Nicholas of Cusa dismissed the servants. Then hugged Weronika and kissed her. The kiss went on. And on. For quite some time.

Jutta, impatient, cleared her throat pointedly.

“It’s time you went, sorores,” said Nicholas of Cusa, coming to his senses. “It’s time. Let’s go.”

“Who goes there?” growled Brunwart, the secular monastery menial, guard and porter of the guest house. “Who the Devil is out at night? A pox on you.”

He recognised the canon, fell silent and bowed low. Without a word, Cusa pushed into his hand a clinking purse. Brunwart bent over in a bow.

“Open the gate. Let my servants through, I’m sending them on an urgent matter. And keep your trap shut.”

“I swear… Your Reverence…”

The night was as dark as the bottom of Gehenna. Cold.

“That road leads to Weid. That one goes to Zwickau and then on to Dresden. Farewell, dear Sisters. May God lead you, and take you happily to your loved ones.”

“Farewell… dear Mikołaj.”

The horseshoes clattered on the stones.

Chapter Seventeen

In which Anno Domini 1430 begins, and a great search is going on in the war-torn lands of Saxony, Thuringia and Upper Franconia.

It took Reynevan, Scharley, Samson and Rixa two hours to reach the road leading to Altenburg from the ford in Kössern. Snow had begun to fall, but in spite of that they rode swiftly, led by Reynevan, feverish and excited by the proximity of Jutta. The Hussite army, meanwhile, having been divided up into five regiments, was marching towards Naumburg and Jena, methodically burning down every village and oppidum on its way. The horizon in the west blossomed with plumes of smoke made ragged by the wind.

Reynevan drove them on, at first forbidding them even from pausing for the night, even wanting to ride in the dark. In order to stop him, absolutely compelling arguments were necessary. The horses needed rest and fodder, and additionally they were in a foreign and hostile country, they could get lost, lose their way in the gloom and snowstorms, the consequence of which might be a delay much more serious than those few hours of rest. So they made a stop at an empty barn at the edge of a village. Which also looked deserted.

The horizon to the west and north glowed in the darkness.

They sat around a tiny campfire. In complete silence. For a while.

“Reinmar,” said Rixa, barely visible in the dark. “We must clear up one thing. Bożyczko intimidated you by threatening to harm Jutta and wrung out of you information about the location of the crossing. Am I right?”

“What is your point, Rixa dear?” said Scharley, almost invisible in the dark.