Vilhelmas. Go and tell him how much you hate him’?”
Wulf nodded, tasting vomit. “The boy can’t be trusted in churches because the voices echo and sound like his Voices. He probably doesn’t understand what his Voices are saying.”
“He scares the piss out of me,” Vlad said. “We’d better tell Anton.”
“Tomorrow,” Otto said. “Right now we need a priest.”
“What do you want me to do about this, Brothers?” Wulf demanded. “A Magnus lies dead. Do I avenge him? Go and kill that half-wit boy?”
“No!” Vlad bellowed. “No, not now. It’s a trap. They’ll be waiting for you.”
“Not ever, I think,” Otto said.
“Why not? I’m damned already. Obviously my Voices came from Satan. I’ve killed two priests and now my brother has died because of what I did.”
Vlad and Otto exchange shocked looks.
“No!” Vlad boomed. “Never, never think that way! Your intentions were good.”
Otto said, “But now you understand the dangers your Voices warned you against. To civic rulers like Anton you are a killer who can strike anyone, at any time. To the Church you’re Heresy Incarnate. You’re the Antichrist. You could start a great heretical movement like Jan Huss did, or overthrow the pope. Duke Wartislaw may not know about you yet, but you’ll certainly be his prime target as soon as he does. Even Cardinal Zdenek must disown you now. You could supplant him, or depose King Konrad and take the crown. You’re more dangerous than the Ottoman Sultan or the Great Pestilence. Can anybody or anything control you now, boy?”
“Another Speaker,” Wulf said. “Azuolas would have beaten me tonight if Marek hadn’t come to my aid. A gang of them certainly could.”
“You must leave Castle Gallant,” Otto persisted. “Tonight! Go far away and make a new life under a new name.”
Wulf shook his head and reached for wine. “No.”
“Remember what I told you about Joan of Arc being burned? Remember Julius Caesar, stabbed? Alexander the Great, poisoned? You’re a danger to everybody, Wulf! All power is unpopular but absolute power will turn every man’s hand against you.”
“You must go, Wolfcub.” Vlad looked genuinely concerned.
Wulf desperately wanted to do that, to be far away from Madlenka and the torment of seeing her as Anton’s wife. Now that he knew that the Wends had at least one Speaker guarding their great bombard, the chances that he could save Castle Gallant had dropped from slim to very close to zero. But there was no place to hide from Speakers. Brother Lodnicka knew his face now, so he could come to Wulf anywhere, at any time. He might be watching through his eyes right now, listening with his ears.
“You’re absolutely right,” he said. “I don’t have to stay here and die. It’s Anton’s pissy castle. Let him defend it! So where shall we go?”
“We?” his brothers barked in perfect unison.
That seemed so funny that Wulf almost laughed, until he remembered that Marek’s corpse lay sprawled in the chair beside him. Oh, Marek, Marek! How were they going to explain this death to a priest?
“Everything you said about me applies to both of you. Cardice is none of our business. So where shall I take us?”
“Magnuses do not run away!” Vlad roared.
“No, we don’t,” Wulf said. Of course, when the castle was about to fall, he would rescue Madlenka and move her to somewhere safe. But then he would come back and stand with his brothers. It was the Magnus way. He raised his glass. The other two saw what was coming and raised theirs.
They proclaimed the toast together: “Omnia audere!”
Before the wine touched their lips, a fist banged on the door. Vlad hurtled across the room to open it, using his bulk to block the newcomer’s view of Marek. He also hid Wulf’s view of the newcomer, but Wulf recognized the voice of Dalibor Notivova.
“Campfires, Sir Vladislav! Down at High Meadows. The lookouts spotted a couple just after dark and now there’s at least a score of them. Seems an army’s moving in, pitching camp!”
“High Meadows?” Vlad said. “You mean south of us? Not the Wends, then?”
“No, sir. Pelrelmians, maybe. Can’t be king’s men, or they’d come to the gate.”
“Vranov!”
“Seems likely, sir. But a lot more men than he had there last weekend.”
Vlad boomed out a laugh. “Well, Dali my lad, that’s good news! Excellent news! I am exactly in the mood to head out and kill somebody! Let’s find me a warm cloak and you and I will go have a look.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You two clean up here.” He chivvied Dali out ahead of him and closed the door.
