Iny Lorentz - The Marie Series 02 (33 page)

4.

Michi felt a profound sense of relief after he’d left the ring of wagons behind. Now he was following the forest path that he and Marek had taken, and he began to run. He couldn’t wait to surprise his friends with all of his news. But cold despair soon gripped him. It felt like he’d been running for hours without finding a trace of Sir Heinrich’s group, and for a few moments he imagined they had left without waiting for him. Then he thought he might have walked in the wrong direction. Just as he hesitantly stopped, Marek emerged from the semidarkness of the forest.

“Thank heavens you’ve returned. We were very worried about you. What are things like in the castle?”

“Greetings from your master and Sir Michel,” Michi replied with a grin.

Marek shook his head in surprise. “Sir Michel? Who’s that?”

“The man you called the German.”

“The German’s a knight? Fancy that! I took him for the captain of some foot soldiers.”

Michi grinned in delight. “He is a proper knight of the Reich, and my godfather!”

Marek took a few deep breaths and pointed behind him. “Come now, Sir Heinrich is eagerly awaiting your report.” To himself, he added with a shake of his head, “The German’s a knight! Will wonders never cease.”

Camp had been set up in a small clearing, surrounded by a dense forest. It had been difficult to get the wagons there, but they were now so well hidden that the Taborites would have to walk right into them to find them. When Michi and Marek appeared, the leaders were holding a council of war. Sir Heinrich broke off in midsentence, jumped to his feet, and rushed toward them, visibly relieved. “Michi! Finally! We were wondering if the Hussites had caught and roasted you. Come and sit down. You must be hungry! I’ll tell Eva to get you something to eat.”

Michi declined excitedly. “I had a big bowl of soup and a piece of ham before leaving this morning, and I’d rather tell you everything right away.”

“Then sit down!” Sir Heinrich pushed the boy onto a primitive bench where Sprüngli and Junker Heribert were already sitting, and leaned on the back of his camp chair, expectantly staring at Michi. The knight wondered what had happened, as the boy’s face seemed far too cheerful and mischievous for their dire situation.

Michi told them of his journey into the castle and of the cook’s fine skills and friendliness, then began talking about Sokolny. Sir Heinrich snorted when Michi outlined the lord of the castle’s plan for them to fight their way through the siege line the next night.

“It’ll be bloody, even if we manage to surprise them in their sleep.”

Urs Sprüngli pounded his fist on the rough table. “Better we act first before the Hussites chase us through the forest like hares.”

Bursting out in laughter as if he had just played a funny trick, Michi spoke again. “Sir Michel has planned everything well. The moment we attack, the men of the castle will also launch an attack. But he doesn’t think there’ll be a lot of Hussites able to fight, as Lady Marie will mix a potion in their drink to cause stomach complaints.”

“Marie? What Marie?” Junker Heribert shot up as if stung by an adder. “You’re not talking about our Marie, are you?”

Happy with the stir he’d caused, Michi nodded. “Yes, exactly, our Marie. She and Anni are prisoners of the Taborites, and they’ll flee into the castle with us.”

“Marie is alive! Heaven and all the saints be praised!” The Junker knelt down and folded his hands in prayer.

Urs Sprüngli watched him and grimaced. “You said something about a knight named Michel. I used to know a man called Michel Adler, but it’s said he was killed by a group of Hussites a few years ago.”

Michi looked proud. “He wasn’t killed! He was wounded, and Falko von Hettenheim abandoned him. With God’s help, he managed to escape the Hussites and flee to Falkenhain Castle.”

Urs Sprüngli exhaled with a whistle. “If that’s true, I’m not worried anymore. I think very highly of Michel Adler. When he puts his mind to something, he succeeds.”

“Let’s hope so,” Sir Heinrich replied grimly.

A lively discussion ensued, and Michi answered many questions. Finally, when no one was paying him any more attention, he stood up and walked over to Eva’s wagon, where a kettle hung above a barely noticeable fire. The old sutler saw him coming and handed him a full bowl of porridge.

While he ate, he smiled at Trudi, who was standing nearby, watching him with her head tilted to one side.

“Come here, my darling. I’ve got wonderful news! I just saw your mother, and she’ll be back with us soon.”

