Temple Sword

Chapter 81 The Winter Snow
1309, last week of the Christmas month (December)

匈牙利

—

"Are you leaving now? It's crazy." Laszlo shook his head, while Antal happily packed his things.

"My dear friend," said the knight, with a smile on his face, "I have looked forward to going back every moment during the past four months. It is not my fault that I have delayed coming home until now. You must go to the king complain."

"But it's almost a snowstorm!" Laszlo pointed out the window, "What if you die on the road?"

Antal didn't answer, he fastened his belt and was about to leave the room.The crackling flames inside invited him to stay, but the Lily Rider chose to ride in the bitter cold, with the snow so heavy that the sun could not be seen outside.

"I'm not complaining, and I'm not begging you to stay here," Laszlo followed him into the hallway, "I'm just asking you to wait at least until dawn!"

"Wait until dawn?" Antal asked, "So that Charlie, Archbishop Thomas, or Cardinal Gentil can give me another mission, and I won't be able to go home for months? Of course..."

They sneaked down the stairs, ran across the hall, and when they came to the inner courtyard, they were hit in the face by the icy cold wind. When they reached the stable, Laszlo continued to speak.

"Not even your horse wants to go in this weather," he said. "Even he is more sensible than his master!"

"Listen, Laszlo," said the knight, untying Sarecher's rein, leading the horse out, putting on the saddle, and riding up. "I can't remember the last time I saw my wife, and I haven't had much to do here since the summer. Put on a face at a party, make a fool of myself at a meeting, stand by Charlie's side when he receives envoys ...

I haven't done anything worthwhile for the past few months, not even a fighting chance, but I've been compelled to stay here.So now I'm going home as fast as I can in this hellish weather, kissing my wife, and getting under the bear skin with her and not coming out for a whole week.Until then, I refuse to stay here for 1 more minute. "

"You are such a wayward child," Laszlo laughed, knowing that he could not persuade the knight, "don't you know what a dangerous journey it will be until the weather clears?"

Antal looked at him with strange eyes, there was something in his heart that he didn't want to tell his friend, and Laszlo also noticed it.

"I must leave immediately," said the knight in a tone of despair, causing the attendants to frown. "I must leave immediately, or something terrible will happen!"

"What?" Laszlo spit out a cloud of hot air, but Antal didn't answer him, he pulled the rein, rushed out of the stable, and disappeared into the snowflakes flying all over the sky.

—

Woman wakes up from nap.She had a terrible nightmare, and this was the No. 13 time: she dreamed of her husband in blood, a baby without a face, and a church full of corpses, and this was the tenth time this month.She couldn't rest normally, and the baby in her stomach was growing, which worried her a lot.

She knew that if she wanted to have a healthy baby, she had to rest and take care of herself.Lady Katrin's soothing potions haven't helped her lately, though she's been drinking a chamomile-and-lemongrass concoction.

The room was very quiet, she could only hear her own breathing, she suddenly thought that there was something wrong with this dream, this nightmare seemed to be missing something...

Then it dawned on her: the faceless child wasn't crying, he wasn't making any sound.

The next moment, Agnes felt a damp heat creep between her thighs.

—

Snow kept getting into Antal's eyes, and the wind and snow in front of him pierced his face like countless ice needles, but he didn't care.The weather was getting worse and dark was covering the countryside early.Somewhere deep within the knight, a voice urged him to stop, bring his horse to safety, and wait out the blizzard, no matter how hard it was.

However, he did not heed the voice.

Something had happened to him that he dared not admit to himself: a nightmare that hung over his soul.He had confidently told his wife to forget the nightmare, and laughed when Agnes warned him to be careful.

Now he was very anxious, his stomach constricted, and he let his Arabian steed gallop.Sarecher panted and whined in such a way that only the deaf could not hear that it was begging its master to stop and not go on.

But Antar kicked his heels, forcing his horse to run faster.

—

A heart-pounding scream tore through the silence of the stone house. The old spearman who was dozing in front of the stove raised his head in fright, and chased in the direction of the sound.The screaming sounded again, followed by inarticulate howls, cries and shouts.

The old man dragged his bad leg up the stairs.He tried to go faster, and upstairs he met his wife, who was running from the mistress' room with a bloody rag in her hand.

"Why are you standing here?" the woman complained to him with tears streaming down her face, "Go get some water, hurry up!"

Old Stephen was terrified, but he still didn't understand what happened.He hurried downstairs, trying not to notice his knees, which had grown more sore and stinging in the winter, and picked up the pail of water he had prepared for the kitchen.He had just gone upstairs when his wife snatched the bucket from him and ran back to the room.

"Stay outside!" she commanded him, and old Stephen thought it best to obey.

