The Raubritters bolted in different directions, it being impossible to guess who Samson would throw the shield at. Rymbaba fled to the stable, Weyrach ducked behind a pile of firewood, Kuno of Wittram crawled under the hay wain again, and Tassilo of Tresckow—who was just coming around—flattened himself on the ground once more. In full flight, Buko of Krossig tore an old-fashioned elongated shield from the practice mannequin and covered his back with it as he fled.

Samson finished his spin standing on one leg in a classical pose worthy of a statue by Myron or Phidias. The buckler whistled towards its target and struck the shield on Krossig’s back with a loud thud. The momentum propelled the Raubritter a distance of at least ten yards, when his progress was stopped by a wall. After a few seconds, he slid down to the ground.

Samson looked around. There was no one left to throw anything at.

“Over here!” yelled Scharley, now in the saddle, from the gate. “Over here, Samson! To horse!”

The horse, although sturdy, slumped slightly beneath his weight. Samson patted it.

They set off at a gallop.

Chapter Twenty-Five

In which the talk is of love and death. Love is beautiful. Death is not.

One of Reynevan’s Prague mentors had tried to prove that magical flights are subject to the mental control of a witch or wizard covered in flying ointment. The objects they fly on, however, whether brooms, pokers, shovels or whatever else, are just lifeless objects, inanimate matter, subject to the will of the magician and utterly dependent on their will.

There must have been something in that theory, since the bench carrying Reynevan and Nicolette, after soaring into the night sky to the height of Castle Bodak’s battlements, circled around until Reynevan saw two horsemen—one of unmistakably impressive physique—leaving the castle. The bench glided gently after them, as though wanting to reassure him that neither of the horsemen racing along the Kłodzko road was seriously wounded and that they weren’t being followed. And, as though sensing his relief, the bench described another circle around Bodak, then flew upwards into the sky, above the moonlit clouds.