‘What now?’ Gunnar asked, and he seemed enthusiastic even though the witch hunt was over.

‘Now we collect our reward,’ Godke said and this time it was the warband’s turn to cheer. ‘Let Jaromil go and take what you like. But be careful. I want to see everyone at the stables by midday. I want to get out of here before this town turns ugly. Karl, you should stay with Hurland.’

I nodded and moved to Hurland as Gunnar and Thies eagerly left the group. Jaromil’s wrists were unbound and he was free to stumble clumsily into a nearby crowd.

‘Remember: noon,’ Godke said before disappearing similarly.

I didn’t really understand what was happening. I knew that we had to get Bohdan’s possessions before we left, but I didn’t know why we were splitting up. I decided that following Godke’s advice was the best option I had and so I was led by Hurland and Jacob to a small wooden house near the city walls. It was smaller than my house at Bielefeld, and in a far worse condition, but it was intact.

‘While Godke and Thies were busy extracting a confession, I was looking through the town records to find Bohdan’s house,’ Hurland explained. ‘This house was all I could find, and assuming Jaromil hasn’t beaten us here it should be empty.’

‘Why are we allowed to take his things?’ I asked as we approached the house.

‘Bohdan made a pact with the Devil, forfeiting his family’s inheritance. The law says that those that drive the Devil out are the new inheritors.’

I nodded and tried the front door. It swung open effortlessly and we entered the meagre structure, leaving the door open behind us as at the witch house to provide light.

Jacob and Hurland immediately set about looking through Bohdan’s aged furniture and checking for concealed wealth under the floorboards or buried near the house. I helped them, and together we found several old Bohemian books on alchemy, two necklaces and a gold bracelet. It was more than my father had kept at our house, but Hurland seemed disappointed by the haul.

Nevertheless, the search kept us occupied for hours and it was soon midday. We rushed to get back to the stables and the rest of the warband arrived soon after. Gunnar arrived first, and he had his massive arm around the pretty redhead from the tavern. Her eyes were red with tears and I wondered if she was coming with us. Thies came next, and was smiling as he scanned a silver cup that he removed from one of several cloth sacks, but upon the sight of Gunnar’s woman a frown crossed his face despite his own enrichening. Jacob and Godke were last and the latter immediately approached the stablemaster, who brought our horses. The carriage was quickly attached to Ros’ harness. Everything was done with a great degree of haste and I noticed that Godke and Thies were carrying bulging sacks of God-knows-what.

The sacks were thrown into the carriage and we mounted our horses. I sat in front of Godke once more, and the redhead sat in front of Gunnar. I stupidly asked ‘where did you get the sacks?’ No one responded, though it took only a brief moment of consideration for me to realise that they were the spoils of theft. ‘Were those Bohdan’s possessions too?’

‘Not now, Karl,’ Godke said irritably. He tossed the stablemaster a small purse of coins and kicked our horse into motion. The rest of the warband followed and we quickly departed from Pilsen.

As I looked back one last time at the city, for one second I could swear that I saw Satan looking back at me. Jaromil was at the city gates and was staring at us as we rode away. He was naked and his face and upper torso were covered in blood. There were burn marks all over his body and his wrists had been lacerated by his bonds.

I turned away from Jaromil’s deformed visage to look at the road ahead as we passed through the second set of walls. They were grounded upon a sturdy rock base and there were towers placed a short, regular distance apart along the wall. Today I know that those walls were formidable, and had held out against the Hussites of the previous century, but all those years ago all I could think about was the sight before us, which was no friendlier.

A massive army was marching towards us, and behind us the Pilsen town guard quickly began to close the city gates.

Godke called for the warband to halt and a group of five horsemen rode ahead of the oncoming army to meet us. Godke told Gunnar to keep his weapon on his back as they approached.

A man with a downward-pointing triangular beard and curly light brown hair led the horsemen and spoke to us upon his arrival. ‘Declare yourselves!’

‘We are witch hunters,’ Godke responded. ‘We have no argument with you or your army.’

The man rode even closer to Godke and tugged his large moustache briefly. ‘I am Ernst von Mansfeld,’ he said, and though he later told me that the name meant nothing to him Godke feigned recognition to soothe the man’s ego. Today, all Christians know the name Ernst von Mansfeld, the conqueror of Bohemia.

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‘My apologies, Lord,’ replied Godke. He clearly had no idea whether that was the correct title with which to address Mansfeld, but it seemed like a safe option and Mansfeld did not object.

‘Never mind. What was your business in Pilsen?’ Mansfeld asked.

‘We executed a witch, Lord. He poisoned the main city well,’ Godke said, and Mansfeld smiled and turned to face the other horsemen.

‘Do you hear that, men? God has poisoned our enemies’ water! This shall be a short siege indeed!’ Mansfeld declared, and I thought it curious that though we had killed Bohdan in the name of God, Mansfeld had made up his mind that Bohdan’s crimes had in fact been acts of God. Truly, God’s wishes were indecipherable.

