“But I’m helpless,” the canon interrupted sharply, “if they catch you and club you to death. Do you understand, you hot-headed fool? You must get Gelfrad of Stercza’s wife out of your head once and for all, along with any thoughts of clandestine visits, letters, messengers and the like. You are to vanish. Leave the country at once. I recommend Hungary. Do you understand?”

“First I’d like to go to Balbinów… To visit my brother—”

“I absolutely forbid it,” Otto Beess cut him off. “The men who hunt you no doubt expect that, as they did your visit here. Remember: when you flee, flee like a wolf. Never along well-trodden paths.”

“But my brother… Peterlin… If I really must flee—”

“I myself will inform Peterlin about everything using trusted envoys. But I forbid you from going there. Do you understand, madcap boy? You may not travel roads that your enemies know. You may not appear in places where they may be waiting for you. Which means under no circumstances go to Balbinów. Or Ziębice.”

Reynevan sighed, and Otto Beess swore.

“You didn’t know,” he drawled. “You didn’t know she was in Ziębice. And I, old fool that I am, have revealed it to you. Oh well, it has happened. But it means nothing. It matters not where she is—be it Ziębice, Rome, Constantinople or Egypt, you will not go near her, son.”

“I shall not.”

“You cannot even know how much I’d like to believe you. Listen to me, Reinmar, and listen carefully. You will receive a letter; I shall ask my secretary to write it in a moment. Fear not, the document will be written in such a way that only the addressee will understand it. You will take the letter and conduct yourself like a hunted wolf. You will travel by roads you have never trodden, on which you will not be sought, to the Carmelite priory in Strzegom. You will give my letter to the prior, and he will introduce you to a certain individual. And you will say to him, when you find yourselves alone together: the eighteenth of July, 1418. He will then ask you: where? You will reply: Wrocław, the New Town. Have you got that? Repeat it.”

“The eighteenth of July, 1418. Wrocław, the New Town. What’s it all for? I don’t understand.”