received the expected and hard-earned honorarium from the baroness-being treated as an honored guest by the most powerful man in the kingdom. The world had gone insane, or he had. Perhaps he had cracked his skull at the hunt and was imagining all this.
“Tell me about yourself,” Zdenek murmured. His eyes were still hiding behind reflected lamplight.
Insanity! “Your Eminence, I am the fourth son of the late Baron Patredor Magnus of Dobkov. My ancestors have held-”
“Yourself, not your ancestors. The Magnuses of Dobkov are famous in the history of Jorgary; you are not. Not yet, anyway. Start with your brothers.”
“As it please Your Eminence. Male Magnuses come in two sizes. The large ones become soldiers, the small ones take holy orders. My eldest brother, Ottokar, is one of the largest. He succeeded our father five years ago.” How much detail did Zdenek want? Why should he want any? Anton shivered, wondering if some family problem might lie behind this madness. “He is married and-”
“And ought to make his wife sleep in another room before her fertility bankrupts him. Next?”
“Sir Vladislav is even bigger, a knight banneret in His Majesty’s Heavy Hussars. For the last two years he has been a prisoner in Bavaria.”
Vlad, like Baron Radovan, had been captured at the Battle of the Boundary Stone. Jorgary’s attempt to take advantage of a disputed succession in Bavaria had failed spectacularly. Court gossips disagreed on whether the cardinal had lost his touch at last or the featherbrained crown prince had talked his ailing grandfather into ordering the invasion against Zdenek’s advice. The boundary itself was now a day’s march closer to Mauvnik than it had been, and the kingdom was still bleeding gold to ransom its nobility. Two thousand commoners had bled to death on the field.
“Third is Marek, now Brother Marek of the Benedictine house in Koupel. And then me. His Majesty most graciously accepted my petition to enlist in his Light Hussars, and I arrived in Mauvnik about ten days ago. Of course it was Vladislav’s reputation that won me this great privilege.”
The cardinal was staring down at the paper again. It was completely covered in tiny, spidery writing, even along the margins. Anton could read, though he was badly out of practice, but not upside down. Was the friar behind him writing down everything he said?
“How long did it take you to ride from Dobkov to Mauvnik?” Zdenek inquired in his raspy voice.
Anton blinked. “Um — fifteen days, Your Eminence.” Why ask that, for God’s sake?
“Why so long?”
“It was a new experience for me, for I have never strayed far from-”
The skull’s crystal eyes blazed. “Never lie to me, boy!”
He flinched. “Your Eminence’s pardon… I had agreed to accompany a caravan of merchants who wanted protection on the road. Your Eminence must understand that my brother the baron is desperately trying to raise money to pay Vladislav’s ransom.” The nobility were all land rich and cash poor. “It was time that I sought my own way in the world, and I could not have afforded even to enlist in His Majesty’s service had Vladislav not written to insist that I must be equipaged before his ransom be paid.”
In his grandfather’s day he would have become a knight errant, roaming Christendom in search of tourneys where he might win fame and fortune jousting. A knight unhorsed and captured in the tilting yard would forfeit his arms, armor, and horse, which the winner might then sell, often back to the original owner. A horseman as good as Anton could have made his fortune very rapidly. Nowadays chivalry was out of fashion and the miserable alternative was a career in the king’s cavalry-working for wages like a journeyman wheelwright.
The cardinal sneered. “So you held your nose and became a trader’s hired guard for two weeks? You think I care a spit for your confounded petty honor? Or that I don’t know how Ottokar will likely have to sell land to ransom that big idiot who got captured in Bavaria? Stay with the truth from now on! You have another brother.”
“Wulfgang, Your Eminence. He is only seventeen.” Anton Magnus risked a smile, which was not returned. “He’s a family freak, being medium-sized. Lacking the usual clue, he seems unable to decide between the sword and the cross. Ottokar told him that if he did not soon make up his mind, he would be too old for a career with either. I brought him with me as my varlet. He is very good with horses, and fine company, in a quiet sort of-”
“Seventeen?”
“Yes, Your Eminence.” Oh, damnation! “Just turned eighteen, I mean-last week.”
The cardinal twisted around to the writing stand to make a minute note on the paper, then turned it facedown. He leaned back in his chair, put his fingertips together, and let Anton Magnus study the glowing eyeglasses for a while. He had already known everything Anton had just told him and probably a lot more beside.
He said, “Tell me exactly what happened at the hunt on Friday.”
CHAPTER 2
Anton Magnus took a swallow of wine and was relieved to note that his hand did not shake.
“I made a fool of myself, Your Eminence.”
No comment.
“I was assigned to guard the ladies and other guests. It is not a desirable duty, because it is… I am sure Your Eminence understands.”
During a court hunt, the crown prince and his guests chased deer. Or rather the hounds chased deer and they followed the hounds. The huntsmen did the real work, locating the available stags, seeing that the bloodhounds found the scent and the greyhounds stayed on the trail; eventually gutting and skinning the meat. Meanwhile the ladies, children, and elderly guests picnicked on the grass in the royal forest. The guards watched out for dangers, of which there were virtually none worse than wasps-perhaps a wild boar or a rabid wolf, once every ten years or so.
So the hussars would spend a long day astride restive horses in the heat and the flies. They did get time off, alternating watches, but on their downtime they had to stay out of sight among the bushes with the horses and grooms. When mounted they must do nothing more than sit there and look romantic; flirting with the ladies was strictly forbidden. Regrettably, no one was assigned to guard the guards from the ladies. Some of the court jades, notably Baroness Nadezda, enjoyed taunting newcomers to make them blush.
Worse, there were innumerable opportunities for a man to make a fool of himself. His horse might tread on a child’s foot. Or get bitten by a horsefly. Or scare away the deer. Or even take off after the quarry, because the hussars’ mounts were all hunters and knew what the horn calls meant as well as the men did.
“We were gathered at Chestnut Hill, Your Eminence, the top of a steep meadow, with a beechwood at our backs. And the stag came right through the woods behind us. We could hear the horns and hounds growing closer and closer. The horses became very excited. Then the stag broke cover not fifty paces to our right and went racing down the hill towards the stream. To my shame, my horse ran away with me, Your Eminence. I was very lucky not to get killed. The hunt saw me in the vanguard and several men trying to follow took bad spills. By Our Lady’s mercy, the crown prince had more sense! I have already been severely reprimanded by Captain Walangoin, and warned that I am now on probation. Any further offense at all and I will be cashiered.”
The cardinal nodded and took a tiny sip of wine. “Seven men injured, two of them crippled for life. Four horses destroyed. What exactly was this ditch that caused such carnage?”
“It is a stream, Your Eminence, with tall hedges along either bank. The stag managed it, of course. The hounds went through the shrubbery, although it slowed them a lot. But my horse managed to jump the first hedge, find footing on the gravel, and gather himself enough to clear the second hedge also.”
“So you were the first man on the spot to beat off the hounds and provide the mort.”
“Yes, Your Eminence.” Anton’s hand patted the hilt of his saber in fond memory.
At last, Zdenek moved his head so that the fire died from his glasses and exposed his eyes. They were deep-set, shrouded in wrinkles, dark and unreadable.
“Well, that is the official story. That is what you told everybody. Now tell me what really happened.”
“I raked my horse’s flanks with my spurs.”
“It was deliberate?”
