“In your shoes…” said the owner of the beer stall in a trembling voice. “In your shoes, I’d make myself scarce, sir. They’re wealthy merchants, guests of His Lordship Guncelin of Laasan. They had it coming to them, for the brawls they keep starting… But you ought to flee, for Lord Laasan—”

“Runs this town,” finished Scharley, removing the pouch from the third dandy. “Thanks for the beer, good fellow. We’ll be off, Reinmar.”

They went. The dandy with the knife in his thigh bade them farewell with his despairing, unremitting, infantile howling.

Chapter Ten

In which both Reynevan and the reader have the chance to get to know Scharley better, the opportunity afforded by a shared perambulation and various accompanying events. Finally, three classically iconic and absolutely anachronistic witches make an appearance.

Lounging comfortably on a moss-covered stump, Scharley observed the coins he had tipped from the pouches into his cap. He couldn’t conceal his disappointment.

“Judging by their dress and manner,” he grumbled, “you’d have said they were wealthy parvenus. But what penury in their pouches. See for yourself, laddie. What dross! Two ecu, a few clipped Parisian solds, fourteen groschen, some half-groschen, Magdeburg pfennigs, Prussian skojeces and szelągs, denarii and wafer-thin halers and some other shit I don’t even recognise—counterfeit, no doubt. The bloody pouches with their silver thread and pearls are worth more. But pouches aren’t cash. Where can I sell them now? And the coins won’t even suffice for an old nag, and I need a sodding horse. Dammit, the garb on those fops was also worth more than the contents of their purses. I should have stripped them naked.”

“Then,” Reynevan observed tartly, “Lord Laasan would surely have sent a hundred men after us and not a dozen. And not down one, but all the roads.”

“But he only sent twelve, so don’t harp on.”

Indeed, no more than a half-hour after they had left Strzegom via the Jawor Gate, a dozen horsemen in the livery of Guncelin of Laasan, magnate, Lord of Strzegom Castle and the city’s actual ruler, burst from the gate and thundered down the highway. But Scharley, soon after leaving the city, demonstrated his cunning by ordering Reynevan to turn into the forest and hide in the undergrowth. There they waited to make sure their pursuers didn’t double back.

Reynevan sighed and sat down next to Scharley.

“The result of our acquaintance so far is as follows,” Reynevan said. “If, this morning, I was only being hunted by the Stercza brothers and their hired thugs, come this afternoon, Lord Laasan and a squad of armed men from Strzegom are also hot on my heels. I dread to think what’ll be next.”