‘May we pass out of Bohemia, Lord?’ Godke asked.

Instead of responding directly, Mansfeld unexpectedly addressed Gunnar. ‘Is that your woman?’ he asked, referring to the redhead Gunnar had stolen from the tavern.

‘Aye,’ Gunnar responded, and Mansfeld frowned.

‘Gunnar…’ Godke warned, and I suddenly realised that Mansfeld was attempting to trade our safe passage through his army for possession of the redhead.

‘I’ve already had her!’ Gunnar claimed loudly and the redhead burst into tears. I saw Thies fidget beside me, and I wasn’t sure whether that was due to the tension of the situation or disapproval at Gunnar’s statement. Mansfeld scanned Gunnar and his woman for a few long seconds before riding away from us at last.

‘Let them pass,’ we heard him instruct his men, and one of them waved us on. He called back to us as he returned to his army.

I sensed Godke’s distaste for the man’s bravado and pretenses at godliness, but he restrained its outward manifestation until we were led through the massed army. Personally I thought the man was very interesting, and unlike Godke who led only four men and a boy, Mansfeld led an army of twenty thousand soldiers. As we travelled through the Protestant army, I looked back and saw that the soldiers were surrounding Pilsen in an attempt to lay siege to it. I hoped they would be successful. Pilsen had been a strange place, full of tension, and Mansfeld seemed like a man capable of taming it – at least he did when I was twelve years old.

Once we had passed through Mansfeld’s Protestant army the warband stopped, as it had outside of Bielefeld.

‘Where to?’ Thies asked.

‘Let’s find somewhere to stay for the night and look around for word of more witches,’ Godke responded. ‘The city of Pisek is a few hours southeast of here.’

That decided it. We rode until nightfall, and then continued for another hour before nearing Pisek. On the way Hurland kept us entertained with the tale of Julius Caesar, though it was repeatedly interrupted by a whelp from Gunnar’s woman whenever he touched her unexpectedly or roughly.

As we passed into the outer suburbs of the city, Thies reached his limit. He rode several metres ahead of the group and turned to face Gunnar, blocking his path.

‘You need to let the girl go,’ he stated firmly. He had his hands on his horse’s reins, but I noticed that when he’d kicked his horse forward he’d loosened his holster.

‘I need to do no such thing,’ Gunnar replied. The two men stared at each other intensely for several seconds. Eventually Gunnar interrupted the contest by slapping the girl’s buttocks harshly, creating a loud thwacking sound. She struggled against Gunnar’s grip but he was too strong for her.

‘Let her go,’ Thies said, his voice almost a growl now. He rode even closer to Gunnar, within arm’s reach.

‘I don’t think I will,’ Gunnar said, narrowing his eyes menacingly.

Godke appeared beside the two men before things could get out of hand. ‘Walk away,’ he said, looking at Gunnar. Thies had started the argument so I felt that he was being unfair, but Gunnar complied almost instantly. I wondered why Gunnar listened to Godke so readily.

Godke then turned to Thies and said, ‘I don’t much like it, but you took valuables and coin did you not? This is little different.’

‘She’s a human being, Godke!’ Thies exclaimed in incredulity, and Gunnar laughed his irritating laugh from his new position a dozen or so metres behind the warband. Thies turned his head to glare at him and shout a response, but Godke grabbed his attention again.

‘So you don’t like Gunnar kidnapping the girl. Jacob doesn’t like you stealing from the townsfolk, but he says little against it,’ he said.

‘He says little against it,’ Thies said slowly, choosing his words carefully. ‘Because he eats and lives off of the proceeds.’

‘As you eat and live off the proceeds of Gunnar’s hammer and my sword,’ Godke countered, and Thies bowed his head. ‘I don’t ask you to like it,’ he continued, ‘just to live with it. He’ll tire of her eventually.’

Thies gave no reaction. He gritted his teeth and cocked his head to the side but said nothing. Eventually he fastened his holster and steered his horse back into line with the rest of the group. Godke motioned for Gunnar to rejoin the warband and we finally entered the city of Pisek proper.

It was smaller than Pilsen, but only slightly. The vivacity of the citizenry made Pisek seem more heavily populated and I felt comfortable there. There were a lot of ancient buildings and fountains and statues, and in the months we ended up staying at Pisek I would often marvel at the history concealed by the modern constructions in the city.

Our extended stay was due to our unfortunate circumstances. We had arrived in early autumn, but the political situation in the rest of Bohemia was tense at best. The Emperor was sending troops into the kingdom to try and return it to Catholicism, and we didn’t want to leave Pisek and risk getting caught up in that for no good reason.

And there was no good reason. There were no reports of witches in the Empire or nearby territories for the duration of our stay, so we simply enjoyed spending the riches we had gained during our time in Pilsen. All of us were fond of the city and its rich character and history, so we resolved to remain there until a clear opportunity for enrichening ourselves appeared.