Eifelheim - Michael Flynn [123]
Herrenfolk were notoriously prone to hyperbole over feats of arms. The human body could bleed a ghastly amount, but a few minutes casting sums would show the impossibility of “a river” of blood, especially if “most defenders fled.” “Did they find the copper?” he asked.
“Hans reasoned that the greatest resistance would lie toward the treasury, and so he attacked where resistance was greatest. But …” Manfred threw his head back and laughed. “For all his fine reasoning, Hans found your wire by merest chance. Falkenstein kept his lady’s quarters heated—a tiled stove, no less!—and our Krenkl’n were drawn toward it. The wire was there. Her husband had given her the copper, perhaps to fashion jewelry from it. I suppose you philosophers can make something interesting of the coincidence. Perhaps that reason has its limits.”
“Or that God meant for Hans to find it.” Dietrich closed his eyes and offered a brief prayer of thanks that the Krenken could proceed now with their repairs.
“But, hear,” said Manfred. “Lady Falkenstein had a bodyguard assigned her and, when the Krenkl’n broke into her room, he swung his sword and cut down Gerd with a single blow. And what did our little corporal do, but straddle his comrade and ward off the armsman while the others pulled the body free! First, he brandished a chair to parry a stroke, then he slung a bullet with his pot de fer that struck the man a glancing blow on his helm and rendered him senseless. Then, oh, valiantly done! He traced the cross over his enemy and withdrew.”
“He spared him, then?” Dietrich asked in wonder, knowing the Krenkish choler.
“A wonderful gesture. And Lady Falkenstein screeching all the while for fear of the Nameless One. But she says now that her bodyguard made such a heroic fight that even a very demon was moved to recognize his valor.”
“Ach. So legends grow.”
Manfred cocked his head. “What better story than that both foes perform heroic deeds when they face each other? By all accounts, the man voided himself at the sight of Hans; but he stood and fought when he could have run. That man will regale his grandchildren with tales of how he traded strokes with a demon and lived—if the Duke does not hang him first. But, the Duke’s silver is secured—and on its way to Vienna with the Jews—and a troop of trusted men to guard it. The other prisoners are also freed.”
“God be thanked. Mine Herr, would you summon Hans and warn him of his lord’s anger?”
“Too late for that, I fear. Once I had secured the treasury for the Duke, I gave Hans leave to fly his slain companion to the Krenkish crypts.”
Dietrich stood in sudden alarm. “What! We must hurry back then, before it’s too late.”
Manfred pursed his lips. “Sit yourself, pastor. Only a fool hazards that trail in the dark. Whatever dealing Grosswald has in mind has already been dealt. However, for my honor, if Hans has not been well handled, Grosswald will pay the fine!”
Dietrich was not certain that Manfred had the power to punish Grosswald, should Grosswald not will it. The Krenken had feared the winter’s cold; but their arrogance would warm with the weather, and their oaths might melt with the snows.
DIETRICH SLEPT indifferently well. He did not expect the truce among the Krenkish factions to last, for their ways required submission, not balance. Their “Web” was one not of oaths and mutual obligations, but of authority and obedience, and arrived at less by the cognitive power of their wills than by the estimative power of their appetites.
The new moon had set and, between short-lived bouts of slumber, Dietrich had watched Orion and his hounds chase Jupiter. Now the hunters, wearied of the chase, were sinking below the Breitnau heights and the Dog Star, brightest of all stars, rested yellow upon the crest of the mountain. Dietrich had read from Ptolemy in the Paris quadrivium,