by ich du
'Ah, Hetzau,' he said. 'Sit. You wished to see me?'
Reiner cursed inwardly, for he knew then and there that Manfred did not intend to honour his promise. Still, he must ask. 'Yes, m'lord. Thank you.' He sat. 'I have come on behalf of the others, m'lord, about your promise. That if we freed you from the dark elf, you would free us.'
'Ah yes,' said Manfred. 'In the press of events I had nearly forgotten.'
'We have not, m'lord,' said Reiner.
Manfred paused for a long moment, then sighed. 'I'm afraid your success has defeated you, Hetzau.' He looked up at Reiner with a curious expression. 'What you did in Talabheim was impossible. The odds you overcame are not to be calculated. And because of this I... I find I cannot let you go. You are too valuable.'
Reiner nodded, resigned. 'I was afraid you would say that, m'lord. I have given up expecting honour from the nobility.'
Manfred stiffened. 'My position doesn't allow me honour, just as yours does not. If I am to keep the Emperor and the Empire safe, I must do what must be done.'
'And get a little of your own in as well, m'lord?' Reiner winked.
'Eh?' Manfred scowled. 'What's this impertinence?'
Reiner cleared his throat. '"It must be proved that Talabheim cannot rescue itself. And if 'evidence' could be found that the countess was behind the stone's disappearance, so much the better".'
'What did you say?' Manfred gripped the arms of his chair.
'"The Emperor wishes that Talabecland develop closer ties to the Reikland. How better than to have a Reiklander rule Talabheim? I have languished too long in the shadows. It is time to step into the sun".' Reiner shrugged. 'Forgive me, m'lord, if I have misquoted you, but I speak from memory.'
'So you do have the book,' said Manfred. 'Well, valuable as you are, you will die for its theft.'
'No m'lord, we will be released for its return.'
Manfred laughed. 'Blackmail? You are in no position. All your belongings are in my house. I will find the book and kill you all.'
'Fortunately,' said Reiner. 'I had the foresight to hide it outside the house before we returned here. It is in a place where your rivals will find it if we die.'
'And if I torture the location out of you?' asked Manfred.
Reiner shrugged. 'You may well, but looking for it where it is hidden may bring it unwanted scrutiny. You may lose it even as you retrieve it.'
'What have you done, you blackheart?'
'Merely taken precautions, m'lord, as one blackheart must when dealing with another.'
Manfred fumed silently. He looked like he wished to strangle Reiner where he sat.
'All you need do, m'lord.' said Reiner, 'is remove our poison and the book will be returned. I have no wish to destroy you, nor stand in the way of your ambitions. We only want you to honour your promise. We only want our freedom.'
Manfred glared at him, then chuckled. 'I think I am fortunate that you seem to have no ambitions of your own. Very well, Hetzau, the poison will be removed. I will speak to Magus Handfort in the morning. But know this,' he added. 'If you think to trick me on this. If you haven't the book, or you do not mean to return it, your freedom will be very short indeed.'
'Of course, m'lord.' Reiner stood and walked out.
MAGUS HANDFORT'S EXTRACTION of the poison was the most painful thing Reiner had ever endured, more excruciating even than reaching for Valaris's necklace. Indeed, at times Reiner wondered if Manfred had betrayed them after all, for it felt as if his blood were burning through his veins and his kidneys ached as if they had been battered with clubs. But at last it was over and the Blackhearts were returned, barely conscious, to Manfred's carriages.
'Now,' said the count, as he signalled his driver to return them to his townhouse. 'Where is the book?'
Reiner felt in no condition to carry on a conversation. He could barely open his eyes. 'Not yet, m'lord.'
'What! You promised me!' Manfred kicked Reiner in the leg. 'Wake up, curse you! I have done as you asked. Where is the book?'
Reiner flinched. His entire body felt as tender as a raw wound. 'I said I would give you the book when the poison was removed,' said Reiner. 'But is it? You may have tricked us.'
'Are you mad?' Manfred cried. 'Do you think I would go to such lengths to fool you?'
'I have read your journal, m'lord,' said Reiner. 'You have gone further to gain less. I want proof.'
'And what proof can I give you? Do you want me to swear by Sigmar? Do you want Magus Handfort to take an oath.'
'I want Lord Teclis to examine us,' said Reiner.
'Dog!' said Manfred. 'You cannot disturb so great a person for so paltry a reason. I refuse!'
