Bedřich of Strážnice came—legend had it—from the gentry, but of the more impoverished kind. He had allegedly studied for the priesthood before the revolution. Though he didn’t look older than Reynevan and probably wasn’t, his wartime experiences were already long and colourful. He sided with the revolution immediately after it broke out, carried away, like many others, by the wave of euphoria. In 1421, as a Taborite preacher and emissary, he unleashed a Hussite tornado on Moravia, which had previously been loyal to Sigismund. He established the Moravian branch of the New Tábor in Uherský Ostroh, which was known chiefly for storming monasteries and burning down churches, usually with the priests still inside. After several battles with Sigismund’s Hungarians, Bedřich left Moravia to the Moravians when things began to get perilous and returned to Bohemia, where he joined the Orebites, and subsequently Žižka’s Lesser Tábor. After Žižka’s death, he joined up with Prokop the Shaven, whom he served as an adjutant for special commissions. He gave up being a preacher, shaved his apostolic beard and moustache and transformed himself into a young man with a face straight out of holy paintings. Anyone who didn’t know him would have been deceived.

“Reynevan.”

“What?”

“We have things to discuss.”

“Perhaps it’s high time. For as you can see, this situation is pissing me off. I’ve had enough of it. Prokop ordered me to go to Silesia and I have meekly carried out his order. It’s clear I was mistaken. I ought to have turned it down, heedless of the consequences. But now I’m here, the Devil knows why. To be tested? As an instrument of provocation? Or the object of provocation. Or only to—”

“I’ve already told you,” Bedřich interrupted sharply, “not by any means ‘only.’ The idea for an unexpected change of route was mine. Prokop trusts you. In any case, he had no choice regarding the mission to Silesia. We’re going to meet and negotiate with… with certain individuals. Personages, even. Those individuals set a condition, a curious and astonishing condition: they demanded that you, Reinmar of Bielawa, take part in the meetings and negotiations in person. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. Perhaps you do?”

“I do not. Believe it or not, it’s just as curious and astonishing to me. So much so that it smacks of another of your deceits. For you still don’t trust me, do you?”

Bedřich of Strážnice reined his horse in sharply.