He was already looking elsewhere. Towards the garth. Four nuns were standing there. Including the abbess.
“You have hidden Hussites in this convent!” Jan announced thunderously, standing up in the stirrups. “You’ve given refuge to spies and traitors! This shall not go unpunished! Do you hear, woman?”
“You shall not punish me,” replied the abbess in a resonant and fearless voice. “Not you! You are breaking the law, Duke Jan! Breaking the law! You may not enter the convent!”
“These are my lands and I have power here. And this convent stands here by the grace of my forefathers!”
“The convent stands here by the grace of God and is not subject to either your power or your jurisdiction! You have no right either to enter or to reside here. Neither you, nor your soldiers! Not that scoundrel, nor his thugs!”
“And did he have the right to reside here?” Jan of Ziębice pointed at Reynevan. “The entire summer? Is it permitted, dear Sister, to conceal heretics here? Heretics like the one lying there?”
Reynevan looked in the direction the duke was pointing. At the point where the wall surrounding the garth met the dry, ivy-covered wall of the infirmary lay Bisclavret. Reynevan recognised him by the tailored calfskin suit of clothes that the Frenchman recently had made and which everyone was meant to admire. Reynevan only recognised him by his jacket, his corpse was so dreadfully mutilated. The fair-haired miles gallicus, the erstwhile Écorcheur, Bisclavret, must have fought fiercely when caught. And did not let himself be taken alive.
“It is thus, then?” asked the duke with a sneer. “Did the convent have a dispensation for taking in heretics and criminals? Indeed, it did not! Then be silent, woman, be silent. Display some humility. Lord Borschnitz! Have your men search those sheds! More may be hiding there!”
The Wallcreeper seized Reynevan, arms still bound behind him, by the collar, dragged him in front of the abbess and stood very close to her, face to face.
“Where is his comrade?” he grated. “The giant with the visage of a simpleton? Speak, Nun.”
“I don’t know of what you speak,” the abbess replied fearlessly. “Or of whom.”
“Oh, but you do. And you’ll tell me what you know.”
“Apage, O Devil’s spawn.”
A hellish fire flashed in the Wallcreeper’s eyes, but the abbess’s gaze was steady. The Wallcreeper moved in even closer to her.
“Speak, woman. Or I’ll make sure you bitterly regret it. You and your little nuns.”
“I say, Grellenort!” The duke didn’t move his horse, just straightened up proudly in the saddle. “What, do you act on your own initiative? I give the orders here! I judge and I mete out punishments, not you!”
“The nuns are concealing more heretics, Your Grace. I am certain of it. They are hiding them in the clausula. They think we won’t enter there and are mocking us.”
Jan of Ziębice stayed silent for a moment, biting his lip.
“Then we shall search the clausula, too,” he finally decided coldly. “Lord Borschnitz!”
“You wouldn’t dare!” screamed the abbess. “That is sacrilege, Jan! You will be excommunicated for this!”
“Stand aside, Sister. Lord Borschnitz, to work.”
“O knights!” screamed the abbess, raising her arms and barring the way before the men. “O soldiers! Do not listen to godless orders, do not carry out the will of an apostate and an iconoclast! If you obey him, the curse will fall on you, too! And there will be no place for you among Christians! No one will give you vittles or water! Soldiers, I—”
At a sign from the Wallcreeper, his mercenaries seized the abbess and one of them closed a studded gauntlet over her face. Blood trickled from under the gauntlet. Reynevan struggled and tore himself free from the hands of the astonished servants. He lunged forward and in spite of his bound hands kicked over one of the thugs and shoulder-barged the other aside. But the Ziębice foot soldiers were already on him and knocked him to the ground, where they punched him.
“Search the buildings,” Duke Jan ordered. “The clausula, too. And if we find any men there… If we find even a single Hussite concealed there, I swear to God the convent will pay dearly. As will you, dear Sister.”
“Don’t call me ‘sister’!” screamed the abbess, spitting blood and struggling in the arms of the thugs. “You are no brother to me! I disown you!”
“Search the convent! Forward, at the double! Lord Borschnitz! Lord Risin! What are you waiting for? I have issued an order!”
Borschnitz scowled and ground out a curse. Many among the Ziębice esquires and foot soldiers looked uneasy. Many were muttering angrily under their breath. The housekeeper began to weep. And the sky suddenly darkened. Duke Jan glanced upwards, as though a little anxious.
“You, Pater,” he said, clearing his throat and nodding at the chaplain accompanying them. “Go with them, so that the search occurs in the presence of a priest and is suitably religious. So that people don’t talk afterwards.”
Soon, the sound of furniture being smashed and shattered could be heard from inside the convent. Screaming, squealing and wailing came from the clausula. And parchment and books began to fall from the windows of the scriptorium and the abbess’s private chambers. The Wallcreeper picked up a few.
“Wycliffe?” He laughed, turning towards the abbess. “Joachim of Fiore? Waldhauser? They are read here? And you, Witch, dare to threaten us? You will rot away in the bishop’s dungeon for these books. And the excommunication you threatened us with will embrace your entire heretical monastery.”
“Enough, enough, Grellenort.” Jan of Ziębice cut him off gratingly. “Soften your tone and leave her be! You assume too much authority here. Master Seiffersdorf, hurry the search along, it drags on somewhat. And gather up those books and scribblings! And burn them!”
“The evidence of heresy?”
“Grellenort. Don’t make me bring you to task.”
The books blackened and curled up in the flames. The search was completed. No men or Hussites were found in the clausula. The Wallcreeper’s furious expression spoke for itself. Duke Jan’s sour grimace suddenly softened into a smile, however, and his handsome face brightened up. Reynevan twisted around in the servants’ grip to see what had so delighted the duke. And his heart dropped like a stone.
Borschnitz and Risin were leading Jutta out of the clausula.
“Yes, yes, Bielawa.” The duke’s voice seemed to be coming to him from far away. “I know plenty about you. How do you think I knew I’d find you here? Some Hussite spies were caught in Kłodzko; all were taken alive. One of them—your comrade—knew much. He refrained from talking for a long time, but finally did. And revealed everything. About this convent. About you. And your romances, too.”
As Reynevan had expected, Duke Jan’s entourage set off straight along the Ziębice road. Contrary to his expectations, the duke didn’t go to Ziębice, but ordered a halt in Henryków. Right beside the monastery. The duke declined the offer of accommodation from the Cistercians who ran out to welcome him, setting up camp instead at the edge of the forest, under a huge oak tree. An enormous campfire of logs was lit, food brought by the monks was prepared and kegs were uncorked. Reynevan watched from his horse, from which he was not allowed to dismount. Three soldiers kept him under constant guard. The ropes cutting into his flesh numbed his body and he began to freeze.