World Horror Convention, 1991, for their enthusiasm; to my manuscript readers for their comments and insights; to my agent Ellen Levine for her tenacity and encouragement; to my attorney Robin Dubner for her diligence on the Count’s behalf; to my editor Beth Meacham who helped me sift through the various strata of Russian history; and to Tor Books for keeping the Count undead and well.

Berkeley

Berkeley

PARTI

PARTI

Ivan Grosny

Czar

Ivan Grosny

Czar

T

JL
ext of a letter from an unknown Russian nobleman written in Greek to Istvan Bathory, King of Poland, delivered 6 August 1582.

To the revered Transylvanian who rules in Poland, sincerest greetings from one in Moscovy who wishes you well and seeks your aid:

Since the death of the Czareivich Ivan Ivanovich, we have seen great changes in Czar Ivan, who is filled with guilt and endless remorse, for it was his hand that struck down his son: therefore he can seek absolution from none but God. He has declared that God alone can offer him redemption because God permitted His Son to die
,
and will have compassion on him for what he did in a moment of unreasoning fury.

He is a haunted man now, not like the farsighted leader he was when he drove the Tartars back and reclaimed our lands. He is filled with terrors and dreams that are as great as his vision was once. He has pleaded to be permitted to abdicate, but the Metropolitan has forbidden it because Feodor Ivanovich is so truly incapable of leading the country; he cares only for ringing bells. He has no interest in Rus or in his wife or in any other thing that would speak well of a Czar. Therefore it has been decided that Ivan must rule until God Himself ends his reign. No other course is possible if we are to keep from internal rebellion.

No matter how the court may appear, unrest grows within it hourly. Every passing day brings new alarms as the Czar wars
with himself. Only his belief in portents and the power of jewels has sustained him, and his obsession with jewels is boundless, amounting almost to lust. He is always seeking more of them, of higher quality, for he claims that it is through the jewels that he will be shown redemption and forgiveness, as he has been assured of victory over his enemies in the past.

In that regard, let me tell you of a curious thing Czar Ivan said the other day when he was displaying the jewels that console him:

“There is great power in diamonds. The most brilliant have such strength that only the bravest man can dare to touch them, so tremendous is their might. Those who have no courage would be charred and blasted by the virtue of the stone. Those that are smaller are not so dangerous to cowards, but in the hands of one such would lose their shine, for their light comes from bravery.