Temple Sword

Chapter 4 A Gift

1297

Dubica, Slavonia, William Barto's house
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"Antal!" William shouted many times, and he began to lose patience. "Where have you been, my boy?"

"Have you seen the barn, my lord?" Maritis asked. "That's where I last saw him, about an hour ago."

"I've just come from there," William replied impatiently, before continuing to shout, "Antal! Come out, for Jesus' sake!"

"Do not take the Lord's name in vain!" said a thin voice behind William.

Antar appeared as if out of nowhere, and galloped to his uncle on his imaginary horse.

William sighed heavily.

"Where have you been, you brat?" He tapped Antar's head with his finger.

"In battle, my brother Christ!" Antar held his wooden sword aloft. "I protected Solomon's Temple from the Saracen dogs!"

"Don't play around with me. I've told you a thousand times, don't play in the wine cellar."

"I had to hide," said the boy, blushing. "Despite my best efforts to protect the church, a pagan spy came in and tried to lure me away. He even knew my name!"

"That pagan spy is me. I called you because I have a surprise for you." William waved his hand and said, then he sighed and put on an indifferent expression on his face. "That's how it is. If I'm just a pagan spy in your eyes, then I don't think you will care about any surprises. After all, the safety of Jerusalem is much more important than this..."

Antar's eyes widened and his mouth opened into a silent O.He slipped the wooden sword into his belt, next to the fine little dagger he carried with him as a Templar.

"I'm quitting, Uncle," he announced quickly, hoping William hadn't changed his mind. "I'll never go to a wine cellar again!"

"You and I both know that what you said is not true."

"Unless you allow me, I won't go down," Antar corrected, "I promise I won't forget again, I'm not a child anymore."

Maritis laughed loudly behind William's back, and Antal snorted angrily.

Hearing what the boy said, William also laughed.

"You are right, you are no longer a child." He patted his nephew on the shoulder, "You are already ten years old, a serious and determined child, you already have more knowledge in your mind than your peers."

"Veni, vidi, vici!" cried Antar, wanting to prove his uncle right, and triumphantly drew his wooden sword again. "Non acta belli significantem sicut ceteris, sed celeriter confecti notam!"

"Julius Caesar? Good." William nodded. "What if I asked you to quote St. Paul?"

"I'm not in the mood right now." The boy shrugged, and William and Maritis laughed again.

William took the sword from his nephew and leaned it against the wall.

"We don't need this where we're going," he said.

"Why? Where are we going?"

"You'll know right away," William blinked, then beckoned Antal to go ahead, toward the stables. "Let's go out."

When William saddled Antal and mounted himself, the boy remembered their first trip together.He was very young then, only five years old, and William told him that he would take him with him and make him a knight.

He vaguely remembered his mother, Esther, who closed her eyes forever one winter's day.William then had her coffin carried to the present estate, and a stone tombstone was made for her, with an angel lying on a cross sadly.

He had little memory of his own father, other than a filthy, stinking, loathsome monster who beat his wife to death and ended up burning himself alive in the house.

After his uncle took him away from all that, he lived in a monastery in Flanagh for a year.When the Corsergis occupied Bratislava, William was drafted into the army.He fought alongside the Chucks, helped them retake the city, and returned to his nephew unscathed.

In the months that followed, William managed to exchange his residence in Cyprus for a Slavonian estate, in the town of Dubica.Afterwards, William's loyal servant, Old Maritis, did not stay in the East, but returned to the knight.

The estate is not very large, and there are not many people, but there is a large woodland around it, and one can wander in it for several days.

As a Templar, William had to live simply, even though he owned his own estate.So there are no guards here like ordinary manors, and there are no women busy in the kitchen.

He had also owed a sum of money to buy the estate from a Spaniard, but so he did not have to live in the monastery with Antares and the other knights.

In addition to them, there lived in the manor a down-and-out Italian singer named Umberto. William rescued the young man from the plight of starvation. He was a very talented person, but his technique Not enough for him to make a living singing heroic epics.

Every six months William would mount Umberto on his horse, throw him a stuffed purse, and have him travel the country collecting news for him.

During the first few years Antal saw little of his uncle, and as soon as they moved to Slavonia William had to go to war again. In 1293, Thomasina Morosini, the mother of King Andrew III, took the castle of the Palatine Miser in Donausekci, and William took part in the siege as commander of a small army.

