“Nonsense,” said the witcher. “And what’s more, it doesn’t rhyme. All decent predictions rhyme. Everyone knows what Eltibald and the Council of Wizards had in mind at the time. You took advantage of a madman’s ravings to strengthen your own authority. To break up alliances, ruin marriage allegiances, stir up dynasties. In a word: to tangle the strings of crowned puppets even more. And here you are lecturing me about predictions, which any old storyteller at the marketplace would be ashamed of.”

“You can have your reservations about Eltibald’s theories, about how the predictions were interpreted. But you can’t challenge the fact that there have been horrendous mutations among girls born just after the eclipse.”

“And why not? I’ve heard quite the opposite.”

“I was present when they did an autopsy on one of them,” said the wizard. “Geralt, what we found inside the skull and marrow could not be described. Some sort of red sponge. The internal organs were all mixed up, some were missing completely. Everything was covered in moving cilia, bluish-pink shreds. The heart was six-chambered, with two chambers practically atrophied. What do you say to that?”

“I’ve seen people with eagles’ talons instead of hands, people with a wolf’s fangs. People with additional joints, additional organs and additional senses. All of which were the effects of your messing about with magic.”

“You’ve seen all sorts of mutations, you say.” The magician raised his head. “And how many of them have you slaughtered for money, in keeping with your witcher’s calling? Well? Because one can have a wolf’s fangs and go no further than baring them at the trollops in taverns, or one can have a wolf’s nature, too, and attack children. And that’s just how it was with the girls who were born after the eclipse. Their outright insane tendency to cruelty, aggression, sudden bursts of anger and an unbridled temperament were noted.”

“You can say that about any woman,” sneered Geralt. “What are you driveling on about? You’re asking me how many mutants I’ve killed. Why aren’t you interested in how many I’ve extricated from spells, freed from curses? I, a witcher despised by you. And what have you done, you mighty magicians?”

“A higher magic was used. Ours and that of the priests, in various temples. All attempts ended in the girls’ deaths.”

“That speaks badly of you, not the girls. And so we’ve now got the first corpses. I take it the only autopsies were done on them?”

“No. Don’t look at me like that; you know very well that there were more corpses, too. It was initially decided to eliminate all of them. We got rid of a few…autopsies were done on all of them. One of them was even vivisectioned.”

“And you sons of bitches have the nerve to criticize witchers? Oh, Stregobor, the day will come when people will learn, and get the better of you.”

“I don’t think a day like that will come soon,” said the wizard caustically. “Don’t forget that we were acting in the people’s defense. The mutant girls would have drowned entire countries in blood.”