“That’s no joking matter! You’re only making it harder than it already is for our little girl,” Eva scolded him, but Michi smiled knowingly.

“It’s the truth. Marie’s alive! The Hussites took her prisoner, and she’s working as a slave. But when we make it to the castle, she’ll join us.”

“Well, we’ll see if it’s as simple as you imagine,” Eva grumbled in reply, handing Trudi a prune.

5.

The night following Michi’s return, hardly anyone in Sir Heinrich’s camp managed to sleep, and the next day went by so fast, they barely finished their preparations before nightfall. Heinrich checked every detail repeatedly. For a long time, he’d been unsure about leaving the wagons behind, but in the end decided against it. The wagons would offer Trudi and the women some protection from the heat of battle, and in addition, he didn’t want to leave their equipment behind for the enemy. They had wrapped the
iron-clad
rims of the wheels with grass, blankets, and tent canvas to avoid alerting the Hussites with their noise, and anything that might rattle had been padded and secured.

In the last light of day, Sir Heinrich gathered together his men and pointed east, where the mountain’s summit was a black silhouette against the darkening sky. “You know what awaits us tonight. We’re facing a far superior enemy, and our only chance to make it to the castle is to surprise them. So be careful your weapons don’t clatter, and don’t make a sound. That applies to the women as well. I don’t want to hear any curses or whips.”

“We’ll be as quiet as weasels on their way to the henhouse,” Eva promised.

Labunik quietly chuckled and winked at Marek. “I didn’t know you had a thing for henhouses!” When Junker Heribert stared at him in confusion, he explained that Marek’s family name Lasicek was related to the Czech word for weasel. The men started to laugh, and Sir Heinrich’s temper flared.

“I’m glad you’re all so happy, but you need to express it more quietly. Every Hussite for miles around can hear you!”

“But Sir Knight, if the Taborites were that close, they’d hear you, too,” Marek replied
good-naturedly
, and the others laughed again.

Heinrich swallowed a curse and grinned a little, relieved that his men were cheerful and determined going into battle, rather than kneeling on the ground and begging various saints for the salvation of their souls. “We’ll see what you’re worth. Now rest and try to get some sleep. There will be no more loafing around when the moon rises above the trees.”

“To your success, Sir Knight!” Eva said, handing him a glass of wine.

“To our success!” Heinrich von Hettenheim exclaimed, drinking the wine in one gulp. “Now tell me, do you and Theres know what to do?”

“Since you’ve explained it five times, we should know by now,” the sutler jested, “but I’ll repeat it one more time for your peace of mind. We’ll keep our wagons close together. I’m going first with Michi and Trudi. The little girl will be hidden inside the wagon, so nothing can happen to her. Theres will follow me, and the two other wagons will be behind her. Your men will be positioned around the wagons so that we’ll approach the enemy like a spiny porcupine. God willing, the enemy won’t discover us until the last moment and it will be too late for them to gather up the troops and block our way.”

“Stop trying to tease us with your cheery words!” Sir Heinrich scolded, and pointed at his cup. “Pour me another. Hearing it from you, my plan doesn’t sound nearly half as good, so I need something to give me courage.”

“But don’t drink too much courage, or we’ll have to put you in the wagon with Trudi.” Sir Heinrich raised his hand to poke Eva for her freshness, but the old woman dodged and giggled as she returned to her wagon to fill his cup.

That night, while waiting for the right moment to leave, Heinrich von Hettenheim sat on a fallen tree trunk and looked up at the clear sky, which seemed to hold ten times as many stars as usual. Junker Heribert and Urs Sprüngli silently joined him, each lost in his own thoughts. Unable to bear the tension any longer, Heinrich stood up, clapped the two men on the shoulder, and went to wake his men. Hardly anyone had managed to sleep, however, so they all rose as soon as they saw their leader approach and grabbed their pikes. Heinrich couldn’t make out their faces in the light of the narrow crescent moon rising above the southern treetops, but he assumed they weren’t as cheerful as earlier that night.

“It’s darker than I thought,” he said to Marek. “Shouldn’t we light torches, at least until the last ridge lies between us and the besiegers?”

