Adora by Bertrice Small

their thrones, John Cantacuzene had retired to the monastery of Mistra, near Sparta. With him was her brother, Matthew, who had taken holy orders earlier.
    Theadora’s older half sister, Sophia, had come to a violent end when her third husband had caught her with a lover and stabbed them both to death. Helena, now the undisputed empress of Byzantium, behaved as if Theadora barely existed. They might be sisters, but the sultan’s third wife was hardly on a social par with the holy Christian empress of Byzantium!
    Theadora smarted under her sister’s contempt. Because Orkhan was almost seventy, Theadora had recently broached the subject with Helena of her possibly retiring to Constantinople when the sultan went to his reward. She had been cruelly rebuffed. Helena claimed that the daughter of the usurper, John Cantacuzene, would hardly be welcome in the city. The same, Helena added, might be said of Orkhan’s widow. The infidels were the greatest enemies of the Byzantines.
    Helena conveniently forgot that she too was John Cantacuzene’s daughter. And she overlooked the fact that, had her little sister not been wed to the Ottoman, their father might not have been able to hold onto his throne long enough for Helena to become John Paleaologi’s wife, and empress. Helena was not particularly intelligent. She did not comprehend thatwhat had once been the vast empire of Byzantium had now dwindled to a few sections of the Greek mainland, some cities along the Black Sea, and Constantinople.
    Helena did not see that the royal jewels that adorned her state robes and crown were merely glass. The robes themselves were no longer real cloth of gold, but tinsel. The state dishes were copper. And everything that appeared to be rich brocade was only painted leather. It never occurred to Helena that being empress of Byzantium was very much like being empress of an empty eggshell. Theadora saw all of this, and though she did not think the Turks’ capture of Constantinople was likely to happen in her lifetime, she knew that they would eventually prevail over Byzantium.
    Still, Theadora longed for the city of her birth. And she felt sure that when Orkhan was gone, there would be no place for her in Bursa, at Suleiman’s court.
    For a moment she thought of Murad. He was still without a wife or favorites. She wondered if he ever thought of her. He was rarely in Bursa, but spent most of his time in Gallipoli.
    Theadora chuckled as she remembered how Orkhan had cleverly tricked her father over Gallipoli. With the birth of Halil, her remaining dowry had been paid to Orkhan. Prince Suleiman and Prince Murad had been sent to occupy Tyzmpe for the sultan. The fortress was located on the European side of the Dardanelles, on the Gallipoli peninsula. When the ancient walls of the nearby town of Gallipoli had collapsed during a mild earth tremor, the Ottoman Turks had quickly occupied it. Their next task was to fortify and rebuild the town’s walls, which they did. Once this was done, the Ottoman princes brought over from Asia the first colony of Turkish settlers. Other colonies followed in quick succession, comprised of Orkhan’s former warriors and their women, who all settled on the lands of the fugitive Christian nobles, under their own Muslim beys. The peasants of the region remained, preferring life under the Ottoman rule to the Byzantine. Occupation by the Turks meant freedom from Christian feudal power with allits abuses and its heavy taxation. It also meant equal law for all, regardless of race, religion, or class.
    As the Turkish occupation spread, even the Christian lords whose lands bordered on newly acquired Ottoman territory began to accept Orkhan’s sovereignty. As his vassals, they paid him a small annual tribute in token of their submission to Islam. And from the beginning, the Ottoman state adopted a conciliatory attitude toward their Christian subjects.
    In Constantinople, Emperor John Cantacuzene suddenly realized what was