Temple Sword

Chapter 64 Danube Water
Since the early morning, Agnes' heart has been beating fast.In this beautiful summer day full of sunshine and birdsong, the girl is doing everything clumsily.Her hands kept slipping, she could barely concentrate during prayers and Mass, her mind wandered far, far away, somewhere in the past.When Sister Gabrielle led the novices in the practice of the new mass hymn, she kept missing words and her voice was slurred.

After an unimaginably long time, the sun finally began to sink.After vespers, the Dominican convent fell into silence, and slowly, all the candles and torches were extinguished.The silence was broken only by the snoring of the nuns.

Agnes was not sleeping, but waiting.

She knew that if what Antal had said was true and had managed to arrange everything, they could finally be together again, just the two of them, for a few hours, like before.

About two more hours passed before the sound of soft footsteps slowly stepped across the stone slabs of the novice nun's residence.Agnes sat up in bed so that anyone who came would be sure to recognize her, and stared wide-eyed at the figure walking in the darkness.

It was the figure of a man and she recognized him as he approached.

"Brother Stephen!" Agnes whispered in surprise, "Is that you?"

She recognized the crippled man, tall and gentle-eyed, who had become the night watchman of the monastery a week earlier, and before that he had been guarding the gates of Buda.

"It's me," nodded the thick-necked, white-haired old man in a ponytail, wearing the same helmet and holding the spear he'd worn all his life as a man. "I brought you this, boy."

Saying this, the former guard of Buda handed her the lavender bag from Antares, and Agnes recognized it immediately, although the iron teeth of time had already crushed it, under the moonlight coming in from the small window , it seemed to be stained lightly with blood, but there was no doubt that it was the bag the knight crumbled the lavender she had given him when he was only a squire.The girl stroked the red cross on the bag with her thumb, which she embroidered with bright red wool.

"It's his mark," Agnes whispered, the memory tightening in her throat.

"Let's go, dear!" suggested Brother Stephen, pacing the bedroom with increasing restlessness. "Hurry up, don't let them find out!"

She nodded, barefoot and in her nightgown, following behind the old man.They passed smoothly through the corridors of the monastery, everyone except her was fast asleep, and soon they were at the gate, and the man was back at his post.

"He said you know the way from here," said Brother Stephen.

"Yes," Agnes nodded, "thank you."

"You don't have to thank me! That lily knight saved my life, he didn't need to do it... I owe him a lot. If he needs me, old bone, just say a word, and I will die by his side. "

—

"The bushes have changed a lot," he said when his long-lost lover appeared in front of Antal.

"Just like us." Agnes approached him.

"But last time you said you haven't changed anything, you're still the same."

"I was wrong," said the novice, "I changed too, I learned to wait, but I never thought it would be so hard..."

Antal hugged her tightly and kissed her maybe longer than before.

"The water of the Danube washes everything away," he said calmly, "and we are not what we used to be."

"We'll never go back to the past either."

"Tell me, Agnes, do you still love me?"

"I love you to my last heartbeat, and even after that, forever!" she whispered in a trembling voice. "But don't talk now, please, I've waited long enough, I don't want to wait any longer!"

They were lying on the grass covered by bushes, and the moon turned her pale face shyly, hiding herself behind a cloud.

—

A fallen branch crackled nearby.

"What's that?" Agnes looked up in horror, "Did you hear that?"

"Yes," Antar turned to the direction of the sound, suddenly had a bad feeling, he was almost sure that it was not some animal that made the sound just now. "Stay here, I'll go and have a look!"

Naked, he tiptoed toward where he heard the sound, and as he got farther away from Agnes he heard a faint rustle: someone's footsteps in the wet grass.Antal quickened his pace, no longer keeping quiet, he only had one goal in mind, and that was to catch the stalker.

After a while, he walked out of the dense bushes, and in the open space in front of him, Antal finally caught a glimpse of the stalker.A crooked and crippled man appeared to him on a moonless night, and Antar believed that if he returned safely to the monastery, Zortmund would tell Ambrosius everything at once.

"Stop, you hellhound!" he yelled after the cripple. "I'll kill you now!"

Zoutermund had no chance of escaping from the pursuit of the naked Lily Rider, and he was overtaken and thrown to the ground a few moments later.

A silent struggle ensues.Antal turned the monster over and swept his face alternately with his left and right fists, and Zotmund took these blows without saying a word, and his right hand moved unconsciously to his waist.He drew a short-bladed dagger from under his robes, but the knight didn't notice the weapon, he only saw the hideous ugly face in front of him.

Suddenly, a sharp, cold pain shot into his body, and with a cry of pain, he grabbed the hand holding the dagger.