Although he was not injured in the battle, he fell down with a high fever after taking the castle.Due to poor health, he could not go home directly, but after several months of recuperation and recovery, he had the strength to get up and go back to the south.

But just as he was about to go home, he was called up again.He had to organize his team again, and in 1294 once again stood on the side of Andre III's mother and captured the castle of Orbasque, thus quelling the rebellion of the Barbonik family.

The Knights Templar did not participate in the wars of King Andrew, because the monarch broke the tradition of his ancestors by not supporting the Knights Templar both financially and spiritually.

William's reputation, however, was well known in Hungary for his prowess in the East.So they purposely put him in the role of military adviser and commander of a squad.Although the Templar was only required to obey the Pope in name, his conscience and foresight did not allow him to say no to the King of Hungary.

He did not return to his nephew until the death of Carlo Matro of Anjou, claimant to the throne, in 1295.He was sure that God had cared for him on the battlefield and kept him alive so that he could train Antal to be a good man and a good knight when the situation at home calmed down.

William said more prayers during those years than the rest of his life put together, and he regrets every day the words he yelled angrily over Zelda Heli's sister's grave.

For some time he wore the cilice of penitence, which he took off when he recovered from the fever.

He wants to live in a more pious way, only doing what the Lord thinks is right.

When William finally got home, he gave eight-year-old Antal a dagger and a black cloak with a small red cross sewn into it.

"From today onwards, you are my attendant," he said. "You belong to the Knights Templar. I will never leave you again. I will train you to be a warrior."

In 1296, when Andrew III and the Corsergis went to war again, William was not called up. In 1297, Mate Chuck, who had captured Pozzoni from the Corseghi family five years earlier, also turned against the king, and William still did not join the war.He has decided to devote all his energy to the teaching and training of his nephew and adopted son.

"Uncle!" Antal broke the silent ride after a long time, "No matter how hard I try, I can't understand politics."

"Politics? Never mind it!" William laughed. "I think sometimes those who run the kingdom don't understand...how did you even think of asking this question?"

"When I was thinking about your wars, Friar Lawrence always told me about the wars you fought in. When you fought the Corsages, Lawrence called them godless heretics and called the Chucks Called a good Christian. But now he calls Mate Chuck a heathen bastard, says he'll be damned by God..."

William rolled his eyes. He was pleased that Friar Lawrence of Dubica Monastery had taken the time to teach Antares, but he was not satisfied with the priest's way of exposing the boy to worldly affairs.

"I don't want you to listen to Brother Lawrence in these matters," said William, "learn from him how to write, read, and talk in Latin and French, and make no objection to that. But if he discusses politics with you, You just let it go in one ear and out the other."

Antal frowned on the saddle and turned back in surprise, "Why?"

"Why, why, why?" William waved his hand impatiently, "Ever since I met you, you have been asking questions like this...because the priests see things too simply, no matter how the world changes, they are always rigid Standing still. Brother Lawrence is a smart man, but he doesn't know anything about politics."

"I see," Antal nodded, "Are we still far?"

As soon as he finished asking, they emerged from the woods, and a large open space appeared in front of them.The clearing was surrounded by a simple fence, inside which the horses grazed, and inside were nearly a hundred beautiful animals bathing their manes in the afternoon sun.

"Come down," William said to the boy in the saddle after dismounting.

"Why didn't you say we were coming here?" Antal asked suspiciously, "Haven't we been here many times before? Old Wenceslas even gave me a drink."

"Yes, I remember," William frowned.When his nine-year-old nephew came home drunk and vomited in the barn, he was really pissed off at the old horse breeder.

After that, as compensation, Wenceslas gave him free hay several times and repaired his saddle for half the price.

"We're not here to drink, come on."

"Oh, who is this?" The old man waved cheerfully, and he recognized the visitor. "Antal!"

"There's a reason I brought him here today," William cleared his throat. "I hope you remember what we talked about."

"Of course, my Lord Barto." An old groom with a rosy nose bowed to him, then turned and pointed across the pasture. "Go, any of them!"

William touched the boy's shoulder and showed a solemn smile.

"This is your tenth summer, my boy," he said, looking the boy in the eyes. "It's time for you to have a horse of your own."