Reiner shrugged. 'Then kill us and be prepared to hang when the book is found.'
Manfred glared at him, then with a vicious curse rapped on the ceiling of the coach. 'Kluger, turn about. Take us to Lord Teclis's residence.'
'AND HOW DID this poisoning occur?' asked Teclis. The high elf lay propped up in bed, in a white, sunlit room in the house Karl-Franz had provided for him in Altdorf. He was still weak, but looked better than when Reiner had packed his trunks.
'It was the dark elf, m'lord,' said Reiner, smirking at Manfred. They sat at the mage's side while the Blackhearts stood uncomfortably at the door. 'He used it to force us to do his bidding.' Reiner pulled open his shirt, revealing Valaris's knife-work, still pink and raw. 'He said that with this he would know if we betrayed him, and would poison us from afar. He promised to provide an antidote when we brought him the stone, but he lied.'
'My magus, Handfort, attempted to remove the poison,' said Manfred. 'But such is my love for my men that I came to ask if you might confirm it.'
Teclis ignored him, looking at Reiner's scars. 'I am sorry I am too weak at the moment to remove it. Perhaps another day. Your arm.'
Reiner held out his arm. The elf took it and made a circular motion over it with his left hand. Reiner tensed, but there was no pain.
After a moment, Teclis looked up. 'There is no poison here. Bring the others.'
One by one the Blackhearts approached Teclis and offered their arms. At last he lay back, drained. 'They are free of poison.'
Manfred looked at Reiner. 'Are you satisfied?'
'Thank you, m'lord. I am.'
Manfred stood. 'Then take me to the book.'
'A moment, m'lord.' He turned to Teclis. 'Lord Teclis, your pardon.'
Manfred put a hand to his dagger, afraid of some treachery.
Teclis opened his eyes. 'I am tired, man. What is it?'
Reiner bowed. 'Forgive me, lord, but when I saw to your luggage in Talabheim, I inadvertently packed one of Lord Manfred's books among yours. May I retrieve it?'
'Of course,' said Teclis, closing his eyes. 'Then leave me, please.'
Reiner turned to Teclis's bookshelves. Two stacks of books, still tied with twine, sat before them. Reiner cut the twine from one and removed a slim, leather-bound volume.
'Here you are, m'lord.' He handed it to Manfred, who gaped like a fish.
'But... But, it might have been found. It...'
'It might have, m'lord. But it wasn't. Shall we go?'
WALKING OUT OF a door is an everyday act, but when he walked out of Manfred's front door with Franka, Pavel, Hals, Jergen, Augustus and Dieter, it felt to Reiner a greater occasion than the coronation of a new emperor. He had been trying to walk out of that door for more than a year. His heart pounded like a drum. He wanted to leap for joy. He inhaled the smell of Altdorf, of cooking fires and piss, of rotting vegetation, cheap scent and sausages, and thought he had never smelled a more intoxicating perfume in all his life. He grinned from ear to ear. They had no minder. They had no mission. They had no leash. They were free. They could go where they pleased. And Reiner knew exactly where that was.
'To the Griffin, lads! And the drinks are on me!'
The others cheered. Even Jergen smiled. They turned down the cobbled street, their packs over their shoulders and an unaccustomed
swing in their step.
Half an hour later they were tucked into a corner table by the fireplace under the Griffin's smoke blackened beams. There were mugs of beer in their hands and a crispy brown goose lay on a platter before them.
Pavel raised his mug. 'A toast!' he said, but Reiner waved his hands.
'Wait!' he said. 'There is one last thing we must do.'
The others watched as he reached into his pouch and pulled out the rolled length of leather. He unrolled it and removed the phylactery with his name on it, then handed each of the others theirs. 'I am certain Teclis did not lie.' he said. 'All the same, I'd like to be sure.'
He turned to the fire, and though he knew there was no risk, it still took a fair amount of courage to throw the vial into the flames. There was a pop and a hiss, and then, nothing. Reiner let out a sigh. The others did too, then one by one, they solemnly threw their vials into the fire.
'Now the toast, pikeman!' said Reiner.
Pavel grinned and stood. 'There ain't no toast better than what our mumchance brother once gave.' he said, nodding to Jergen. He raised his mug. 'To freedom!'
'To freedom!' The others cried as one, then downed their mugs in a single long draught.
'Barkeep!' roared Hals over their heads. 'Y'better bring the keg! We've been working up this thirst for a year!'
