Temple Sword

Chapter 54

1305th of Christmas month (December), 12

Szekesvai Castle, Hungary
—

Otto Wittelsbach was created by God to be Duke of Bavaria, but only a fool would think he could be King of Hungary.When the bishops of Veszprem and Canad jointly consecrated him and put the crown of St. Stephen on his head, not only the few nobles gathered in the cathedral began to murmur, but I also curled my lips slightly: the cross on the holy crown is crooked.

The damned trek, the damned fatigue!He secretly boiled in his heart, but he didn't let his true emotions show on his face.

If he didn't need to come to this country place on horseback to curry favor with these horse-stinking Magyars...if only his wise advisors had escorted Istvan's crown formally and generously and displayed it instead of hiding it in a wooden In the can... If he hadn't been tired from the long day of riding and his concentration had decreased, the cross on the crown of the box would not have been crooked, and he would not have been secretly laughed at by these unruly Hungarians.

What do they think of themselves?

It was only days after they arrived in Hungary that the crown was missing from the wooden jar, and no one knew where it might be, much less when they lost it.Everyone shrugged when asked when was the last time they saw the crown.

The representatives of Bavaria also wondered what happened to the most sacred relic of the Hungarians. It stayed in the bag well. Just put it on Otto's head.

So they stopped and made camp, they had no other choice.Almost everyone went looking for the crown, and it took them a few more days to find it, lying on the road near the border, between two dry boulders, so obvious that anyone passing by could see it and pick it up.Yet the crown did not disappear, it waited patiently to see if someone it considered important would come back to claim it.

The dirt was quickly cleaned off and the crown was intact, with one exception: the cross was bent and people were afraid to touch it for fear of accidentally breaking it.

So on a cold winter day in Szekesberg, the new king was finally crowned, but everything was not as it should have been, and the other two replaced the archbishop of Esztergom to crown Otto Wittersbach and anoint him. For Otto I, he put St. Stephen's crown on him, but the cross on it was crooked.

Many people had already started whispering that God did not want Otto to be king of Hungary, no matter what the nobles said.

—

1305th of Christmas month (December), 12

Buda, Hungary
Dominican Monastery on Margaret Island
—

Agnes didn't wake up this morning in a way she had before.Other times she would start the day with the other novices when the bells called them to matins, trying to sleep as long as possible, dreaming with every beat of her heart.

She never dreamed of any nuns, nor of convents near or far.She always lived in a clean stone house, away from the noise of the town, in a clearing in the forest.She cooks dinner, feeds the cows, and takes care of a little boy.Antal chops wood in the yard, then walks into the house, lights the fireplace, kisses her, lifts their son aloft, and rejoices that the boy is grown and strong again.

Then they washed up and walked to the church in a nearby village to thank God for their happy life and a healthy child.

But on this quiet, cold winter morning, Agnes was up much earlier than the rest.Feeling restless and unable to fall asleep again, she began to pray silently.For some reason, she felt like she was sitting on pins and needles all day.

She was waiting for something, at mass, at work, at dinner, she kept rolling her eyes back and forth, waiting for something to happen because she was sure something would happen.Agnes didn't tell anyone about it, lest they think her a fool.But after Vespers, something unusual did happen.

Sister Martha interrupted the novice nuns who were practicing the new mass with Sister Gabrielle, who was gentle and kind-eyed. "Someone wants to see Agnes," she said, leading the girls into the snow-covered courtyard behind them. There was a murmur of clucking.

"Girls!" Gabrielle warned, raising her baton, "Listen, the Lord is watching you, one, two..."

"Hail, our hope, pure mother Mary, hail, who receives the angel's praise..."

Agnes tried to urge Sister Martha to hurry up, she was walking too slowly.The nun was known in the convent for her deliberate slowness, which would have been no problem for Agnes at any other time, but was now driving her mad.When they finally reached their destination, a man with shaggy hair in a dark gray cloak was waiting in the yard, and Sister Martha was relieved to leave Agnes alone with him.

"Who are you?" She approached him, "Are you looking for me?"

