“Robber knights. A truly impudent gang! Paszko Rymbaba himself was spotted. Verily, they would have murdered us, but fortunately Lord Seidlitz appeared with help and drove the scoundrels away. He received a wound in the skirmish, which sorely infuriated him. He swore he’d pay the Raubritters back and he will surely keep his word, for the Seidlitzes are unforgiving.”

Reynevan licked his lips, still nodding mechanically.

“Lord Seidlitz vowed in his fury that he would catch and torture them all more cruelly than even the Cieszyn Duke Noszak tortured the brigand Chrzan for killing his son, young Duke Přemysl. Noszak ordered him put on a red-hot copper horse and nipped his body with white-hot pliers and hooks… Remember? Ah, I see from your expression that you do.”

“Mhm.”

“So, it was fortunate that I could tell Lord Seidlitz who those robbers were. Wherever Rymbaba is, Kuno of Wittram and Notker of Weyrach won’t be far behind. But others were there, too, and I also described them to Lord Seidlitz. A great big bruiser with a stupid face, demented, no doubt. A smaller individual, with a hooked nose—one look and you know: a blackguard. And also a whippersnapper, a youngster your age, the same physique as you, even a little similar to you, m’lord, in fact… But no, what am I saying, you’re a comely young man with a noble face, the spitting image of Saint Sebastian, while that one looked like a brute.

“Anyway, I was talking about them and Lord Seidlitz suddenly yells! Why, he knows those rascals, too, for his kinsman, Lord Guncelin of Laasan, is also after the hook-nose and the pipsqueak for a robbery they committed in Strzegom. Oh, these twists of fate… And it gets better—you haven’t heard anything yet. I’m just about to set off from Ziębice when my servant informs me that some characters are hanging around the wagon. So I lie in wait and what do I see? That hook-nose and that great simpleton! Can you believe it? What impudent scoundrels.”

The tax collector choked in indignation. Reynevan nodded and swallowed.