“No,” decided Zmrzlík. “It’s not worth leaving a trail of smoke. There’s a well by the village green so we’ll water the horses. And then continue on to Bamberg.”

The Hussites were in no hurry and a good two hours passed before they left the green. Silence finally returned. Outside, the wind occasionally blew, whistling through cracks in the granary. Occasionally the sails of the windmill on the hillock creaked.

“They must have gone,” confirmed the Wallcreeper. “Let’s head outside and leave this place.”

One of the Riders opened the gate wide. To find himself looking right down the barrel of the Prague hand cannon.

“Praise the Lord!” Scharley greeted him.

And shot him between the eyes.

At the sound of the shot, two Riders rushed out of the stable on foot. One fell, a bolt from Reynevan’s crossbow plunging into his eye through the crack in his visor. Samson whacked the other so hard with his goedendag that the man’s sallet collapsed and split open like an egg.

The giant forced his way into the barn, swinging the iron-bound club, and the Riders retreated before him, fleeing towards the walls. But only for a moment, for it was still five against one. Swords and daggers gleamed.

But Samson seized the post holding up the ridge beam. Veins stood out on his forehead as he tugged the post with all his might, like the original Samson. And just as the original Samson knocked down the pillars of the temple of Dagon in Gaza, so Samson Honeypot broke and knocked down the post in the barn. The ridge beam broke with a terrible crack and the rafters snapped like twigs. And the entire roof and the hayloft, the entire immense weight of old timber, everything, like the temple of Dagon on the Philistines, collapsed on the Black Riders, crushing and smashing them before they even had time to scream.

Only one leg was still sticking out from the pile of beams and rafters, one leg in a black greave and a black sabaton. It stuck out and twitched.

Samson was gasping for breath, unable to utter a sound. He tugged on Reynevan’s arm.

There was still work to be done.