through his soul. He was being kicked out of the only real family he had known, the one place in his life that he had called home.
And in that instant, Venue’s heart turned black. Rage filled his soul. He stared at each of the priests with hate-filled eyes. If the Church didn’t want him, if God turned his back on him, there were other places to go. There were alternatives.
Two policemen silently entered the room. Not a word was spoken as they flanked him and led him toward the door. Venue turned back and looked at each of the elderly priests, committing their names and faces to memory. He didn’t know how, but he would find a way, he would avenge himself on the men who had destroyed his life.
CHAPTER 8
Michael looked up at an enormous wall fifty yards wide, thirty feet high. Battle-hard and imposing. Two armed guards in military dress flanked the twenty-foot arched entrance. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
KC smiled a disarming smile.
“This is Topkapi Palace,” Michael said.
“Actually, it’s a museum; the sultan packed his bags a long, long time ago.”
“Tell me this isn’t where your chart is.”
“Let’s just take a look.”
“You’re really going to go through with this?”
KC raised her eyebrows and walked toward the enormous mouth of an entrance. Michael watched her a moment and reluctantly followed.
“Just pretend it’s a game.”
“KC, you know better than that,” Michael said angrily.
“Humor me?”
Michael was beginning to become annoyed with KC’s English accent. Not that he disliked it; in fact, to the contrary, he liked it too much, and it had a tendency to soften his judgment. “After you.”
The Imperial Gate to Topkapi Palace was an enormous granite and carved marble edifice. The archivolt that sat above the twenty-footentrance was inlaid with exquisite gold Arabic calligraphy and the monograms of Sultans Mehmed II and Abdul Aziz I. The central arch led through a high-domed passage exiting into the first courtyard of the compound, a 190-acre world surrounded by a battle wall over one and a half miles in circumference and capped with imposing toothlike merlons. It was dotted with twenty-seven towers and enveloped a world that had stood still for centuries.
Topkapi Sarayi—meaning “Cannongate Palace”—was once the grandest of all palaces the world had ever known, housing over four thousand people within its walls during the height of the Ottoman Empire. With the fall of the Empire in 1921, it had been converted to a museum by government decree and had opened its doors to the world by the end of the decade.
For strategic reasons, Topkapi was built atop a hill at the tip of a historic peninsula where the waters of Marmara, Bosporus, and the Golden Horn meet on the European side of Istanbul. It was constructed on the site of the Byzantine Acropolis and an ancient monastery at the behest of
Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror
in
1459
. The world’s most experienced craftsmen had come from far and wide, using rare materials, with cost considered no object. Completed in 1465, Topkapi was the Ottoman Empire’s first step in recapturing the former glory of Constantinople.
With an asymmetric, nonaxial design, Topkapi Palace was far different from European palaces. Though immense, Topkapi was constructed of many smaller interconnected buildings with warmer, more comfortable living spaces, unlike the grand halls and chambers of its European counterparts. The design was not balanced around a central axis but rather grew off in varying tangents in all directions.
The layout was based on a concentric design with four courtyards tucked one within the other, a design from the age of Constantinople that was carried into many of the castle designs of Europe, a design that provided far greater fortification and protection for the ruling monarch. Topkapi’s first circle, called the Courtyard of Janissaries, was a giant park that included museums, churches, and tranquil
And in that instant, Venue’s heart turned black. Rage filled his soul. He stared at each of the priests with hate-filled eyes. If the Church didn’t want him, if God turned his back on him, there were other places to go. There were alternatives.
Two policemen silently entered the room. Not a word was spoken as they flanked him and led him toward the door. Venue turned back and looked at each of the elderly priests, committing their names and faces to memory. He didn’t know how, but he would find a way, he would avenge himself on the men who had destroyed his life.
CHAPTER 8
Michael looked up at an enormous wall fifty yards wide, thirty feet high. Battle-hard and imposing. Two armed guards in military dress flanked the twenty-foot arched entrance. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
KC smiled a disarming smile.
“This is Topkapi Palace,” Michael said.
“Actually, it’s a museum; the sultan packed his bags a long, long time ago.”
“Tell me this isn’t where your chart is.”
“Let’s just take a look.”
“You’re really going to go through with this?”
KC raised her eyebrows and walked toward the enormous mouth of an entrance. Michael watched her a moment and reluctantly followed.
“Just pretend it’s a game.”
“KC, you know better than that,” Michael said angrily.
“Humor me?”
Michael was beginning to become annoyed with KC’s English accent. Not that he disliked it; in fact, to the contrary, he liked it too much, and it had a tendency to soften his judgment. “After you.”
The Imperial Gate to Topkapi Palace was an enormous granite and carved marble edifice. The archivolt that sat above the twenty-footentrance was inlaid with exquisite gold Arabic calligraphy and the monograms of Sultans Mehmed II and Abdul Aziz I. The central arch led through a high-domed passage exiting into the first courtyard of the compound, a 190-acre world surrounded by a battle wall over one and a half miles in circumference and capped with imposing toothlike merlons. It was dotted with twenty-seven towers and enveloped a world that had stood still for centuries.
Topkapi Sarayi—meaning “Cannongate Palace”—was once the grandest of all palaces the world had ever known, housing over four thousand people within its walls during the height of the Ottoman Empire. With the fall of the Empire in 1921, it had been converted to a museum by government decree and had opened its doors to the world by the end of the decade.
For strategic reasons, Topkapi was built atop a hill at the tip of a historic peninsula where the waters of Marmara, Bosporus, and the Golden Horn meet on the European side of Istanbul. It was constructed on the site of the Byzantine Acropolis and an ancient monastery at the behest of
Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror
in
1459
. The world’s most experienced craftsmen had come from far and wide, using rare materials, with cost considered no object. Completed in 1465, Topkapi was the Ottoman Empire’s first step in recapturing the former glory of Constantinople.
With an asymmetric, nonaxial design, Topkapi Palace was far different from European palaces. Though immense, Topkapi was constructed of many smaller interconnected buildings with warmer, more comfortable living spaces, unlike the grand halls and chambers of its European counterparts. The design was not balanced around a central axis but rather grew off in varying tangents in all directions.
The layout was based on a concentric design with four courtyards tucked one within the other, a design from the age of Constantinople that was carried into many of the castle designs of Europe, a design that provided far greater fortification and protection for the ruling monarch. Topkapi’s first circle, called the Courtyard of Janissaries, was a giant park that included museums, churches, and tranquil
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