A FEW HOURS later, when Pavel and Hals and Augustus had reached the stage where they were singing marching songs and challenging everyone in the tavern to arm-wrestle, Reiner whispered in Franka's ear. 'We have unfinished business. Will you join me upstairs?'
Franka gave him a shy look, then nodded.
They slipped away during the seventh chorus of 'The Pikeman's Shaft.'
'WELL,' SAID REINER as he closed the door of the small, plain room and faced Franka awkwardly. 'You asked me to ask you if you forgave me once we had returned to Altdorf and drank to Talabheim's memory. And, well, I'm certain we did that a few times just now, so...' He coughed. 'Do you forgive me for not trusting you?'
Franka looked at her boots. 'Do you forgive me for not trusting you?'
Reiner frowned. 'It added a nice bit of drama when you tried to stop Dieter killing Augustus, but it did hurt to think you didn't know me well enough to see it was a trick.'
'Well, good,' said Franka, sticking her chin out. 'Now you know how it felt.'
'Aye, aye, tit for tat.' he said. 'But did you truly believe I had turned murderer? Could you really think that of me?'
Franka looked at him, eyes glinting. 'In my heart I knew you were not, but...'
Reiner laughed. 'But only in your heart!' She had turned his own words against him. 'You, lass, are much too clever for your own good. It is one of the reasons that I...' He faltered as he realised what he was going to say. He had said the words many times when he didn't mean them, why were they so hard to say now? 'That I... I....'
Franka put a finger to his lips. 'Shhh. You don't have to say it.' She smirked up at him. 'I trust you.'
Reiner's throat closed up. His eyes glistened. 'Damn you, girl!'
He crushed her to him. They kissed. And this time there was no breaking away.
REINER AND FRANKA stumbled down to the Griffin's common room very late the next morning, for though they had awoken hungry, they had also been so delighted with their newfound freedom that they'd had to partake of it all over again. The others were already there, clutching their heads and trying to eat their eggs and trout as quietly as possible.
'Morning,' said Reiner cheerily.
Hals glared up at him. 'You two look very pleased with yerselves.'
'We're certainly very pleased with each other,' said Reiner.
Franka elbowed him in the ribs, blushing furiously, as the landlord brought more plates. They tucked in, and Reiner looked at Franka as if for the first time. He smiled. I will be having breakfast with this beauty for the rest of my life, he thought. But then he began to wonder what that life would be like. What would they do? How were they to support themselves? Reiner was a gambler by trade. Would Franka stand for that? For the late hours? The life of cheating rubes? He supposed he could take her back home to his father and become a gentleman farmer. But he had run from that life as fast as he could. Altdorf was his home. The question was, could he make it hers as well?
It seemed the others were having similar thoughts.
'Wonder if me dad's farm's still there.' Hals said. 'And Breka, who lived toward Ferlangen. Fine girl, Breka.'
'Weren't much there when we went through last year.' said Pavel glumly. 'Our people all dead most likely. Could go up and start again, I suppose.'
Hals frowned. 'Lot of work, that.'
'The Talabheim I knew is gone.' said Augustus. 'And they'd lock me up again if I went back to my company.'
'And ye, swordsman?' asked Hals looking up at Jergen. 'Y'have a girl somewhere? A farm?'
Jergen stared at his plate. 'I... cannot go home.'
There was an awkward silence, then Dieter stood.
'I can.' he said. 'And I will.' He wiped his mouth. 'My old digs ain't a stone's throw from here, and the watch thinks I'm dead. Time I pay them what sold me out a visit.' He picked up his pack and made a smirking bow. 'A pleasure making yer acquaintances, I'm sure, but I'm for home.' And with that he walked out.
The Blackhearts watched him go, then returned to their food.
'Wish I was certain as that fellow.' said Pavel.
'Aye.' said Augustus. 'Nice to know what ye want.'
Franka and Reiner looked at each other uneasily. Reiner could see that some of the things he had been worrying about were occurring to her too.
He grunted annoyed. 'There's a whole world out there.' he said. 'Surely we can all find something to do.'
But at the moment he couldn't think of anything, and apparently neither could the others, for they just carried on eating in silence.
At last Hals snorted. 'Maybe Manfred is hiring.'
The others laughed. Reiner nearly spat trout across the table. Then the laughter died away and they all fell silent again.
Scanned, layouted and proof-read by Mon
Version 1.1