Marek exhaled with a hiss. “I’d advise against it. If the Taborites have posted a guard atop the ridge, he’ll see the glow of our lights and the element of surprise will be gone. I know this area better than my purse, so I will lead you. Tell the men to test the ground in front of their feet with the shafts of their pikes and to lead the animals by their halters.”

“I hope to God you’re right, as I don’t want to reach the castle after daybreak, when our enemies will be
wide-awake
and ready to attack us with full force.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll get there just as the first hint of dawn lightens the sky.” Shortly afterward they were on their way, and more than one man offered up silent prayers, begging for protection that night.

6.

After Marie had spiked the barrels, it seemed that the following day would never end. She’d been scared since morning that the Hussites might become suspicious and discover that someone had tampered with the barrels, as Vyszo had suddenly decided to give out cups of beer as a special reward to a few soldiers. Luckily, no one noticed that the two soldiers who’d received their beer from a new barrel staggered to the latrines a short while later, suffering from stomach complaints. Since illnesses were common in camps of war, their leaders ordered them to stay by the edge of the forest to prevent contagion.

At first Marie was relieved, as the brew from the Falkenhain cook seemed highly effective, but as the evening progressed and turned into night, she began to have doubts. Most soldiers had by now tasted beer from the contaminated barrels, but none of them seemed to get sick, as they kept up an animated discussion as to whether the castle would fall the following day or the one after that. At Vyszo’s order, the largest culverins had been set up outside the gate that morning, and they had fired at the gate, even though the teams handling the cannons weren’t protected from the showers of arrows raining down on them from the castle towers. But the soldiers up on the wall soon stopped jeering, as the fourth volley splintered one of the heavy boards in the gate, and now the attackers as well as defenders knew that the castle would fall within a few days.

These weapons were useless without gunpowder, however, and so Marie made a plan that would delay the storming of the castle and help Sir Heinrich’s men. The Taborite army had three wagons full of powder, and Vyszo had directed the one with the best powder to be posted directly alongside the main road to the castle. If she could manage to set fire to the wagon and blow up the powder, the Taborites would be confused and her friends would be rid of some attackers. She was aware the explosion would possibly kill her, too, but it was the only thing she could now do to save Trudi’s life and buy Michel the time he needed to fend off the attack on Falkenhain while awaiting Sir Heinrich’s group. She’d make any sacrifice for that.

Anni, who was crouched alongside her, took her hand and squeezed it gently. Marie sensed that her friend, who had long ceased to be a child under her care, was now trying to console and reassure her.

She returned the squeeze and smiled, even though Anni couldn’t see her in the dark. “We’ll make it!” she whispered, knowing she was trying to convince herself as much as the girl.

The passage of time seemed agonizingly slow. Marie didn’t dare close her eyes for fear of falling asleep and missing something crucial. She started counting the stars, but got lost in the twinkling profusion, so she instead listened to the noises of the camp at night. A horse’s nearby snort drowned out the men’s regular snoring for a moment, and a little farther away a man got up to visit the latrine. A guard called out to him, and he replied with a joke.

At some point, Marie became so restless, she couldn’t lie still any longer. Rolling out of her blanket, she looked around carefully. The camp was as quiet as usual, and she started to fear the worst. Most of the guards were staring at the castle, where the battlements were lit up by torches and firepots. Hammer blows and other sounds could be heard constantly from behind the gate, letting the enemy know that the besieged defenders were reinforcing the entrance and building another line of defense. Marie hoped that all of that noise would mask the arrival of Heinrich’s small group of soldiers. Another sound startled her out of her thoughts. Sitting up, she listened intently, then realized what she heard was just her own wildly beating pulse. Before she lay back down, she looked at the gate tower, where a man was silhouetted against one of the fires.

Convinced the man was Michel, she felt herself propelled into action, and she nudged Anni and Helene. The two women clearly hadn’t managed to fall asleep, either, as they sat up immediately.

“Listen carefully,” Marie whispered. “When the guards sound the alarm, you sneak to the castle and wait until the gate is opened, all right?”

“And what are you going to do?” Helene asked with concern.

Marie pointed her chin at the powder wagon by the road. “I’ll set fire to that to increase the confusion among the Hussites.”

“That’s madness!” Helene cried in a dangerously loud voice.

Marie quickly put her hand over her mouth. “Be quiet, or you’ll get us all killed. Please understand, it’s the only thing I can do to help our people.”

