Game of the destiny
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Tábor, South part of Bohemia - 20th April 1419
Several day passed and in Tábor almost nothing has been changed. Ruins after Žito's house were still laying as a week ago and whole village was living its ordinary life. Only Kateřina looked much better thanks the patient care of neighbours, especially of Jakub and Peter of course. She felt well already but nobody still allowed her to do harder works. Who had time was helping her. Kateřina was pleased at first but enough is enough.
"Just another help and I'll chase you by a sweep." she was often saying for fun but it didn't scare the helpers anyway.
Peter found himself a job in Tábor. He was going to the forest with wood-cutters helping them by chopping off the branches on the fallen trees. The oldest of the wood-cutters was always choosing trees to stump and was dividing the work among the others. Today he sent Peter with another wood-cutter to the other side from village than they were always working. They found there a tree heavily damaged by a lightning. It was clefted from the top almost to its roots. The tree was scorched by a fire and was slowly dieing.
"Oh my ... what happend?" Peter asked with surprize when he saw the sturdy tree in so miserable stage.
"A lightning destroyed it a week ago." answered the second man.
"A week ago? During the storm when Žito's house burned down?"
"Yes."
Peter turned towards Tábor. First houses of the village were only around three hundred meters from the tree.
"Two lightnings so close each other, brrr." he said and shruged off.
"Two?" asked the man confusedly?
"Yes, one here and the second one in the village."
"Aah," said the man, "you mean Žito's house, right?"
"Of course. Why?"
"Because his house didn't catch from a lightning."
Peter's eyes almost popped out: "What do you mean?"
"Only what I've said. The only lightning here was the one which destroyed this tree."
"And from what then caught Žito's house?"
"This is what nobody knows. It is said that somebody set on the fire. Some people even said that they saw somebody walking around the house before it caught."
This was a big surprize for Peter. He stood there as a pillar of salt and was unable to say anything. His back-way ticket to home wasn't destroyed by nature powers as he thought, but by a man and maybe it was an intent rather than an accident.
The second man was in the meantime looking on the tree. He displeasedly muttered. Then he tried to lay an axe to a tree. The axe only clinked making noteless notch in the wood.
"Oak," the man muttered even more displeasedly, "and hard as a stone." Then he turned to Peter: "Hey, wake up. The tree won't chop down itself. And we haven't here any saw so we have plenty of work."
In the evenings was Peter training with Jan in fight on the hillside below the forest. Both had wooden sticks and Jan was teaching Peter how to use it in a battle. Sounds of the woden hits was spreading through the village and the closest surroundings in a regular rhythm. Jan kept Peter attacking and was defending himself making only few assaults to draw his attention to undefendet parts of his body. Today Jan noticed that Peter's hits are much harder than before, but he didn't care about it too much.
Now Peter attacked Jan from the right side. His stick described a large circle and clashed with the Jan's one only few inches from Jan's hip.
"Defend your left side," Jan said and turned around a heel hitting Peter decently into his leg.
Then Peter made a series of attacks that Jan had to make few steps backward to keep standing. Then Jan tried to attack from the right side. He met Peter's block. Peter quickly raised his stick above and directly attacked Jan's head. Jan almost didn't take a cover in time. When their sticks clashed, even the wood was cracking. Jan struted and with all his might pushed Peter away.
"Slow down. We're here to train, not to kill each other." he said.
Peter without any word attacked again. Again from the right side. His stick flew through the air. Another clash. Another cracking of wood. And new attack. Quicker and harder. Peter looked like a mad. And another attack. Now Jan cast his stick down so that Peter's one slided down on its surface and hited the ground. Jan turned his stick and pulled its end below Peter's ribcage. Peter doubled up and went to the ground.
"Anger is muddying one's mind. In a battle its the worst enemy." Jan said.
Peter didn't say anything. He lay on the ground with a face deformed by a pain.
"Yesterday you asked me when we'll fight with swords. I won't give you any sharp weapon unless you'll know how to use it!" Jan said reproachfully.
Peter slowly got over and sat up. Jan took a seat next to him.
"What exactly happened?" he asked finally. "You're as a cluster of furious wild bees."
"Nothing!" Peter snaped up.
"Hey, I want to help you!"
"Then get me home!"
"You know that I can't. The poition was destroyed during the fire!"
"Yes! It was! Interesting that the house didn't caught from a lightning as I thought but somebody set it on!"
"Your words are uselessly sharp."
"I have a reason! The fire wasn't only an accident!"
"Most probably ..." Jan said while looking on a gap among the roofs, where Žito's house stood.
"Why you didn't tell me that somebody set the fire on?"
"And what would change?"
Peter didn't answer. He was glooming and pressing his hands in fists.
Now Jan slowly began to understand Peter's mood: "Wait, you think that I set the fire on?"
Peter looked at him by a tail of eye for a while, but then he immediately turned his sight again away. In this short look was so much of anger and hate that it was no doubt what Peter think himself.
"So that's it. So that's why you wanted to kill me." Jan said amusedly. "But you can believe me that I have nothing to do with it."
"How can I believe you? You had a motivation for it, didn't you? And somebody had to do it."
"I couldn't set on the fire. I was at home when it happened. My wife can confirm it if you don't believe me."
"Maybe you didn't make it yourself. You could hire somebody for it."
"I would never fell so deep.
Peter now looked again at Jan as if he had been surprised by his words: "You would never fell so deep? Pche, you already did!"
Jan was now confused: "What do you mean?"
"You've already forgot on it? It's only confirming how ordinary are intrigues in your life."
"Stop behave like a fool and tell me finally what do you mean by it."
"The evening we returned from Bethlehem Chapel. Kateřina. Do you already remember it?"
"What ..." Jan said confusedly but was already sensing the problem.
"You still don't know? You don't remember what you wanted from Kateřina? How you commanded her to ..... 'persuade me'? I heard every word."
Jan only sighed: "Oh no."
"Kateřina is a honest maid and she didn't deserve of such manipulation!"
"Yes, I know ..."
"Then how you could even ask her for it?" Peter asked blackly.
"I and Žižka thought that you'll stay after the visit of the chapel. But when you still wanted to return I had to do something to persuade you. It was for a weal of the kingdom."
"And because Kateřina failed you destroyed my only way home to be sure. Now I must stay here. It was a perfect way how to persuade me. Are you now content?"
Jan was already lossing his, in other cases almost endless, patience: "You're like a donkey! I have really nothing to do with Žito's house! Or you think that I would risk whole village?"
"As you said, it was for a weal of the kingdom. What is one tiny village compared with whole country?"
"I didn't make it. Believe me."
Peter stood up. For a while he was quietly looking on a horizont. Clouds were becoming red as flowers of dog-rose and soft surface of Vltava mirroring last rays of sun was as a fluent gold. A light wind was playing with Peter's hear and was helping him in sorting his thoughts.
"I can't." he said finally.
Jan only helplessly shooked his head but was quiet. He felt that words are now useless. Peter went away, leaving him there alone.
"Damn!" Jan said and threw his stick angrily away.
As he said before a while to Peter, anger is muddying one's mind. And maybe this, or maybe the whisper of the trees, was the reason why he didn't noticed a shadow that suddenly moved in the forest and disappeared in its deep.