"Don't you know me?" Umberto from Bologna pulled down his warm hood, "Long time no see."

"Is this really you?" Agnes' face lit up, and he moved closer to the singer, wanting to hug him, but holding back. "How did you get in here, Umberto?"

"Let's put it this way, I have my own way," Umberto smiled, "I know how much each door costs to open, and who is willing to accept gifts in exchange for their enthusiastic help... But I am not Come here and talk about my own, tell me, how have you been, have you got everything you need?"

"The Dominican nuns have almost nothing," Agnes laughed, "but I'm fine, don't worry. The novices are innocent little pigeons, and most of them are much younger than I am. Some of them Some were forced by their fathers, some by their brothers-in-law, and some by family tradition.

Sister Gabrielle is the prettiest of them all, she leads the choir, and she has an angelic voice; Sister Martha, as you see, is the most patient person in the world, and I don't think she's ever in a hurry; but Abbot Borbara seems to be an unhappy person who is disappointed in the whole world.For some reason, she especially enjoys being mean to people.

"Did she make things difficult or hurt you?"

"No, not at all," Agnes said quickly, "I'm doing fine here, really, I don't miss anything, it's just..."

"Antares," Umberto said, and the girl nodded silently. "He misses you too, and every time I see him, he's always clutching that little lavender bag. Of course, he pretends he's doing something else when he finds me, but maybe it's just William who doesn't realize that he really is. It's painful."

Tears welled up in Agnes' eyes, but she wiped them away immediately.

"How is he?" she asked. "Is he a knight now, and has he taken the three oaths?"

"He took four oaths," said the singer proudly, "and he became a battle-hardened soldier, unrecognizable as the little boy he was. Yes, he became a Templar A knight, but he won the tourney at Visegrad in the summer, after which Charles Anjou made him take an oath of fealty, and he now serves the king."

"King?" The novice's eyes sparkled. "Did he become the king's knight?"

"Yes, and it's not just an ordinary knight. He is the king's sword, the king's right hand, and the king's brother. He rides beside King Charles. No matter where he appears, people will recognize him."

"My Antares!" whispered Agnes, tears streaming down her face and a happy smile on her face. "I knew he would be a true Christian soldier, and I asked him to do his duty at all costs..."

"I know about it."

"And he's a champion?"

"Yes," Umberto nodded, "people celebrated him with their hearts, they treated him like a hero and carried him on their shoulders."

"If only I had been there..."

"Don't think so," said Umberto. "You were with him. In his heart, he knew. Listen, Agnes, I can't stay long. That nun has been hanging around the door."

"Can she hear us?" Agnes paled.

"Satan's fire, burning with the stench of brimstone, will devour the entire hypocritical island, and Baalzebub will prey on those curious nuns and fill their bellies with their screams." Umberto said in a calm voice, and then Looking at the nun in the distance, she smiled, "Don't worry, she can't hear us, I've already said that, her face is still as expressionless as before."

The cries faded from Agnes's head, and she now had to hold herself back from laughing.

"I've always wanted to be a court singer. I can sing any hero's song and tell all kinds of stories. I only have to listen to them once to engrave them in my head. If you want, you can dictate to Antar A letter, I will have a monk in Buda write it down. But be careful, don't reveal any information that may hurt either of you, secrecy is not the specialty of monks..."

Agnes couldn't believe her ears, a letter?She had never imagined that she could receive such favors, and in all her dreams and thoughts she was talking to Antal, speaking to him, but she thought it would be years before she could really speak to him again.Umberto's proposal was so unexpected that she suddenly didn't know what to say to her secret lover.

But under the more and more frequent eyes of Sister Martha behind her, she realized that she had to make a decision immediately.So she told Umberto the dreams she had recurring every night—the small stone house, the healthy boy, and the church in the country.

But she didn't tell the singer the parts that worried her the most: In the dream, Antares was still dressed as a Templar, chopping down trees with a bloody mud sword, their children had no faces, and the head of the church The chairs were packed with rotting corpses.

(End of first volume)

(End of this chapter)