“Lucky for you that you were yelling and we heard you,” said the Lord of Chojnik, “otherwise you’d have been in deep trouble. We know those shaggy beasts, there are plenty of them in the wilds of the Karkonosze. In winter, hunger drives them nearer to human homesteads. They attack in packs and eat people alive, stripping the flesh to the bone. Some say the local highlander women give birth to them after mating with dogs, yuck, foul idea. Others that they are simiae, foreign beasts once bred by the Knights Templar. Yet others think they are devils that have emerged from hellholes. Right, Zwicker?”

“What is evil comes from the Devil,” responded the priest walking alongside and casting Reynevan an extremely venomous glance from under his hood, “and every sin demands punishment.”

“Idiot,” commented Schaff in hushed tones. “I say, m’Lord Bielawa! The danger has passed yet you’re still downcast. Fed, in fresh raiment, yet you’re still out of sorts. Why’s that?”

“You planned to buy me at Trosky.” Reynevan decided to make things clear. “You meant to spend two thousand four hundred Prague groschen, no doubt in order to sell me on at a profit. Whom, I wonder, had you chosen as a buyer, m’lord? The Inquisition? The Bishop of Wrocław?”

“Damn the bishop.” Schaff spat. “The Inquisition, too. I wanted to buy you out of the goodness of my heart. Out of affection.”

“Affection for what? We don’t even know one another.”

“We know each other better than you think. Your brother Piotr, may the Lord keep him, was a decent man. He never refused anyone in need of help. Or a loan. When we, the Schaffs, were in need, who helped us? Piotr of Bielawa!”

“Aha.”

“And who now has it in for Reinmar, Piotr’s brother? Who seeks his downfall? The bishop? Damn him, I said! The Sterczas? The Sterczas are common brigands. Jan, the Duke of Ziębice, irked that Reinmar bedded his lover because she preferred a younger and a more red-blooded one? And finally, Jan Biberstein of Stolz. Said to be a most gentle lord, but what does he do? Sets a bounty for the capture of a nobleman as though for a fugitive servant. And for what? For seducing his daughter? Jesus Christ! Why, that’s what maidens are for, the Good Lord created them to be seduced, and in order for them to yield to seduction he gave them a whorish nature. Am I right?” Without waiting for agreement, Schaff continued, “After you were recognised at Trosky, I thought to myself, ‘I’ll rescue that lad, I won’t give him to the Six Cities, I won’t let the executioners torture Piotr of Bielawa’s brother on the scaffold for the mob’s pleasure. I’ll buy the poor wretch,’ I thought to myself…”

“Many thanks. I’m in your debt, m’lord—”