Are you prepared to venture to the darkest, most haunted locations in the world?

It was all solid black like shadow.

As your host, Amy Bruny, I'm ready to take you on a spine-tingling journey through the unknown.

There was a man sitting in the corner, she saw him, and then it was gone.

Listen to new episodes of Haunted Road on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you listen to your favorite shows.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

Just before midnight on May 16, 1606, a courtier and several of his accomplices nervously

waded in the palace shadows.

With traders potentially lurking in every corner of the Kremlin, speed and

stealth were vital, but also nearly impossible considering the group's mission, sneaking 25

horses out of the Tsar's private stable. This was no theft, however, no devious horse heist. The courtier, Mikhail Mulkanov,

had been tasked with securing this royal herd by their owner himself, Tsar Dmitri. Mokanov was one of

the emperor's closest associates and had helped hatch this escape plan after Dmitri learned

of a post-wedding assassination plot against him that was set to kick off in mere hours.

Mulkinov had tasked an experienced stable hand with gathering the horses.

But was that man trustworthy? Could this risky getaway possibly work?

The tense moments ticked past until at last the stable hand delivered the horses as covertly as he

could. Molkanov and his men met up with a disguised Tsar Dmitri, and successfully helped him flee Moscow

under cover of darkness so that he could then travel incognito and daringly test the true

loyalty of his subjects and purportedly devoted lords. Or so goes this alternate version of events.

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