“Say on. Don’t prolong this pathetic scene. Tell me what’s awaiting me in Prague. What will they do with me?”

Horn looked back, but only for a moment.

“That depends on you. On you alone.”

“Could you be more precise?”

“If they turned you,” said Horn, the muscles in his jaw twitching perceptibly, “Neplach will want to make use of it. He’ll turn you again. It’s a standard procedure. You will start feeding the enemy information. But false information. Fabricated.”

“Where’s the catch?”

“It’s dangerous. Doubly so.”

“Listen carefully,” said Horn a few moments later, interrupting the long silence. “Listen carefully, Reinmar. I advise you not to run away. Running away would be proof of your guilt and your sentence would fall. Neplach is aware of how many secrets you’ve heard, how many of our plans and military secrets you possess. You’d know no peace. Even if you fled to the end of the world, you’d be living on borrowed time. You and anyone close to you. You might have broken down under blackmail out of fear for the fate of Miss Jutta. Miss Jutta is thus your weak point, the most tender place to strike you. Don’t kid yourself that Neplach would pass up that opportunity.”

Reynevan said nothing. He just swallowed and nodded. Horn also said nothing.

“I believed in the cause of the revolution,” Reynevan finally said. “I had a genuine sense of mission, of the fight for apostolic faith, for ideals, for social justice, for a new, better tomorrow. I genuinely believed that we would change the old order, that we would shift the world from its ossified foundations. I fought for the cause, profoundly believing that our victory would put an end to immorality and evil. I was prepared to spill my blood for the cause of the revolution, ready to sacrifice myself, throw myself like a stone against the ramparts… And I did, like a madman, a blind man, a fool. What did you call it? Fanaticism? Zealous ardour? It fits, it fits perfectly. But now what? The zealot and the neophyte will get his just desserts; his foolish blindness and madcap passion will be the end of him, and not only he, but also those closest to him will suffer. Ha, I hope they write about it in some future chronicle, as a lesson and warning to other neophytes and fools, prepared to blindly enter the fight and lay down their lives. So they’ll know what it’s like.”

“But it’s always like this. Didn’t you know?”

“I do now. And I’ll remember that.”

“M’Lord Houžvička!”

“What?”

“An inn! May we stop?”

Houžvička grunted and muttered.