With that, Marie rose and tiptoed away. The men she walked past wheezed and groaned in their sleep, as if they knew something was brewing, and here and there someone ran to the latrine. She managed to reach the gunpowder wagon unnoticed and hid behind Vyszo’s tent, only a few paces from the dangerous cargo. Loud snoring came from inside the tent, telling her that neither Renata nor her husband had heeded Vyszo’s order that no one be allowed more than one beer a night.

Marie clenched her jaw. If the Taborite leader was drunk, there was a better chance of her friends’ reaching the castle and Trudi getting to safety. Suddenly her head jerked up. She’d heard a new noise, muted, but clearly audible to good ears like hers. It was the disgruntled lowing of an ox, and she knew very well that there weren’t any cattle in Vyszo’s army. Her eyes falling on the nearest watch fire, set a respectful distance away from the powder wagon, she resisted the temptation to immediately grab one of the burning logs and light the explosives. She had to wait until Sir Heinrich’s group was close enough to get everyone’s attention.

The minutes seemed to stretch into years as Marie strained to hear the occasional, barely audible sound of her friends approaching. At the same time, the camp was growing restless, and men ran by, moaning and uttering filthy curses as they headed for the latrines. The moon had since disappeared, and a reddish glow painted the eastern horizon. Marie heard another ox lowing, and then she saw a moving shadow on top of the hill, which then spread down the slope like a cloud. Instinctively checking the nearest watch fire, she saw that it was unguarded.

Sir Heinrich’s men were within fifty paces of the line of siege before the first Taborite noticed them, but the man seemed to be more surprised than worried as he walked toward them. “Hey, who are you, and what do you want?”

In reply, the German soldiers closed ranks and lowered their pikes. Only then did the guard realize the situation and sound the alarm. Vyszo’s soldiers didn’t react nearly as fast as Marie had feared, and many staggered as if they were drunk as they picked up their pikes and morning stars. Vyszo didn’t appear at all, but Renata stumbled out of their tent, vomiting, hands pressed to her stomach.

Marie was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she realized that the poisoned beer had by no means knocked out all of the Taborites. Although very few officers were able to struggle to their feet, enough plain soldiers had flocked together to crush the German group. Momentarily paralyzed with fear, Marie quickly pulled herself together and ran toward the watch fire, grabbed a burning log, then ran back to the powder wagon. Picking up some blankets and wolf skin coats that soldiers had hastily discarded, she stuffed them under the canvas and held a flame underneath. Though several men staggered past, shouting and swinging their morning stars as they stumbled and fell, cursing, no one paid any attention to her. Since Marie didn’t know how long it would take for the powder to explode, she stuffed the torch into the burning fabric and ran toward Falkenhain. After a few dozen paces, she glanced anxiously around and bit her lip, worried that Sir Heinrich’s
fast-moving
men would walk past the powder wagon as it exploded.

Just then, a terrible bang came from the other side of the camp. Marie whipped around and saw a fireball rising like a yellow and red flower before it collapsed again. Dozens of people cried out in pain and terror, and before Marie realized that one of the other powder wagons had been blown up, the one she’d lit exploded as well. The force of the explosion hit her in the back, knocking her onto the ground, where she tasted grass and dirt between her teeth. Spitting out in disgust, she scrambled to her feet and stared at the chaos she’d caused. Dozens of Taborites who had positioned themselves to block the Germans’ path were rolling on the ground and screaming; others were tearing off their burning clothes in a panic or running away, shrieking.

Sir Heinrich’s men seemed frightened but unharmed, and were trying to keep their marching order, but the animals in front of the wagons had panicked and were blindly running away. Marie heard the knight yelling orders and watched several men clinging to the animals as they tried to keep them on the winding road toward the castle. Eva’s scrawny horses soon calmed down, and since she was at the front, her slower pace made it easier for the men behind her.

Marie remembered to get herself to safety only after the group had passed her, and she started running toward the castle. After a couple of steps, she bumped into a Taborite soldier, who pushed her roughly aside. Cursing, she saw him raising his ax, ready to strike her, but at that moment, the castle gate swung open and distracted the Taborite.

