“Oh, you know, for amusement,” Reynevan answered, his tone similarly careless. “It’s our caprice and favourite pastime: finding our way into Catholic castles.”

“Understood. No further questions. So Scharley is subtly reminding me of the debt I owe him. Am I to pay off my debt like that? Very well, I’ll think it over.”

“Is that a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’?”

“It means I’ll think it over. Hey, Marketa! Wine, if you please!”

The ginger-haired, freckled girl with the lifeless face and empty eyes filled his cup. Her figure more than made up for her lack of good looks, and as the girl moved away from the table, Reynevan couldn’t restrain himself from looking at her waist and hips, rocking in a gentle, swaying and quite hypnotic walk.

“I see that your eye is pleased by our Marketa,” observed Tauler with a smile. “Our tableau vivant. Our Adamite.”

“Adamite?”

“You mean you don’t know anything? Scharley didn’t say? Or perhaps you’ve never heard of the Adamites?”

“It rings some sort of bell. But I’m a Silesian, I’ve been in Bohemia but two years…”

“Order something to drink. And make yourself comfortable.”

Once Reynevan had been served, Berengar Tauler began his tale. “When the Czech revolution occurred, a considerable number of cranks and crazies emerged from the shadows. In 1419, a wave of religious hysteria, lunacy and mysticism passed through the country. Fanatical prophets were everywhere, warning of the end of the world. People abandoned everything and went into the mountains in large numbers, to wait for the second coming of Christ. All this was grist to the mill to old, forgotten sects. Various fucked-up chiliasts, Adventists, Nicolaites, Paternians, spiritualists, Waldensians, Beghards and the Devil knows who else—it was impossible to count them—crawled out of their burrows…”

A heated exchange had begun at the dice table, various words were used, some of them coarse. Manfred of Salm was fulminating the loudest.

“And then sermons, prophecies, predictions, omens and apocalypses began,” continued Tauler. “Some proclaimed the coming of the Third Age, but that the old world had first to be consumed by fire. And then Christ would return in glory, the Divine Kingdom would come, the saints would be resurrected, evil men would inevitably suffer eternal damnation and the good would live in heavenly bliss. Everything would be shared; all personal property would disappear. There would be no rich or poor, no poverty or oppression. A state of universal perfection, happiness and peace would reign. There would be no more misfortune, wars or persecution. Nobody would ever attack another or lead him into sin. Nor covet his wife. Because wives would also be for common use.