Královec looked at the banner for a long while, long and unwaveringly, as though hoping that the letters would form themselves into something different. Finally, he turned around and met Reynevan’s eyes.

“Kamieniec, you said? The Cistercian monastery? The wealthy Cistercian monastery. Was that it?”

“Aye, it was.”

“Well then…” Královec looked at Kłodzko once again and sighed. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

Et sic Orphani, the quill scratched on the parchment, a Cladzco feria II pasce recesserunt.

The chronicler made a full stop, grunted and straightened his aching back.

Writing chronicles was hard work.

Chapter Twenty

In which participants, eyewitnesses and chroniclers recall certain events from the period directly preceding Easter, 1428. And again, no one knew who to believe.

“My name, Holy Tribunal, is Brother Zephyrin, from the monastery of the Cistercian Order in Kamieniec. Please forgive my confusion, Reverend Fathers, but it is the first time I am come before the Office… Though only to deposit a testimonium, but still…

“Yes, sir, indeed, I shall get to the point. Which is what happened in the monastery on that tragic day of Holy Tuesday, Anno Domini 1428. And which I saw with my own eyes. And shall testify thereto under oath, as God is my—Beg pardon? To the point? Bene, Bene. Right away.

“Some of the brethren of the monastery had already fled by the Saturday before the Sunday during the fast, when Judica me Deus is sung, when the heretics were burning Otmuchów, Paczków and Pomianów. During the night, we saw fires covering half the sky and at dawn the sun barely broke through the smoke. At that time, as I said, some of the fratres had lost heart and fled, taking only what they could gather up in their hands. The abbot fulminated, calling them cowards, threatening them with divine punishment—ha, had I known what was awaiting him, I’d have fled first. And I, too—I shan’t lie to the Holy Tribunal—would also have fled, only I had nowhere to go. I am a Lombard from the town of Tortona, and I came to Silesia from Altenzelle, first to Lubiąż, and then from the monastery in Lubiąż wending to Kamieniec. Eh? I should keep to the subject? Bene, Bene, I shall. I’ll tell you how it was.