"I told you, we have a score to settle!" said Zortmund. "You can't kill me!"

He drew the dagger from Antal, but did not stab him again.He struggled to his feet and rushed to the monastery again.However, Antal did not give up, he put his hands on his side, stood up, let out an angry roar, and quickened his pace again.

He ignored the pain, focusing only on Zoutermon.Fortunately the dagger didn't go too deep and lodged in a rib, but Antar's left side was still bleeding profusely.

The distance between the two was only one step away, and the figure of Zuo Temeng, who was running strangely, flashed, and quickly walked towards the west bank of the river.

Grass fields give way to gravel beaches as they get closer to shore.Realizing that he couldn't catch Zortmund with his injuries, Antar stopped dazedly, bent down, grabbed a rock, and threw it with all his might.The stone hit the lame man hard on the skull, and he fell to the ground immediately.He walked up to Zortmund, who was on his back, shouting loudly and waving his dagger upward, put his foot on his wrist, snatched the weapon and threw it into the Danube.

"You want to kill me? You godless wild dog!" He knelt on Zoutemont's chest, "You better know that I can't be killed either!"

As a last-ditch struggle, Zoutermund also picked up a large stone, intending to smash it on the knight's head, but Antal grabbed Zoutermond's left arm vigilantly, twisted the stone out, and held it in his hand .

"No!" murmured the poor wretch, but it was too late, and the stone slammed into his face instantly silenced him.

Antal lost his mind and struck again and again until Zortmund's face was completely smashed.

He stood up, and that's when he realized what he had done.He was covered in blood from head to toe, his own blood gushing from him, and both his wounded hands were stained with Zoutermon's blood.

He killed a man.

Not on the battlefield, not in a duel, but murdering a man.

His first thought was that he had to dispose of the body somehow, he couldn't leave it on the bank.For a split second, he wanted to confess what he had done, and say that Zoutemon had attacked him because of an old grudge, and that he was only defending himself.

But how was he to explain the fact that they were both outside the monastery walls in the middle of the night?Then they would soon understand why he was returning to Margaret Island, and what kind of relationship he had with a Dominican novice...

Antal grabbed two handfuls of pebbles and sand from the ground, stuffed them with Zortmund's clothes, dragged the body, and pushed it into the Danube.The half-human remains of Zoltmund were submerged to the waist and then to the chest, sinking deeper and deeper in the strong current until only bubbles remained.

He was sure that if the river washed Zoutermont ashore it would be a long time away, and it would not be anywhere near Margaret Island.

"Satan can't help you now," he murmured, as he staggered wearily toward the shore, "but he will welcome me with open arms."

—

Agnes had already dressed and was waiting for the knight in the bushes.Seeing the blood oozing from Antal's side, the terrified girl froze.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, her mouth curled up in tears. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Antal nodded lightly, then tore off a long strip from the bottom of his cloak, and tied the wound tightly. "Fortunately, he didn't stab deeply."

"Who is he?"

"Zoutermont."

"Zotemon?" exclaimed the girl, "but he's dead!"

"I thought so too," Antar began to dress, "until he appeared to me in the monastery. He said he was dead and resurrected just to get revenge on me, and he followed us tonight and almost killed me."

"but……"

"Don't be afraid, he didn't escape," the knight looked into the distance, and then said the next sentence very softly, "I have caught him."

"Where is he now?"

"It's better that you don't know."

"Are you done with him?"

Antal didn't need to answer, it was enough for him to look Agnes in the eyes, and she started to back off.

"Don't cry, please." He walked over to her and hugged her. "Zoutermont is a real villain, and he is looking for his own death."

"How can you say such things?" Agnes sobbed in pain, "A person, because we love each other, has to die!"

"No, that's not true!" Antar denied. "You know as well as I do that Zoutermon committed one evil after another in his life! He followed me secretly just to sneak up on us , hurt us! Don't you remember that he tried to burn you at the stake four years ago?"

Agnes didn't answer, she continued to cry softly.

"What do we do now?" she asked after finally calming down. "What do we do next?"

"You'd better go back to the monastery now," the knight suggested. "I can't stay on the island any longer. I'll go back to Buda right away. I'll tell the abbot that I have urgent business with the king."

"and then?"

"I'll have a message for you," he said, kissing Agnes on the forehead. “You can trust Brother Stephen.”

"I see," the novice nun nodded and forced a smile. "I will wait for you."

"how long?"

"forever."

Antal knew she was telling the truth, but when Agnes disappeared into the darkness, a sense of unease came over her.Suddenly, he began to worry that maybe they really had to wait forever for each other.

(End of this chapter)