Warrior Valentin

"Hello Irene! What wind brought you here?" Irene's friend Mehregan was just getting ready to leave and was glad to leave her house in Persidy to a friend for looking after.

"You will not believe! By chance, I was in Tabriz and was going further to Jerusalem. Some merchant was hiring guards for a caravan in Fars, and I remembered your offer to look after your palace. At first, I didn't really want to, I hadn't been in Jerusalem for a long time, but the merchant persuaded me, his captain was hanged for something, and his guards turned into a bunch of ragged rookies."

"How did he convince you?" Mehregan's husband Arian chuckled and winked at her.

"With money, to be honest, after a trip to the northern barbarians, I was broke. The merchant, Forug, reminded me how I solved the problem during one caravan passage."

"Is that where his guards tried to rob him?"

"Yep, there was a muddy story, it seems like one emir believed that the harem that Forug was transporting was stolen from him and outbid his guards," here Irene stopped in her memories, thinking that she shouldn't talk too much about that incident, although Mehregan and Arian were her friends.

***

After relaxing, Mehregan invited Irene to take a walk along the coast.

"Are you only from Tabriz? Tell me how it's going, we're just going there," Mehregan looked worried.

"Another change of dynasty, Haman flew down from his vizier's post, he and his sons were hanged. The new queen, Esther, just went wild," Irene shrugged looking at the sunset in the Gulf.

"This mess with dynasties just fucked everyone up," Mehregan sighed. "Do you think Ismail will reign for a long time?"

"Who knows. And why are you going to go to Tabriz?"

"We need to confirm the rights to real estates, confirm an Arian's position," Mehregan waved her hand angrily. "We're going to bring rich gifts. Too long dragged on with this case."

"What then?" Irene inquired.

"We'll try to go to the Levant, Arian has relatives and some real estate there, I want to see what he has there. How is the lord of Levant - Al-Ashraf?"

"Everything is fine, as quiet as can be in the Levant," Irene grinned.

The conversation turned to local affairs.

"Here the Portuguese are hooligans, they captured some islands in the Gulf. And the headman of an adjacent village is a good person, you can agree with him if anything is needed."

***

At first Irene did not pay attention to the words about some Portuguese who had captured the nearby islands, but problems still began. Hungry Portuguese sailors began begging in nearby villages, dragging what was lying around, and even outright robbing local peasants.

Irene tried to persuade them, but to no avail.

"Do they even feed you? Who is your captain?"

"They don't feed us, ma'am," they answered her, "but the captain drinks wine and sings songs, he says that they don't supplier provisions, and he won't give birth to it."