In the darkness of the room, he heard heart-piercing sobbing, and Mrs. Catherine's soothing, comforting voice from time to time.A few minutes later, his wife came out of the room again and thrust a small ball of blood-stained clothes into his hand.

"Take it, Stephen!" she begged, with a sorrow the old man had never seen, "and don't let anyone know where you buried it!"

bury?Did he hear correctly?

His wife turned back to the room, to Agnes, who was sobbing sadly inside, as he stumbled slowly down the stairs.He rolled up his worn-out winter robe and stepped into the snow, before he dared to open the clothes in his hands.

When he saw the stillborn baby wrapped in rags, his heart forgot to beat.

-
Lily Knight could no longer see the reverse direction at all, and he had to blink hard in the heavy snow.It was already completely dark, and he didn't even know where they were going, he just felt that they shouldn't be very far away.

Sarecher whined wearily, but Antal refused to stop or slow down.

"We're almost there!" he said almost pleadingly, "hold on for a while, we're almost home!"

In front of me, in an unknown distance, the light of a torch shines through the windows of a house, filling a man with new hope.

"It's Boka Manor! Master Saipan's home!" He shouted with relief, "We're here, we're here!"

To cover the remaining distance in less time, he let go of the reins, forcing Sarecher to gallop at a speed he could no longer bear.

Immediately afterwards, as if hitting an invisible wall, the horse stopped instantly and threw Antar off the saddle like a trebuchet.The man flew through the air, feeling that this fleeting moment was extremely long.

The last sounds he heard were his horse neighing in pain and a terrible bang.Then his back was slapped heavily on the ground, and his eyes were completely dark.

—

A slap woke him up, and he slowly opened his eyes with a frown and a moan.It was daylight outside, the harsh winter sun.The blizzard had died down, and there was a steady stillness on Chalokoz.

"He's alive," he heard a familiar voice, and saw the wrinkled, worried face of Hector's son Saipan. "Can you hear me, my dear boy?"

"I can." He moaned thirstily.

"Can you feel your body?"

The knight closed his eyes, moved first his hands, then his legs.

"I can." He said softly again, his tongue was twisting with difficulty, his head hurt so badly, the bones inside seemed to be split, but fortunately he felt everything, and his whole body obeyed his consciousness.

"You're lucky, my boy," sighed the old nobleman, "if my dog ​​hadn't smelled you and started barking, you'd be a cold corpse by now. Tell me, what's wrong with you? "

"My horse..." Antal groaned and sat up from the bed with a painful expression on his face. "I don't know why, but I fell off my horse."

He noticed that the ten soldiers who had been guarding Agnes and the stone house were standing in the room. They lowered their heads and looked at them sadly.

"Your horse," Saipan said sympathetically, just as Antal was about to ask what these people were doing here, "had stepped into a ditch in the snow and broken his leg. I've never seen such a bad Broken bones, I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart..."

Antal began to feel dizzy and his vision gradually blurred.He hadn't fully understood what had happened last night, but he was already terrified of the full truth.

"Where is it?" He grabbed Saipan's clothes. "Where's Sarecher?"

With a wave of his hand Saipan ordered the soldiers to leave the room, and then, as if sitting next to his own son, he gently brushed Antal's matted hair back.

"My boy," he said with difficulty, "you know what happens to horses at times like this, and you know what to do..."

Tears started welling in Antal's eyes, of course he knew what to do if a horse had a broken leg.He cried silently, he hated himself, it was all his fault.

Sarecher, his Sarecher is gone.The horse was more than just a mount to him.He has been his friend and comrade in arms since he was ten years old, he is smarter than any horse, and he loves him with all his heart...

"I'm riding," he whispered after a long time, "I can't see anything anymore, but I'm still galloping. He doesn't want to, but he obeys, because he's a good horse, the best horse !I'm a fool!" he howled in despair, "I'm a reckless bastard!"

Old Saipan was silent, he knew that it was time for Antal to confide in his heart.And the Lily Knight decided to tell the person next to him about the fear he had buried in his heart, and he wanted to repent.

"I haven't been home since the summer," Antar said, looking into the old man's eyes, "I know something terrible will happen if I don't fly home in that blizzard...Stupid, isn't it? I dreamed that I had to go home because...because I dreamed that my child was dying..."

Antal relaxed a little after saying it, but old Saipan didn't look happy: he was pale, with a drooping mustache and his mouth.

"I know it's stupid," the knight said, seeing the man's expression, "but for some reason, this idea popped into my head, it won't let me rest, and..."

"Listen to me, Antal!" Saipan said in a slightly trembling voice, "Be firm in your heart, because I have something to tell you."

A moment later, the world of Antal, son of William Barto, chief knight of Charles Anjou, Knight of the Lilies, was shattered to the ground.

(End of this chapter)