Free The Devil's Acolyte (2002) by Michael Jecks Page A

away as London and even Venice, but they could converse with these grubby, leather-skinned moormen. Rudolf had travelled here with
his family to buy, but how can a man buy when he can speak none of the local language?
    Although he attempted to offer money for metal, the miners eyed him askance, and when Rudolf tried to push his way in among a knot of buyers who had encircled the first few miners to haggle over
the price of their tin, he was rudely shoved out of the way.
    It was enough to drive a free man to draw his knife, and he almost did. Only the sober reflection that he was in a foreign country where the law would hardly miss one Swiss, made him leave it in
its sheath.
    In disgust, he spat at the ground and walked from the main square. There was no point in being here, watching while the choicest ingots went to other dealers. He would find the tavern where his
son Welf was drinking the strange-tasting English ale, and sample some more himself, before they made their way back to their camp at the outskirts of the town. Later, perhaps, he might find a man
with tin to sell, after the initial rush had died down. Tomorrow they would set off again, back to London.
    Entering the alley in which the tavern stood, he found the sun was immediately shut off by the tall buildings at either side. Only a narrow streak of sunlight hit the wall on his left,
struggling through from the roofs above. It was a narrow lane, this, with a good-sized kennel in the middle for the rubbish and faeces of men and beasts. Rudolf passed a sow rootling in scraps of
waste, then had to follow the lane in a broad sweep around a large house. As he did so, he saw a figure drop from a window high in the wall. Rudolf grabbed at his knife again, stunned. Surely this
man had just robbed a house! He was about to leap forward when another man appeared in the window above, a large sack in his hand.
    Giving an inarticulate cry, Rudolf sprang forward, catching the first fellow before he could bolt. One brawny arm went round his waist while the other, holding his knife, went to the
fellow’s throat. Only then did he see the tonsure.
    ‘
Bruder
!’ he grunted, and instantly pulled his blade away. ‘Brother, I am sorry.’
    The lad was up and gone like a rabbit when the hound is after it. There was a clattering noise, and Rudolf found himself staring up at a swiftly falling sack. Too astonished to move, he gaped in
horror as it struck him. He tottered, and then a man appeared at his side and grabbed the sack.
    ‘You threw that at me!’ Rudolf declared with rage. He was still in shock, and feeling bruised. The sack had been heavy, full of sharp objects.
    ‘Friend, I am sorry, it fell from my hand.’
    ‘You are a thief!’ Rudolf said. The stranger’s accent was at least easier to understand than the miners’ dialect.
    ‘No! Wait! You have scared off my companion. He’ll be at the Abbey now, but let me explain before you do anything.’
    ‘Explain? You steal from a house. There is nothing to explain!’ Rudolf thrust his hand into the sack. To his amazement, it was filled with fine pewter: plates and mazers and bowls
were rattling together inside the bag, haphazardly intermingled. ‘You are a felon.’
    ‘No. I have rescued all this. Please – let me explain.’
    The man’s face was filled with fear, and looking at him, Rudolf guessed that he was in no danger from him. A criminal he might be, but Rudolf had seen stronger-looking girls. And
better-fed ones, too. That look made him waver.
    ‘Come, you have me,’ the man said persuasively. ‘What harm can it do for us to have a bowl of wine and talk about this? I shall explain everything.’
    As he spoke, Rudolph heard other voices calling. A group of local men had entered the passage, and now stood eyeing the thief and Rudolph with grim-faced suspicion.
    ‘Wally? Are you all right?’
    ‘Look! That foreigner’s got a knife to him!’
    Rudolf’s companion grinned. ‘I’m fine.’ Then,