Antal's jaw dropped in shock. Could he have his own horse?He stood where he was, trying to believe that what his uncle had just said was not a dream.

"So?" William patted him on the back, "Hurry up and choose!"

Antal jumped up with cheers and ran along the fence. He was a little dizzy seeing so many horses, and even worried that he didn't know which one to choose.Then he saw a charcoal-black stallion circling in circles, head bobbing wildly.For some unknown reason, he was separated from the other stallions in a small pen, and Antal got as close to him as the fence would allow.

It was a beautiful horse, and the boy knew right away that it was a thoroughbred Arabian, but the stallion's eyes reflected such desperation and sadness that he had never seen in any other horse.For a moment it seemed that he was not looking at a horse, but a human eye.

He immediately put the other horses behind him, knowing with every inch of his body that this thoroughbred was God's creation for him.

"I want it," he said, turning to his uncle and Wenceslas.

"This?" asked the old groom, shaking his head in shock. "I don't recommend you to choose it, unless you want to fall off it and break your neck the first time."

Antal was not afraid, he knew the old man, he always liked to exaggerate.

"I'm not going to fall off it," he assured. "I've had enough on my uncle's horse!"

"The reason I keep him out of the way of the other horses is because he is dangerous," replied the old groom. "He comes from the Holy Land and is one of the best horses, but he doesn't seem to want to be used by Christians. He's as heathen as anyone else. No matter what I do, he won't cooperate. I can't even use him for breeding because he's a gelding. Whatever it's worth, I've given up, and I'm going to make it sausage……"

"No!" cried the boy in horror, "there is nothing wrong with the horse, it is only frightened, it is frightened. Open the corral, Uncle Wenceslas!"

The old man turned around and looked at William at a loss, "Master Barto, please tell this boy to choose another horse!"

"Antar chose the horse," William said, "and if he wants you to open the fence, open the fence!"

The old groom was obviously a little embarrassed, but he still complied with Antal's request and opened the fence.

The boy cautiously stretched out his right hand and approached the black horse with slow steps.He never took his eyes off the horse's eyes for a moment, and kept licking his tongue softly and making comforting noises.

The next thing the old horse breeder couldn't believe his eyes: the horse was no longer nervous, it lowered its head, panted, and let Antal stroke it.The boy walked very close to it, leaned into its ear and whispered a long word.Finally he turned slowly and cautiously towards Willem and Wenceslas.

"Get the reins and harness, please." Antal said softly, "I will put it on myself."

The old man looked at William in a panic, "Master Barto, I don't know how to—"

"Do as he says!" ordered William, who was fascinated to watch his nephew tame the black horse.

Wenceslas soon handed Antal a simple noose made of hemp rope and the matching bridle.

The boy approached the horse slowly and carefully as before. The animal was still a little scared, and it threw its head back, but the boy kept calming it down, whispering to it.As he approached, he began to stroke its neck lightly in circular motions, and finally the horse lowered its upturned head and let Antar put the rein on it.

"There's nothing wrong with it," Antal confidently pulled the black horse out of the fence. "You just need to know how to communicate with it."

"Well done, my boy," William praised, his chest heaving with pride, "You could have chosen the easier option, which would have put you at no risk. But you chose this unwilling horse." A thoroughbred that submits to anyone, Wenceslas only sees its wildness, but you see his unyielding and strong. A good bridle does not make a horse more obedient, you need a good soul Just do it."

"Szerecsen," said the boy, stroking the horse. "I like the name."

"Are you going to call your Marsaleche?" William asked a little strangely.

"Why not?" Antal grinned, jumped onto the horse's back excitedly, and sat on its fur very naturally.

The dark horse was no longer nervous at this time, and it did not express dissatisfaction or resistance to its new owner.Antal stroked the horse's rump and whispered something in its ear. In the blink of an eye, he galloped loudly and disappeared into the woods.

The old groom Wenceslas looked at the woods with his mouth open, speechless in astonishment.

"I don't understand," he gasped after a moment, his mouth smelling of alcohol. "I've been working with horses for as long as I can remember, but I've never seen anything like it and I don't understand it."

"I don't understand either," William said with a laugh. "It may be God's will."

【footnote】

① Palatine, the highest official position in Hungary, equivalent to the ruling

(End of this chapter)