“Have you forgotten the Bible, Bishop? The words of the Evangelist? Non enim est aliquid absconditum quod non manifestetur, nec factum est occultum sed ut in palam veniat. For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest. It’s my pleasure to inform you that a witness has been found to the robbery of the tax collector, carried out near Bardo on the thirteenth of September, Anno Domini 1425.”

“Well, well,” said Konrad of Oleśnica, grinning unpleasantly. “A witness has been found. And what did they testify? Who, I wonder, robbed the tax collector?”

The Wallcreeper’s eyes flashed. “Revealing the culprit is just a matter of time,” he growled. “It so happens that this witness was found by people hostile to us. Having the witness, they’ll get to the bottom of it and it will come out. Beautifully. So moderate your tone a little, Bishop!”

Bishop Konrad eyed him evilly for some time, then clambered out of bed and hid his nakedness with a mantle. He sat down on a curule chair and was silent for some while longer.

“How could you, Papa?” the Wallcreeper, sitting down opposite, said reproachfully. “How could you? Without telling me anything? Or informing me?”

“I didn’t want to bother you,” Konrad lied smoothly. “You had so much to do… How do you know about the witness?”

“Thanks to magic. And informers.”

“I understand. Using magic and informers, one will be able, I presume, to track down that witness… And, hmm, eliminate him? Generally speaking, that witness can go and boil his head and those hostile people can fuck themselves. They cannot do shit to me. But who needs trouble? If it’s possible to break the witness’s neck… Eh? Birkart, my son? Can you help?”

“I have enough to deal with already.”

“Of course, mea culpa,” the bishop reluctantly admitted. “Don’t be cross. You’re right. I concealed it! What of it? Do you never conceal anything from me?”

The Wallcreeper preferred not to admit that he did indeed, so answered the question with one of his own: “Explain to me, Father Bishop, why did you steal money that was meant to serve a sacred cause—the war against Czech heresy, a crusade you continue to call for?”

“I saved that money,” Konrad replied coldly. “Thanks to me, it will serve what it’s supposed to serve. It will be spent on what it ought to be spent on. On mercenaries, horses, arms, cannons, guns, gunpowder. On everything we can use to beat, grind down and destroy the Czech apostates. And it is certain that no one will embezzle that coin. If the money had gone to Frankfurt, it would simply have been stolen. As usual.”

“Quite convincing reasoning,” said the Wallcreeper with a smile, “but I doubt it would convince the papal legate.”