With tears in her eyes, Marie stared at Michel, storming out of the gate at the head of the castle garrison. They were barely more than two hundred men, mostly farmers or craftsmen who had fled to Falkenhain and were trained in the use of weapons by Marek and Michel. Suddenly overcome by fear that her husband might get killed in the skirmish, she shook off her worries, forcing herself to get up despite the pain. She saw Anni running toward her. They clasped hands to walk toward the castle together. Helene then appeared. The young woman was cradling her left upper arm, trying to staunch the blood running down her hand. Just before reaching her friends, she staggered and collapsed. Marie and Anni ran to her side, grabbed her under the arms, and dragged her up the steep slope, half running, half climbing.

“I wanted to be like you and blow up a gunpowder wagon, but I didn’t get away fast enough before it exploded,” she explained, panting with pain. Marie managed an appreciative grunt as she climbed, breathing heavily until they reached the gate.

They were received by a sturdy woman who at first glared at them distrustfully, then relaxed as soon as she heard them speak German. “Quick, run up the stairs and help defend the wall. We’ll need every hand up there if those bastards try to climb the walls in the thick of the fray,” she shouted at the three women.

“My friend is injured!” Marie replied sharply. The woman pushed Helene into the light of a torch in the courtyard.

“You’ll come with me to be cared for,” she said, pointing to some stairs, then turned back to Marie and Anni. “You two get up on the wall!”

Marie and Anni ran up the stairs. The walkway along the battlements was full of women with stacks of stones and kettles steaming above small fires, their faces
mask-like
in the light of the fires as they stared at the action below. As Marie was asking a woman which spot to take, Anni tugged at her sleeve and pointed down at the circle of wagons. Another huge flame shot into the sky, followed by a rumbling like thunder and a blinding flash of light.

“That’s my powder wagon! I lit one, too!” Anni announced proudly, grinning mischievously and rubbing her hands together in excitement.

Marie shook her head and laughed. “Aren’t you a crazy pair, you and Helene!”

Anni tried to look indignant but started to giggle. “You’re crazier!”

One of the Czech women stared
wide-eyed
at the new arrivals. “You blew up the Taborites’ powder supplies? I’d never have dared to do that.”

“Me, neither!” another woman called out. “I’m trembling with fear at the thought that one of those fellows down there might stick his head over the battlements.”

Marie didn’t pay any attention to the women, as she heard Eva cursing and yelling below, and whipping her horses. Looking down, she saw the old sutler’s wagon racing toward the open gate. From above, it looked as though the wagon would crash against the newly built wall inside the courtyard. Marie ran to the other side of the walkway and stared breathlessly into the yard. Eva was pulling her horses to the side as hard as she could, and the wagon just grazed the obstacle, careening to a stop outside the sheds. Theres’s wagon matched her speed, and the sutler only just managed to prevent the oxen from crashing into the stables. The two remaining wagon drivers had better control of their animals and carefully directed their vehicles into the courtyard.

Since no one else appeared, Marie returned to the battlements and saw that a fierce battle was taking place outside the gate. Several hundred Taborites were trying to break through the ring the defenders had formed around the gate and force their way inside the castle. Meanwhile, others brought out ladders they had recently built to storm the castle walls. But the women, children, and elderly on the wall showed almost superhuman resistance, showering the attackers with rocks, boiling water, and pitch.

Some Taborites still managed to climb to the top of the wall, and when the women saw their enemies before them, some of them froze while others ran away screaming. Marie saw the head of a Taborite emerge between the battlements and felt all the anger she had swallowed as a prisoner surfacing at once. Grabbing one of the empty pitch pots, she furiously struck the attacker. Anni and two other women stood next to her, hurling rocks at the men following him. The first three fell off the wall together, but the others kept climbing. Wanda poured a pot of boiling water on the next two attackers, also sending them over the side and relieving some of the weight on the ladder so that Marie and three other women were able to tip it over with the help of poles, and send the remaining Taborites crashing to the ground.

Outside the castle, Michel had taken charge. He had the knights dismount and form a wedge along with the foot soldiers, so that the enemy was faced with three rows of pikes. Under his command, the formation retreated step by step in an orderly fashion. Just as they all stepped through the gate and almost closed it, signal horns sounded, and in the light of a bloodred dawn, horsemen appeared at the edge of the forest.