Cedric was awakened early by the sound of the count's hunting horns. After he had returned in the middle of the night, he felt so exhausted for three days that he could not leave his bed. He had aged by at least five years and it was clear to him that he had to stop these visits soon. Now he felt well enough to take care of his food supply. He urgently needed meat, because the cabbage he had grown himself and the salad were not enough to feed him. He didn't have any bread either, because he had to buy flour in the village, and he didn't have the money since the village eldest had banished him to the forest. Cedric had set traps for rabbits near his hut and was hoping for prey.
He stood up from the bed, which consisted of a straw sack, pulled on his coat shirt and strapped the leather belt with knife and bag around his hips. Finally he put on his dusty boots and left his hut. The door hung crooked in its hinges and squeaked terribly, but at least it was lockable. Cedric went deeper into the forest looking for his traps. He had no luck with the first two. Nothing trapped. So he went on. Suddenly he heard a squeal. Behind one of the bushes he had also laid a trap, but the animal inside did not seem to be a rabbit. Cedric carefully went to the bush and pushed the branches aside.
In the trap was a young wild boar, no more baby boar, but also not yet fully grown. It had already been wounded by a spear, for there was a gaping wound on its back. Apparently it had fallen into his trap and was now stuck with the front hoof in it. It squealed terribly and Cedric didn't know what to do at the moment. The animal was badly injured and would probably die even if he released it from the trap and let it run. Besides, his stomach was growling. The prospect of a good piece of meat made Cedric melt the water in his mouth. No one could be seen from the hunt, so Cedric pulled his knife and rammed it into the animal's throat until the squealing stopped. When it stopped moving, he pulled the hoof out of the trap and began to gut the animal.
Cedric was so busy that he overheard the footsteps of two men approaching him from behind.
"Well, well, well. What have we here? If it isn't a poacher." Cedric froze, jumped up and turned around. Behind him stood Bernulf and Brandolf, Kurgan's men, waiting for his reaction.
"I-I'm not a poacher," he stuttered in horror, dropping his blood-stained knife. "It was wounded and would have died anyway."
"And that gives you the right to take our Lord's prey ? You know the penalty for poaching." Bernulf stepped up to him and grabbed him by the shirt.
Cedric gasped. "I beg you! I wasn't poaching! It was almost dead! I would never take the Count's property! I swear it!"
Brandolf laughed scornfully. "You can tell the count that in person. You're coming with us" and with that he grabbed Cedric's other arm and both dragged the fiercely defending Cedric with them. "Mercy! I didn't do anything! Mercy!" Arriving at a clearing, he saw blurred that there was a wooden cart, on which other men of the castle loaded hunted game. Kurgan was nowhere to be seen.
"Tie him up and then put him on the cart. We caught him poaching" called Brandolf and pushed Cedric towards the cart. One of the men jumped off the cart and took a rope with which they tied Cedric's arms behind his back, shaking in fear. "Please! Please! Leave me alone!" Cedric wound himself.
"Shut up!" yell Bernulf at him. "You'll have time to moan later." And so two men hoisted him on the cart, next to the dead animals. The cart started immediately.
"Oh, God, what's gonna happen?" Cedric thought. Poaching was punishable by death and Kurgan killed without batting an eye. He hoped that the Count would be merciful because of his services and his healing arts, but that was also due to his mood. He had already experienced Kurgan cutting off a man's head with a grin because he happened to be in his way.
After a good half hour of bumpy driving through the forest, they reached the castle hill on which Kurgan's castle rose. The stones of the walls were so weathered that they looked almost black. Bernulf yelled a little at the guard of the drawbridge tower and slowly the iron lattice lifted so that the gate opening in front of the drawbridge became free. The cart rolled through, followed by Bernulf and Brandolf on their horses. The journey went through the second ring wall into the castle courtyard, where Brandolf swung from his horse and shouted:
"Wait here. I'll check on the count." With it he marched in the direction of the keep and disappeared inside. Cedric tried to get up on the cart, but Bernulf hit him in the back of the neck and he collapsed.
A few minutes later Brandolf came out again. "The lord's still fucking the girl." It'll be a while. Take this guy to the dungeon!"
Two men tore Cedric off the cart and dragged him, still dazed by the blow, down into the dungeon. A winding stone staircase led to a large room, which was supplied with daylight only by a barred window in the upper part of the wall. The walls had chains on different levels and several chains hung from the ceiling to hang prisoners. In the rear part of the room stood a stretching bench and a coarse wooden table with various torture tools.
Cedric was roughly pushed against the wall, so he fell to the ground. He stayed there and prayed to all the gods that he would not die. After a felt eternity he and the two men who had waited with him heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. In the doorway stood the Count von Krohn, this time only dressed in black leather trousers and a light-coloured shirt, which stood up wide at the front so that one could see his muscular chest. He had tied the black hair to the back. He looked silently at the miserable heap of man lying huddled together in front of the wall. Brandolf entered the dungeon shortly after his master.
"We caught him poaching. Cedric the healer, you know," he addressed to Kurgan.
"What did he shoot?" Kurgan asked and came closer to the trembling Cedric.
"A wild boar, sir. We saw it clearly."
"Like this?" Kurgan grabbed Cedric's neck and shook him back and forth like a puppy. "You're taking my property?" His voice echoed deep and rumbling through the room.
"My-Mylord. I-I-I-I haven't-been poaching. It was trapped in my trap and..." "Shut up!" Kurgan yelled at him. His staring blue eyes fixed Cedric. "Will you accuse my men of lying?"
"I-I, no, sir, they just didn't look right." Cedric couldn't stand his gaze anymore.
Kurgan's grip around Cedric's neck was reinforced. Cedric believed that his neck would break at any moment when the count suddenly let him go and Cedric fell to the ground.
Brandolf, who had observed the events motionlessly, asked: "What shall we do with him, Lord?
"Nothing." "Nothing, sir? You're letting him go?"
Kurgan looked at him. "Yes, he'll walk. He'll run for his life. Maybe he's lucky. Take him to the castle courtyard!"
Kurgan left the chamber, followed by Brandolf and Cedric, who was again grabbed by the men's arms and dragged upwards.
When he reached the top, the men took off his shackles. Cedric stared at the count in horror. What was he up to?
"You can walk. "And turned to Brandolf, "Bring me my axe." Brandolf went to the stable and returned a short time later with Kurgan's giant war axe. Cedric didn't see that anymore, because he stumbled and ran for his life, out of the courtyard, over the drawbridge through the gate. His lungs were burning, every breath was a torture but knew only one goal. Get away! As fast as you can. Once he'd reached the forest, he'd be saved!
Kurgan took a quick stride behind Cedric, who was running away. He stepped out of the gate just as Cedric had almost reached the first trees and swung his axe with mighty force.
Cedric heard the soft buzzing as the axe flew through the air, still trying to hit a hook, but prevented from doing so by a large stone along the way. A burning pain twitched through his body as the axe devoured his back and he went to the ground. The last thing Cedric could think of was his niece before he breathed out his last breath.
Kurgan watched the man fall and then turned around. On the way back, the Viking Einar stepped up to him. "What do we do with that one and the girl?"
"To the cart and back to the village. Let them take care of it." So Kurgan disappeared back into the keep. "And tell the cook to prepare the boar for me!"
Some time later, the horse cart with the maltreated bodies of Cedric, whose blood dripped to the ground, and the village girl who had unfortunately met the lord on the hunt and whose neck Kurgan had broken after the rape, rolled back to the village.