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| Public Domain - orig. Fox Film Corp - Theda Bara as Carmen 1915 |
The four horses and riders advanced slowly onto the Square of St. Vlasta before the fortress-like brewery/convent. Ludmilla had gone quiet, but still looked awkward and unhappy, swaying and glaring atop her horse. Silvernose rode in the middle of the column, with Zdenka next and Ludmilla bringing up the rear. From cobblestones to uneven potholes and back again, the tread of Silvernose’s horse jarred him. He kept wincing and altering his position on the saddle.
“Um, already a bit saddle sore, I fear,” said Silvernose, red-faced.
“I’m sorry about that, my friend,” said Zdenka sympathetically, steering her horse to walk alongside Silvernose’s.
The riders stopped talking for a while as they rode out of Vodnikov. Their horses’ shoes clinked, thudded and splashed as they struck cobblestones, dirt, and puddles.
Zdenka had already seen much of the damage that had been done to the city in the fighting and rioting that had occurred a little more than a month ago. There were still many makeshift tents and lean-tos against the buildings made by people whose homes had burnt or been demolished. But now Zdenka noted to herself the amazing bustle of repair and new construction that was afoot. Many of the besiegers of the Convent of St. Vlasta had been ethnic Krajans, unemployed neighborhood boys from Vodnikov. They had been unenthusiastic soldiers, but desperate for any job. They were much more eager as construction workers for their own quarter of the city, once Baron Rudiger von Possenreisser started bankrolling them.
Beata, whose mount lead the column, turned around in her saddle with a serious expression: “Silvernose, can you tell us now the circumstances of Sieglinde’s absence?”
“She’s gone feral,” Silvernose replied sadly.
“Oh no! Do you mean things are going poorly between you?” asked Zdenka. “Has she run off somewhere?”
Zdenka and Beata had both been initially suspicious of the strange-acting woman they had all met only a month ago, and doubly so when a mutual attraction kindled between her and their gallant and garrulous long-time friend, the superlative swordsman and duelist whose name referenced the silver prosthesis on his face. Their anxiety on Silvernose’s behalf was somewhat stilled when Sieglinde proved a valuable, likable, and kind comrade-in-arms to all of them, and had pressed her suit with their friend in only the gentlest, shyest manner.
“Maybe the former,” Silvernose answered. “And most definitely the latter. For the past week, she looked anxious, I thought. She said she needed to ‘find something away from people’ and absolutely refused to explain a word more. I asked her if she was angry with me, and she said she wasn’t. She said she would visit the Convent of St. Vlasta after a month, either to find me or a message from me regarding my whereabouts.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Beata. “Surely, she bears no ire in her heart against you, and will fulfill her promise to return to St. Vlasta’s. She never minces words, nor speaks untruthfully.”
“Our errand won’t keep us away from St. Vlasta’s and Vodnikov for longer than a few weeks,” Zdenka reassured Silvernose. “You’ll see her then, at the convent, and I’m sure she will have sorted out everything that was troubling her, and she’ll make happier and much less distracted company for you.”
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Next episode: Part VII - A Little Traveling Music... here.
A Guide for the perplexed-
Terror of the Trdlo, Serialized:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
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